I decided to write a letter. A letter to myself when I was a rookie content producer and journalist.
It was a helpful exercise to reinforce a few things. Here goes:
Dear Andrew from 2005,
People don’t come to a website to check out its look and feel, assessing its content offering, and seeing if its SEO is up to scratch.
They come to a website because they need something, to find a solution to their problem, to be informed, etc etc.
People don’t care if you love the content you’ve made, that you spent hours in ideation, crafting your beautiful blog or video or whatever.
They don’t care because they’re more concerned about their own opinion of it, the emotions it engenders for them and the actions it instigates. They probably have no idea who you are and that doesn’t matter to them. Don’t worry.
Whatever you do, put people first, not you. Do what you can, use the tools you can, speak to the actual people who are your audience. Pursue an informed perception of how they will react to what you’re serving them with. From initial touchpoints and first impressions to the point where they’re your leading brand advocates. Think ‘journey’ as much as you do ‘destination’.
Resist the temptation to withdraw into an outbound mindset, where you’re firing off content far and wide and ‘hoping for the best’. No. Don’t hope for the best, find the best. Find the people who will be best suited to your cause, campaign or product… and serve them. Don’t waste your time and resources on a ‘strategy of vagueness’.
Finally, don’t take yourself too seriously. Don’t be obsessed with perfection. There is nothing new under the sun, just new ways of connecting existing ideas. Take great peace from the knowledge of that.
Get the job done and then shut the laptop.
Cheers,
Andrew (from the present day).
I hope you found that interesting and helpful too. Try it for yourself. It could be quite cathartic. It doesn’t have to be about digital comms or marketing. It can be whatever lessons you want to reinforce in yourself.
As we come towards the end of 2021, I hope you stay safe and well and avoid Omicron.
Take care,
Andrew