I recently stumbled on a facebook page run by a Farm CEO, that offered an interesting perspective in a piece about recent Human (yes HUMAN!) Salmonella outbreaks and their link to backyard poultry practice which is becoming quite common.
I excitedly clicked to read the rest of the piece. Suffice to say that I was NOT disappointed.
It turned out to be a nice piece: both informative and educative. The kind of useful content I would readily recommend to others I identify may need it.
Click here to request the link to the above mentioned Farm CEO’s article on Human Salmonella outbreaks, as it relates to backyard poultry practice.
My interest here is due to the fact that I serve Farm CEOs (e.g. with my Custom Excel-VB Software, Information Products, Web Marketing Support, Learning Events etc)….
What I’ve found over the years is that many of them are yet to understand why I keep telling them they need to use the web for marketing by creating original content like this Farm CEO is doing on his Facebook page!
That was why I was quite pleased to read the article he’d written.
It showed that he was thinking along the lines I’d been advocating i.e. about using information and education to SERVE his/her target audience.
I instantly knew he would be a useful model to showcase towards challenging other Farm CEOs, so they SEE how to do it, and the benefits of doing it.
You see, most people in business, in my part of the world have a habit of focusing on ANNOUNCING the products and services they have for sale.
They believe it’s better to be DIRECT and relentless in telling potential customers to buy. They have little or no interest in serving useful information and education to potential buyers.
Yet doing the latter is a proven, reliable means of winning trust that ultimately converts strangers from prospects or potential buyers, to loyal customers/clients.
The “pushy” sales person (this-is-what-I-sell-buy-now) approach fails to build trust easily in the mind of prospects. Indeed, most potential buyers exposed to it tend to feel harassed by your messages – denying you an opportunity to really get to know what they want.
The above mentioned Farm CEO’s article showed he had the right mind set to win buyers’ trust…
But I saw something he needed to do differently. So I sent him a message.
Basically, I loved everything he’d written.
Except the way he’d ended: specifically the final sentence which read thus:
“You can learn more about the signs, symptoms, and treatment of Salmonella infection online.”
By ending that way, he’d short-changed himself in terms of generating potential sales leads.
Here are excerpts from the Facebook message I wrote to him offering tips about how to correct that defect in his copy.
I share them here in the hope that others may find them useful:
====Starts====
Hi,
Just read your piece on Salmonella and found it quite interesting.
<Deleted preamble>
I however have an issue with your final sentence.
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You can learn more about the signs, symptoms, and treatment of Salmonella infection online.
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No, don’t do that.
Don’t send your reader away to learn more elsewhere.
You can offer specific links to 3rd party resources, but not too often, and not this early.
It’s better to build credibility in the minds of your readers so as to develop what is called Expert Authority Status.
You started the good job of educating and informing him/her on this subject/theme.
It’s an interesting perspective that most people rarely consider. My thought is that you can continue it as a special educational series. Doing so would make people come back for the latest one!
That process inspires trust that can lead readers to decide to LIKE your page, visit it often, share your content to their networks/tell others and at some point possibly buy from you, and even refer others to do same!
I recommend that rather than tell readers to “learn more online”(which could be anywhere AWAY from you!), your business marketing goal should make you setup your brand so you can end your articles by saying something like:
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Learn more by visiting our website or blog at www.xyzfarms.com to read other articles – and don’t forget to signup for our weekly newsletter before you leave.
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That will help you build a growing base of followers and a mailing list of potential buyers.
The foregoing (I.e. generating sales leads) should be your ultimate goal for posting useful write-ups like this, as a profit focused Farm CEO!
Cheers,
Tayo
====Ends====
Final Words
In writing to the owner of the featured page, I mentioned that I would use what I saw him doing on his page as a case study in a new article on how to offer useful content to connect with potential buyers.
That is what I have now done above.
I hope you find it useful.
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