Recently I mentioned the Single Most Valuable Marketing Lesson, then I teased you with a clue, but today, I reveal the answer.

Many of you were correct in your guesses, many of you were very close, and some were wrong, but gave good advice anyway.

1. Looking at someone else’s holiday photos
2. Listening to a dream somebody has had

The above are the two clues. We revealed that these two things are incredibly boring. But here is the thing… they are incredibly boring to everyone… except the person who went on the holiday, or had the dream.

Why is this?

How can something be so fascinating, and so boring at the same time?

Simple, it is all about being able to relate to something.

The person who went on the holiday is seeing those photos and remembering all the great times, remembering the smells, the air, the excitement etc… but the other person just sees a boring beach.

I see many people, especially on blogs, who write like this:

“Today I think I will take my dog for a walk, the problem with my dog is that he always chases after cats, this annoys me because the lady next door…. blah blah”

Why do we care?

We don’t!

So as webmasters, bloggers, business people, and humans in society… we MUST be able to relate our messages and stories to other people.

There are two ways of doing this:

1) Focus on the reader. This will change your writing style, from ME to YOU.

I am not going to name drop, but I spoke with a leading copyright expert in Washington recently, and he said that for every instance you use the word “I”, “me” or “mine” you should have used “you”, “yours” “you are” at least three times.

This is especially vital if you are trying to sell something.

2) Avoid the details. My father and brother came to visit my new house in Madrid recently, I had sooo much I wanted to show them. But you know what? I did a one minute tour of the home and nothing more.

Why?

I knew that I could easily have spent two hours showing them our kitchen blender, our digital scales, our patented window latches that nobody else in Madrid can use… hell, I could have shown them every compartment of our huge walk-in closet… but whilst it would have been fascinating for me… they would have been suicidally bored.

People don’t care about the details, especially YOUR details.

So next time you are writing any content for your site, remember, it is not about you, it is about your readers. Make them feel involved, and you will convert more leads, make more sales, and get more readers.

Dean