[This is an article I wrote for one of my clients, Bienalto Consulting.]
How many clicks do you hope to get when you send out a digital newsletter? Do you expect your customers to follow the links through to three or four different articles?
From our observations, most users will only click on one link in your newsletter or EDM. Put simply, they’ll read only one article or news item, and then they’re gone.
This sobering statistic sheds light on the criticality of content. What will the outcome of that all-important, solitary “click” be? Will it deliver the user deep into the appropriate section of your website, where they will find exactly what they are looking for?
Strong calls to action that relate to the “click” must be clearly available, to convert the lead and get return on the EDM investment. At every step of the customer journey, every content element must work in collaboration to achieve your desired business results.
The solitary nature of the “click” also sheds light on the value of content. Online marketers must strike the right balance between creating their own content – which can be a costly and time consuming exercise – and repurposing other people’s content for their own use, while being mindful of copyright and branding issues.
An oft-neglected area of website development
Content is king. Long live content. This is the mantra which all online marketers should live by. From the labels on your links, to instructional copy and calls to action, to the all-important body copy of your site – content speaks volumes about your brand and can make or break the customer journey through your site.
Yet too often, content is a hodge-podge accumulation of different content editors’ contributions. From a lack of consistency in the way your products are proselytised, to conflicting calls to action, your customers are guaranteed to get frustrated if their journey is not predictable enough.
So it is important to invest in well-produced, thoughtful content. But herein lies the rub. You could spend vast amounts of marketing dollars on producing highly engaging case studies, whitepapers, glossy product brochures and more. But how proportional are these investments on the customer’s eventual purchasing decision? In an era where consumers value their friends’ and blog evangelists’ opinions over your marketing statements – and when they can find these opinions at the click of a Google link – is it worth producing any of this content in the first place?
Reconsider your content creation strategy
For some organisations – IT companies come to mind – the production of whitepapers and case studies will still reap value and aid the sales process. The purchase of a multi-million dollar server environment will not be swayed as much by social commentary as by hard-hitting facts and figures.
But for many others, particularly retail companies, content creation is undergoing a marked shift. Smart marketers are recognising the value of investing in new media to fill the content gaps. For example, search engine positioning, the efficacy of the snippet – the copy that appears in the organic Google search results – and the place that link takes the user in your site are now critical in the lead-generation process.
Likewise, social media cannot be ignored. Facebook, Twitter and the like are valuable channels for the generation of content, particularly “fan” pages where you can maintain some semblance of control. Within these channels, your customers are doing your work for you. You can then analyse what they’re saying, the language they’re using, and much more – to help guide your subsequent marketing activities. For example, the words they use to describe your products should be injected straight into your SEO efforts.
Given that you’ve got an average of one click per user, you need to consider your agenda in delivering an EDM. What is the primary goal? Are there other business agendas that need to be met in this piece of communication, too? Can you repurpose other content to reduce the publishing and production costs, given that you’ve likely only got one click per customer? Simply by being aware of the way that users interact with your pieces of communication empowers you to make smarter decisions about the way you construct them.
Make every word accountable
Every word, statement and web page you produce should be held accountable to your bottom line. You need to be strategic in the way you produce it, and in the way it is managed and used to shape further marketing decisions.
In a nutshell, your content should be:
- Consistent across all channels – traditional media, advertising, EDMs, web pages, campaign microsites, your sales team’s spiel, the list goes on.
- Cost-effective – with the amount spent on content creation proportional to customer acquisition and retention volumes.
- Relevant – give the customers exactly what they’re looking for, and they’ll trust your brand as one that delivers on what they need, when they need it.
Squidink lives and breathes digital content. Contact us today to learn more.