The content you put out into the world matters, but you need to make sure it’s mattering for the right reasons and to the right people. Otherwise, you’re losing a lot of your customer base and much of your effectiveness. That hurts your bottom line and means your marketing budget is being spent on a lot of content that’s missing the mark. You don’t want to waste time, money or content, so you need to know how to map content to your customers’ journey. Then you offer what really speaks to them, and your company can take itself along on your customers’ journey by providing relatable information.
The Content Game Has More Complexity Today
In the past, just putting out content with some keywords in it was enough to get you noticed. After the days of keyword stuffing faded, the search engines did a good job of putting relevant information near the top of searches on a pretty consistent basis. But now that content marketing continues to change, just having good keywords really isn’t enough. Instead, you need longtail keywords and stronger search terms, along with a good understanding of pain points and the longer-term plans that your customer base has.
Right Place, Right Time, Right Message
If your content isn’t where customers can find it, they don’t see it when they need it. Or if it doesn’t tell them what they need to know, it’s much more likely to be ignored, overlooked, rejected or misunderstood by the people you’re trying to reach. So you need to know where the content needs to be placed, when it should be offered and what you need to say in order to get the maximum value from your marketing. Make sure your customers are valued and that they can see that in your content. It will help your company succeed and keep people coming back.
Be Sure to Do Your Ethnographic Research
According to an article in Inc., ethnographic research is becoming a very important part of journey mapping when you’re planning to get content to customers. Phone surveys, email surveys, follow-up questions, and a few more questions on the original order or sign-up page can help you get valuable information about your customers. That way you’ll get a higher level of knowledge about who you’re targeting, and you can use that to tailor your content the right way.
You Aren’t Getting the Full Picture From Raw Data
When you collect a lot of basic, raw data, you can learn quite a bit about your customers. But how detailed can you be? Unfortunately, not detailed enough in many cases. That’s why you need to learn more about the goals, dreams, plans and needs of your customers. By learning more information about them, you can address the true issues they’re facing instead of just touching the surface. Customers will respond to that, making it easier for you to sell them your product and build a relationship with them over time.
Targeting, Delivery and Timing Can Change
After you’ve mapped your customers’ journey, don’t get complacent. Like anything else, that journey can change over time. The way you deliver your message, the timing of it, and the targeting locations you use may all need to be adjusted. The more you pay attention to those things and how they shift, the more you can make course corrections quickly and stay as close to your customers’ journey as possible. The right map can take you to great places when it comes to business success by helping you build life-long customer relationships that benefit both your company and your customers.
Michelle B writes web content, articles, blog posts, product descriptions, and more, and has created thousands of pieces of content for companies all over the world. She holds an associate’s degree in business management and a bachelor’s degree in legal administration.
