All too often in content marketing, a resounding strategy is to create massive amounts of collateral that reach the largest possible target audience.  This approach, while not inherently wrong, is being replicated to some extent by every other agency competing for the same audience. If you can reach everyone, you’re bound to find your customers… right? Mass blanketing materials may seem like the easy way out, but there are far more effective methods to put the right content in front of the right eyes. These days, the marketer has to be much more specific when generating content.
According to a study done by Silver Bullet Group, “Over 50% of marketing and sales communications aren’t relevant to your customer.” That’s an alarmingly high number. If over half of your collateral isn’t even relevant to the people you want to hit, then how are you supposed to bring in quality new leads?  Your audience is annoyed before you’ve even thrown the first pitch.  Converting redundant marketing collateral into compelling content is far more attainable than you might think.
How to Fix It
Now that I’ve sufficiently startled you into revisiting your work, how can you turn stale collateral into great content?
- Reign in your Focus
As I mentioned earlier, you need to cut through the clutter. And the only way to do that is to target interested buyers rather than a huge population that might be interested in your offerings. If you can gear your collateral towards these specific buyer personas, then you can greatly increase the chances of landing new business. Catering your communications to your most loyal customers is an art that isn’t perfected overnight.  Write in the tone they converse in.  Use terminology they relate to.  Most importantly, catch their eye with a video or infographic that has a similar sense of humor.  With any stroke of luck, they might share the link with a co-worker and the rest might be history. - Speak to Sales
The sales team is your front line in gathering information. They’re the ones out there having face-to-face interactions and are seeing what works and what doesn’t in real time. Talk with them and find out what they’re using and what they see is working. No one sets time for a meeting or pitch without the ability to air out their grievances with a particular product.  Constructive criticism or wild rants should both be considered sacred information because of the source: the opinionated customer.  The best companies determine how to improve a product early.  Speak to sales and gather the inside dirt on products.  Then create content that addresses upcoming improvements.  It never hurts to admit fault and strive for a better solution. - Measure Mobile Application Analytics
Using mobile applications as part of your sales process can provide extremely useful info as to what sorts of content should be created. You can check what presentations or white pages are being used most frequently. It is even possible to view how long they’re staying on each slide! This can show you what is more engaging or what info is creating more questions. Bringing this data into your meetings with sales can help you address more specific issues when it comes time to sketch a compelling blog post or eblast.
How are you converting redundant marketing collateral into compelling content? Feel free to share your stories in the comments section.
Comments are closed.