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Your Attention Please – getting attention and getting action

September 24, 2008 By Linda Dessau

Thanks to Kathy Mallary of Spirit Spring Coaching for the review of the book Your Attention Please in a recent newsletter.

Expert coaches thrive

Speaking of getting attention, subscribe to Kathy's newsletter here and you'll get a fabulous special report that explains precisely why "Expert Coaches Thrive," ending the debate once and for all (sigh, if only that were true) about whether or not it's a good idea to specialize. [Update December 15, 2012 – Kathy has a new special report now, which I'm sure will be just as valuable to you.]

Getting your market's attention

In searching for the book's website, I stumbled upon this equally valuable post by Seth Godin on the topic of attention. He touts the free offer as the best way to get people's attention: "The interesting thing about most products and services is that we won't buy them until we know what they are and what they do."

The refrigerator test

I opened Your Attention Please to a random page (Kathy suggested in her article that every page holds a gem, and so far she's absolutely right) and read about the "refrigerator test." The authors attribute this concept to Don Ranly of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, who actually teaches a class called "Refrigerator Journalism". The test? For journalists, it's whether what you've written will be pertinent enough for someone to cut out and post on their refrigerator door.

The action test

In our case, we're usually looking for pretty specific actions from our readers. Signs that we are deepening our relationship, gaining trust and successfully leading them into our marketing funnel. So our test becomes whether or not they take action. Will what we write in our newsletters, blogs, articles and websites be pertinent enough for our reader to:

  • Forward to someone else via email
  • Bookmark for themselves or others (e.g., on delicious)
  • Comment on our site or by email
  • Blog or write about
  • Download our free offer, subscribe to our updates or make contact

The good news is that we'll know soon enough, because the results (or lack of) will speak for themselves.

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Filed Under: Content Marketing Ideas, Social Media

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