There are 7 foundational elements that can help you create content for your practice or business, which can drive traffic and increase customer brand loyalty.
1. Engage Individuals on Their Terms
All content you generate should be designed for your client. It should speak to them in their language, answer their questions, and provide solutions for their needs.
When developing content for individual customers, it is important to understand who they are and what they want from your company. Creating buyer personas and outlining the buyer’s journey will help you become better attuned to your customers.
When exploring the personas of your potential customer, consider the following information about them:
- Background
- Job
- Goals
- Preferred content medium
- Objections
- Role in the purchase process
2. Base Your Content on Interactions With Buyers
Is a particular question commonly posed to you or your sales associates? Have you noticed a recent upswing in interest about a new product? Creating content based on the interactions with your current customers is a great way to reach more potential clients.
People who are already buying your products or services can give you incredible insight into the wants, needs, and goals of your potential clients.
3. Tell a Continuous Story That’s On-Brand
All the content you create should tell an ongoing story that reflects the qualities and ideas of your brand. No matter the channel through which your customer is interacting with your content, the brand message should remain the same.
Developing a brand identity and outlining a style guide will help you keep this continuous story across all content platforms.
4. Develop Channel-Specific Content
Not all resource channels are created equal, and your content shouldn’t be either. The content you generate for your blog may be different in length, tone, or subject matter than content for your social media platforms.
Understanding how information is consumed in the various content channels will help you design, create, and produce content for that platform.
5. Have a Clear Purpose
This concept can go hand-in-hand with telling a continuous story. Your content should always have a clear goal. Is this blog article educational? Is that Facebook post a hard sell? Is my infographic a soft sell?
Every piece of content you create needs to have a clear purpose. Educational content shouldn’t seek to sell a product, and don’t get lost when hard selling a product by trying to overly educate your customer.
Each type of content has a time and place, but make sure it is evident what kind of content is being created at a given time.
6. Have Predefined Metrics
It’s important to have a method of defining the success of your content. Are you going to measure new Facebook followers, website visitors, people subscribing to your newsletter, or products sold? Your metrics, like your content, should be tailored to the channel it’s being produced for.
While the ultimate goal of all content generation is usually to sell more products or services, one piece of content will not do this for you. Having predefined metrics will allow you to view your growth to determine your success at building brand loyalty.
7. Try to Stand the Test of Time With Evergreen Content
You never know when your customer is going to see your content. While it can be beneficial to dispense content related to pop culture or the latest news at times, that can also date it.
Most of your content, especially larger pieces, should stand the test of time. The information provided should be just as beneficial today as it will be in six months or even a few years. While technologies and products may modernize and update, try to create lasting foundational ideas that can be useful whenever your customer comes across them.
