Avoiding the Two Worst Kinds of Web Content: The "This Little Piggy Training Manual"

This Little Piggy Content (We We We, all the way home)

Most companies think customers want an encyclopedia entry. You know… We think nobody is better than Us, We think cavemen are funny, Our former CEO buys shoes with ’90s comedians, We We We, Us Us Us…

You see this kind of bad thinking all the time. Pick a TV commercial at random. What is it really about? You or them? Chances are, some company spent money to tell you how much they like themselves. Instead of how they can make your life better!

Even worse than writing like a little piggy?

Training Manual Content (T.M.C.)

The kind written by someone who thinks customers can be impressed by acronyms made of big words (A.M.O.B.W.). You know, the kind that flattens you with dense jargon and technical terms (D.J. & T.T.) even though you’re there to shop, not clock in. Fancy words like utilize (why not use?) make things even worse. Vague content is hard to trust… there’s a reason government agencies facilitate outcomes instead of help people.

How to avoid bad content?

Try this: Say a potential customer steps into your building. She asks what you can do for her. What do you say? Do you get misty-eyed about your founder’s secret recipe? Do you whip out your most dazzling acronym? Or do you try to solve your potential customer’s problem?

That sounds boring. I have a story to tell.

Great! Having a story worth hearing is the ultimate.

Now, think about it this way. Personalization is great… There’s a time and a place (maybe even on your site) for stuff about you. You want your customers to feel like they know you. But remember: your customers’ priority is what you can do for them. Thus, this is your priority too.