Content marketing and web copywriting serve as major pillars for connecting with customers online. Without it, your website will not only see poor search rankings, your business will look static to anyone visiting you online.
Informative and timely content serves to answer questions, reduce doubts and works to assure customers that your business can fill their needs. Since they’re not visiting you at a storefront and able to speak with you face-to-face, web content in the form of blogs, white papers and articles helps to build this rapport and trust.
But with so many options online, where should I be focusing my efforts to develop useful content for my customers?
An understandable question indeed – with web and social media marketing tools changing all the time it seems, it can be a difficult challenge to know how you should communicate your knowledge to customers through your website.
Continue reading for the top 10 ways to connect with your customers through content as identified by the Content Marketing Institute. There are many other options beyond these 10 but according CMI and their users, the following are the most tried and true methods for connecting with customers. To see all 42 and some real-world examples of each, check out their presentation online.
Top 10 Ways for Connecting with Your Customers through Content
1. Blogs
Short for ‘weblog,’ a blog provides an easy way to share quick bits of things interesting to your readers. Easy to use, good blogging platforms like WordPress provide easy ways to syndicate what you put online (RSS, social media ‘share’ and so forth). They’re also great for facilitating conversation through comments.
You should also be open to including negative comments…much about you and your company can be determined from how you handle negative feedback. And to really make blogging work, comment on other blogs and perhaps keep a ‘top-10’ list of places you visit for your readers to see.
2. E-newsletter
A means of regular communication with both current and future customers, an e-newsletter is usually distributed weekly or monthly. E-newsletters are generally delivered through email but you can also keep an archived list on your website. Both current and future customers can opt to receive your e-newsletter through a quick signup from your homepage or blog.
The e-newsletter itself can include both full-length articles and brief descriptions with links to more on your site. And they can serve as a vehicle to announce other content found on your site.
DON’T SPAM – GET PERMISSION BEFORE DISTRIBUTING AND OFFER AN OPT-OUT
3. White Papers
Generally around 8-12 pages long, white papers cover issues that require a lot of explanation. They’re great for communicating thought leadership on a particular topic important for your buyers to know. White papers can also be referred to as a ‘research report’ or ‘technical brief.’
White papers can also be available to readers in different formats – electronic PDF, print or even digital magazines.
4. Article
Flexible in both length and format, articles can provide opportunity for you to address issues, trends and concerns of interest to your intended audience. Coupled with other online mediums and in-person speaking, articles are a very traditional tool for establishing thought leadership in any particular industry.
But you have to be consistent and plan on a series of articles to create a meaningful impact. And you should also look for additional ways to spread your article around, either through print media, online syndication sites and even your blog.
5. E-book
Anywhere from 12-40 pages in length, e-books are useful for presenting very complex subjects in a very reader friendly fashion. Content is both informative and entertaining. E-books should also have a collegial tone and be formatted to facilitate skimming and scanning. You should in fact make liberal use of bullets, callouts, sidebars, graphs and so on.
And include a good call-to-action at the end and let your readers know what they should do next.
6. Case Study
Case studies are great for communicating how your products or services help a real world customer. They’re generally 1-2 pages in length and combine both the value of a customer testimonial and a story at the same time. Most follow a simple 3-stage format – challenge, solution and results.
Use direct quotes, especially in the results area, to re-enforce the story.
7. Testimonials
Boasting about ourselves doesn’t yield near the interest as a testimonial from a real-world customer does. These quick quotes from a customer or client provide a trustworthy insight that builds credibility and helps overcome skepticism.
Create a process for obtaining testimonials from your clients. Some marketers are finding LinkedIn to be a great source for obtaining these. And pepper testimonials throughout your site – don’t overwhelm your visitor with a long page of quotes.
8. Microblogging (a.k.a Twitter)
Limited to 140 characters in length, a microblog like Twitter severely limits content. But the reach and speed of microblogging provides the opportunity to converse with prospects in close to real time. Search tools on Twitter allow you to search for hot topics and address emerging concerns.
Use Twitter as a listening post to see what people are saying about you and your industry. It’s practically impossible for you to be in control so don’t invest much time in trying to shape the conversation. Tools like TweetDeck and others can help you manage your engagements on Twitter.
9. Webinar/Webcast
An online equivalent to a live presentation, a webinar (audio and slides) or webcast (audio, video and slides) delivers content visually slide by slide. Users can either sign-up to see a live version or download the presentation and watch it at their leisure.
Webinars should also include a good call-to-action at the end and links to relevant e-books, articles and other content on your site. You should also promote your webinar aggressively in other areas of your website and blog.
10. Video
Once difficult, innovative sites like YouTube and Vimeo has made uploading and sharing videos much easier. Embed codes allow you to place the video directly on your site and social sharing tools on YouTube and others makes it easier for your video to go viral.
If you’ve given a presentation at a conference, upload the video and embed it on your blog and website. Or create a series of videos on topics interesting to your target audience. Don’t obsess over perfection but do take a few minutes to make edits and make your video look more professional. iMovie and Final Cut are two inexpensive tools to help you easily make more professional looking videos.
As you can see, options for generating web content vary far and wide. There are other methods too that we didn’t discuss here but these top 10 are recognized as both some of the easiest and most effective methods for building content for your site.
Remember, it’s about much more than just satisfying search engines. You also have to present valuable information that answers questions, addresses concerns and overcomes skepticism.
