A Content Marketing Lesson from The Wolf of Wall Street

No matter what your personal opinions are surrounding the actions of Jordan Belfort, subject of the 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street, he is generally known as one of the most successful salesman around.

In the film, he attempted to demonstrate the truth about selling with the simple test, “sell me this pen”.  The film ends with him asking the front row of a room full of salespeople this question - and him passing on each as they started to describe the excellent features of the pen.

The real answer to the question came earlier in the film when one of his protégées took the pen and then asked Belfort to write his name down on a napkin.  He couldn’t. Then he offered him the pen.

This is the same kind of thing that content marketers have to do.  It is not necessarily our job to tell you all the wonderful features of the product - although this is certainly part of what we do.  What our job is, is to make the product or service resonate to the reader.

This might be to suggest how the product could improve their lives - it’s all about creating a need for the product.

No-one likes the hard sell.  That’s why poor used-car salesmen have such a bad name.

Just open a door for readers, and let them take the leap themselves.  Create a need for the product.

This blog post was originally posted on www.mypersonalblogger.com.au