Lots more coming up after the break!!!

Background drum beat, trumpet fanfare…

Is the circus in town? National holiday? King and Queen arriving? 

No, no. It's just the stupendous build-up as ITV News takes to the airwaves.

Tap tap tap, boom, parp, (bongs at 10 o'clock) and the eye-candy presenters beckon you in, because…

…it’s time for the news of course.

“Tonight...” says newscaster Mary Nightingale, before a dramatic summary of what she’s about to tell you again, 3 minutes later...the background tapping still going on.

After 15 minutes of war deaths, climate floods and illegal boat crossings, Mary shimmies to a new camera, licks her lips, and promises:

“Lots more coming up after break!!!”

Hold on. Isn’t news supposed to be a serious, worthy, dutiful service provided to inform and maintain democracy? Shouldn't it be a little more, you know, serious?

Wrong! It’s entertainment, stupid!

Quite an important lesson to learn as you sit down to write your next newsletter, blog post, podcast script, online course, webinar or any kind of information product for that matter, and particularly if you are trying to sell.

You are probably providing valuable, worthy information, and you have every right, a duty even, to take it seriously.

But the reality is what you should really be offering is "infotainment."

Looked at through this lens, there are plenty-more-fun-and-enjoyable alternatives just a click away if you aren't up to the mark and, most importantly, don’t keep your reader’s attention.

The winners in this never ending attention battle will tell engaging stories, keep the reader in mind, stay relevant, and hit those immediacy, novelty, variety, shock, moral concern, surprise and delight buttons as many times as they can.

Use drums, bells and trumpets if you want.

#newsletters #engagement #sales # ecommerce