Creating Effective Content – Think Like Your Customer

One of the greatest resources for a website is great content. It can continually pull in new visitors over time, earn links, build relationships, and educate website visitor.  Therefore it is essential to take a little time and think like your customer.  You need to create content that engages and inspires your customer.

Get in your customer’s shoes

The first place to start is identifying your most successful customers. These are the ones you wish you had more of every day. What makes them special? Do not think only about the money. That’s an easy pitfall. Think about what made them a good person to be involved with your organization. To see what a day in their life is like, you need to imagine you are them and think about these key ideas:

• Priority Initiatives
  What gets your customer motivated to make a change? What trigger event drives them to search for a solution like yours? You need to understand the beginning of their story to create great content that speaks to their initial pain or discovery.

• Success Factors
  What outcomes do they expect if their pain or discovery has an answer? You need to align with their expectations or exceed them. You can write content that demonstrates the meaningful impact of a successful customer interaction. Focus what your product or service means instead of what it is. For example, a dentist can clean your teeth (and that’s nice), but this means you can feel more confident in your next job interview or on a first date. Meaning matters and your content should reflect that.

• Perceived Barriers
  What do they see as obstacles to their purchase? What are bad perceptions about your industry? You should address these issues head on when creating content. Don’t shy away from the issues facing your product or service. Instead find meaningful ways to address them and overcome them as a company. Your sales staff or front line customer service representatives have great insights on this topic.

• Decision Criteria
  What are the main factors your customers weighs before making a decision? This can include, but is not limited to, longevity, support, company mission, and price. This will require some effort to identify the top 3-5 factors you want to promote. Creating excellent content around these criteria is a must.

• Buyer’s Journey
  Think about the whole adventure your customer goes through. They become aware of their situation and seek information. They have to consider the options of what they found and make a decision. You need to think through everything from beginning to end. Then create content that aligns with the every stage.

Ask your customer directly.

Offer some incentive (a coupon, $50 gift card etc.) and talk to customers directly about the questions above.  You can only know so much yourself and it’s easy to think you know it all. Asking your customers directly in our experience confirms about 80% of what we knew, and the rest is a gold mine of content ideas. You should also ask those who considered your company but didn’t buy from you.  They’ll sharply reveal those perceived barriers you need to overcome.

It might feel a little nervous at first to talk to your customer and that’s why an incentive helps. If they feel it’s valuable to spend their time with you, it will feel like a win win for both parties.

Ready to get started? Set up a meeting with your marketing team to discuss this and go through the process.

If you don’t have a marketing team Upright Communications is here to help.

Credit
These ideas are based on thoughts from The Buyer Persona Institute.