Awesome Over Time: Would Your Content Strategy Pass the Marshmallow Test?
Awesome Over Time: Would Your Content Strategy Pass the Marshmallow Test?
Earning attention and building trust means delaying gratification
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You Can’t Earn Attention or Trust Instantly
Earn (verb) (ˈərn)
To come to be duly worthy of or entitled or suited to.
I love the definition of “earn” in the context of creating content.
“To come to be” suggests that you don’t earn anything instantly. “Earning” happens over time because you must first prove yourself valuable.
“Duly worthy” implies that you have to provide value before you can get value in return. You eventually deserve it because you “earned” it. You delivered the goods. You did the hard work. You had the right intentions.
And in the context of earning attention, the best and most desired outcome is to build trust and create relationships.
Trust (noun (ˈtrəst )
•assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something
•one in which confidence is placed
Trust does not happen instantly either. Trust has to be, well… earned. “Assured reliance” is a high bar. And people are generally skeptical. So earning trust means that you have to prove yourself not just once but over and over and over again.
If you happen to be a brand putting content out in the world, trust is even harder to come by. The assumption from most people is that your content is a thinly veiled infomercial or advertisement for your products or services. If you want to earn trust as a brand, you have to create value for audiences by being generous even more consistently.
The Marshmallow Test For Content
The famous Stanford Marshmallow Test has become a bit of a cliché, but it’s a perfect analogy for content creators looking to earn more attention. The experiment investigated the impact of delayed gratification in young children. Kids were offered one marshmallow immediately or two marshmallows if they were able to wait 15 minutes without eating the first marshmallow. Could they get a greater reward by being patient? Could they focus on the much bigger long-term win over the smaller short-term win?
If you’re making content - as a brand, as a media company, as a creator - do you have the patience to generously put gifts out into the world, knowing that the greatest rewards will come after you have built trust by earning attention?
Or are you in need of short-term ROI on your content investment? If you need to show results immediately, you can’t afford to earn attention or build trust. And so, you must resort to one of two strategies. The first is stealing attention with shortcuts, growth hacks, clickbait, and sensationalism. People might click, but they won’t come back. The second is selfish content that serves your own interests - talking about yourself, your products and services, or your company. People won’t even click on this strategy. Both options are a race to the bottom with no winners. Only one marshmallow for you!
The Best Strategy: Awesome Over Time
If your goal is to earn attention, build trust, and develop relationships, the strategy is obvious. You must pass the Content Marshmallow Test and delay gratification.
You need to make the conscious choice to be Awesome Over Time. That means putting in the hard work week after week. It means setting the bar high and keeping it there. It means putting your audience first with the steadfast belief that if you are amazingly generous to them, they will recognize it and eventually come to trust and appreciate you.
Is there any better example than the guy who invented Permission Marketing, Seth Godin? He has been blogging DAILY for over a DECADE. The result? He has built an enormous and thriving tribe because he shows up day after day, generously. And when Seth has a new book or course, the community supports him generously in return.
In a culture where quarterly results reign supreme, being Awesome Over Time is a big, tough ask. And likely an unpopular ask in many quarters. And yet, it is the only strategy for long-term success.
If you earn attention, build trust, and grow a large audience with whom you have developed relationships, you aren’t starting from zero with every new piece of content. You are welcomed because you are valuable. Double (or 5x, 10x, or 100x) marshmallows for you!
Who has been Awesome Over Time in your life?
What is standing in the way of making your content Awesome Over Time?
Here’s What Earned My Attention This Week
Has it ever been harder for a music video to break through the infinite clutter and earn word-of-mouth? Especially one that is over NINE MINUTES long? Ren does it magically. It’s a brave and vulnerable song. It’s a brave and vulnerable concept beautifully executed. It helps us see the world and other people in new ways. And it’s got an Easter Egg at the end. (Thanks to Gareth Evans for recommending this)
Why did I click on this NYT article and scroll ALL the way through it? It promises a unique view of today from the future through the lens of a diverse mix of interesting people. It prompts me to think about what I’m doing today that will be cringy in the future. And it’s a beautiful scrolling format that stands out from other articles. I will absolutely start conversations about this topic with others - another great sign that it is an attention earner.
Nick Cave’s response to Chat GPT’s algorithmic creation of a song in “Nick Cave style” is perfect. The human response to an AI creation has gone viral, not the other way around. I love this passage:
Songs arise out of suffering, by which I mean they are predicated upon the complex, internal human struggle of creation and, well, as far as I know, algorithms don’t feel. Data doesn’t suffer. ChatGPT has no inner being, it has been nowhere, it has endured nothing…
(Thanks to Jen Moss and Jenny Ouano for recommending this)
Andy Crestodina is one my favourite writers and speakers about marketing. He is prolific, smart, and compelling. This week, he and his team published 59 marketing diagrams and charts that explain digital marketing. 59!!! (I’m pretty sure he could have made it 60, but likely chose 59 because it stands out and is more memorable) Visuals done well make it easier to understand complicated ideas. This is a huge and helpful compilation that will be valuable to almost any marketer. And he’s offered them for free to anyone who wants to use them (with credit, of course).
Sharing valuable information generously is such a smart strategy for earning attention and Andy is one of the best.
What Earned Your Attention Recently?
What’s earned your attention? How did you discover it? What makes it’s special? Feel free to reply to this email and let me know. I’d love to feature more great attention-earners in future editions.
If you’re a brand looking to earn more attention, or a creative services company wanting to grow your business, please check out the Creativity Business website.