Thoughts On Email, Marketing and Whatever Else Comes to Mind

Photo by 10ch

Like just about any field, online marketing has its axioms. And none is more well-known than “content is king.” Or, to be specific, valuable content is king.

I didn’t think about content or value much for my first year or two at AWeber (I didn’t think of what I was doing as creating content), but as I shifted into a marketing role, I started paying attention to the advice that seasoned marketers were giving out to n00bs (like me) via articles, discussion boards, etc.

The same advice kept coming up over and over in each article and thread:

• Create Valuable Content
• Create Valuable Content
• Create Valuable Content

What Makes Valuable Content?

None of what I read answered what I really wanted to know (and what I think a lot of folks in marketing want to know):

How do you know if the content you’re in the process of creating is valuable?

It’s easy enough to know after the fact – you can look at traffic, opt-ins, clicks, retweets, Delicious saves, comments, conversions and any of a number of other metrics. Or you can ask your audience (if you have one) what they think of your content.

But how do you know beforehand?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot more lately as AWeber grows, because I’m not personally creating all of our content anymore. I assist others through brainstorming, feedback, editing, etc. but they do the lion’s share of the actual creation. And “I know value when I see it” (which was a useful guideline when I was the only one creating content) doesn’t scale.

So what does scale?

I have an answer that so far seems to work well, and while it might not apply to every type of content, it’s useful to think about when you’re working on your own content.

The 5-Minute Value Rule

Whenever I think about content that I’m going to create, I ask myself:

What are people supposed to do in the 5 minutes immediately after reading/watching/listening to this that will __________?”

The blank at the end is different for everyone. For what we do at AWeber, it’s “improve their email marketing campaign/results.” If you’re Whole Foods, maybe the answer is “help them eliminate unhealthy eating habits.” It’s whatever your audience ultimately wants in exchange for paying attention to you.

You’ll notice that a lot of the content I (help to) create contains an explicit or strong implicit suggestion that the reader/viewer/listener do something fairly specific upon finishing the content. That’s no accident.

Why 5 Minutes? Why Not 10? Or 30?

I can see some people – maybe even you – reading this and saying,

Great, but it’s kind of lowbrow… don’t some valuable ideas require more than 5 minutes’ work/thought? Doesn’t this rule skew your content (and push your audience) toward small-picture thinking?

And to be sure, I don’t posit this rule as a cure-all for your content creation woes.

But the point of this rule isn’t really about 5 minutes in particular.

Make Your Value Tangible.

That’s the point of this rule.

See, I don’t want a passive audience who thinks my content might be valuable. I want an active one who makes a clear connection between what they read/watched/listened to and a tangible, positive result. (If that result is also quantifiable, all the better.) I want them to realize that result, and when they do, to immediately think of my content.

The 5-minute value rule helps to focus my efforts on creating that tangible, positive result.

This Is Just For Educational Content, Right?

I don’t see why it can’t apply to promotional content, too.

Here’s a hypothetical example: you receive an email from a shoe retailer inviting you to try their new state-of-the-art size and fit finding tool and buy a pair of shoes.

They might offer incentives to get you to click through and try it (free shipping both ways, a discount), but those aren’t the value… at least, not according to the 5-minute value rule.

The value in this email and landing page/tool (working together) is that you can immediately find a pair of shoes that you love, in your size (and that will fit you well), from the comfort of your home, office, smartphone, wherever.

• You don’t have to drag your ass out to the mall and fight crowds and traffic.
• You don’t have to wait for a salesperson to look and see if it’s in your size.
• You don’t have to go to seven different stores.
• You don’t have to deal with lines, screaming kids, people asking you to take a survey (can you tell I don’t like the mall?)

You just traded in an afternoon’s (a whole day’s?) headaches for a few minutes’ browsing, thanks to that email. And it was 100% promotional.

Are there cases where it might not apply? Sure. I just can’t think of what they would be. But hey, it’s my rule, so I’m probably biased. What do you think?

So What’s the 5-Minute Rule For This Post?

(Don’t try to tell me you weren’t thinking that this whole time.)

I hope you do at least one of the following things in the 5 minutes following finishing this:

• Look at the last article/post/email you created and ask yourself: what’s the audience supposed to do with this right after they finish reading it? Anything?
• Ask yourself: do you have a rule or guideline that helps you determine if something you’re creating (or thinking of creating) has value to its intended audience? If so, what’s your rule?
• Try out the 5-minute rule the next time you’re thinking about creating content. Ask yourself: “What are people supposed to do in the 5 minutes immediately after reading/watching/listening to this that will __________?” (Fill in the blank with whatever fits your audience.) See if it helps you focus your content.

And while you’re at it, take a minute or five to let me know what you think about this rule