Writing social posts can seem easy at first. Post new products. Post a few news articles. Post an office birthday. But then, as likes slow to a crawl and engagement stays pegged near zero, a sense of dread may seep in. You start to question yourself. What’s all the work for? Writing posts becomes very difficult at that point.
You may overthink it, you may take longer, you may get more people involved, and you may give up entirely; claiming that content marketing is a failure.
This is almost never the case. Content marketing is a tool like any other. It doesn’t matter that you have it, it matters how you use it.
So if you’re stuck in a content marketing rut, here are a few questions to ask yourself:
What does my reader want? Is it information, is it entertainment, is it something functional like access to better prices? Content marketing fails when you don’t match your customer needs to your content. Asking yourself this question begins the path of figuring it out.
Why should a customer “like” this? The “like” is ubiquitous, but have you asked yourself why a customer would take that extra step? According to Pew Research, it’s because we want to talk about ourselves. “Liking” something is a public display of what people find interesting, engaging, and sharable to their audience, to define some aspect of their own personality.
If your content doesn’t achieve that, it’s just not very likeable. Asking yourself the question though, can help you create content that reflects how intelligent, witty, or charismatic your fans are.
What questions do your customers have about your products or services? These answers are not on your social media pages, but are gleaned from emails, sales meetings, and face-to-face conversations. And they’re gold for your content marketing.
So ask around within your organization. Once you know and understand what your customers want to know, focus your content on answering those questions and providing them with useful, compelling content. To ensure this content is also SEO-optimized, consider following our guide on creating seo-friendly content.
Content marketing, done with the customer in mind, can be an integral part of your overall marketing plan.
