“Content is King.” Well, that was the buzz phrase coming out of the mouths of digital agencies 3 or 4 years ago, but does it still hold true? No, is the simple answer.
Producing content alone is no longer enough if you want to drive your marketing ROI going forward. The content experience is what you have to focus on if you want to engage customers and increase revenue.
Budgets Vs ROI Vs Resources
We all know that customers are becoming savvier when it comes to turning away from the more traditional forms of digital advertising, and yet, their demand for content is growing. According to Hubspot research, 79% of users now search for relevant content using a search engine compared with 22% back in 2014.
With this thought in mind, and the realization that marketing budget belts are being tightened, how do you balance the demand for great content and allow users to find it, without you spending vast amounts of time and resources on promoting it?
The answer comes back to the content experience.
Once you have created your amazing content, you have to maximize its potential and allow the right people to find and consume it, and when that happens, it is then, that the ROI will be delivered.
“Content marketing is like a first date. If all you do is talk about yourself, there won’t be a second date.” – David Beebe (Emmy Winning Content Marketing Exec).
Stop Wasting Your Great Content On A Bad Experience
Let us get one thing straight. Content is there to boost your lead generation work and any piece of content that goes unused is 100% waste material. You might as well have taken your money, burnt it and roasted marshmallows over the flames.
86% of customers who have an excellent customer experience are likely to repurchase again, and when this is combined with industry recognized figures of it costing between 4 and 10 times more to attract new customers than sell to existing ones, it’s easy to see how a good experience can influence your ROI.
Burying infographics, eBooks and SlideShare documents deep within your site or sharing thought leadership pieces on social media channels at times when no one is going to read them, for them to then disappear below a stream of dancing cat videos before anyone gets the chance to see them is a waste of everyone’s time.
Insight On Your Customers
Do you really know what your customers want and how they want to receive it? If we look at B2B buyers in the EMEA region, you will see that the vast majority of them (64%) find content delivered by customer service teams more trustworthy than that delivered by Sales (36%).
Insight on your customers is not just about what type of content they want to receive but how and who they want to get it from. The same piece of content delivered by customer service and sales could have completely different results, so part of delivering an improved content experience is to deliver it in the way the customer wants.
Measuring Content
Clicks and likes should not really be used as a way of justifying the value of a piece of content as such metrics can be ‘bought off the shelf’ relatively cheaply. Instead, you have to invest in ways of tracking user engagement throughout the whole of the sales process.
Conversion rates are key and if we go back to the previous point about knowing your customer, then you should have an idea of who your most profitable customers are and it is your job to deliver the content they need first.
You also need to step away from thinking of content in isolation. One brochure may not result in one sale, but it may lead to a website visit or a call to sales team which leads to relationship building. Measuring ROI on 1-sale-to-1-piece-of-content basis is very restrictive and cannot possibly reflect the true value of that content.
5 Expert Pieces Of Advice For A Well-Optimised Content Experience
Analyse
“Everyone thinks they need to find the next big thing, but take a look at what’s already working for you,” says Casie Gillette of KoMarketing.
Focus On The Customer
“Stop thinking so much about how to outsmart Google, and really just focus on your target. Create the kind of content that is going be useful, providing solutions and answers to questions that are being asked,” says Matt Siltala of Avalaunch Media.
Make It Shareable
“When people share our content, it creates advocacy. When people share our content, it affects purchasing decisions,” says Mark Schaefer of Schaefer Marketing Solutions.
Timing
“In B2B content marketing, real connections are made by appealing to the right need at the right time,” says Rob Garner of iProspect of iProspect.
Look For Value
“Mediocre content doesn’t cut it anymore, and often times ends up hurting you. Take the time to scale back, and create valuable works of art,” says Britney Muller of Pryde Marketing Inc.
The Knexus platform helps brands create personalized content experience for customers, leading to an improvement in customer engagement and increased sales.
