Creating Relevant Content Is About One Thing

I was presenting a speech in San Diego last month to a group of online marketers called "Becoming the Media". After the presentation was over, an online marketing executive came up to me and asked the following:

"This may be a stupid question, but what does it really mean to create valuable, relevant and compelling content?"

First of all, this is an amazingly insightful question.  Most people really don't understand what creating relevant and valuable content actually means - either for themselves, their companies or their customers.

Creating relevant, valuable and compelling content is all about just one thing (ever see City Slickers?).

As Curly (the Jack Palance character) states to Billy Crystal's character, "the secret of life is about one thing."

The secret of good marketing is about one thing as well - your customer. Nothing else matters.

To take that a step further, the secret of creating great content marketing...content that evokes a behavior and engages customers in a conversation...is about one thing as well.

What is the key to my customer's success?

Ask yourself that question. Have you thought about this before?  Not for how it can generate more product and service sales, but simply what factors will ultimately make your customer successful?

By asking yourself that question, and doing the research that follows that question, you will find answers to the following:

• What keeps your customer up at night?
• How do they keep themselves educated in order to do their jobs better?
• What channels (online, print, in-person, mobile, etc.) do they use to get their information?
• How do they engage with each channel?

By answering these questions, you have the necessary components to create your content marketing, custom media program. By understanding your customer's informational needs, and understanding what channels they use to get their current information, you can develop the tools that will form the base of your content program.

With execution, you will position yourself as a trusted content resource. Trust in today's Internet environment is more important than ever.  Trust ultimately leads to a sale.

And, as you look to gain support for your content marketing program in your company, keep the following in your back pocket.

Without trust there is no sale.  Without content there is no trust.  Without understanding what makes your customer successful, there can be no valuable, compelling content.

For more, check out Junta42's free white paper on "How to Attract and Retain Customers with Content."

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Comments

[Rick Burnes]

Joe, nice post, and great clip! I don't remember liking City Slickers, but I love that bit of it.

Your question, "What is the key to my customer's success?" reminds me a lot of David Meerman Scott's idea of Buyer Personas: http://www.webinknow.com/2008/07/how-well-do-you.html

However you frame it, you need to do your marketing from your customer's shoes.

[Mark Nagurski]

I'm certain that every marketer and business owner would agree that putting the customer at the heart of their marketing is a good thing.

The problem is that it's almost too easy to agree with that position. It becomes a platitude.

By contrast, creating content design to help your customers succeed turns platitude into action.

What appeals to me is that it's an action that every business, regardless of budget or industry, can do.

[Seamus Walsh]

Joe, there is one more thing to think about, just one.

"How am I uniquely qualified to solve their issue"

I recently spoke to Mary Driscoll, the past publisher of CFO Magazine, Mary said, "you can either "sell" to clients, or they can "buy" from you." Her point was you have to be able to solve their issues and articulate how you can do it better then anyone else.

[Joe Pulizzi]

@Mark - Point taken. That's why I love the concept of content marketing...it's something every business, large or small, can and needs to do.

@Seamus - Mary's perspective is dead on. Selling is dead. It's more teaching today than anything else. Everyone wants the teacher's perspective.

[Grant Griffiths]

Great job of hitting the nail on the head as to what good relevant content really is. And what really matters.

[Mark Merenda]

I think your post leaves out one thing: entertainment. Perhaps you are lumping that into the term "compelling" — but much of the content out there is badly written, self-important, and no fun. Content is important, but not much use if nobody reads it.

[Joe Pulizzi]

Thanks Mark...yes, compelling content has do one or both of these: to inform or to entertain.

Content that is not important to the end-user is not content marketing.

Thanks
Joe