What Hardcore Taught Me About Content Writing

What hardcore taught me about content writing.

Back in my twenties, most weekends you’d find me at a punk show or a hardcore show.

For those of you wondering, hardcore is not something dodgy as its name might suggest.

It’s a slightly heavier version of punk music, with heavier distortion, heavier vocals and more aggression (IMO).

You might have heard of bands like Agnostic Front, H20, Cro-Mags.. etc.

Shows were epic, the venues would be cramped with sweaty dudes drinking beer, ‘moshing’ and the odd circle pit (ok now I’m sounding old).

Funnily enough going to hardcore shows taught me a few lessons about writing content and selling.

See when I was going to shows, people would make subconscious decisions about you based on the tee shirt you were wearing.

(right or wrong this happened - but the lesson is still important).

Oren Klaff would call this a ‘status tip-off’.

You would alert someone else to your good taste in music and or being in the scene by the band tee you wore.

You were ‘in the know’.

For me, my bands were Converge, Bane, American Nightmare, Poison the Well etc.

To put it another way, it was a bit like showing you had ‘cultural capital’.

So the lesson.

When you’re writing content to your ideal business client, you can create a ‘tip off’ that you understand their business, their market, by using terminology they would use in their business.

Broadly, ideas like customer churn, cost per acquisition, cost per lead, lifetime value, lead generation etc work to tell your customer you get them.

If you are niched, it's even easier. If you work with product/packaging you can use words like SKU, shelf appeal etc.

If you can speak the language of your market in your content they feel like you are an insider, you get them - and they see you as an expert.

In a crowded noisy world of social media, clarity and specificity always wins.

Cool!, now I’m off to listen to some Sick of it All.

See you in the pit (god I’m naff).

Hayden