Fishing, or standing on the riverbank looking stupid?
Your choice…
Your choice…
I’m not sure whether it was Confucius, or if it was Mark Twain who once said, “There is only a fine line between fishing, and just standing on the riverbank looking stupid.” Whichever one said the phrase was exceptionally smart. You only have to ask yourself ONE question.
“Do I have a baited hook down there in the water?” That will allow me to attract a fish, capture it, and pull it out…
Are you serious?
That is the one simple question, the answer to which shows whether or not you are serious about eating dinner.
When you have decided to sell ANYthing that you own, the question is almost the same. Have I done what is necessary to get that fish up out of that water and into my possession? Do I have a straight-line connection to that entree? If I’m selling my car or if I’m selling a set of dishes, do I have a straight-line connection to the person who wants my car or wants my set of dishes?
What about if you are trying to sell your house? The same applies there. You could put a sign in your yard, but only a handful of the total number of people looking for your house drive by your house every day. You could put an ad in the paper, but that’s the same in terms of the low percentage. Your fishing line needs to go into a bigger body of water where more hungry fish live.
What about your stories?
What if you are trying to attract readers to one of your stories. If your title were something vague like “On Being Me,” you might get your mom to read it. A better title might get a few more readers.
This is a step in what I call “Comfort Marketing.” Some people cringe at the word marketing, but that is because it has been used incorrectly so much.
Marketing is simply an introduction to a person, place, or thing. It does not, by nature, force use.
When a person is introduced to a person, place, or thing and they think they would be happy knowing more about it, they realize that they would also be more comfortable.
When a person invests the time to read a story, that decision is based on their judgment that their life would be a tad more comfortable with the knowledge delivered by that article.
So, step one is to make sure people notice what you have to say, and are interested in hearing it. They need to feel more comfortable.
Last word.
How you title your articles is a tiny part of the overall concept of comfort marketing. How does your effort make the reader/customer feel? It includes larger pieces that may alter your ways of thinking from a couple to one hundred eighty degrees. And we will get into them soon. But right now the start is the Title of the Story.
And ultimately, everything in life is marketing.
Parts of this info from one of my blogs.
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