As we keep moving 12 Minute Marketing through the beta-testing process, we thought we’d eat our own dog food.
Starting with this – become a more productive writer in 12 Minutes.
Step one: Set the E.ggtimer. We have used this tool for a few years now. If it’s good enough for the uber-productive Tim Ferriss, then it’s good enough for us.
In this case, we set it for 12 Minutes. Really.
So how do you use this time to become a more productive writer?
One way that works for us is to find inspiration somewhere. (Sounds sappy – but it’s true.) Writing inspiration can come from just about anywhere. That stack of business cards on your desk. That 1995 Burger King Aladdin cup you’re drinking water from. That one book that you haven’t cracked open for ages – but that you keep on your desk because you know it’s darn cool.
Content can be infinite. Once you find the inspiration: FOCUS.
We like to come up with two disparate themes and see if they work together.
What can the sport of curling teach us about marketing?
Why does your daughter’s preschool artwork capture your attention?
Why can mobile apps teach B2B marketers about market penetration?
The important thing here is to use these 12 Minutes as a mini brainstorming session of your own. You’ll probably start a blog post, or a white paper, or an article – like we did with the curling idea above – and you may discover that the topic is not timely (Curling, Olympics, very 2010), or not relevant (my daughter’s artwork is awesome, but it captures my attention because she did it and gave it to me – not of interest to my readers, I’m sure).
You may pick one and decide to explore further – gosh, there ARE some mobile apps that might have B2B marketing relevance. Should I interview someone about the topic? Should I talk to a B2B marketer about their specific needs? Is the whole B2B space just so impossible to crack the code in that it’s not worth going down this road?
My own timer sits at 49 seconds. And I can’t guarantee that trying this exercise will give you inspiration. But if you set aside a block of time – 12 minutes, 2 hours, whatever works – you can become more focused and, thus, a more productive writer.
Beep Beep! Beep Beep!
Editor’s note: The writing portion of this post did take 12 Minutes – everything before the “Beeps” at the end was done. I added the visual and keywords and custom title tag afterwards.
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