“Content is key . . . you can never have enough of it and you have to keep cycling it and keep it relevant for the audience you serve.” – Laura Ramos, VP, Forrester Research*
Hope everyone’s New Year is off to a good start! If you’re reading this blog, you already know that creating content is the name of the game here at Eccolo—which is why we felt that revisiting the Laura Ramos quote above was the perfect way to highlight our goals and continued strategies for 2011. (If you thought it looked familiar, it’s probably because you checked out our Strategy Guide for Creating Quality Lead Generation Content from last year.)
As outlined in our strategy guide, the first step toward crafting compelling, relevant content is to identify your target audience’s pain. They’re only interested in solving their own problems, and unless you directly address these challenges, they won’t bother to listen.
According to MarketingSherpa’s B-to-B Lead Generation Handbook, there’s often a disconnect between what content marketers find compelling versus what end users find compelling. Instead of focusing on their own initiatives (whether that’s product updates or marketing cycles), marketers need to redirect their attention toward their audience’s concerns.
Laura Ramos recently drilled down on this point on her blog, in a post showcasing copywriter Jonathan Kranz’s tips for crafting compelling marketing copy. As she puts it: “Be a Mirror, Not a Window: Write Copy to Reflect Your Customer’s Concerns.” So as you put your editor hat on and start churning out new content for the upcoming months, remember to veer away from that inward-facing content approach, and acknowledge your target audience’s pain points and concerns.
*Forrester Report Highlights 4 KPIs to Accelerate Lead Management ROI by Amanda Ferrante, January 26, 2010.
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