Pain points

Whatever the problem, cocaine can fix it. It causes some other ones, though. (National Library of Medicine)

The way that I’m supposed to do this blogging thing is to figure out who my ideal customer is, and then write a series of articles speaking to their pain points.

What problems are they trying to fix in their life? I can talk about those things (ideally, using search-engine friendly language) and then offer my paid solution.

It makes perfect sense. It’s totally logical. The problem is that it is so boring.

It’s boring to write about pain points (the same old pain points that everyone else is writing about, most likely).

It’s boring to write what I think you are going to want to read.

And I figure that it’s boring to read what someone else thinks you want to read — especially when it’s designed to make you want to buy something.

This approach to content marketing can certainly work, but it feels limited. Sure, I’d like to sell my services, but not at the expense of my humanity or yours.

So if I’m going to reject the prevailing formula, what am I going to replace it with?

For me, the answer has been to write about what I feel like writing about, just as I would if I were writing a song.

The result is that I will connect with people who are interested in the same things I’m interested in, or who are interested in what I have to say.

That seems like a much more interesting way to build connections than to try to guess at what you want, or what you want from me.

I’m not saying that everyone should follow my example or my advice. I only know what works for me as a creator. That said, it’s also what works for me as a consumer. The second I get a whiff of someone trying to fit me into a particular category so that they can send me emails that consist of one-clause paragraphs, I’m gone.

Sure, marketing tactics work on me. I’m not above human psychology. But fake-sincere marketing tactics rub me the wrong way. Someone telling me about myself in “you” language in their website copy, like I’m reading a horoscope, almost never rings true.

And that Dale Carnegie thing where people overuse your first name in marketing emails? No thanks.

I spent plenty of time refusing to be a marketer at all because I didn’t like these marketing tactics. I have found my way out of that trap. I do marketing at the risk of having someone be as turned off by me as I am by the people I would label as hacks. I accept that I’ll make people roll their eyes — so be it.

But I don’t want to have to roll my eyes at myself. I still care about living according to my own values. Maybe, in time, I’ll let go of another layer of my own self-consciousness. Either I’ll be willing to apply a layer of artifice as a result, or I’ll find a way to apply additional marketing tactics in a way that feels authentic to me.

I’ve already been through that cycle a number of times. I’m doing things that I never thought I’d be willing to do, like write a blog, sell business coaching services, and make videos on TikTok. So I might be willing, at some point, to create content directly related to pain points. Maybe I’ll even find a way to do it that I am proud of.

But for now, I just want to write what I want to write, like a snobby adolescent — or an adult professional. This preference might be holding me back. It might be counterproductive based on the results I’m looking for. But it also might be just the right thing to connect with the people I’m interested in knowing — whether or not it convinces them to pay me for help with their problems.