On Words and Business

Turning even a small part of your marketing efforts over to creating content and becoming a publisher has risks. Here is an article discussing ways to mitigate a few of them.

When you create content for your marketing program, do you think about goals for each piece?

This doesn’t have to be a time-intensive process, but defining your desired outcome will help shape the content, and help you meet your goals. General questions to consider:

• What questions do you want to pop into a reader’s mind as they read or listen to content?
• What is the central theme you want them to learn?
• What additional or supporting topics are important to share? (Hint, this isn’t everything you could share.)
• How do you want them to feel when they’ve finished interacting with your content? Why?
• What do you want them to do?

These questions are valid whatever you are writing: a white paper, a case study, a customer newsletter, the script for a video or podcast, etc.

When the subject is your company, do you see what your customers see? Do you understand their perspective?

For most B2B companies, your website is the face you present to the world. You can adjust the look and feel, content, and navigation to make sure customers and prospects see what you want them to see.

But what about the company as a whole–the culture, business model, product or service offerings, employees, etc. How do you get an outsider’s perspective on that? Think about that as you plan your next marketing effort. A thorough understanding of how your company is perceived from the outside is what enables you to create the best content for your website, marketing, and thought leadership initiatives.

How do you get outside the box for a fresh perspective?

When it comes to asking for money–whether for the yearly budget or for a specific initiative–you’ve got to have a little finesse. From mobile to SEO to content marketing to lead management to whatever, the people who hold the purse strings don’t care about how trendy this new marketing concept may be. They care about the bottom line.

Some things to think about when creating a business case for a budget or individual project:

• How do the goals of your program fit into the overall goals of the company? How will they improve the bottom line?
• Have you prioritized the goals based on the company’s targets and goals?
• Are your goals measurable? If so, how? If not, why not and why are they important to pursue anyway?
• What are the risks or other variables that could impact your program? Have you forecast how your program will adapt?
• Do you know what key stakeholders think? Did you seek their input and buy-in early on?

The most powerful thing you can do when planning your content is have a conversation: Ask your customers and prospects what they need from you, what they need to meet their goals. Then listen to their answers and respond.

How to listen:

• Create short surveys
• Encourage participation in your social media
• Participate in industry social media sites
• Talk with customers and prospects at conferences and events

How to start the conversation:

• Ask about what issues trouble customers and prospects most, what causes them, and how they typically respond
• Find out how these people react to outside influences affecting the industry or their jobs directly
• Ask about recent successes, how the organization achieved them, and what lessons were learned
• Find out what your customers and prospects need to do their job better or more efficiently

When it comes to creating content for your audience, you have to think about their needs and what will provide them with value. So…

1. Think about what they need to move their business forward
2. Talk to the sales team and customer service center about what they’re hearing from customers
3. Ask customers
4. Listen