Last month, I wrote about inbound and outbound marketing and how what once worked in the offline world is no longer effective today. The key points were:
• Shopping Has Changed…Has Your Marketing?
• Your customers use the Internet to shop and gather information.
• Your customers are searching for you every day. Do you show up?
Thanks to the Internet and web-based tools and technologies such as blogs, YouTube videos, Podcasts, Facebook, Twitter and other online platforms, companies have an unprecedented and enormous opportunity to engage with customers and prospects.
By producing great content, you attract customers to you instead of chasing after them. By producing really great stuff, they will share and disseminate your message for you.
So how do you produce really great stuff?
1. Focus on generating amazing content first. Too many companies get caught up in trying to generate more traffic (more fans, more followers) instead of converting the traffic they have by providing them relevant, remarkable content.
2. Provide content that solves your customer’s problems or pain points. If you don’t know what those are, spend some time asking them. Or, talk to your sales and customer service team. They know.
“Remarkable content shares a resource, solves a problem, helps your customers do their jobs better, improves their lives, or makes them smarter, wittier, better-looking, taller, better-networked, cooler, more enlightened, and with better backhands, tighter asses, and cuter kids. In short, it’s of high value to your customers, in whatever way resonates best with them.” (Ann Handley, Content Rules)
3. Don’t just think of content as the written word. Think variety. Here are some examples of types of content you can create:
• Blog articles – short, informal written thoughts on topics related to your industry.
• White Papers – education oriented papers on a trend or challenge.
• Videos – keep them short, less than 3 minutes.
• Webinars – live or recorded presentations on a hot topic.
• Podcasts – audio interviews with industry experts.
• Webcasts – video shows viewed online.
The great thing about these different types of content is they can be re-purposed multiple ways. A blog post can be a video which then turns into a webcast. A webcast can be turned into three to five short articles combined in an ebook. I bet you have plenty of content in your office or on your computer just dying to get out into the world and be seen by others.
We are living in such an exciting time to be in business. Big budgets and glitzy TV ads no longer win. We pay more attention to companies that tell a compelling story that resonates with their target audience. And the best part, it is a fun and more rewarding way to market and win!