engagement and content go hand in hand

Now seen as the #1 priority for marketing and communications, good content OFFICIALLY matters in both of our worlds (that’s right, time to get good at this). Prior research tells us how curating content that is important and relevant, yet fun and entertaining, creates engagement from target audiences. Let’s put it this way, the cause of your good content tactics produce the most significant engagement with audiences. Shocked yet?

where is your content?

Stories, articles, videos, podcasts, images, whitepapers, and more  (I could go on, and on and on) is where your content lies.

Consumers view your content wherever you decide to put it, which could be newsletters, various social media platforms, or even stranger, the newspaper (but, nobody uses traditional channels, so probably not the best idea). Engaging your audiences is done by driving their interest and motivating your desired response.

So, what makes content particularly good? Here’s the deal, if you produce specific content of interest that truly aims to cause your publics to think and act, you’re doing it right. It doesn’t involve magic, it just takes work. The key is knowing that what you put into it, is what you get out.

For instance, Pōk, the fast and casual, delicious poke restaurant in the local West Village neighborhood uses a weekly newsletter to grasp their customers attention with certain food or drink items they’re interested in.

The CBD drink is obviously a want from their audiences. They know this from their audience’s respondes and overall product sale. But, what makes this content even better is posting this pretty drink on social platforms, such as Instagram to seek more audience attention.

The bottom line is to focus on your content’s consistency to mitigate audience confusion, but also to motivate them to WANT to go purchase your product! Only, this may be difficult to achieve if you don’t know who your working with….

hello target audience, my name’s madison! …  who are you?

This part is similar to opening up a mystery dum dum (seriously, tell me already) — you don’t know what you’re gonna get, but you end up enjoying it until the last lick. Understanding your audience is absolutely crucial in curating your content.

Do yourself a favor and follow these small steps to help guide you to recognize what segment of the population you are working with, and then delve even deeper to explore their characteristics. Ideally, by the end of your research we want to create a mental picture of your typical target member.

You at first must define demographics. Know this is just the start, but also sometimes it’s all we have to work with.

1. Needs and wants change accordingly based on age. It’s important to identify the range of age your brand targets best. It could be wide in scope, or very limited.
2. Next, discover their gender. Are you dealing with more females than males, or vice versa? It’s obvious that certain brands are directed towards one sex. So, pick one or all.
3. Factoring the average income level determines whether or not people buy certain products. If your product consist of high costs, it would make sense that people who have higher incomes pay for it, and so it goes.
4. Now, think about certain factors that may influence your public’s interest in your product, like race, religion, and ethnicity. Distinguish the key components and pick up on certain trends.

Close your eyes. I bet you are able to mentally visualize your target, right? But, in order to truly dig deeper and produce the most efficient results, we must understand their psychographics. Be aware, more times than often these can lead to faulty stereotype inferences, which as professionals, we must immediately recognize and ignore. Obtain these characteristics by interviewing existing audiences, observing them, or reviewing interal data analytics.

1. Investigating particular habits
2. Recognizing traits
3. Knowing underlying attitudes
4. Distinguishing opinions
5. Observing general behavior patterns

The two data sets collected above gave you tremendous insight to the WHO (thanks to demographics) your audience is and the WHY (thanks to psychographics) your audience is into your product. By excluding one verse the other, you are risking the success of your content, and fail to move your audience to act on it.

a MUST

Answering the WHO of content marketing requires advanced thinking.

think of it in triangle form.

top point = time # of shopping visits or length of visits

left side = cost convenience and perceived quality

right side = quality

one more thing…

Audience. Priority. Trick. This tactic is used efficiently in advertising, marketing and PR. It’s fast and easy. You have your target audiences, correct? Now, prioritize by ranking them 0-10 by asking two questions.

1. How important is the public to your organization?

Not at all (0) or vital (10)

1. How important is your organization to the public?

Not at all (0) to vital (10)

For more info…

Visit https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/2014/09/19/what-is-content-marketing/#32f5e7010b9b to become more aware the importance of content marketing.

     

Convenience,

perceived quality  

      Time

Cost Quality

Convenience,

perceived quality