The saying ‘Content is King’ is thrown around a lot in marketing communications and I agree that generating regular and consistent content is paramount to an effective digital marketing strategy. However, if the content you generate doesn’t connect, or provide something of value to your audience then it won’t be effective.

So how do you generate content that will create loyal subjects?

Know who is in your kingdom

It’s been said before, but step one is all about identifying your ideal audience. Generating content that talks to them and creates a dialogue is key – don’t just push sales messages but provide valuable information that educates, advises, is new and interesting or helps them solve a problem. This will retain and engage interest.

So what will you need to know about your ideal audience?

1. Who they are and group them into segments via gender, age, location, career status and skill levels, education, life status etc.

2. Understand their interests and find out what they read, where they work, live and play

3. Find out the similarities across your audiences

By answering the above and then adding these values, interests and similarities to your content you will be able to create a better connection and maximise the worth of your audience.

From a business-to-business perspective you need to ask a couple of key questions to direct your content, making it more audience-focused and therefore more engaging:

•  What does your audience need from you?
• What do they value about being part of your community or buying your product?
• What problem does your type of product or service solve?

Don’t be a one trick pony

Content should be varied – no one likes to see the same thing over and over again. Yes, content might repeat similar key messages and be consistent when promoting your business; however there are many different types and modes of content delivery.

Blogs, infographics, thought-leadership articles, Q&A with your CEO or product developer, research based or historic – stories of your past, articles predicting trends, video, top ten lists – think about all the type of content you see out there and when you see some content you like try to duplicate it for your business.

Be Robin Hood – give something away

Provide your audience with something for free that will help them – this might be free advice, a product or a service.

By providing information and giving something of value in your content for the audience they are much more likely to be engaged with your brand – this approach will build loyalty and combat product or service switching.

Choose ‘horses for courses’

Now you have your content – when and where do you publish it? It’s about choosing ‘horses for courses’ or finding the right channel for the right audience segment.

Look at what you have learnt about your audience and what different types of platforms they use re: social media, digital television, online streaming and emails just to name a few. Make sure when you push your content out the content type and tone suits the channel you are communicating through.

Ask your subjects to visit the castle

Content should always be published on your website. Your website is your castle and you want to drive as many people into the grounds as possible – it is here they will get exposure to your kingdom (i.e. brand, product or service) as that is the final place where they will decide if they want to buy and engage with you.

Zadro can help you develop the best digital marketing strategy that creates new subjects and maximises your reach, exposure and messaging; read our case studies or ask us how.