7 Tips to Create the Optimized Content Experience
Nowadays almost every company out there is engaging in some form of content marketing, but we’re still seeing a wide range of attitudes towards how much energy is invested in it. Unfortunately, for many companies, this means their digital strategy is missing the mark and a huge source of potential revenue is being neglected. The important thing to remember is that for content marketing to be effective it has to be valuable, so you need to make sure you’re optimizing your customers’ experience. That means your content needs to be highly targeted and valuable to your audience, and that a post-and-move-on strategy is going to be ineffectual when you could be continually engaging your customers in the comments section.
Optimizing the content experience for your customers is essential to building
your brand. Follow the steps below to build the best content you can. Build a
relationship with your audience and watch your brand – and your profits – grow
as you do.
1) Know Your Audience
To optimize the experience your customers have with your content, the first thing you need to do is to get to know them. Identifying your audience is essential if you’re going to know how to engage with them, because with content marketing there’s no one-size-fits-all. Building a variety of profiles that help you understand the different personas your audience take, whether it’s college students or stay-at-home moms, lets you build content with these personas in mind. Understand their needs, preferences, behaviours and peeves to create the optimized content for them.
2) Be Relatable
Knowing your audience is so important because the number one characteristic of optimized content is that it’s relatable. If your brand sells healthy snacks, for example, make sure your content doesn’t come across as preachy or morally superior – nobody’s healthy all the time and you need to ensure your customers see you understand that in your content. At the same time, however, you need to be representing your brand’s identity with your posts, so lighthearted tips about a healthy lifestyle could be the way to go.
To get to know what makes your customers tick, try posting polls or questionnaires – this encourages engagement at the same time as helping you learn about your audience.
3) Rewarding Shares
Offering a small gift or reward is a great way of improving customer experience through your content. Encouraging your followers to share your content in this way is a win-win, as your brand gains visibility and customers’ experience is improved with a little material return. For example, you can offer discount codes through direct messages if certain posts are shared – just remember to make these codes time-limited so customers keep coming back for more.
4) Get Them Involved
As well as striving to make your content relatable to give your customers the best experience with your content it also helps to give customers the opportunity to be involved in your content directly. With a dynamic content marketing strategy you can actually collaborate on your content with your customers, creating a positive experience for them and extending your visibility at the same time. If posting a picture of a new line of products, for example, ask your customers for their input on their favourites amongst the products, or encourage them to tag friends of theirs who would be interested in the line.
5) Tips And Tricks
If your audience enjoys your content and finds it helpful, that positive experience will translate into a bigger following and better engagement. So figuring out how to provide value to your audience through your content is key. People love life hacks, so one guaranteed winner with your audience is tips and tricks – for example, if your brand sells beauty products, build helpful content around cosmetic advice. Another thing your audience is likely to find really helpful are lists of recommendations – these are easy to read and help build your audience’s knowledge.
6) A Splash Of Colour
Images and videos are essential components of optimized content as they break up the text, making it easier to read and more engaging to follow for your audience: research has shown that information retention rockets to 65% when there’s a visual element. Optimized image content will need to be tagged using the alt tag function, this serves as a second layer of text that can feature keywords and help people find your content. Videos are a great way of grabbing and keeping the reader’s attention and you don’t need to make your own content either – simply embed from YouTube.
7) Being There For Your Customers
Let your content marketing be another demonstration that you’re there for your customers. Content marketing offers a unique opportunity to interact with your customers, one which proves that you’re here to listen, answer questions and help out if they need it. Taking this opportunity optimizes your customers’ experience with your brand and further expands your visibility. To this end, use the comments section liberally when your customers start interacting: reply when you can, like comments and follow them back.
The Last Word
In 2020, your digital visibility is more important than ever so your content marketing strategy needs to be up to scratch. Optimizing the content experience you provide to your customers means better visibility, engagement and ultimately that ever-important ROI. Build your brand and find success through these optimization strategies.
- 7 Tips to Create the Optimized Content Experience - August 28, 2020
