What’s the scariest movie you’ve ever seen?
For me, hands down, it was the movie Signs with Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix.
The movie is about an alien invasion of earth which starts with crop circles near a humble farmer’s home. The adults aren’t sure what to make of the crop circles and are looking for logical explanations.
Then, one night, Bo (the little girl) comes in to see her Daddy and says casually, “There’s a monster outside my room. Can I have a glass of water?”
As they walk back to her room to try and dismiss her fears get just a glimpse of the monster on the roof of the barn outside! Yikes!
Later on in the movie, the family overhears the aliens making sounds which are picked up by the baby monitor. Do you remember what they sounded like? My kids sure do…they’re still scared of baby monitors to this day!
So what does this have to do with your marketing?
Everything!
Intellectually, we know we’re watching a movie.
The actors aren’t real. Mel Gibson has been in dozens of movies. He’s not a farmer and there’s no monsters on the roof of anyone’s barn.
But emotionally, we’re all in.
We still cringe when the scary parts come. And years later we remember the feelings and emotions so strongly we may still be afraid of something like baby monitors.
So if our emotions are so strong, why do we continue to lead with boring, straightforward intellect in our writing and messages?
Does Motel 6 promise the lowest prices of any national chain with high quality rooms?
No…They leave the light on for ya.
I’ve been doing this for 10 years, and every training session I’ve sat through for writing training focuses on the mechanical parts of a good website page.
They talk about having good navigation, using keywords in specific places to help with search, using bullet points to make the content scannable.
Blah, blah, blah.
Are these sorts of things really important?
Yes, of course they are.
But are they more important than whether or not the content is actually interesting?
I’d say no.
I’ve seen plenty of websites that get lots of traffic but have high bounce rates and no conversions because while people may find the site because all the “technical” things are correct, the content sucks…sucks is a technical term for boring, uninteresting or otherwise putting people to sleep.
So before you start working on your next piece of content or marketing piece, think of the last really good scary movie you’ve seen.
Think about the emotions you felt.
Then think about the emotions your product or service creates when it’s done correctly.
Get a clear feeling in your body for what those emotions feel like.
Take those emotions all the way down to a near meditative state and let ‘em all hang out.
THEN start writing.
When you start that way, I think you’ll find a totally different outcome!
Your numbers will show it.
Need some help getting a clear picture of what you should start writing about? Contact us today to get started!
