“I wish I could be inside their head when they read my white paper.” Don’t you wish you knew what your readers are thinking as they read your content? What text could you throw away? What text could you monetize?
Active listening is difficult. In fact, it’s exhausting, especially if you’re new to it.
Do you know people who practice active listening? You’d know if you did. They begin their sentences with clauses like:
- “If I understand what you’re saying, you want me to…”
- “What you’re telling me is…”
- “You’re saying that you…”
Relationship counselors recommend active listening techniques because the most important question in interpersonal communications is:
Do you understand this the way I intend for you to understand it?
But what are you thinking about while you read my white paper?
There is a similar question, which skeptical people like me wonder about, and which shy people like me rarely pose:
What are you thinking about while I’m talking to you?
Probably not about what I’m saying.
Now think about that dynamic and your content. Don’t you want to ask your prospects:
What are you thinking about while you read my white paper/case study/web page/collateral?
Maybe your content marketing writer did a perfect job creating valuable content, and your ideal reader understands your message and your products exactly the way you’d intended. But your readers’ mind could still wander as they read your paper, couldn’t it?
Magical window in your content
What if you could embed some kind of magical, interactive window on page 3 of your document that would connect you to the reader in real time? When your readers turned from page 2 to page 3, your head would pop out of a small frame in the middle of the page.
“I don’t mean to interrupt,” you would say, “but would you mind telling me what you’re thinking about while you read my white paper?”
If your content marketing writer has really done her job, of course, the reader would look quizzically back at you, surprised you would even pose the question.
If it’s a white paper on solar power technology he’d say, “Why, I’m thinking about the solar panels installed on the roof of my company’s parking structure.”
If it were the letter to the shareholders in your annual report, he might say, “I’m wondering why your sales were off last year when you spent so much on upgrading your CRM system.”
Most of the time, however, that is not the answer that would come back. Instead, you’d likely hear, “I’m thinking about my daughter’s broken finger,” or “I’m thinking that I forgot to take out the steaks to thaw for dinner tonight.”
You lose money when your reader’s mind wanders
Face it: Can you get through one of your own white papers without your mind wandering? What do you think about when you read your company’s web copy?
This is your new test for readability in your content: Can you get every paragraph to contribute to revenue generation? Are you willing to throw away the paragraphs that don’t contribute?
photo credit: Japanexperterna.se
