IT'S TOO LOUD IN HERE!

By Perry Rearick, Chief Editor, Follow Your Buyer

The internet is a noisy place. Imagine if each piece of content was a rock band playing simultaneously but not in synch, and not even the same song. Our online scrolling would deliver just a lot of loud noise. Well, that’s what it is! Not audible noise, but mental noise.

Last month saw the passing of Daniel Kahneman, author, economist, and psychologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 2002 for his work in human judgment and decision making.

Kahneman, along with Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein, authored “Noise, A Flaw in Human Judgment“, in which they explore how noise negatively impacts our cognitive processes. But the noise they are referring to is the variability of the data that we use when engaged in decision-making, irrelevant information that fills our heads and clouds our thinking.

This will come as no surprise, but we are overly burdened with the noise that is described by Kahneman and his colleagues. Its accuracy and sources are questionable, the intent is suspect, it can be created by non-human machines fueled by AI, or worse, humans who only have their own interests in mind.

And some of us are guilty of contributing to the noise, rationalizing the practice by calling it marketing material.

At the same time, our target audiences have become skilled at navigating around the noise and zeroing in on the content that helps them with the biggest issues they face. They don’t even hear the noise we produce.

As solution providers, the most critical question we must ask ourselves regularly is, are we just making noise or are we engaging current and future customers with content that helps them?

-Are you creating more me-centric than they-centric content? Your target audiences care most about their own issues, not how great you think you are.

-Does your content build trust with target audiences? Trust is built with target audiences when you take the time to listen, meet them where they are, and help them tackle their biggest challenges.  

-Does your marketing and sales strategy create partnerships for life or one-time contractual relationships? Partners stand ready to help their customers in ways that go beyond the sale and delivery of goods and services.

I hope you have a great week and help keep the noise down please!