Kevin Lee: Does your content connect?

December 22, 2014: In his latest ClickZ.com column, Didit’s Kevin Lee cites a 2014 Forrester study on B2B content marketing to kick off a discussion of how marketers can better generate content that truly connects with target audiences.

He writes: “Every business is different and there’s no single template for creating content that moves your audience down the funnel from awareness to action. Still, there are many things that you can do to increase the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts.” Producing better content begins with the realization that “your prospects expect to immediately get something of value from you.” Such content includes “mid-funnel” long-form content such as e-books, webinars, and other content that delivers value and generates trust. As Kevin has mentioned previously on ClickZ.com, creating such content is labor- and resource-intensive, but there are known methods for increasing the production of such content.

The best way to determine which content is most resonant with a given audience is to experiment, and social media has given marketers very powerful tools to conduct extensive focus groups online. Kevin notes that “on several occasions, my own team has been genuinely surprised by the response of certain kinds of content on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and SlideShare, and this feedback has been of great value in terms of planning additional content that’s better tuned to audience need.”

Kevin also advises marketers to overcome their inhibitions about showing prospects “how they do things.” He writes: “don’t be afraid of showing your prospects how you approach a problem, and don’t be afraid of directing them to helpful resources they can use on their own. While it’s theoretically possible that you’ll lose a sale or two, you’ll more likely gain trust by becoming widely known as a ‘straight shooter’ who shares.” Doing this can build trust — a cornerstone of all successful content marketing efforts. Only after a modicum of such trust has been established is it possible for marketers to connect with prospects in a meaningful way.

Read complete article on ClickZ.com
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2387185/does-your-content-connect