Friday's edition of the eMarketer.com newsletter talked about essential elements business people need to consider before they send mass-emails to everyone they know.
For B2B Marketing, Email Should Be Targeted and Personalized. I was surprised. I thought everyone took that approach. Then I remembered I'd just received a "Dear Valued Customer" message.
When the article moved to Content Marketing my ears immediately perked up.
What if you knew exactly what your prospects needed, wanted, and were willing to pay for? Believe me, they really want you to know. They would love to hear more from you about what they want and less about the products or services they have no interest in. You don't need to be a mind reader to figure it out. All you have to do is ask.
What Clients Want
Your prospects visit the web for only two things, relevant information, fast. They get to pick what they want, you need to help them find it fast. I use a content matrix to identify the areas of focus and ensure I'm always on message whether I'm updating a social netoworking profile or writing a white paper for my content marketing strategy. If you find your thoughts scatter whenever you write for the web, start here:
- Ask existing clients which of the content you've shared made the biggest impact on their business. Make a list and organize it by your topic/profit center. Sort it by client value.
- Use the Web Presence Content Matrix in the resource section below to create no more than 5 areas of content focus across the top of the table.
- Once you're clear about your areas of focus, start down the first column and choose which content type to use. Jot down some thoughts about the content or capture a file name of a piece you've written about the content.
Message Length
How much to write is a frequent question. The real question is how much can you write and how much can they read. Each message type is different. The range is Tweet (140 characters) to White Paper (10 pages).
Path of Engagement
Social messages are on the outer edge of your web presence. Each tweet and profile update should lead to a blog posts. Blogs connect here (your site) with now (current events). Articles are timeless pieces of content which end with a content marketing invitation, (call to action). Content marketing is where you really start to segment your prospects by interest by offering white papers, tipsheets, or special reports which focus on specific topics. Once you know the specific interest, you can connect the dots between needs and solutions.
Insight
It's not enough to have thousands of followers unless you can see the trees in your forest. Letting your prospects tell you what they need allows your to sharpen your focus, and get to yes much quicker.
Resources