Your Woodworking Newsletter/Blog Sucks
Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Your Woodworking Newsletter/Blog SucksSorry to be so rude, but the title has a point. As an industry, we have a tendency to publish some of the worst newsletters and company blogs I have ever read.

Many of the monthly updates I read are written by professional marketing companies that are supposed to be good at this. So why do we suck so bad? The problem is in our focus.

Take a mental step back for a moment and think about HGTV on cable. HGTV has spawned dozens of cable TV shows focused on helping the consumer redesign their house, bathroom, kitchen and even backyard. Design On a Dime, Property Brothers, Holmes on Homes, and Color Splash, are all very popular TV shows with the same basic theme. They take a frustrated homeowner and in one episode, give them a new, perfectly designed room.

These shows are popular because Suzie Homeowner can borrow the ideas on design and relate them to her own home. She can see similar rooms while visualizing the right paint, furniture, and space that will fit. In the strive for "Open Concept Rooms," I personally believe that these shows have knocked down more dining room walls than the rest of the home contractors in America.

How does this relate to your newsletter and blog? These shows are all about the customer and not about the company. They talk constantly about ways for the consumer to achieve their dream, not about the companies that provide the products on the show. The products sell because the consumer sees them working, not because of their company history or employees.

Change your company newsletter and start focusing how customers have used your products to make their lives better. Do before and after pictures. Don't leave a job without taking photographs of the smiling customer. Publish those thank you notes that are sitting on your bulletin board under the MSDS notices. Write about the challenges tough projects have created and how your company solved them.

A great company update is less about the company and more about the customer. In other words, reverse the lens and focus on them, not you.

Good Hunting,

P.S. Your web site sucks too and you know it

Rick

 

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