We recently shared about what content relevance is and why you should care about it. That post mainly focused on content relevance and its relation to search engine optimization (SEO). When you focus on content relevance for SEO, there are different things that should be taken into consideration: content language, body text, page title, supporting imagery, and locality. Today, we’re discussing this in relation to your customers – we’ll call it content usefulness. Think of this as how useful your customers would consider your content.
When a customer or user is interested in your content, you’ll notice a few things:
- You’ll drive more qualified leads
- Your bounce rate will decrease
- You will have more shares
It’s easy to think that all your content is useful though, after all, you’re the one writing it. So, how do you ensure that it is useful to your potential customer?
How to Create Relevant & Useful Content
Create a customer persona.
You probably just rolled your eyes because you’ve heard this before – but don’t lose me here. By figuring out the details of your ideal customer, you are able to create useful content tailored specifically to them.
Consider the following when creating a customer persona: demographics, where they work, what is their job title, what are their hobbies, and more. Check out this guide from Hootsuite to help you create a detailed customer persona.
Consider user intent.
This isn’t meant to be a boring SEO tip. But, it is an essential component not just for SEO, but also for your customer! A lot of people think the first thing they should do when they begin writing content is to make a list of keywords – but that’s a big mistake.
While keywords are what customers are typing to find results, you need to take it back a step and think about why they are looking for those results. As Neil Patel says, “The user intent of a keyword is the goal of the user typing the search query, and it typically falls into three categories: Do something, know something, or go somewhere. In fact, there’s often more than one intent per query.” Think about your customers’ intent as you are creating content and the keywords will come!
Be detailed & use the right format.
In a study by Content Science, the number one reason that customers gave for perceiving content as not useful was because “the content seemed too basic, too general, or too vague.” It can be a struggle to balance – you don’t want to provide content that’s too basic, but you also don’t want to use terminology that is too advanced and not easily understood by your customers. This is why the customer persona is important. You want to cater your content to your ideal customer, by knowing their expertise and their specific needs.
Additionally, you should consider the best format to present your content. As the saying goes, “Different strokes for different folks.” What format would resonate best with your customer: blog post, social media post, white paper, e-book, video…you get the idea. No matter the length or format, your goal should be for all of your content to be useful!
Much of today’s business is done digitally. This means you have to nurture a long-term relationship with your customers via a digital space (i.e. email marketing, website, blog, videos, social media, etc.). No matter the customer type, your content must speak directly to their specific needs and build their trust in you. Relevant & useful content must coexist to provide the best results for you and your customers. When you provide this content, you will be speaking directly to your ideal customer. That means that you will drive more qualified leads, decrease your website bounce rate, and have more shares of your content.
So, what are you waiting for? Get started with creating your customer persona & creating content! Let us know how it goes – we can’t wait to hear.
