How To Make Customers Love Your Content

Love is in the air. Online, love equals consumption of content.

If coming to your website is like opening a fancy red box filled with decadent delights to devour (aka: read), you’re surely making  your audience fat with knowledge – and better yet, with love for your brand.

But how do you woo with words?

When it comes to online content and content marketing, whether it’s on your social media sites, your blog, or text on your website, there are tried and true ways to give your would-be customers and prospects butterflies.

Think Conversation, Not Campaign

We picked the above words — and even trademarked them — because we were serious about the statement. Your underlying goal is probably to sell more, but online it just doesn’t work to schlep your products and services all day. It’s like going on the first date and asking him/her to marry you.

Instead, you have to court your audience. And how do you do that? With communication!

You’ll know your content is sparking conversation when you get shares, comments, likes or favorites, retweets, etc. But you can also check your clicks. Clicks are like the golf clap, they may not be as load and loquacious as other social conversation, but they mean a lot! Anyone who makes that click and continues on to read content is engaging with your brand.

Going back to that first date, it can seem hard to spark conversation. What would Don Juan do? He’d make it all about HER. Similarly, you should make it all about THEM.

Do things like:

• Ask questions (with current and prospective clients) to see what their interests are
• Research to see where clicks, comments are shares are most found
• Use polls and surveys
• Use other networks as yourself or your brand to join conversations and learn what people’s needs are, what trends are, and how others are enticing conversation

Be The Source

What I mean by be the source is to ensure YOU are THE source for questions about XYZ. Get specific.

There’s no better way to highlight what you know than to take the questions you get daily (frequently asked questions/FAQs) as an expert in your field and turn them into content.

Always getting asked about how to generate leads?

Write a blog post about it. Better yet, write blog POSTS about it and get super specific on each one. Example: How to get 25% more leads from your blog posts. Don’t have a blog (start one!)? Try these other forms of content:

• Add a FAQ section on your website
• Utilize YouTube and create a video series that answers questions
• Create a white paper or eBook on the subject you’re most knowledgeable on
• Make an infographic using Visial.ly
• Whip up stats or a how-to and share it on SlideShare
• Answer questions on Quora
• Post regularly to your social platforms with valuable tidbits of info

It doesn’t matter which channel you choose for delivering your knowledge and content. Just choose what suits you best and stick to these three rules:

1. Be consistent: Pick a posting/publishing schedule and stick to it
2. Be valuable: Deliver bombshell tips – aka: information that people would pay for (but give it away for free)
3. Be interesting: Now’s the time to let your personality shine. People don’t connect with brands, they connect with people, so be sure your content and messaging show the person behind the brand.

Market Your Marketing

Let’s say you go on that first date and it goes well enough to score a second outing. Do you stop there? No! If you’re really interested in this date (lead) you want to ABW – always be wooing!

That goes for your content, too. Just because you published that blog post, or eBook, or social media update doesn’t mean we see it. There are also steps that should have been happening before you’ve reached this point, like:

1. Building an online presence for your brand (followers, fans, advocates)
2. Being active and visible online (on and off your own sites)
3. Having conversations to decipher pain points and needs
4. Connecting and relationship building online (that happens by taking #1, #2 and #3 and combining them)
5. Positioning (being the SOURCE for your industry/topic)

Before you publish the five steps above should be your focus. You can’t go into an empty room and sell your ideas or content – the same goes for online marketing and sales. Additionally, those steps should always be taking place in the background if you want to create long-lasting relationships online.

You will also want your content to be available where your potential leads are. Make sure you have a multi-channel approach to ensure that happens.

Content Love

Doing the all of the above keeps you well-groomed, primed and prepped for any new content you release. And when you’re looking sharp and feeling good – love isn’t far behind.

I urge you to take a look at the brands you love and admire and I bet you’ll see similar things happening.

Sure, it can be overwhelming. But I don’t have to tell you that anything worth having takes work. If you want to make customers love your content, you’re going to have to take courtship seriously.

See you in the social sphere!