3 Barriers To Readership And A Cult Like Following (and Easy Sales)

By Author: Timothy Gonzalez
Total Articles: 40
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Readership (and its cousins viewership and listeners) is one of the most critical elements to successfully marketing your self, business, products and services. An ad writing legend Johan Caples said it best when he said
"If the headline doesn't stop people, the copy might as well be written in Greek."
Ogilvy's version of the same rule is "On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy."
The reason that I start here is that your headline is the gateway into your advertising pieces. So having THE STRONGEST headline possible is a vital first step to creating readership and a cult like following.
Doesn't matter how good what you have to say is if nobody reads it.
For beginners use proven headline formulas. For those of you more advanced you should already know the principles of great headlines and be able to use them.
Take the extra time to get a headline as strong as possible.
There are barriers upstream and barriers downstream to creating a cult like following through readership.
Upstream - Getting what you have to say into the hands of those ...
... who are mostly likely to appreciate it.
Doesn't matter how good what you have to say is, if the person receiving it doesn't or isn't interested in what you have to say. Audience matters. Obama won both elections by focusing on getting his message to people that mattered: Swing voters in marginal states. He ignored the rest.
Where a small hinge could swing a big door for him, he didn't spend as heavily as in his safe states because they were that 'safe.' Get your message into the market that is most likely to respond and resonate.
Far too little emphasis is placed on this exact part of the puzzle because it is kind of boring and kind of difficult but it is absolutely vital to your ability to build and maintain readership.
Downstream - Have Something Worth Reading
Nothing destroys readership faster than being boring or not having anything worth saying. There is an old maxim in the world of copy:
"Copy can never be too long only too boring."
Be sure that what is coming out of your mouth, fingertips or wherever, is actually good. Nobody can stomach empty rhetoric for long without getting impatient, bored or disinterested. You are only a click, a button or a 'to hell with this' away from being sent to oblivion.

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