Everything runs better with good content marketing. Customers. Businesses. Teams.
Have you ever pondered the strong connection between donuts and content marketing? It’s a delicious thought! I just returned from a Sunday morning trip to the new Dunkin’ Donuts store in my neighborhood and was hit over the head with a content marketing lesson like a stale baker’s dozen of glazed donuts falling off the top shelf of a bakery!
For months, I had meant to stop into this new Dunkin’ Donuts store; however, I could never figure out to get into the parking lot. Lacking clear direction to reach the fresh and delicious donuts, I could not consume the content I was craving and was willing to pay for! Finally breaking down from my ‘jonesing’ for a donut, I embarked on a journey this morning to find the content I desired and address my appetite! I ended up getting my favorite Dunkin’ Donuts product, a Boston cream donut, but I had to work too hard to get to it!
The business lesson here is that you must connect your great content with your consumer. You can only do that by delivering it in a way that makes sense to your customer. If you spend time creating blog posts, white papers, infographics, and videos that help frame your company’s value proposition, then you need to make sure the content marketing delivery system meets that need.
In other words, you need to make it easy for your audience to find, get to and consume your content.
3 To Help You Make Your Content Marketing Run Better
1. Good Content Marketing Includes A Strategy To Make Content Easy To Find
With 89% of consumers starting their buying journey using Google search (source: Fleishman-Hillard study), it is critical to make sure your content is easy to find to deliver the impact you and your customer desire. I find that many great blog posts thought leaders and companies write that are not formatted correctly; titles, tagging, keyword density all matter! These mistakes are elementary to fix!
2. Effective Content Marketing Makes It Easy To Access
Like my trip to the difficult-to-get-to Dunkin’ Donuts store, if you make it difficult to access your content, it won’t get consumed at the rate you need to help you reach your business goals. With 81% using blogs, 74% using LinkedIn, and 42% using Twitter (source: Forrester), B2B decision-makers leverage social media channels to consume content. So, it behooves marketers to provide their “donuts” on those “shelves” to reach their audience.
3. Delivering Content On The Consumer’s Terms Is The Secret Filling To Successful Content Marketing
Like Dunkin’ Donuts content, businesses need to deliver fresh and relevant content like a Pumpkin Creme donut in the Fall, and in a way, the customer desires, like drive-in ordering, walk-in, order by phone! Your business’ content needs to be served up in the form that the customer requires, like an infographic or a quick video. It also needs to be served upon the platform they value, use and expect to find content, like Twitter or SlideShare. With 75% of B2B decision makers using social media as part of their buying decision process, this makes it key to a business’s success!
Do you have another delicious piece of advice to squeeze into this box of ideas? If so, please share below! Or, contact me at gerry@marketingthink.com.
Box up and deliver your content like this, and you will certainly be baking up some additional sales. Like Dunkin Donuts’ America Runs On Dunkin’ slogan, your customers run on your great content marketing, so it’s not time to make the donuts, but it is time to make your content marketing work harder for you.
