Admittedly, you'll still find me buying lumber from my local ma-and-pa lumberyard on Saturday mornings. You can bank on me shopping for groceries where the deals exist - which is not always Walmart. Of course, not everything in life is evergreen; one major change I've had to roll with involves my writing and marketing - my lifeline for nearly 20 years now.
Guess that makes me 'old school'. I can still twerk, youngins.
Whereas I could've spoken to mass audiences with one sentence 15 years ago, today's increasingly diverse subcultural divide dictates that my linguistics must be more 'exacting' so any hope of pushing my point across isn't lost in translation when directed to the Baby Boomer, or being downplayed by the newer minds that control society today.
For those fellows and gals trying to push small bakeries or hardware stores online, this article is dedicated to what I hope is your continued success in marketing, yet aimed to refine what methods you've probably read in 50 different contexts spread across hundreds of websites.
Talk To Consumers, Not Their Wallets
Unless you're trying to lure individuals into some charity drive, perhaps tone down your content writing or marketing pitches to not sound like your business is lost without money. Consumers already get it - you want them to buy. So drop the subject and speak to their needs, fears, convictions or whatever makes them tick. Better yet, ask yourself what you'd want a marketing pitch for shoes or nail fungus removal liquid to sound like. Afterall, businessmen and women tend to forget they, themselves, are consumers. Many will hire personal assistant intervention when writing get tough, too.
Remember when a man's handshake was his credibility? Give your consumers that virtual handshake through your writing, and your consumers will shoot your credibility through the ceiling while having zero qualms about spending money on your service or product.
Cultivate Powerful Followers
People aren't devout followers of Jesus because he dressed in Gucci. They would also confirm he doesn't dance like Vanilla Ice. But one thing that keeps people holding on is His message of redemption, life in the Promise Land and deliverance from evil. Word of opportunity here is 'message'.
Unless your line of clothing is what defines you, content marketing and general message which are going from your mouth to a public blog will require something more 'heartfelt' than 'buy it now'. People that read your content need something to grab onto - something that makes the message their own. Master the art of writing to the heart, and you'll develop followers that willfully engage in whatever you write, or perhaps bring more people to read your good works.
Whatever you do, craft your messages uniformly - avoid segregating specific ethnicities or sects when writing or marketing as you really don't want anyone pulling the bigot card against your business through Yelp - a possibility even if your intentions were good.
Include Baby Boomers
The very company you're working with could've been a direct result of some baby boomer taking their 'A' game to the next level in marketing. Perhaps your seat inside the Washington Post was once home to an astute business writer from the 50's. Because not everyone will know their way around the internet, make sure your content pieces or marketing messages talk softly to the older set. They're perhaps the hardest person to convince since, as I'm sure you know, many people of age can be set in their ways.
Writing in a fun, educational yet less quizzical tone would speak volumes to those who crafted our way of life today. If your grandma gets agitated when you confuse her, think of how millions of retiring baby boomers will feel when reading your confusing marketing jargon.
All Told...
Many consumers are undereducated and even more underpaid than during the Great Depression when, of course, men were bootlegging beer to support their families. Although it's first nature to write content for blogs or marketing campaigns assuming everyone is technologically or educationally adept, facts support otherwise. If in the finance sector, finance sites like this one are available via LinkedIn to network with, to use an example.
Speak to new school techies with sleight of hand, yet don't talk down to, over or around people. Keep your old school positive messages aimed equally towards techies and working men and women alike. Make your content readable by the masses, and guess who'll heed to your call? The masses.