Are you applying the 80/20 rule to the content you put on your website?
What’s the 80/20 rule?
In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, the 80/20 rule was invented by the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. Legend has it he was pottering about in his garden, when he noticed that 80% of the peas he grew came from just 20% of his pods.
Of course, as an economist, he didn't just stop with peas.
He went on to prove that 80% of income in Italy ended up in the hands of just 20% of the population. The same was true for the rest of the world. Boom: the ‘Pareto Principle’ (for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes) was born.
Since then, the 80/20 principle has been applied in all sorts of fields, from software design to baseball and even videotape rentals, (back in the days when there was such a thing). One study found 80% of crimes were committed by 20% of criminals.
Nowadays, people think about the 80/20 rule either in terms of dieting or time management. But I like to think it applies to structuring (and creating) web content as well.
Applying the 80/20 rule to content
Because to build a website that really draws in new customers, you need to spend a far greater proportion of your time being helpful and useful. And far less time talking about yourself or what you sell.
I think having a website with 20% static pages that talk about your offering is the right amount. That's where your self-promotion, lead generation and your sales efforts should focus.
That means you can skew the rest of your site (and your time) towards your blog, creating consistent, engaging, relevant and purposeful content that actually helps turn your audience into customers. This is where you should be spending most of your marketing budget (and talking to a specialist content writer like me who you can outsource content writing to).
That’s the beauty of inbound marketing. You’re generating relevant, valuable content with the clear purpose of helping your target audience. It’s a marketing philosophy that gets results. And it’s simply a friendlier, more positive way to work.
When you’ve read enough of the helpful content and they’re ready to talk to you about your product offering, they’ll find your sales pages easily enough.
As easy as shelling peas, as Signore Pareto would say.
Putting customers first
If there’s anything you’d like to know about copywriting, content strategy, inbound marketing or any other words-based subject, send me an email or write a comment below.