Part 3: Don’t just be content with your content.
You’ve likely heard the phrase Content is King. Today, it couldn’t be truer. The secret though, is making sure the content is relevant to your audience and that you maximise the value you get out of every piece of content you create.
However, a word of warning: don’t blindly create content and hope for the best. You need to understand what your audience and potential customers are searching for. But how?
Listen to the people
Listening is the first and most important part of a digital marketing strategy. If you do this, you’ll be ahead of most of your competition. Like any conversation, people won’t talk with you unless you take time to stop, be quiet and genuinely listen.
Where to Listen?
Where is your tribe? In times of social distancing, think of this in digital terms. Are they on social media – in particular groups, or within communities you can join in with? Read the posts being shared and liked. Is there a part of the conversation you can add to? Or can you find some misleading or incorrect information being shared that you could rectify through writing an article?
In the next part of this series, we’ll look closer at keywords. But a great place to start is also to understand what people are searching for to get the answers you can provide. Look at any information you can find on popular keyword searches.
Listen to other media too. Television, radio, newspapers and magazines will all give you a general sense of sentiment, topical conversations and areas needing clarification.
We should also all be listening to our competition. Read up on what content your competitors are sharing and think about how you could do something similar, but better!
Consider: How can I add value?
This is all part of adding true value for your customer or client. In the current world of turmoil, where many people are simply looking for answers to their questions, be the brand, the company, the person, they can turn to for:
- answers
- insight
- guidance and support
- a free or discounted offer
- humour (if appropriate)
Being true to your brand, while also being of service to your customer in an efficient way is the ultimate formula in content marketing. And if you have the resources internally, this shouldn’t just be a one-person job. Plenty of roles within a company can take responsibility for listening to conversations that are relevant to your business; make it something that permeates all levels.
Catch up on previous articles in this series.
The Hibernation Diaries Part 4 - pepperit