Marketing Content During the Customer Lifecycle

Lee Odden on Nov 23rd, 2010  

We’ve established the value of content marketing here through many different posts. Most of the focus has been on creating value from content at the top of the funnel in a buying cycle. That’s where a lot of marketing dollars are focused and it’s an area of focus for the consulting offered by many online marketing agencies.

Content is the source of why search engines exist and therefore, essential for any discussion of SEO. Content is also the means through which brands engage customers on the social web through helpful information, resources, advertorial and even entertainment.

Another perspective to consider is that when brands and individuals share information on social networks and media sharing sites the outcome is content. There are many ways to be more effective with social content creation, sharing and engagement that marketers are not taking advantage of.

From an overall marketing and customer engagement perspective, all content is not created equal. Any kind of content isn’t appropriate in any kind of situation despite what recent content advocates would have you believe.  Since much of the focus of online marketing is on customer acquisition, many SEO efforts emphasize transaction or lead generation outcomes. That’s what they’re held accountable for. Unfortunately, search to purchase or social to purchase are not the only ways people interact with information online. Research before purchase as well as education and support afterwards are also important.

Being in the “brand as publisher” business is better than not creating any content at all, but it’s a much more effective thing to be purposeful in content creation & marketing according to the full customer experience. Seeing content engagement opportunities holistically can provide a company more ways to initiate, maintain and enhance customer relationships.

For example, in the context of online marketing, there are many different touch points during the customer relationship. Using the Buying Cycle model of: Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Service and Loyalty, marketers can best plan what kind of content may be most appropriate to engage customers according to their needs.

For a holistic editorial plan, here are a few types of content and methods of communication to consider:

Awareness:

• Public Relations
• Advertising
• Word of Mouth
• Social Media

Consideration:

• Search Marketing
• Advertising
• Social Media
• Webinars
• Product/Service Reviews
• Blogs
• Direct Response

Purchase:

• Website
• Social Commerce

Service:

• Social Media (ASB Virtual Branch is a great example)
• Social CRM
• Online Messaging (LivePerson)
• Email
• Search – After the sale queries on FAQ, Knowledge-base content

Loyalty:

• Email Newsletter
• Webinars
• Blog
• Social Network, Forum – community

In the development of a content marketing strategy, there are numerous opportunities to be more relevant and effective. Planning content that’s meaningful to the customers you’re trying to engage according to where they are in the buying cycle and overall customer relationship provides for more efficiency in content creation as well as the repurposing of content.

Holistic content marketing and editorial planning also helps make better use of tactics that transcend the relationship timeline like SEO and Social Media.  It’s especially the case with holistic SEO that content producers can extend their reach and visibility to customers that are looking – not just to buy, but to engage with brands in other ways.

By considering the content needs across the customer lifecycle, not just acquisition or conversion, companies can become significantly more effective and efficient in their ability to connect relevant messages and stories with customers that are interested. The result: shorter sales cycles, better customer relationships and more word of mouth.

How is your company leveraging content throughout the customer relationship? Are you coordinating a content marketing strategy that integrates SEO and social media? Does it make sense that the business of content strategy and promotion of content extends beyond marketing?

Continue

Service / Product Experience and Content Strategy

As part of this series on content, we've been looking at how every expression and communication a company organizes is an opportunity to build context through content -- and relationships as an outcome.
Does your organization have a service or product experience content strategy?
When you think about content strategically, the result is a better relationship with your customers.
Setting expectations means taking the time to define the customer experience and communicating at each step in the buyer's decision journey.
Some examples of thoughtful content at this stage are service contracts, product manuals, directions and maps to and of your centers. Items that explain, orient, guide, and define the experience of a product or service are part of this content phase.
Are your service contract and product manual as easy to navigate as your phone tree system? In that case, you have a starting point for improvement. Complexity reaches a point of no return -- literally, customers go off and buy from companies with simpler terms.
Have you forgot the meaning of hosting?If we live in a world that is always in beta, contractual relationships tend to follow suit. Today, customers want shorter term deals so they can continue to evaluate your service as they experience it -- and they will tell all their peers about their experience, too. Your contract is also content marketing.
Andy Sernovitz provides a really good example of when terms and conditions are not seen as an opportunity. As a linguist, I'm all over the term hosting as in being a good host. You would think that an upgrade is a chance to renew a customer relationship.
When in doubt, out-teach
This is something I learned from Kathy Sierra, a lesson that stays with me. Out-teaching helps you with retention, it helps you with customer happiness, it helps your own employees deconstruct what they contribute to, creatively. What are blogs and collaboration tools but also ways to teach what we know?
Way after you signed up to the RSS or email feed for this blog, I'm here researching and proposing what I'm learning with you. And am loving every minute of it.
Your checklist at this stage includes:

• staying engaged with the customer at every touch point
• listening actively to and participating in customer feedback
• continually providing valuable content throughout the experience maturity

This is the phase where marketing tends to walk away, because somehow embracing customers is customer service's job. Product manuals, service agreements, contracts -- these are all marketing, whether you see it that way or not.
Each of your pieces of content should be solving an information problem. Some of them will be solving one your customer didn't know it had. With digital media, you have the opportunity to make the how you solve that problem iterative and interactive.

© 2010 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Continue