CONTENT MARKETING: ARE YOU TALKING TO THE RIGHT PEOPLE?
For any marketing techniques to work, including content marketing, your business needs to be talking to the right group of people.
“Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.” – Mark Ambrose
He isn’t far from the truth.
Often, the people you talk to and how you communicate with them determines the direction in whatever you do.
Take content marketing for example, you wouldn’t want to waste precious time writing for people who doesn’t give a whit about what you write.
The gist of content marketing is undeniably focused on having a conversation with your audience.
To avoid barking up at the wrong tree, you need to know who your customers are and whatever floats their boat.
Start by finding them
The first step is always the hardest.
How do you look for people who could be your customers? Where do you think they usually go?
Not their physical location. We meant their tracks online.
To discover their fave social media hangout place, take these steps:
- Conduct survey
- Experiment content posting on different platforms
- Perform advertisement experiments on various platforms
- Countless analysis and research work
There’s really no secret to it.
However, the strategies are flexible according to your business’s nature.
Take photography for example. You’re better off advertising on platforms featuring visuals such as Instagram.
You don’t want to be wasting time, money, and resources on inappropriate marketing avenues and mismatched leads.
So start by finding the right place and the right marketing tool for the job.
Getting to know them
Once you know where your leads are, what else do you wish to know about them?
This further move of getting to know your customers better is all about building a buyers’ persona.
The one very powerful approach to that is to conduct offline surveys, online questionnaires or over a simple phone call.
And it doesn’t stop here. You’d have to periodically update on their demographics or any changes in interest.
By knowing your audiences well, you’ll be able to devise an exceptional content strategy that’s critical for a small business.
Effective communication is key
Being acquainted with information about your customers is one thing. And effectively communicating with them is another.
Social media and emails has yet to go out of fashion when it comes to understanding how your customers prefer to receive information.
Of course, you’d also need to write in a language they can follow.
Technical jargon and bombastic terminologies won’t impress when it’s not understood. Your customers will even consider them gibberish.
You should be well-versed in customer communication language—the tone and writing style.
Is your brand image approachable? Or professional? Your content’s tone and style will need to tellingly illustrate your business’s image to your customers.
5 BEST CONTENT MARKETING EXAMPLES YOU CAN USE FOR YOUR BUSINESS
But then here’s the challenge. Professional doesn’t translate to boring, and an approachable tone isn’t an article filled with slang.
Trudge along their neutral paths based on their demographics, understand how they perceive information and you’ll be able to generate more relevant and valuable content.
Speaking to the right people from within
Everyone in the organization has a responsibility in making customers happy.
Who owns the knowledge of your customers within your organization?
That’s right, the sales team.
Who possesses the experience in handling your customers’ problems?
The customer service team of course.
Even those who doesn’t come in direct contact with the customers can have the foremost facts and figures. For instance the web developing team knows your customer’s online activity best.
These knowledge are priceless. Getting hold of them will beat any amount you can spend on advertising.
Have your team keep up with the company’s marketing goals and means to achieve them, rely on them to obtain the information and take care of your customers’ needs.
To recap
Like we said, the less resources we waste, the better.
Sustaining a business isn’t a piece of cake. There’s no guarantee in zero losses, but we’d want to make it as close to zero as possible, right?
Here’s what you need to do:
First finding out who your customers are, what they need and what are their thought processes.
Then, rely on your team for information and train them to communicate effectively with your customers.
Lastly, cut out customers who don’t value add your business.