Do you have an awesome resource? Something on your website that is so unique, remarkable, useful, meaningful or beautiful that people can’t stop talking about it?
Screw the professional talk about a “valuable resource”. Do you have a resource on your website that’s spectacular. Fantastic. Magnificent. AWESOME?
No?
Let’s make one!
This will take a number of five-minute missions. You can spread it out over a week or get them all done in a couple of very busy and overwhelming days if that’s your style.
Plan your awesome resource
Mission 1: Plan the result
What one action do you want people to take as a result of interacting with this resource? Like:
- Prepare a disaster plan with their family
- Stop being perfectionists
- Call their representative to oppose a rezoning request
- Train their dog to stay
- Decide to start an awesome website
- Clean out the sink trap in the kitchen
Mission 2: Decide on the message
What message do you want people to understand that will lead to the action in the first step?
- A good disaster plan protects your family
- Perfectionism is fear in disguise
- The proposed factory will keep all of us awake
- You and your dog will be happier once you establish your dominance
- The tech doesn’t matter, content matters
- Blockages in the sink trap leads to expensive plumbing problems
Mission 3: Target your audience
Who do you want to act? Your category can be pretty broad, but it can’t be everyone (unless you’re running a campaign about why breathing is a nifty idea).
- Proactive parents
- Perfectionists
- Local residents
- Dog owners with misbehaving dogs
- People who are blocked on starting a website
- People who pour oil down their sink
Mission 4: Choose the medium
(Or the large?)
(Sorry.)
How will you deliver this message?
PDF
video
audio
web page
printable poster
screencast
online quiz
flash game
treasure hunt
live streaming
email
tweet
online presentation
Facebook fan page
a combination of the above?
Mission 5: Design the content
What content will you produce to make that point?
I’m once again indebted to Made to Stick. In the book they talk about a research team that discovered 89% of award-winning ads followed the same basic templates. You can read the whole article, but here’s the summary:
Extreme Consequences: Take an unintended consequence and make it much more dramatic.
Pictorial Analogy: Show extreme consequences visually.
Extreme Situations: Use an unusual situation or one aspect of the point and make it bigger.
Competition: Show your concept winning, possibly an unusual competition
Interactive Experiments: Let people interact with the idea directly
Dimensionality Alteration: Use a time-leap to show longer implications of a decision
You can use multiple templates: most winners use Extreme Consequences and Pictorial Analogy.
Sound intimidating? It isn’t! Example time…
Let’s take the “The proposed factory will keep all of us awake” message and design some content using each of these templates:
Extreme Consequences: An article with a huge image: a row of children asleep at their desks. Title “I can’t go to school today, Mum. I’m so tired.”
Pictorial Analogy: Informational brochure that shows a row of houses, with a factory that’s 10 times taller.
Extreme Situations: Video showing a normal family trying to have a conversation over a stunning amount of noise. (“What was that?” “Whaaaat?”)
Competition: A mock news article: Suburb wins “Worst Place to Live” Competition
Interactive Experiments: A website page, press a button and listen to various levels of noise and the decibel rating for each, from children playing up to trucks unloading, to the factory itself.
Dimensionality Alteration: “Interview” a distraught couple outside a house with ten “For Sale” signs about how they can’t sell their house; no-one wants to live next to “all that racket”.
Some of my resources have used this and been very successful (the manifesto, which is up to nearly 500 views), and some haven’t used it and were less so (the awesome vs perfect video, for example. Version 2 will use a few of these templates!).
Mission 6: Design the promotion
How will you tell people about this content? Choose all that apply (because the more the merrier!):
Twitter
Facebook
Email
Posters
Fridge magnets
Word-of-mouth
Google ads
Email signature
Comments
Book tour
Flyers
Forums
Blog post
Guest post
Yellow Pages
Cross-promotion
Interviews
Whoo boy, I think that’s enough to get started on! Next time we’ll check our plan and get sure that our resource is going to be awesome, then get it done.
What’s your awesome resource going to be? Tell me in the comments!