How to win rabid fans by creating content people hate

Everyone wants to be loved. The problem is, trying force people to love you doesn’t really work. Many people fall into the trap of over-tempering their marketing content and branding, because they want to appeal to everyone.

They end up using boring logos and publishing content that no one cares about. It has no character, because they stripped away everything that was unique in order not to offend.

Strong emotions need balance. If you want people to Love (with a capital “L”) your business, you need to be OK with some people hating it.

“I hope they don’t hate it.”

That was my thought process when I first started writing and it carried over into my professional writing career for a while. Of course I wanted people to like what I wrote, but I was more concerned about the negative side. If some people loved it and everyone else was just OK with it, then I was happy.

I’d dial in my strong opinions and squash my personality. I didn’t want to offend anyone. I wanted everyone to like me. The result was that no one hated my content, but no one really loved it either.

Sacrificing personality and character for the middle ground left readers feeling apathetic. And apathy is your enemy if you’re trying to build a brand. It leads to marketing that is generic and forgettable.

More companies fail because people forget about them than from being hated.

Haters gonna hate

If you’re being real with your content and communicating an honest image of your company and what it’s like to work with you, some people aren’t going to like it. They may even hate it. That’s fine. Don’t worry about them.

Say “thank you” and move on, because those people who hate your brand and content have just disqualified themselves from being good prospects for you. They just saved you a lot of time.

Most likely, you’ll never be able to win them over, and if you do you’ll alienate the people who love your brand in the process.

Lovers gonna love

If someone feels strongly enough to say they “hate” your branding or content, congratulations! You’ve overcome apathy and elicited real emotion. Even better, it more than likely means that someone out there is going to fall in love with you if they haven’t already. They’ll value the things that the other person hated.

Don’t believe me? How many people like Coke and Pepsi? Most people love one and hate the other. Disasters like Crystal Pepsi and New Coke show what happens when companies try to compromise uniqueness to broaden appeal.

If you’re Coke, be Coke. If you’re Pepsi, be Pepsi. Someone will love you and once you find out who that is, do everything you can to make them happy, even if that means someone else isn’t going to like you.

“You sound more like me than I do”

We hear that from a lot of our clients, because being honest and open with what you write is hard. The natural flow and personality that comes across in speech is easily lost when someone sits down and tries to put pen to paper. If you’re trying to run a business, you might not have time to discover how to express your unique voice.

That’s where we can sometimes help business owners struggling with communicating their personality to the world.

All of our content services are based on interviews. We sit down with each client and capture their phrases, ideas, voice, and personality to wrap it up in neat, well-written content that accurately reflects the uniqueness of their brand.

If you’ve been struggling with prospect apathy or with getting your personality out to world, contact us to see if we’re the right fit for your business.