Are you giving value to your readers - what the feck does that mean anyway?
I'm talking about giving value in your email newsletters - although, actually, you can apply the same thought to social media and blog posts.
The word 'value' seems to crop up everywhere on social media, blogs, and beyond.
Often touted by so-called gurus (fake or otherwise), bro-marketers, or parroters who just repeat stuff other people have said without really thinking about it.
"You gotta give value, bruh."
It's all about value, value, value and more fecking value.
But what does that actually mean for authors like us?
Like really, really.
Value can mean different things to different people, and be different at different times of their lives.
Look at this way..
Back in the olden days, when newspapers were a valuable source of news
- well, they were valuable to the person who wanted to read them.
The next day they were old news, but they were still valuable to the man who wanted to keep his bag of chips warm on the wobble home from the pub.
So what does giving value mean for authors?
Yes, free reader magnets are valuable to us authors in order to attract new readers to our lists. And they are valuable to the readers for the free entertainment.
But you don't want to create loads of freebies to keep readers engaged. One, it's not great for your positioning, and two, the time you spend creating this stuff hacks away at your writing time.
So let's get something straight.
Value doesn't mean giving stuff away for free.
Here are 6 ways to reframe your thinking about what value means:
1) Value can mean you help readers see something differently, whether that's talking about a character in your book or just life in general, your emails can introduce them to a new way of seeing something.
2) Value
can be a recommendation, whether that's a book by another author, a family favourite recipe, or your favourite way to hide murder weapons.
3) Value can be as simple as making someone feel something, entertained, uplifted, anything that makes them feel good about themselves and their interactions with you.
4) Value can be about inspiring someone to try something new. Maybe you've got some readers on your email list who'd love to have a go at writing a book themselves, can you inspire them to get started?
5) Value can be about entertainment and
distraction. People looking for a break from whatever they're supposed to be doing might be grateful for an entertaining email.
6) Value can be about making people feel less alone in their weirdness, failures, or struggles.
So that's six ways to think about the value you bring but...
The trouble is that you never know exactly what each reader will find valuable at any given time.
Any given touchpoint.
On any given platform.
Here's one way to think differently about it...
Because all these different types of value add
up to one thing.
One question that acts as a lighthouse in the sea of overwhelming content.
One guiding principle to help steer your marketing ship.
Providing value is about providing a great experience.
So for everything you write to market yourself, ask...
Is this creating a great
experience for my readers?
If the answer feels like a yes, then great.
If not, how can you tweak it to make it better?
If you're not sure, you can always get a second opinion - I do very valuable copy critiques for a very reasonable rate (there's a link in my p.s. at the bottom).
But if you don't need a second option, do let me know if you found this valuable.
Angie
