In an interview, recently, I was asked what I’m doing to continue growing Crazy Egg’s newsletter subscriptions.
My answer? I’m focusing on quality.
As a content creator, the goal is always higher quality content. The challenge is how to achieve that goal.
When it comes to quality, we generally rely on a mix of creative ideas, better writing and eye-catching images. But have you considered relevance?
Your audience is bombarded with thousands of messages every day. Most are filtered out, just like the billboards that line their daily commute.
What gets through? It depends on the problems they’re trying to solve right now.
Your audience has a powerful filter for ignoring irrelevant messaging, but they have a radar up for any topic related to the issues they care about.
That said, if your content is relevant to the problem or question your audience is working out right now, you have a much higher chance of getting eyeballs on it.
How do you know what’s relevant?
That’s where it gets tricky. You have to approach relevance from two directions: what’s relevant to your business AND relevant to your audience.
Here’s how you can find the perfect balance.
Relevant to Your Business
There’s a fallacy in content marketing that goes something like this:
A: Marketing should start with your customers.
B: Your customers love kittens.
Therefore C: Content about kittens should help you build your brand.
Yeah. Not so much. “A” is good. “B” might be true. But “A” plus “B” does not equal “C.”
Content is a key part of your marketing plan. It should help you market your wares. Otherwise, you’re wasting your resources.
More precisely, your content should support the marketing campaigns taking place right now.
Which means, if you have a dedicated content team, they need to be part of your marketing planning. Let them know what campaigns are in development, so they can create content that supports your overall business objective.
Regarding kittens: While they could build engagement, they probably can’t help you meet your business goals, which means they probably don’t belong in your editorial calendar.
Relevant to your audience
Your customers don’t care about your product or your core message. They care about current events, what’s trending on Facebook or Twitter, what’s happening on their favorite TV series…
Or how they’re going to resolve the crisis du jour, which is unique for each person’s situation and time of life.
I hate to break it to you, but your audience’s interest in you goes no further than your ability to help them solve their problems.
For example, if you sell WordPress themes, your audience is WordPress users—until they’ve got their website built. Then they’ll move on to another topic. Likewise, if you sell maternity clothes, once the baby is born, they’ll likely unsubscribe.
To be relevant, you need to know your audience, what solutions they get from you, and when, why or how. In particular, you need to know what’s relevant to them today.
Let’s looks at a few ways you can do that.
Find the right topics
Relevance starts with getting your topics right.
The biggest mistake I see in content marketing is too much focus on your own brand, what you do and what you sell. While content should support your outbound marketing, it should never be a sales vehicle.
At its best, content attracts qualified traffic, generates leads and builds relationship. It should inform, educate and entertain your audience—so they’ll keep coming back for more.
That’s why it’s important that you find the areas where your business and audience intersect. What are the core topics related to your business that your customers are also interested in? These are the topics you need to create content around.
By the way, you can add a sales push to your content if you do it right. This article tells you how.
Focus on their struggles
Once you know which topics will work for your brand AND your customers, it’s time to set your priorities. To do that, figure out what topics your audience is interested in today.
In most cases, this will be a challenge they’re trying to overcome or a problem they’re trying to solve. But it may not be obvious.
Dove sells soaps and skin care for women. In 2004, they published a study, “The Real Truth about Beauty: A Global Report,” which uncovered the depth of women’s struggle with self-image.
Beauty products, as it turns out, are a hard sell if your audience doesn’t believe they are beautiful.
Dove now create videos and other content that specifically target modern women and girls—not to sell Dove products per se, but to help women see their own beauty.
It’s a brilliant campaign and a great example of relevance in marketing. There’s no doubt that Dove understands the issues their target market faces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DdM-4siaQw
How you can do it
You don’t always have to do a study to create relevant marketing. But you do need to do your research.
- Who precisely is your target audience?
- How do they feel about the topics related to your brand?
- Do they believe they can achieve whatever success you promise?
- How can you help them feel more competent?
Give it some thought. If you truly understand what your market’s problem is, the ideas should start to flow. If not, start talking to them. A simple email may be all it takes.
Bottom Line
Relevant content is a balancing act.
You need to produce content that promotes your business agenda—the core message you’re sharing now. But you also need to stay relevant to your customers—which means solving the problems they’re facing today.
At its core, your content should solve problems. Choose your topics with these 3 things in mind:
- Topics that relate to your business AND your audience
- Topics they’re talking about or researching already
- Actionable ideas that help your audience succeed
There’s no easy button when it comes to relevance. But it can instantly raise the quality of your content and make your brand stand out. So why not give it a try?
Got any relevance tricks up your sleeve? What’s worked for you?
