In the previous article “Vol.9: How to Effectively Reach Buyers/Customers Directly in Web 2.0 / Internet Marketing?”, effectively targeting to directly reach buyers/customers was discussed. In doing so, 5W2H.framework was used, and the latter “H” of “How” was about web content development, which is the focus of this article.
1. What it is to successfully developing web content?
In short, it is to develop web content, respectively for buyer/customer persona already defined, solving problems of each persona and growing your business, in the persona’s words. To successfully develop such web contents, the website and all web pages needs to have a personality of the persona, i.e. consistent branding of the persona. Web contents should be developed based on the core message of what the company wants the buyer/customer persona to believe and take action from that belief.
2. How companies can develop web contents meeting needs of each buyer/customer persona?
In conclusion, it is to think and plan like a publisher with brand management concept, and develop web contents with key message of what the company wants the buyers/customers to believe which also solves their problem and/or fulfill their desire, with personality of the buyer/customer persona.
It is extremely important to align the message with the audience/web users (buyer/customer persona) is trying to reach and then deliver on that promise, as Gillin (2009, p204) emphasize. This is because then the message is not delivered on that promise, the audience would feel betrayed, and in web/Internet marketing, web users can immediately go away by a single click and would likely never come back again. They could even write about it variety of social media vehicles, which can easily go viral and damage the reputation and brand of the company.
Main points for successful web content development are as below.
1) Think and plan like a publisher.
As mentioned in previous articles, everyone is a publisher in web 2.0/Internet marketing and everyone need to think and plan like a publisher to create a meaningful content. This requires market-in mindset instead of product-in mindset. This means not selling to but embracing the persona with content that is not focused on company/product but solution to solve problems of buyers or answers to their questions, and requires needs analysis of the buyer/customer persona. Defining the essence of the desire and value of the persona is crucial. Having clarified the needs, think how the needs can be translated to what the company want buyer/customer persona to believe. Should the translated points be too many, simplification is needed but availability of multiple points is not a big problem.
2) Define personality of the web content with brand management concept.
Similarly to brand management (branding) of product and company, branding needs to be done for web content from by branding of the persona approach. From buyer/customer persona defined, design, layout, tone, taste, style etc. of the total web content, each page and all constituents (picture, audio/video, icon, chart, colouring, headline, text style and so forth) are defined, which should be consistent throughout the web content.
3) Construct authentic company story to tell directly to buyer/customer persona, targeting one at a time.
Similarly to presentations and sales talks, story telling is extremely effective in developing appealing web contents. With effective story telling, audience could easily understand and remember the message and content. They are more likely be able to vividly visualize, hear, feel the scenes/shots of the story even if the web content is of text. Of course, the effective use of audio, video, picture and chart would further assist this effect.
Story (scenario) is to be developed from the translated points already mentioned in the last part of “think and plan like a publisher”. From a translated points i.e. ingredients, different stories can be developed that gives completely different impression to audience meaning different reactions and outcomes; therefore, this process requires strategic thinking and sophisticate. It should be noted that authenticity and integrity need to be maintained. Audience would “sense” if it is not authentic, and if they should sense it, they would feel betrayed, finally leading to the company (web content owner) losing their trust.
4) Think and select the buyer/customer persona’s preferred media and learning styles.
This is the detailed action plan of “Where” of the previous article of “How to Effectively Reach Buyers/Customers Directly in Web 2.0 / Internet Marketing?”. As Scott (2009, p155) states, all people have different learning styles and media preferences and the companies should develop appropriate web content designed for each buyer/customer persona. Scott goes on to say that marketers should have messages (and stories) in as many formats as practical, and that even though the messages are the same, they will appeal to different group of people (buyer/customer persona). For examples, a persona may prefer an e-book but another persona may prefer a tele-seminar and therefore the company can take the same content and turn it into tele-seminar.
5) Use appropriate title, tags, and key words and phrases.
Title, tags and key words and phrases determine how web users are driven to the web content/page and whether they read the content. It goes without saying that not jargon, acronyms and industry-speak words and phrases should be refrained. Words and phrases need to be familiar with buyer/customer persona.
In addition, it should be noted that catchy title for printed matters such as newspapers and magazines may not be effective in Web/Internet marketing. What this means is that web/Internet marketing, worlds used in the title needs to be selected strategically from SEO (Search Engine Optimization) perspective, and this often means title that is quite different from great headlines of printed media, as Gillin states with concrete examples (2009, p205). In web/Internet marketing, simple, declarative title that matches the search terms is necessary.
6) Make buyer/customer persona engaged and stay connected.
Web/Internet marketing is all about engagement and being connected with buyers/customers with interactive conversation. Some tactics for this include including interactive content tools, making feedback loops available, providing ways for customers to interact one another, and creating content with pass-along value that could go viral, as mentioned by Scott (2009).
7) Think and implement methods to make persona easy to understand.
Methodology to help persona better understand varies according to persona. For example, as stated by Scott (2009), journalists may well request information both to better understand the big picture and background as well as detailed information (detailed product specs and other valuable data), and customers may find information on how other customers use products helpful.
There may well be more points for effective web content development, and after all, web content development is “more an art than a science” as Scott (2007, p108) says.
Content is the king and web content development meeting needs of buyer/customer persona is vital for successful web/Internet marketing. Next article is to be about driving web users to the contents/pages, which is another vital point for successful web/Internet marketing.
References:-
Gillin, Paul (2009), Secrets of Social Media Marketing, Quill Driver Books
Scott, David Meerman (2007), The New Rules of Marketing & PR. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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