Some of us might not like to admit it sometimes, but a part of thought leadership is simply bringing cool ideas to your followers. It’s just the appeal of interesting information and concepts. Don’t underestimate your audience’s need to entertained.
So how do we do that?
This week I’m going to focus every day on ways to bring the “cool” to your followers.
Today, I want to talk about a little-known copywriting trick called “the RADIO Test.”
“RADIO” is an acronym for:
Reward
Affirmation
Deadline
Intrigue
Originality
Reward stands for the advantage that will accrue to your reader (or listener or viewer) for having consumed your content. It’s the old “what’s in it for me?” thing. Make sure that the reward to your follower is clear.
Affirmation means that they will feel better for having been with you for that moment. As Blair Warren told us in “The One Sentence Persuasion Course,” people will do anything for someone who makes their follower feel further convinced that they are “right.” A cynical and reductive way of looking at this could be called, “pandering for fun and profit.”
Deadline, in this case, refers to the timelines of the content. Why is this important right now, and why should I take action right now? Don’t let your cool stuff get thrown on the pile of “I’ll get to it someday.” Get them in the game right now.
Intrigue means to “arouse the curiosity or interest of; fascinate.” Make sure that your content is fascinating. The trick to this is not only to provide interesting information, but make sure you’ve chosen a market that would and should find your information interesting.
Originality, the final criteria, means that they can’t have heard what you’ve got to say every day for the past week. You need to bring them something unique. If you can’t be unique, at least say what you’ve got to say in a unique way.
If you’re going to use the RADIO Test to be cool, make sure your content meets all five qualifications. Three out of five isn’t much better than one out of five.
I’ll see you tomorrow with what you can learn from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! In the meantime, you should sign up for my free daily Thought Leadership email tips at You Can Be A Thought Leader.