If you’re in business, then you know your customers are searching for information to inform their purchasing decisions. Great marketing content provides them with information they need to aid this process.
This article gives you 8 tips for great marketing content that resonates with your target audience, no matter where they are in their purchasing process.
Here are the tips:
1. Speak to a targeted audience. If you focus on a single individual (i.e. a buyer persona) your content becomes a meaningful conversation that addresses that person’s needs.
2. Fit a specific place in the purchasing process. Your audience goes through several steps when making a purchasing decision. You must understand those steps so you can align your content accordingly. Having a well-planned buying cycle for each persona will help you develop content relevant to them at each stage of their purchasing process.
3. Tell your story with customer-centric examples. Simply describing your product’s features doesn’t do the trick. Instead, tell a story about its benefits and showcase real-world examples of how it can be used to solve specific problems.
Remember, it’s about your customer–not your company.
Here are some examples:
- Tell success stories
- Develop case studies
- Communicate best practices
- Create product comparisons
4. Use meaningful images. Let’s face it, people like images. In fact, MDG Advertising reports that articles containing relevant images have an average of 94 percent more total views than articles without them. So the key is to ensure your images are relevant to your content as well as your target audience.
5. Diversify your media. Your media type is just as important as your content. Find ways to make your content more appealing by stepping out of the box and using emerging media types. For example, instead of defaulting to the standard PDF, try creating a slideshare, infographic, or even a video.
6. Employ a clear call-to-action. Simply adding “contact us” at the end of your content is not enough. It’s best to tell the reader what action you want them to take–the more explicit, the better.
You also want the call-to-action aligned with the specific phase of the purchasing process. A “click here to buy” link may not be the best solution for an initial engagement.
7. Re-purpose your content. The ultimate goal is to maximize the use of your primary content and re-purpose it for use on additional platforms. To do this effectively, start with a re-purposing plan before developing your content.
8. Promote your content. What makes content great? Is it the elements within the content? Or is it the type of media used (i.e. article, infographic, etc.)?
Well, none of this matters if no one sees it! That’s why promoting your content is key.
Post it on social media, email it to friends and colleagues, print it out and post it on cars at the mall. Well maybe not. But I’m sure you get the point.
Content that fulfills the customer’s and company’s goals = great content.
With all the content out there, you must do as much as you can to make your content stand out.
Great content starts with a true understanding of your target audience and their pain points. So, when you create content aligned with your audience’s needs, it will ultimately ease the friction between the buyer and the purchase.
What content tactics do you use to engage your target audience?
Image: istockphoto.com
