3 Quick Questions To Test Your Content Strategy
Content marketing is an essential tool for brands and businesses looking to connect with their audiences. This isn’t new. Everyone is jumping on the content bandwagon… and as such, there is a lot of information that gets put in front of each and every one of us on a daily basis. So, how do you break through the noise and ensure you are not only reaching your audience, but more importantly that you are impacting them?
There are a multitude of tools and techniques for accomplishing this, from video and social to personalization and remarketing. Whatever the method you employ to deliver your content, the same 3 questions should be asked to ensure your strategy sets you up for success:
Is Your Content Relevant to Your Target Audience?
Your content is only as great as the relevance it has on your target audience. A beautifully produced video will only be successful if the message it conveys provides value to those that view it. Relevance can come in many forms… and what one person finds relevant may be vastly different from what another person finds relevant. It’s up to you to do the homework to really understand your target audience, uncovering their needs and desires, what makes them react, how they prefer to interact with you, what their motivations are, etc. The more you know about your core audience, the better you will be at crafting your content to suit them.
The ultimate goal of your content should be to incite a positive reaction to your brand or business. That also may come in many different forms, whether it be a laugh, a cry, clicking “read more” or “buy”, visiting your website, calling your office or some other form of action as a result. It may not invoke an immediate action like this, but when someone regards your content as relevant, they are more likely to respect you, like you and be open to engaging with you in the future.
Does Your Content Make Your Brand More Relatable?
In business, relationships are everything. Understanding your core customers and knowing what they need and what delights them is one step to building a sustainable relationship with them. Great content can also help to make your brand more relatable. If offers the opportunity to give your organization a personality, a voice and a humanistic element. Your content should highlight the uniqueness of your brand in a way that makes people want to like you. One of the key elements of creative and effective content comes in the form of storytelling. A great story is engaging and intriguing and it leaves the audience with something to think about, something to talk about and something to share with others. The best stories are those that get retold time and time again.
Is Your Content Memorable?
Great content is sticky… it stays on the mind of your audience and leaves a favorable impression. It stands out and begs to be shared. Being top of mind is certainly a highly sought after position any brand or business aims to be. It might only take one really memorable tweet or it might take several strategically placed blog articles to achieve the stickiness factor. The key is to be consistent and smartly persistent. While something may be quite memorable, with all the information out there today, that ‘memorable something’ can quickly fall from our minds and be replaced. Create “I can’t stop thinking about that” content for your audience each and every time. If you can answer yes to these three questions, then your content is well on its way to being remarkable. Your content should address the question of “So what?” or “Why should I care?” from the viewpoint of your target audience. Strive to give them the “aha” moment they are craving. Does it draw your audience in and make them want to learn more? Does it cause them to comment or share? Is it remarkable?
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Darcy Schuller is the Chief Digital Marketing and Brand Strategist at Suvonni, an innovative boutique digital marketing agency based out of St Petersburg, FL. As a leader in the digital marketing space, Darcy is passionate about helping clients build stronger brands through elevated customer engagement, social media marketing, content marketing and dynamic web experiences. Darcy is a respected marketing thought leader, speaker and consultant.
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