Do you know what? They say that "knowledge is power". But when it comes to the business world of today, the saying should be: Fresh knowledge is power. As for stale knowledge, it has no power at all. Indeed, the staleness of knowledge could be as unhealthy to your business life as the staleness of a room could make you sick.

Many Nigerian business people seem not to prioritize knowledge/information in their business operations. I tell you, this is one of the most prevalent reasons for the failure of businesses today. Think of businesses that closed shops during the COVID lockdown simply because they lacked a strong online presence. Thus, it's really true that "my people perish for a lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6).

So, do yourself a favor here: donate less than 5 minutes to yourself and learn what you need the most to succeed in any business these days. Yeah, it's how to sell ANYTHING fast (a.k.a, the easiest way to sell). That's because every business involves some kind of selling.

First: How to sell anything fast is to understand the fundamentals of marketing psychology and to work according to it. To help you do this in 3 minutes, listen to this story:

One day, a marketing manager called a meeting of his sales team. He spoke at length on why everyone in the team needed to be up and doing. He gave awards to the big performers and berated the poor ones.

When he came to the poorest seller who sold only one item in 3 months, he asked with a sigh, "Jonas, what's the problem with you?" Everyone laughed, looking at how embarrassed Jonas stood before the manager.

"Sir" said Jonas, "the problem is not with me but with the buyers. They all hate to spend their money. So, they hate me for coming to make them do what they hate".

"Oh, excuses galore!" the manager exclaimed, throwing up his hands and drawing raucous laughter from the floor. "I guess all your colleagues met only those who loved to spend their lives savings in a day".

You see, Jonas knew the problem very well. His only downside was that he lacked the solution to the problem or that he didn't care to find out.

The major difficulty before anyone who must sell is that NOBODY LIKES TO SPEND MONEY. So, if you understand how to overcome this, there is nothing you cannot sell with ease once you have the CONNECTION to your market.

Now, in the age of social media, it is very easy to CONNECT but equally difficult to CONVINCE because there are so many things competing for the attention of your target audience. So, without wasting your time, the easiest way to convince ANY market is to blend infotainment with edutainment in your marketing messages (ad copies, content and all). That means that your message must be:

* Uniquely educative
* Freshly informative
* Entertaining

The truth is that there are at least 1000s of people among the millions of social media users who are looking to get the value you offer in your product or service. But if they are not patronizing you enough, it is either you are getting your CONNECTION wrong or that your CONVICTION is lacking or both.

* CONNECTION is about targeting
* CONVICTION is about the quality of your content (which is essentially the power of its message).

OK, I'll be ending this shortly lest I get you bored. Maybe, I'll write more next time. I was inspired to share this following my encounter with many clients recently on the issue of content creation and implementation. I hope you got something out of it.

Meanwhile, I am a content developer/copywriter. I employ subliminal approaches in my projects. I use my background in market psychology to a great advantage here. I don't stop at just content creation. Instead, I also help my clients to implement the contents/copies I create to make them as successful as they can get. Hit me up on Whatsapp: 0705-3311-253. I might be of benefit to you. Cheers!

A GREAT CONTENT/COPY SHOULD BE GOOD AT PULLING ATTENTION

Yes, that's where it all starts. You need to stand out from the outset. You need to give someone a reason to STOP SCROLLING AND CLICK THROUGH.

How do you achieve this? Depending on the platform in question, there are many ways to achieve this. But it all boils down to offering irresistible values at first sight. On the regular social platforms, this is usually done through visually assertive content (photos and graphics that encapsulate your content in a strong but brief statement). Here on Nairaland or in an SEO-oriented article, this catch-them-at-first-sight approach should be implemented through the title and the introduction. This applies both organically and in sponsored ads.

However, in doing this, one also needs to be subtle. Otherwise, excessive sensationalism could just backfire. For instance, it could easily piss people off.

Next, I will talk about the need to sustain the attention once you have grabbed it and how. Otherwise, if you don't sustain the attention, your message will end up not getting delivered. This way, the whole aim of the message would be defeated. Remember what we said earlier that the ability of your message to convince lies in it delivering a blend of education, information and entertainment.

So, if you can't hold the attention of your audience until your marketing message is delivered, they will definitely stop halfway and go after other things calling for their attention. Hence, the need to know how to hold the attention you would have grabbed.

A GREAT CONTENT SHOULD HOLD THE ATTENTION UNTIL THE MESSAGE IS DELIVERED.

In July 2019, I had a doctor in English Literature as a web content client. He was promoting a poll to Carribean college students ahead of a research.

At first I felt intimidated. But I took the challenge all the same. As I began to relate with him on Whatsapp, I realized why content creation is far more of psychology than language.

Grabbing attention is only a quarter of the psychological job to be done. The rest of the job consists in holding the attention, once secured. This is where every content is treated as a sales funnel in its own right.

A sales funnel runs on holding attention - not letting it drop. You have to know that the attention span of most people is short. So, the first thing you must take a good care of is the length of the sections as well as the entire length. Make sure they are brief.

Then, take advantage of psychological cues to make sure that you keep your target's attention rolling from one point to another.

Lastly, I am giving out a free airtime to one of the people who have followed up to this point. If you got to this point, just say how you feel about the points so far made in this webinar (I know that I didn't call it that name but that's what it is anyway). Even if it is only one word you will say - such as 'cool', please do. I will contact whoever my friend Barry (a marketer too) considers the best.

Just trust me. Remember what 2Baba said, "although we don't need to trust people, yet we have to trust someone. Let me be that SOMEONE today.

I totally agree with you. Writing your headline to grab attention is key to getting people to read.

I like the way you practice what you preach. You really held my attention. I guess your color combination is also for that purpose.

A good presentation, I must say. But, please, can you shed some light on the difference between "EDUCATIVE" and "INFORMATIVE"?

i can see reinforcement at the later part of the speech

i think this is all about persuasive writing or copywriting, if im wrong please correct me because im planning going into copywriting and digital marketing so I'll need more clues and guide and off course the right nitch to focus

Nice...

I wrote this in September 2020: https://www.nairaland.com/6139458/number-1-secret-selling-unsellable

Someone drew my attention to it and I think it might interest those reading this.

Interested, Please carry on.