Time to get some perspective

Shift your perspective to see the hidden image.

Do you remember those Magic Eye pictures? They were all the rage in the 1990s. (There was even an appearance in a Seinfeld episode … but, I digress.)

The point of these pictures was to stare at it until you saw the hidden 3-D image within the picture. Some people saw the image right away, others took some time, and some people never saw the picture (although they claimed they did).

Those pictures used to drive me crazy because I was never sure how – exactly – I had shifted my perspective to make the image show. All I know is it eventually shifted and the image was revealed.

Your content marketing may be filled with hidden images

You may not realize it, but you may have hidden gems in your content marketing. I’m not saying that if you stare at your website long enough a new website will pop up. No, I mean there may be opportunities there that you can’t see unless you shift your perspective.

You and your in-house marketing team may be too close to your content and online marketing to see obvious blind spots. If you don’t find a way to shift your perspective, you may be losing sales and other conversion opportunities.

Find ways to shift your perspective

Your product or service may be the best thing since sliced bread, but if you aren’t marketing it correctly, no one may ever know about it. The trick is to change your focus from what you think the top selling points of your products and services are, and shift it to what your client (and prospective clients) think is important.

Last week, Heather discussed shifting her focus from free content to monetized content. If you read the post, you will see that this wasn’t something Heather just came up with on a whim. She had been told many times that she was “giving away too many secrets” on her blog. At first, she didn’t listen because she liked educating people and her blog generated leads. However, the more she heard comments about hurting her business with all of the free content, the more she began to listen.

I’m not advocating jumping on the bandwagon for a passing fad. But, I do think you need to listen to third parties. A powerful way to shift your focus is to listen to third-party feedback. Your company may be stuck in a “this is how we’ve always done it” mindset. You need to pay attention to people who aren’t as married to your content and way of doing things as you are.

Easy ways to get third-party perspective are:

• Asking your current client base what they like and don’t like about your products, services and marketing efforts.
• Hiring a marketing consultant or editor to look at your content with fresh eyes.
• Polling your social media followers for fresh ideas.

These are just a few ways you can get a new perspective. How does your company make sure your content marketing efforts are working at their peak performance? I’d love to hear your ideas.

Photo credit: Magic Eye 3D Picture #36