Quality Content Doesn't Have To Be Hard
No matter what type of business you have, you need to publish quality content. There are people who want and need your products or service, and the goal of your content marketing efforts is to connect with them. One aspect that makes any piece of content more effective is the timing and relevancy to your prospect or customer. There are tactics you can implement to ensure your content is more relevant.
Increase the Relevancy of Your Content
You want to make sure that the information you’re sending your prospects and customers addresses challenges and emotions that they’re experiencing. You need to be careful about making assumptions when defining your prospects wants and needs. Marketing is a science and you need to look for objective data. Research your target market and they’ll tell you what they like, what they think, and what they want from you. Here are some methods of research to learn what your target market needs from you.
The survey is a traditional method in quantitative research. For example, through your survey, you may discover that 70% of the sample finds your new product attractive. You’d then assume that 70% of all consumers would think so as well. There are many tools available that anyone can use to create a survey. One of the most popular and widely used is Survey Monkey. But don’t overlook creating a poll on Facebook or another social media platform. The people who interact with you on Facebook should be in your target audience which makes them a nearly perfect research group.
A common qualitative research method is the focus group. This is where you gather a small group of five to ten people from your customer base and encourage a discussion about your products or service using a set of questions. While not as easy to create and manage, it will provide information that you cannot obtain with quantitative research, such as impressions and feelings. Qualitative research also includes interviews and projective techniques like role playing.
Timing is Everything to Quality Content
Have you ever purchased something and then received a coupon or a promotional offer for that same product, or a similar one, after the purchase? Bummer, right? Not only does it make you a little irritated, the promotion certainly is no longer relevant. So it’s also useless to the company that sent it. Timing is everything to making sure your content is relevant.
Don’t overlook the importance of timing your content marketing. You want to make sure that the content you’re sending is reaching the right person at the right time. For example, an email sent to a customer might be very different than an email sent to a subscriber on your list. And an email sent to a repeat customer nearing the end of your sales funnel may be very different than one sent to someone who just made their first purchase. Sound difficult? It may take a little work in the beginning but, if you take advantage of market segmentation, you can laser focus your content to reach the best customer at the best time.
Segmentation is a tactic that can help you stay relevant and ensure that the content you’re publishing is timely and relevant to the receiver. Many autoresponders, such as Active Campaign or Constant Contact support segmentation. You can send messages to your list based on their behavior. You can also create separate lists for customers and prospects.
Beyond email, consider creating blog and social media content that pays attention to the different stages your readers and followers may be in. When you provide a variety of content, you’re more likely to attract the attention of the right person at the right time.
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To create your target market profile, look at the massive list of traits you’ve discovered about your audience (demographic, geographic and psychographic). Narrow this list down to the 10 or 12 that you consider most important. This step is harder than it sounds and sometimes has to be reconsidered if afterwards, you don’t feel that your marketing methods are working. To assist you with this, download my Target Market Profile Worksheet.
