What are your thoughts on content marketing? Everyone seems to be doing it lately, but how many companies can you think of that are doing it well? And if you own your own company, how do you even decide what content to market in the first place?
If you’re confused about content marketing, you’re not alone. Good content marketing can be a powerful force, but bad or ineffective content marketing can quickly turn into a money pit. So how do you know what makes good content marketing from the beginning?
The best place to start is by figuring out what your customers want to hear from you. While writing a blog about how to deep clean your carpets can be a great content resource for a cleaning company, if you’re a sports bar, that type of blog can be confusing at best and detrimental at worst. By understanding what your customers are looking to your brand for, you can better understand the types of content they are likely to engage with—so below, we’ll look at how to do just that.
Deciding What Customers Want From Your Content Marketing
Start by Determining Who You Readers Are
Before you understand what it is that your readers want, it’s vital that you understand who they are. Identifying traits such as age range, location, and gender is a great place to start, but it is also vital to understand their motivations, pain points, and needs (i.e. what makes them turn to online content to begin with). This is a great motivator for creating a buyer persona, as this will answer all of these questions and then some.
Do An Audit of What’s Already Popular
If you are already doing some sort of content marketing via your website and/or social media channels, take a look at what’s performing well right now. Identifying what website pages get the most clicks, what Instagram posts get the most likes, and which blog posts get the highest read rate can tell you a lot about what your audience is looking for and give you clues on what to expand on as you move forward.
Check in With the Competition
It’s important to embrace what makes your company unique, especially when it comes to content marketing. However, it is possible to take some helpful cues from your competition if you’re looking for content inspiration. Take a look at the blogs and website content of other companies in your industry space, as well as those that may only be industry-adjacent. By seeing what they’re doing well, you can think of your own ideas that will work for your specific niche.
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask
Asking questions of your audience is a great way to get them to engage, and it provides content marketers with valuable data as well. Sending out a survey, including a questionnaire on your website, or even just posting an Instagram poll to your stories will give your audience a way to weigh in so you can see exactly what they want. Pro Tip: When it comes to asking for feedback, making it easy is the best way to get more responses!
Are you ready to reinvigorate your content marketing? Let us help! We have a team that lives and breathes exceptional content—get in touch with us to learn more.
