Choosing a customer-specific content marketing strategy can be an effective way to make your brand stand out in a crowded market.
But is a customer-specific content marketing strategy right for your business? Or should you try a product-based strategy instead?
While there is no right or wrong answer here, there are certain advantages to using a customer-specific content marketing strategy that other approaches simply cannot provide.
What Is Customer-Specific Content Marketing?
Customer-specific, or customer-based, content marketing revolves around creating and sharing relevant, high-quality content that is built around (you guessed it!) the wants and needs of your target customer.
Instead of directly pitching your product or service to them, customer-based content marketing aims to answer the questions of your target audience and build trust with them in order to eventually turn them into paying customers.
Customer-specific content marketing is all about creating an engaging, satisfying experience for your customer. It requires more market research than product-based marketing does, but the investment is certainly worth it.
The 3 Benefits of Customer-Based Content Marketing
1. Differentiation
Customer-based content marketing can help you stand out in a crowded market by answering the exact questions your audience is asking and being super-specific in your brand messaging.
It also lets you stand out from the brands who are just putting out one sales pitch after another. Why? Because you are not pitching – you are helping your customer solve their problems.
2. Loyalty
When your content is built around the specific needs and wants of your customer, they are much more likely to stick around, purchase something from you again and even become brand advocates.
That’s good news for you, because, as research by Bain & Company has shown, increasing customer retention by just 5% could get you a 25% to 95% increase in profits.
3. Agility
Customer-based content marketing is about understanding the intricacies of each of your customer segments: what type of content they like best, where they engage with content, etc.
When you have that data at your fingertips, you can easily and quickly engage with (and respond) to the needs and wants of your customer base.
How to Plan A Customer-Based Content Marketing Strategy
1. Identify your customer segments
Every good marketing strategy starts with a lot of research, and customer-based content marketing is no exception.
Coming up with a few different customer segments is not enough.
You also need to understand what types of content your customers respond to, where (and how often) they consume their content, and so on.
But most importantly? You need to understand what drives their purchasing decisions.
2. Zero in on your customers’ pain points
While product-based marketers need a deep knowledge of their product, customer-based marketers need to really get inside their customers’ heads.
Why are your customers coming to you? What problems are they trying to solve? How do these problems affect their daily life?
This is what is going to make you different from your competition.
It will allow you to tailor your content marketing strategy to the exact needs of each of your customer segments and make them feel like you created your business just to help them.
In short: it will make them feel special.
3. Scrap your sales pitch
The immediate goal of your content is not for prospects to press the “buy” button. Remember, this is not a traditional sales pitch.
The more you try to force the sale, the more likely you are to scare away or alienate your customers.
With customer-based content marketing strategies, helping always comes before selling. That’s how you are going to build trust that will keep the customer coming back for more over and over again.
4. Craft a new, value-based sales pitch
Using a customer-based content marketing strategy does not mean you can’t sell.
It just means your sales pitch has to focus on value, instead of the product. So, how can you create content that positions your products or services in this way?
All you have to do is put yourself in your customers’ shoes.
They don’t care about your sales pitch or even your product – they care about the outcome they get when they buy your product. Think about it: what problems do you solve? How do you make your customers’ lives better?
Your new sales pitch should feel like a natural extension of the rest of your value-based content. Help your customers answer a pressing question with a blog post – then show them how you can give them even more value with your paid offerings.
5. Use data to your advantage
One of the best parts about content marketing? How easy it is to measure and track everything!
An overwhelming response to a blog post can help you discover a hidden pain point or even a new customer segment.
You can, and should, use this data to personalize your content marketing strategy even further.
6. Go the extra mile
Customer-based content marketing is all about delivering an engaging, satisfying experience to the customer.
So, after you have answered their questions, or after they have made a purchase, go the extra mile with your content.
Make them smile. Give them something they weren’t expecting to get. Then sell them something else.
By building and nurturing your customer relationships in this way, you will be able to maximize your customer lifetime value.
How Handmade SEO Can Help
Here at Handmade SEO, we don’t just grow traffic.
We focus on growing your business by implementing customer specific marketing strategies that work.
And, before doing anything else, we take the time to really understand your product focus and your customer segments.
Want us to take a look at your marketing strategy?
