Ever got a cold email in your inbox that was truly dreadful?
Who am I kidding; we all get them every day.
- Generic
- Don't understand you
- Get your needs all wrong
I get them every day offering me SEO services for this blog that's all about SEO.
Bro, please.
In the sales world there's a movement against this called "Show Me You Know Me" or #SMYKM.
The SMYKM methodology is about making your sales emails stand out, earn the right to be heard, and differentiate your brand in the overwhelming "sea of sameness."
Hear from the founder of this method, Samantha McKenna:
"It’s the process of building trust and connection while demonstrating to your prospect that you’ve taken the extra time to get to know them. It’s personalization! It’s showing you’re an authentic human through every interaction you have with that buyer from day one to decades down the road from now."—Samantha McKenna
When your audience receives dozens of generic emails per day, yours will get ignored.
The same is true for content and, especially, SEO content which has reached a new peak of generic-ness thanks to AI.
In this week's newsletter, adapting SMYKM for our needs as content marketers, I'm gonna share three steps for creating SEO content that's scarily familiar and makes your reader instantly fall in love with your brand.
Our goals?
- Creating content that stands out
- Creating content that earns a full read-through
- Creating content that resonates
- Creating content that keeps 'em coming back
Let's dive in.
Step 1. Base your article on genuine audience insights, not "pain points".
Unlike in sales emails, we aren't actually talking to just one individual whose LinkedIn we can sleuth.
But we can still get very specific about our audience and thoroughly research the challenges they're facing—and reflect those back to the reader.
The most obvious, yet ineffective advice here would be to say that "writers should explain their pain points" in the blog introduction.
But that's too easy. Most pain points are pretty generic. Naming them doesn’t resonate with a reader.
It's not enough to demonstrate to your reader that you’ve taken the time to really know them and their needs.
People given this advice mostly name obvious pain points that likely turn your reader off…“same old SEO content claiming the digital world is fast-moving and hard to cope with”.
Instead, aim to find and share true insights you have into the experience of your target reader.
Here’s a quick example:
- Generic pain point: People aren't sure how to build an authentic presence on LinkedIn that wins customers.
- Generic introduction: "Isn't it hard to build an authentic presence on LinkedIn? Luckily we got ya!".
- Specific audience insight: People are hesitant to build their brand on LinkedIn because it’s really “cringy”, it seems like the algorithm rewards some pretty weird stuff: people liking their own posts, turning personal stories into “B2B lessons” and crying CEOs. I’m not sure how to build an authentic LinkedIn presence without this stuff.
- Specific introduction: "Sometimes we freakin' hate LinkedIn. The crying CEOs, the AI comments and the weird "B2B lessons from my 40th Birthday party. Cringe, right? But whatever the gurus say, your online presence doesn't have to be embarrassing to drive results. In this guide, we reached out to five LinkedIn influencers with a collective 1M in followers to ask..."
The specificity gets into their underlying emotions and attitudes. And, importantly, to achieve that level of specificity, the writer has to truly know the audience and their experience.
This content is only possible for a writer who knows what they’re talking about, is able to do quality research like audience interviews, or dives into sources like podcasts and sales calls.
It’s also hard to fake, which sets your reader up to think this will be a valuable, read-worthy experience.
Step 2. Deliver unique, unexpected, actionable advice.
Now you’ve earned the “right to be heard”—as the SMYKM method goes—it’s time to deliver the quality content they deserve.
Your readers are bombarded with content on a daily basis. Your job with your content is to give them exactly what they need, even if they didn’t know they needed it themselves.
That looks like:
- Unique angles that aren’t what everyone else is saying
- Solving specific challenges that rarely get addressed
- Actionable tactics they can use right away
An effective (and somewhat scalable) approach is talking to industry experts to get unique insights.
Let’s take our “building an authentic presence on LinkedIn” example.
Our audience insight has given us a ready-made angle: “How to build a personal brand on LinkedIn without being cringy AF”.
We take this concept, reach out to five or so industry experts and ask them something like:
“Hey, I’m writing an article for X brand and would love to include a quote from you. The topic is [How to build a personal brand on LinkedIn without being cringy AF]. What’s your top actionable tactic for building an authentic LinkedIn presence? What about your #1 piece of unusual or unexpected advice?”
Our request's focus on "actionable tactics" is likely to surface insights the reader can take away and implement immediately.
Whereas our request for "unexpected advice" will help make our blog post rare and unique—and way more likely to stand out and be memorable.
Voila. Excellent content fodder.
Step 3. Plan your next steps and follow-up.
So, we’ve shown them we know them and we’ve delivered quality tactical advice.
If we were in the sales world, this is when we’d focus on follow-up and nurture.
In the content world, what can we do to effectively bring this reader back?
Here’s two quick tactics:
Offer a clear next step:
What is the obvious “next step” after reading this article? What content can we offer the reader to entice them to part with their precious email address?
In our LinkedIn example, this could be a downloadable content planning template for LinkedIn content design by experts.
Boom. We’ve got them and can now send them our world-class newsletter.
Switch on the ads:
Only a measly 1-3% of readers are likely to download your asset offer. But as luck would have it, the other 97% can be retargeted using ads.
This works exceptionally well because you already know exactly what they are interested in (i.e. building a presence on LinkedIn).
You can advertise your downloadable asset to the audience or advertise more relevant blog content to keep them getting value.
Works like a charm (sometimes).
3 ways you can work with me:
Sponsor the community
Over the past two years I've been lucky enough to be sponsored by Ahrefs, Semrush, DoFollow, Search Intelligence, thruuu and more awesome brands in the industry. I do sponsored newsletters & social posts and they get HUGE results.
Book a power hour
Want to give your SEO strategy a once-over from an experienced eye? Book an hour with me here.
Done-for-you growth
Most SEO programs get traffic, but no revenue results. They over-focus on hacks and vanity metrics—two things I'm not interested in.
I'm not just an SEO, I'm an ex-head of marketing who know veeery well what it's like to have a no-nonsense CEO breathing down your neck.
That's why my agency (announcing soon 👀) builds SEO strategies that are "pathways to revenue"—designed intentionally to get you to results that matter.
My fully done for you services includes world-class:
- SEO consultancy
- Content production
- Link acquisition strategy
Want in? Book a 20-minute chat here.
—Benny
