If you are like most marketers you either have too much content or not enough. Larger firms struggle with their vast library of content with very little idea of what works or what doesn’t, what’s new vs. old or what should be updated vs. scrapped all together. Many smaller companies have a hard time finding the time or the resources to consistently develop compelling content and in many cases neglect key pieces of necessary material that can have a substantial effect on the bottom line. In today’s information age, it’s never been so important to make sure that you not only develop quality content but that you also maximize the use of it once it is created. Regardless of your specific challenge, here are four tips in getting the most out of your content.
#1: Write FOR your audience
It’s not enough (or in some cases not as effective) to just write good English when you are developing content for marketing campaigns or sales support. Before you write your next whitepaper or send your next direct mail piece take a moment and think about your audience. Are you marketing to the owner of a small business, an IT director or a CEO? How and when are they involved in the buying process? Knowing the answers to these questions can provide some extremely valuable insight and enable you to begin tailoring the type of content you provide based on the individuals profile. Knowing where they are involved in the buying process tells you the type of content they may be interested in receiving. You will probably find that earlier in the buying process content like sales sheets, data sheets and informational webinars are effective in educating the potential customer on your product or service. However, later in the buying process case studies, customer references, and ROI focused content assets are normally more effective.
#2: Be Compelling
If you want people to take action after reading your content it must be compelling, give your audience a reason to respond and provide them clear direction on what you would like them to do. There is too much marketing content out there that does a very poor job of this. If you outsource copywriting, take a look at the variety of content (sales sheets, script writing, case study, etc) your writer (or agency) has provided to their other clients and make sure they have some experience in your industry doing what it is you want to accomplish (i.e. generate leads, investor communications, education on a specific product or solution). One website I think is pretty good for finding tips on writing compelling content is www.bly.com. You should find some great resources there.
#3: Know what’s working
Just as with any marketing campaign you should also be able to identify how well your content is accomplishing its objective. I realize this does have a subjective component to it; however, you should not overlook the importance of tracking what people are downloading, why they may be downloading the specific content asset and where exactly they are in the buying process when they downloaded it. It’s also important to track how well certain pieces perform as offers in campaigns vs. general information made available online to be downloaded at a person’s leisure. The more valuable the content the more you should ask of the person before giving them access to it. For example a 100+ page analytics report might require that ten questions be answered before giving access, where a sales sheet might require only an e-mail address. You should also take a look at the customers buying process and where they are using certain content assets. Knowing how well things are working will enable you to better understand what you need more of and more importantly what pieces are just creating clutter.
#4: Leverage multiple channels
With all the time, money and resources involved in developing quality content it’s very important you find ways to leverage it using different channels. Start by deciding what message or result you wish to accomplish by developing the specific content you are looking to create. Then decide how many different channels you can use it (I would shoot to always include at least three channels!). Once you’ve decided on a topic begin thinking through how you might use the content. For example, a whitepaper can be turned into 3-20 minute podcasts and used over the course of a three touch campaign. You could then take that content and post it to a blog or develop a 1-hour webinar. I realize you may need to revise it across the different channels but by leveraging your content this way you will get far more out of the multi-channel approach than you would just developing a whitepaper and moving onto the next project.
The key when developing any content asset is to find additional ways to use it that is both effective and efficient. By looking at your content assets in this way you are sure to get much more out of the time and energy you spend creating them!
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