Nowadays, I see would-be marketing gurus reading tons of blogs and websites about marketing (Thanks!). We’re also participating in conversations on other blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and whatever new platform shows up tomorrow.

But we’re spending a lot of time doing all the reading, re-posting and researching, and not enough time putting this stuff into practice. We’ll post, tweet, or blog the same articles with the same advice 12 times in a day, but are we using that advice, or merely regurgitating it?

Most corporate site content still stinks of the year 2005

Full disclosure: I’m there, too. The Social Media Interaction game can play a lot like Whack-a-Mole and sometimes the distraction keeps you from fixing the “problems at home.”

So how do you fix your web site and get back on the bus? You rewrite your content using a very simple formula:

“We understand you’re facing ProblemA. We can fix it with SolutionB, which will create BenefitX, BenefitY, and BenefitZ.”

Your site visitors are looking for solutions to a problem – it’s the one and only reason they’re on your site. They’re also going to hand large amounts of money to the person who most quickly and completely solves that problem. To be blunt: “help me now, or I’m taking my big fat check elsewhere.”

With this irrefutable truth in mind, why does your page content look like anything other than that formula above? Why would you let any other words get in the way?

Why are you making it hard for your visitors to give you money?

Your experience doesn’t matter. Your “innovative, cutting-edge, industry-leading widget/service” doesn’t matter. I’ll only care about your experience and innovation after I know you’re the miracle answer to my problem; that “validation” piece doesn’t matter to me until then.  The company that solves my problem earns my attention, my business, and my loyalty.

Does that magic formula work?  If you’re still reading, it does – I used it in this post:

  • I addressed ProblemA and empathized with you as a fellow sufferer (“my content stinks”)
  • I gave you SolutionB (the “content formula”)
  • I offered you Benefits X, Y and Z (more people will read your pages, buy your stuff and like your company)

The reason that blogs and social networking sites have exploded is because no one wants to hear the corporate drivel anymore. The old buzzwords – “innovation,” “thought leadership,” “cutting edge” – don’t have the same pizzazz anymore. The brands that succeed are the ones that are laser focused on talking to their consumers like human beings instead of brochures, and offering up solutions instead of jazzy tag lines.

This was – admittedly – a pretty blunt post.  Did it help? Do you disagree?  I’d love to hear about it in the comments, and I’d especially love to hear if this formula creates any magic for you.