Content Marketing: The Importance of Centering Strategy Around the Customer

Content marketing is a hot buzzword these days – and as it should be. It has become one of the most effective ways for brands to connect and build credibility with their customers. That said, there are also a lot of applications where the term is being misused. As with anything, when it becomes popular it can also become tainted. I want to encourage you to take a step back and look deeper at what it is all about: The Customer.

First off, what is content marketing? Content Marketing Institute defines it as “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

In other words: communicating with potential customers to drive behavior.  Sounds easy enough, but proper execution can be harder than you think.

When I think about what type of content to produce for a client, I ask myself 4 main questions:

1. What do my customers really care about?

2. What issues do they have?

3. What information are they looking for?

4. What kind of problems do they have and how can I help them solve these problems?

The key to successfully implementing your strategy is to first deeply understand the buyers you are trying to reach (by building out buyer personas) and then focus on being relevant to a very specific audience. The term “when you appeal to everyone you appeal to no one” is completely true. So start with one or two main segments of your audience, and as you master those you can expand to others.

The ultimate goal is to become better at solving people’s problems than anyone else in your space. Once you are the leader for information, then sales and brand trust come right along with it. Once you have that trust, it’s important that you don’t abuse it by becoming overly promotional or allowing the quality to diminish – that will lead to you losing your audience faster than it took to build it up.

It’s important to remember to treat your communication with your customers like you would any relationship: nurture your connection. This direct connection is built with content, which is why it’s so important to take the content your business is putting out there seriously.

So what kind of content resonates? One of the primary types that I have seen succeed is building a teaching relationship with your target audience. Think like the consumer and ask questions. This helps add valuable information to the conversation and treats your consumer like someone who has the right to understand.  Whether you are answering real customer questions or sharing information that you know as an expert, this is both interesting and valuable for your target audience. Additionally, everyone in the company can be a teacher and you can grow your online advocacy by having many voices contributing.  Content marketing is a culture, so it’s important to allow employees to contribute as well as your high level marketing personnel.

Another valuable content tactic is to tell your story. This adds relevance especially when you target people through their passions. People will be searching for ways to connect with your brand by finding pieces of themselves in your story – so make it a good one! Why did you build this company? What do you care about? What’s the big picture and overall vision? When the personality of your organization comes out it increases the opportunity to connect with your audience.

I’ll end with a reminder that content marketing does not happen overnight – content marketing is a marathon. Building relationships, establishing trust, and becoming someone that people turn to for information takes time – but the end result has much more longevity and impact than that PPC ad or banner. We’ve entered an exciting time where we get to go back to basics: humans dealing with humans. Listen. Communicate. Teach. When done properly and consistently, you will see long-term success in your business.