What would be your answer if I was to ask you about your most important asset as a knowledge worker?
You’re probably going to say: Your list.
And that’s a nice answer.
After all, everybody says that money is the light, right?
But what if your list was just a bunch of unengaged people?
You suddenly realize that “the list” is not the right answer.
Here’s my answer:
The most important asset as a content creator relies in the relationship you entertain with your list.
So the real million-dollar question is not how to build a list.
It’s: How to create a strong relationship with your list.
You don’t build a strong relationship by entertaining the masses
Most content creators focus on quantity rather than quality.
And I can’t blame ’em for that.
Because a lot of the time I’m getting caught into that, too.
Because here’s the problem:
Everything online is oriented on “how many” followers, subscribers, etc. you have.
Funny Fact: Most creators would never want to work with you if you just said them that you have a tiny following. (After all, you need some social proof to be legit!)
All this implies a false belief: The more, the better.
The truth? The stronger, the better.
Even though every creator knows (and probably also agrees) on Kevin Kelly’s 1000 true fans philosophy, we still tend to act to the extreme opposite — reaping poor rewards.
We simply want more whereas, we shoot aim for better.
I’m not saying that quantity is bad — Obviously not!
If quantity can be a nice byproduct of quality — why not?
But our main focus should be on quality, as we tend to reap what we focus on!
Easier said than done.
Escaping the evilness of never-ending newsfeeds
Everything pushes us to create more, more and more.
Social Media pushes us to produce even more to be on top of our audience’s newsfeed.
Email inboxes are flooded, sending our emails to a junk or promo tab…
Netflix and YouTube compete for out attention.
What’s the solution?
The solution resides in solving a dilemma.
This dilemma can be stated like this:
How to enter a deep conversation with a tiny fraction of people?
Let me explain:
When you’re looking for more, you try to appeal to the masses.
And to appeal to the masses, you have to dilute your core message.
Because by default, resonating with a tiny part of any audience means to be very specific.
And being specific is the opposite of being a generalist.
Let me illustrate that with an example.
By the time being, I help content creators create better content by taking better notes from what they learn.
A tiny niche, isn’t it?
But what if I was to dilute my message to get more followers?
After all, “how to take notes” is a wide-range topic with plenty of different psychographics gravitating around it:
CEOs, Students, and even Software Engineers,…
Answer: I start getting LESS relevant to my core audience.
The broader you go, the less your content will appeal to your true target.
And if you really want to be relevant to your true target psychographics?
You have to enter a deep conversation, which the mainstream entertainers can’t do (and would probably scare the heck out of them).
When you try to appeal to the masses, you’ll start publishing for the masses.
So leave the Vanity metrics for the influencers, and start focusing on the quality metrics.
How to attract quality subscribers?
So now that we’ve found what to focus on, let’s see how to attract quality subscribers. This could be an online course on its own, but let me give you some food for thought here.
It all starts with what happens when a human being from your core audience meets you the first time.
(I emphasize: Yes. A human being. Not another cell in a CSV spreadsheet that you’ve downloaded from your autoresponder. No. A human being!)
— What content makes them discover you?
— What content makes them subscribe to your stuff?
— What content do they receive from you in their inbox?
Do you see a common variable here?
Yes — it’s all about content.
Your most important asset as a content creator is the relationship with your list.
And to build a strong relationship, you need strong content. Period.
While most content creators focus on the latest hacks to get more views — start focusing on the content.
You can have the best hacks in the world — if your content sucks, those followers will run away quicker than they subscribed.
The Ugly Truth
Creating better content is not something you’re born with.
As August Birch puts it in his manifesto it’s all about “getting better a little every day”.
It comes with practicing your craft.
This is the dirty part of content creation.
It’s the part that requires work, practice, and patience.
So the question is : How to start creating better content?
Better content doesn’t start with Algorithm Hacks.
It starts with hacking your audience brains.
And how to do it? With Big Ideas.
Here’s what the legendary David Ogilvy says about it:
“Big Ideas.
Unless your advertising is built on a Big Idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.
It takes a Big Idea to jolt the consumer out of his indifference — to make him notice your advertising, remember it, and take action.”
So the absolute Archimedes lever to create an engaged email list is to come up with bigger, better, bolder, and brighter ideas.
How to come up with better ideas?
Glad you asked.
This is what we’re teaching in “Creative Notes”..
