Sometimes the most basic knowledge you know is actually very advanced.
I was reminded of this the other day.
I was discussing content marketing with a colleague. We were talking about his ideas for his new website blog which he was very excited about. Every sentence he started with, “People should know…”
Honestly, his comments made me cringe even though I admired his enthusiasm. The basis of content marketing is to build trust—a goal that can be accomplished by knowing who your audience is, and writing for them.
If you write every piece for your audience, you’ll accomplish this. But if you take a “people should know” and “I need to tell them” approach, you have to be careful not to write AT them. When you’re writing, ask yourself “what do they want to know?”
Do you see the difference?
A well-written content marketing piece isn’t what you want them to know, but based on what they want to know, and how you can help them. It seems like a small difference, but you get the best results when you write for the searcher’s intent—the reason they’re reading your piece in the first place.
Know your audience’s pain points, and write for them. Choose topics they want to know about (we’ve given you ideas for your posts in our recent post), and answer their questions in your content. If you can’t do that—and there are managers that can’t—hire a marketing company with professional writers that can. If you can do that every time, you’ll provide a form of customer service that your customers appreciate, and in turn you’ll build their trust (and sales). So put down the content marketing megaphone—you and your audience will appreciate it.
