Here’s what we do. Here’s what we’re proud of. Here’s what we need people to know about us.
All true. But is any of it built for the person on the other end?
If I weren’t us, would I care about this?
That question would kill about half the content most companies publish, which is exactly why it doesn’t get asked.
It’s not laziness. It’s proximity. You know why the new service matters. You know what went into building it. You know the story behind the product and the reason the hire was a big deal. Of course you find it interesting.
Your audience has none of that context and about two seconds of attention. And in those two seconds they’re asking one thing: what’s in this for me?
You can usually spot it without knowing anything about the company.
The homepage leads with what the company is rather than what it solves. The about page is a timeline. The blog is announcements: new hires, awards, event recaps, a partnership nobody outside the building cares about.
The social feed is a broadcast channel. Here’s our service. Here’s our webinar. Here’s a link to the thing we want you to click.
None of it is wrong. It’s just not a reason for anyone to keep paying attention when they’re not currently shopping.
And that’s the group that matters most, because most of the people you want as customers are not in the market right now.
What do they already care about. What are they stuck on. What question do they ask their peers that nobody’s answering publicly. What would they be glad they read even if they never buy from you.
That last one is the useful filter. If somebody could read your piece, get value from it, and never become a customer, and you’d still be glad they read it, you’re probably writing for them. If the whole thing only makes sense as a step toward buying, you’re writing for you.
A few things that work better than good intentions.
Ask the people who talk to customers. Your sales team hears the same objection every week. Support knows exactly what confuses people. That’s your content calendar and nobody’s using it.
Read your last ten pieces back as a stranger. Not to judge the writing, just to ask whether you’d have kept reading.
Put somebody in the room whose job is to ask the question. Left alone, every organization drifts toward talking about itself, because that’s what everyone in the building knows most about.
This isn’t a secret and it isn’t new. It’s just easy to lose, because the thing you most want to say is almost never the thing they most want to hear.
If everything you publish is about you, you don’t have a content problem. You’ve got a channel nobody has a reason to follow.
If your marketing is technically fine and nobody seems to care, that’s usually where I’d start. Let’s talk.
Read your last ten pieces as someone who’s never heard of you. If most of them are announcements about your company, that’s the pattern.
Some of them, eventually. But almost nobody starts there. They start with their own problem, and your company becomes interesting once it connects to it.
No. It means leading with what the reader is trying to solve, and letting your company show up as the answer rather than the headline.
Ask the people who talk to them. Sales calls and support tickets are the cheapest audience research you’ll ever get and most companies never use them.
Founder, Tara Lilly & Co. · Fractional Marketing Leader
Tara Lilly is the founder of Tara Lilly & Co. and a fractional CMO for B2B companies. She leads strategy and brings a senior team of specialists who use AI to execute. Before starting the company, she spent 15+ years leading marketing teams across credit unions, agencies, and startups, including work on Volvo Trucks North America.
