How To Become The “Distraction” Customers Crave

At 6:00 this morning I reviewed my plan for the day. I put my top seven tasks on an index card.

At 6:48, panic ensued. A marketing email had a problem. Another issue followed. One emergency followed the other. My perfect plan fell apart. None of my priorities get done.

That’s my day today. My list of to do’s remains untouched. The crime? I let other people’s priorities become my distractions. I need to work on that.

Still, other days you bang out one task after another. Nothing gets in your way. You feel unstoppable. I get my share of days like that too.

No matter what kind of day you’re having, sometimes distractions get you. Coasting through the day opens the door for distractions.

Constant work and activity keep us laser focused. It protects our minds from wandering

Becoming The Distraction

Let’s look at the other side of the coin.

What if we need to get our message to our clients and prospects? In that case, we become the distraction. We need to get their attention and barge in.

Our “attention getter” needs to wipe clean any other priority or urgency. You want them to think:

“Whoa. I need to check this out before I do anything else.”

Distract Them Without Click Bait

We know “click baiters” do this for a living. What about writing legit content about our business or expertise?

Let’s pretend you write content for your tax business. You write a “Whitepaper” to educate clients on a new tax law. The law hurts businesses that fail to prepare.

The title:

Whitepaper — The Inventory Expensing Implication of Section 732-E

Can you think of a more corporate-sounding title?

Most whitepapers suffer from bland titles like this one. Heck, even the term “whitepaper” sounds like something we read because of a punishment. It reminds me of an old Woody Allen movie, Sleeper.

Woody Allen wakes up from suspended animation. He finds himself in a dystopian future. The historians interview him to gain information about the past. They show him a clip of a Howard Cossell ranting. After, the historian says:

“…We feel that when people committed great crimes against the state, they were forced to watch this.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what it was” — Woody Allen

Give me a whitepaper to read. I’ll ask you what I did to deserve this punishment.

So, what’s the alternative?

Straighten Up His Backbone

Find out the one big idea that straightens up his backbone. Instead of writing:

Whitepaper — Inventory Expense Implications Of Section 732-E

How about:

This New IRS Gotcha Just Added 19% To Your Tax Bill — There’s Still Time To Avoid It

A headline like that gets my attention more than a boring title about a tax code. Plus, it gives me a hint that if I read the content, I can avoid it.

Small changes in your approach yield big results.

1. Find out the pressure points of your customers and prospects
2. Create a headline that punches them in the gut
3. Tease the results in your content
4. Deliver the goods when they click your call to action

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