Content marketing isn’t just for firms like Caledon Virtual or publishers like BuzzFeed. It truly is for any business that has an audience it wants to connect with relevant information. We recently came across this presentation from A.J. Ghergich. There’s a lot of information there, and we encourage you to go through it. A.J. makes a point early on that we want to discuss in-depth here, and that point is this:
This is where many content marketers (and brands in general) go wrong. Marketers/brands have the goals they need to meet. Increase sales by X% by the end of the year or develop 20% more leads this quarter. The trap that we all fall into from time to time is prioritizing our goals over those of clients.
Clients don’t care about what you have to say unless it helps solve their problems. In our native ads post a couple of weeks ago, MiracleGro had THE most effective ad by far for one simple reason. They gave their audience information they could use.
Does this mean you have to sacrifice your goals? Not at all. It simply means you have to align your goals with your audience’s interests. Need to increase sales? Then write an article talking about how you solve a problem for your audience. They’ve got pain points. You’ve got the remedy. If you align your needs with those of your customers, your business is in a prime position to succeed.
It’s easy to lose sight of why you’re in business. The day-to-day activities can overshadow the bigger picture of solving problems for your customers. When you align your content marketing with solutions for your customers, you set yourself up for huge success.
