Content marketing is growing rapidly, becoming a critical part of modern marketing. To help you develop a successful strategy, I talked with Todd Lebo, who ran marketing for the uber-well-known marketing powerhouse, MarketingSherpa.com, to get his insight into this growing content marketing trend.
Pick the right content road map
One of the core things that stood out for me about this conversation with Todd Lebo (click his name to learn more about his work) was his focus on the customer. In his words, “The key to content marketing is customer logic, not company logic. All of your energy must be focused on answering ‘What is important to my ideal customer’ as compared to ‘what is important to me (as the marketer).’”
Customer logic versus company logic rang loud in my head, that’s for sure.
Many of us have heard that we need to tune into the radio station: WII-FM. The station known as: What’s In It For Me? If we genuinely ask this question on behalf of our customers, then we’ll create content and ideas worth their time. Not as a diss on what Todd is saying, but I hear this marketing-speak all the time and very few understand how to serve the reader, serve the customer, with information that delivers true value.
Todd shared a story that captured it for me in one sentence: “People don’t lie in bed thinking ‘If I just had more information or if I just knew more about Product X.’”
My first marketing boss told me that you need to know what keeps your customer up at night and help them with that problem. If you can do that, you are providing true value and that will inspire and build loyalty with your ideal customer. People don’t lie in bed thinking “if I just had more information or if I just knew more about product x.” –Todd Lebo
People worry about how they are going to meet a sales quota, meet a project deadline, pay for their kids education, etc. So step one in content marketing is pick the right map and that map is inside the mind of your ideal customer. Customer logic.
Remember, you are talking to people just like you
“ We've all been there before, you attend an event that sounds perfect and within the first two minutes you realize that it is just a sales pitch, thinly veiled as an educational event. We feel manipulated and betrayed and would never trust the source, let alone buy their product,” explains Todd.
Yet for some reason we feel that our ideal customer is different than us and respond in a different manner. Every good content marketer should follow the Golden Rule: Treat others as you would like to be treated. Speak to a person as you want to be spoken to.
As tempted as you are to get started right away, Todd recommended that you take a deep breath and answer these basic questions for yourself or with a team:
1. What do we want to achieve?
Yes at the end of the day you need to drive more sales, but how will you do that? Do you want to build a blog that provides the best how-to content in your industry? Maybe you want to be known for your quality training? Whatever your objective, make sure that your entire team is clear on the objective, get their buy-in and keep that objective in front of everyone. Keep it big, though, says Todd -- dare for the BHAG (big hairy audacious goal).
2. What are we going to measure to determine success?
It is a well-known maxim: You can’t achieve what you can’t measure.
3. Who do you want to reach?
Remember, you don’t need to be all things to all people. Focus on your ideal customer. Is it building a community of 20,000 people interested in remodeling early-model Ford Broncos? Define your audience as specifically as possible.
4. What content should you create? [Click NEXT Page to read the rest of Todd Lebo's tips for content marketing...]
You don’t need to do everything all at once. Start with a blog. Ask your sales team the top questions from customers and bam – you have your first series of blog posts.
5. How often will you create content?
It is better to have a consistent schedule that your audience can rely on. Three blog posts per week, one webinar per month, one white paper per quarter. A rhythm will build momentum and allow you to steadily expand your content factory.
Remember, content marketing can be fun. This is especially for B2B marketers; don’t let consumer marketers have all the fun. There are many ways to be relevant to your audience and still have fun. This coder’s video example shows fun, community participation, and relevancy all wrapped in one.
In it's simplest form, content marketing is about connecting with readers, viewers, customers. Todd Lebo has years of running marketing for some heavy hitters and his advice can help you drive your business content to a new level. Let me know in the comments how you are using content to bring in leads, open new conversations, or enhance your brand image.
