Fresh Approaches To Creating Content Your Customers Want
Content creation is an important aspect of your marketing strategy. Ever seen a brand publish content that’s simply there to take up space on their website or promotional materials? Their customers could also tell that the brand was just going through the motions of content creation. To engage your customers and keep them coming back, you’ll need to offer meaningful content that’s relevant to their lives.
When it comes to content creation, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut and offer the same things, time after time. How can you mix it up and create fresh, original content that customers will seek out and share with others? This article covers several techniques you can use to create shareable, relevant content for your brand.
Profile Your Customers
Have you created any customer personas for your brand yet? If not, you’ll need to put together one or more personas to guide your content creation. A persona is a sketch of an imaginary customer. This person represents general traits that most of your customers share. It’s helpful to use a stock photo, give this person a name, and outline their life details. What kind of home do they live in, and what’s their family like? Where do they shop for clothes, what car do they drive, and what kind of profession do they have?
Fleshing out a profile of a representative customer is more valuable than it might seem at first. Studying persona helps you and your team get inside your customers’ minds to understand their motivations, desires, needs, interests, and habits.
2. Identify And Solve Your Customers’ Problems
Once you’ve created a customer persona (or more than one), you’re ready to identify what problems this customer is facing. Are they bored due to lots of downtime at work? Maybe they need quick, bite-sized content to scroll through on breaks. Are they exhausted at the end of a busy day after finally getting the kids in bed? They might be looking for upbeat, relaxing content to serve as a distraction before drifting off to sleep. If your brand can serve as a welcome source of entertainment and relaxation, you can meet customers’ emotional needs.
Your customers probably have more pressing problems to solve, too. Are they on a tight budget? They’ll probably welcome money-saving advice or techniques. Are they dealing with new health concerns in middle age or adulthood? They might be looking for ways to bring balance to their lives. Are they overwhelmed with too many responsibilities packed into every day? They may respond to time-saving tips and advice. Once you use your personas to determine precisely what your customers need, you can tailor your content to be more relevant.
3. Ask For Feedback Frequently
Have you ever wondered what your customers really think about your content? You don’t have to guess and hope. If you publish content regularly, ensure you’ve set up an effective feedback mechanism. If your customers think it’s boring or irrelevant, they probably won’t tell you unless you ask. About 1 in 26 customers will proactively bring their complaints to you. The rest will keep it to themselves–and everyone they know!
You can collect feedback in a variety of ways. Surveys about your content are one great option. Once you’ve created a survey, you can add links to the survey to your social media pages. Using a QR code, you can place survey links anywhere, from your storefront to product packaging to menus or flyers. Your customers can simply scan the code with their phones and go directly to the survey. In addition to surveys, email, and SMS campaigns can be effective ways to gather feedback. It never hurts to offer an incentive, like an entry to a drawing, to encourage customers to share feedback.
Regarding feedback, a common frustration is that customers don’t always respond to your requests. This is where a bit of strategizing is critical. If you’re not asking for feedback at the right time, you might be missing out on a lot of opportunities. Customers are often the most engaged with your brand while they’re in the middle of the buying process. This can be a great time to organically ask for content-related feedback if it’s handled correctly. Customers are also motivated to give feedback shortly after a purchase or payment. If you’re offering videos or articles, try to give readers a chance to comment or send a message right after they finish reading to let you know what they think!
4. Optimize Your Content Length
Should your brand be offering 300-word blurbs or 10,000 word guides? Should your videos be TikTok-length, or do your customers want to spend 30 minutes watching a detailed demonstration or video essay?
To answer these questions, your customer personas can be helpful. Think about what your customers will want to do with your content. Are they looking to share it on social media? Research shows that articles of at least 3,000 words are more likely to be shared than shorter ones. If your customers are just looking for quick answers to pressing issues, shorter content might be more appropriate. However, for successful search engine optimization, most written pieces should be at least 300 words.
It’s also important to consider how serious your topic is. This will depend on your brand identity. For topics that can directly impact consumer health or finances, it makes sense to go into more depth. In fact, Google classifies these topics as “Your Money Or Your Life.” If you’re writing on one of these, Google will expect more depth and accuracy from your content before it gives you the rating and ranking you want.
Ready To Mix It Up?
These are just a few of the strategies you can employ to boost your content creation game. Are you ready to create content your customers can’t stop talking about? Reach out to the Personalized Creative team today! We’re ready to offer you a fresh perspective and implement innovative solutions.