The One “Magnetic Word” You Can't Ignore

From the laptop of:
Jan-Michael Britten
England, United Kingdom.

Dear stranger on the internet,

If someone said your name right now, how’d you think you’d react?

Chances are you’d respond with something along the lines of “yes?” or “yep?”, right?

You’d instinctively feel compelled to listen and find out why you were being called.

You’d want to know what that person wanted.

You wouldn't be able to resist.

Well, you’re not alone, anyone else would do the exact same thing…

Because everyone’s favourite word is their own name.

Try it next time you have a chance…

Call someone by their name and see if they ignore you.

There’s almost a 100% certainty they won’t be able to.

No matter how busy or distracted they might be, their ears will perk up at the familiar sound they hear.

The same is true for your customers too.

They’re human just like you after all…

They have the same built-in behaviours you and every other human have.

And that’s something you can take advantage of when you want them to listen to you.

Now, I know what you’re thinking…

Jan-Michael, what if I don’t know my customer’s names?…

How does this apply to me?!

I hear you, don’t worry…

The truth is you don’t need to know their names to speak to them directly.

I don’t know yours yet I’ve been communicating with you throughout this letter.

Have you spotted how I’ve been doing that?

I’ll give YOU a hint.

Got it?

So far in this letter I’ve used slightly different versions of this word 24 times to address you…

That’s 25 times now…

Yes - you, your, you're - have all been used to make sure you know this letter is written for you.

When it comes down to it, it’s as simple as that.

A dialogue occurs when both sides feel as though they are part of it.

Imagine you are sitting opposite me in a coffee shop and rather than reading this letter, you are listening to me explain it to you instead…

Well, that would be impossible for me to do without using the word YOU, wouldn’t it?

Using the word YOU lets you know that I’m addressing you specifically and that my message is aimed at you.

Writing words on the internet is no different.

Whenever you are writing to your customers, just think about sitting in a coffee shop with them and talking to them in person.

The less you talk about yourself and the more you talk about them the more they will give you their attention.

Why?

Because as humans we’re hardwired to put ourselves first…

We can’t help it.

It’s in our DNA.

Since our cave-dwelling days, we’ve been on the lookout for things that will help us survive…

And we’ve been conditioned to avoid things that won’t.

Think back to the last time you had a conversation with someone who just talked about themselves the whole time…

I’m betting you found it really hard to concentrate on what you were being told, am I right?

You may have even caught yourself daydreaming or thinking about something else as you pretended to listen or care.

Well, that’s evidence of this process at work.

Now, you might be somewhat resistant to accepting this concept at first…

So to show you what I mean I clicked over to my inbox and found the latest email from someone trying to get my attention by doing the exact same thing I just described to you...

Here’s how it started:

Now, I don’t know about you but I got bored and lost interest in what this person was saying as soon as I got halfway through the third sentence.

Does this make me a bad person?

No, of course it doesn’t…

It just means my brain couldn’t figure out how this would help me…

Or how it related to me in any way so it didn’t feel the urge to make me continue reading.

I call the language used in this email “I-ccentric” messaging because it’s all about the writer, not the reader.

If you’re speaking to your customers like this then please STOP immediately.

I only pasted about a third of that email into this letter because I wanted to spare you the rest which continues in the same way.

Did you notice the word YOU is not even written once in eight paragraphs?

If you want someone to read what you are writing then make it about them NOT you.

This email completely misses the mark and will probably lead to many people opting out from receiving further communication from this sender…

Which means they’ve lost the chance to build those relationships.

And relationships are key to long-term business.

Don’t ever kid yourself that your customers are more interested in you than they are in themselves.

If you end up deleting an email like that don’t worry, it shows you’re human…

It’s normal.

It’s your primal instinct kicking in.

However, that's a topic for another letter.

For now though, just remember this point…

You have to make everything about your customer, not you.

They don’t care about you, they care about what you can do for them.

The more you understand this simple fact, the more persuasive your writing will be.

What do you think?…

Do you agree or not?

Send me an email and let me know what's on your mind.

Good or bad I’d love to hear your take on it!

Until next time,

Jan-Michael “putting you first always” Britten

P.S. If you’ve made it this far, it’s because you felt persuaded to do so.

That’s not a coincidence.

It comes down to you knowing this letter is for you.

It comes down to you knowing it’s of benefit to you.

If you want your customers to consume your content, do the same thing.

Make it about them. Not you.

Just like when someone calls your name…

Ignoring something becomes far more difficult when you know it’s aimed at you specifically.

BTW…

If you have a spare couple of minutes…

Why not shoot me a quick email sharing your thoughts on this letter?

It'd be great to get your view on the subject.

Are you already making everything about your customer?…

Or…

Is it something you are going to start implementing after witnessing it here in action?

Yes or no…

Your opinion matters to me.