How We Expect Content Marketing to Work

Let’s face it, many invest a lot of time, money, and talent to produce, publish, and distribute content marketing. Therefore it may be unspoken, but we have a certain expectation of how well content marketing should work. Following is a likely expectation of how we want it to work.

It should go something like this for a customer . . .

Let me see what’s happening on my twitter feed. Oh my this looks very interesting! I will click on this link to learn more. 

Wow, that was a great article!

I want to share this immediately with my social media followers. Also want to email this article to Susan.

Since I’m on this website I think I’ll request this free ebook! It looks real interesting!

I also want to subscribe so I can receive more content! 

And I think I’ll fill this form out to schedule an online meeting to learn more!

I don’t want to forget to follow all their social profiles. Also I want to make a comment. 

Is this how you expect it to work?

There are many who invest in content marketing who really expect it to work just like the example above. In reality, it doesn’t work that way. Instead the journey of your prospect is much more messy. There are many factors at play with a prospective customer such as timing, being at the right place at the right time, their interests at a particular moment, the massive amount of content vying for their attention, how they feel, who they’re with, whether the problem they have is something they need to solve now or later, whether they are tired, etc. Then one day, something happens and they click on an article. They like it! They make a mental note or save it to their Evernote and they even subscribe to your newsletter. Then they stop thinking about your article and go back to what’s on their mind to do next.

Then one day, maybe several weeks or months later, they receive your newsletter and it catches their attention based on the title or maybe the image from the article. Their mind recalls they read an article from you in the past but can’t remember when or what the article was. They scan over the new article click a link that takes them to your site and they scan over more content and begin liking what they are reading. They decide to use a contact form to schedule a consultation.

Expectations

Content marketing is not about converting on the first visit, or for that matter the second, third, or fourth. Content marketing is about earning familiarity, building a reputation for providing value, trust building, and a two-way dialog (relationship). You might make a sale, you might not, but the professional content marketer knows that every touch, every visit is a golden opportunity to build on the relationship.

Following are some thoughts to consider:

1. Content has now reached the status of an obligatory marketing tool. Because content is everywhere it must be remarkable to be effective.
2. Content creates awareness, builds trust, enhances engagement, and educates.
3. Prospects can now know just about as much about you, personally, as you know about them.
4. Your reputation, both online and offline, is something you can and should proactively manage and amplify.
5. How people perceive and receive you online and offline is vitally important.
6. How do prospective customers learn about you?
7. How will you make prospective customers want to know more about you?
8. How can you make your buying experience fun, effective, and easy?