When creating content there’s a certain arrogance that accompanies the process – you’re writing what you want to, because you believe it serves a purpose or because you have something to say. While you may think you are fulfilling a genuine need, you could be off the mark. Understanding what your audience wants to read about and tailoring your content accordingly, could be a big step towards higher levels of engagement.
When thinking of the topics for your content, listen to your audience’s problems – recognise their needs and try to make your piece useful. Using audience input helps to give focus to your content, so you can highlight the aspects of your products or services that will solve their problem.
While you may think that specific content geared towards solving a particular problem could stifle your creativity, it doesn’t – it’s merely a guide that you can use to share your knowledge in the best way. As a digital product or service provider, you can use your content to show your customers how you can help them, increasing their loyalty to your brand.
Knowing your audience determines the tone of your content – you might find you have to adopt different tones in your content, to address different audiences. In business, a formal or technical tone is often the most appropriate, especially when tackling a specific product or service related question. A discussion about a solution using personal experience or that of a customer, could be less formal, more conversational, appealing more to the emotive side of your audience.
Adapting content to suit the varying stages of a buying cycle is another good example. Since most people start the process of a purchase online, you need to gear your website content to suit their needs. The ‘awareness’ stage is when new visitors to your site are first getting to know you and your brand, so your content should share your background, your business ethos and why your company is the one they should stick with. The next phase is ‘interest’ – this is where your content should inform on your products or services – an ideal time to get visitors to subscribe to your mailing list. When a visitor finally gets to the ‘purchase’ phase, your content can focus on product videos, or description and feature lists.
Converting your visitors to customers is demonstrated by content that targets specific needs. Rather than writing on a whim to say what you think needs saying, align your content creation to a strategy that will bring more results. For more on content marketing and how adapting your content can significantly change the way you do business, contact us.