One of the most common marketing mistakes business owners make is talking too much about what makes them special. Instead, they should be talking about how their “specialness” benefits customers.
I’ve seen this problem surface consistently in my 15 years as a marketing copywriter and strategist. Fortunately, I can usually get my clients to understand how their marketing must immediately address customer needs.
Now that content is top dog in digital marketing, I’m seeing the same issue. While it’s great that business owners are eager to share what they know, that information must somehow engage customers. The best way to get attention is to shape the information so customers seek it out.
As with marketing copy, there are ways to make your content more attractive to your customer, which helps build awareness of your brand and establish trust as an expert. Take these 7 steps to make your content more customer-friendly:
1. Know your customer – If you’re having trouble figuring out your primary customer persona, just ask yourself if you could only do business with one type of customer, who would that be? That’s who you should think about as you’re creating content.
2. Know what matters to your customer – When you’ve identified your “best” customer ask them what’s important to them, where they hang out on social media and who they follow. Take a look at what is trending with their favorite social media stars and you’ll discover some topics they care about.
3. Help customers solve a problem — A big reason people search the internet is to find a solution to a problem or discover how to do something. Create blogs that solve a big problem for your customer and you’ll be golden.
4. Pay attention to tone – Even with “serious” businesses like accounting, mortgage or legal services, consider adopting a conversational tone in your content to appeal to your audience.
5. Add SEO keywords that resonate with customers — Use search phrases and terms customer will use to drive traffic organically to your content. Google AdWords has great tools to help you choose keywords and measure how well your content is performing.
6. Create a content calendar and stick to it — Brainstorm blog topics that your audience cares about, establish a calendar and stick with it to build awareness of you as an industry expert.
7. Clients will notice content quality and its absence — If you spend 15 minutes on your blog or have your receptionist, who has no writing experience, craft your message your customer will notice the lack of quality. What does your content quality say about your brand?
Content marketing has many benefits to business owners—it keeps your brand on customers’ minds which can lead to engagement and sales. If you choose to create your own content, keep the seven steps above in mind. If you’d prefer to turn over the task to a writer and content strategist, keep me in mind.
If you have questions about this article or would like to discuss how content marketing can benefit your business, call me at 480.201.2926 or email mary.b226@gmail.com