How to Create Content

Customers Want to Read

In the marketing world, there’s a big difference between creating content and creating great content—the kind customers
actually want to read. It isn’t enough to string words together and send them off to your contacts. There’s an art to this
wordsmith business and it takes work if you want to enjoy one successful marketing campaign after another.

WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING?

When you create and distribute relevant and valuable
content to attract a specific audience, you’re engaging in
content marketing. The goal is two-fold: you want to build
your customer base and increase your profits. And while
some worry that “useful” can be synonymous with “dull,”
it doesn’t have to be. You can provide interesting content
through avenues like:

• Emails
• Newsletters
• White Papers
• Blogs
• Case Studies
• Infographics
WHY YOU SHOULD DO IT
The best way to please a customer is to give them what they want, right? Customers want engaging, insightful,
relevant, and valuable information. (And a happy customer is more likely to give you what you want: a sale.)

Consider these statistics from the Content Marketing Association:

• 82% of consumers enjoy reading relevant content from brands

• 60% of consumers are more likely to watch for products while engaged with content marketing
• 48% of consumers say content marketing generates positive feelings toward the brand itself
• 43% of consumers say content marketing has a positive impact on their purchase decisions

Satisfying your customers is always the key, but knowing how much it will cost is another matter. Fortunately, this is one
customer-building technique that won’t break the bank. DemandMetric reports that content marketing generates
about three times as many leads as traditional marketing and it costs 62% less. Making customers happy and spending
less to do it has never been easier!

SO HOW DO YOU By setting and exceeding their

expectations with professional,
CREATE GREAT informative, interesting, relevant, and
CONTENT? engaging copy. THAT’S HOW.
PROVIDE HIGH-QUALITY WRITING
• KEEP YOUR TOPICS RELEVANT TO YOUR READERS. While delivering timely and insightful articles can prove
invaluable, HubSpot reports that 73% of consumers actually get frustrated by web content they deem irrelevant.

• CRAFT STRONG TITLES. Your headlines, subheadings, and subject lines should be powerful and
attention-grabbing. These titles will determine whether a customer chooses to read your content or walk
away—potentially to a competitor’s site.

• IDEAS SHOULD BE YOUR OWN. Don’t just rehash what others are saying—use your insight, expertise, and
experience. Brainstorm original ideas and elaborate on them in your own words. After all, readers are on your page
because they want to hear from you.

• WRITING SHOULD ALWAYS BE POLISHED, PROOFED, AND ERROR-FREE. You want to make a lasting
impression, but not as the company with consistent misspellings or poor grammar. By eliminating mistakes, you’re
reducing distractions and enabling your readers to focus on what’s important: the content.

• BE CONCISE. As a general rule of thumb, shorter is stronger—especially when it comes to emails. Consumers value
their time and don’t appreciate feeling like it’s been wasted. Ditch the fluff and focus on the substance.

• EMBRACE SYNONYMS. Changes in search engine algorithms have made them more efficient at identifying the
meaning of words without requiring an exact keyword match. Incorporating both keywords and synonyms adds
depth to your content and mixes it up without negatively affecting your SEO.

• CHOOSE YOUR WORDS CAREFULLY. Use strong, active words that motivate customers. Implement the power of
storytelling to evoke an emotional response, paint a picture, and lead readers where you want them to go.
ADDRESS A PROBLEM AND OFFER A SOLUTION
TIP
Give your customers a reason to engage with your content. Present a problem they’re likely facing
and offer at least one solution. By providing ways to overcome common challenges, you’re helping
them to learn, grow, and succeed. This is also an effective way to demonstrate your expertise,
A little brainstorming will go
establish credibility, and build brand loyalty.
a long way to ensuring your
content is strong and
informative. Anticipate
possible questions the
reader might have and
provide answers.

You want your customers to

walk away feeling
empowered and ready to
face any obstacle. Leaving
them with unanswered
questions will only send
them searching for additional
information elsewhere—and
you don’t want your
competitors to be the ones
giving them the solutions.

When you address all

angles, you position your
company as the one-stop
source for their information.
PERSONALIZE IT
Each and every one of your customers is an individual;
show them you understand and appreciate that.
Customizing your content is not only critical to
maintaining relevancy and value, but it’s also easy to do.
Whether you’re sending emails and newsletters or writing
articles and blog posts, personalizing your content based
on the target audience is a simple and effective way to
build relationships and motivate action. Plus, it’s proven
to get results.

Econsultancy has found that companies who use

personalization report a 14% uplift in sales. Additionally,
one Experian study reported that using personalization in
emails delivers six times higher transaction rates than
non-personalized ones and when implemented in
promotional mailings they saw 29% higher unique open
rates and 41% higher unique click rates.

So how do you create personalized content without

sending thousands of one-off messages every day?
HERE ARE JUST A FEW WAYS YOU CAN ACHIEVE
MASS CUSTOMIZATION:
• GET TO KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS. Use segmentation to create email contact
lists based on things like lead type, demographics, purchase history, and activity.
Crafting your messages based on this information will enable you to send one
message to multiple people while maintaining the vital relevancy that will prompt
them to continue reading.

• GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR RESOURCES. Customization is about more than
just text; using products like those in Talk Fusion’s all-in-one Video Marketing
Solution can make a lasting impression and get your message heard. Video Email
and Video Newsletters allow you to speak directly to your customers in a fresh
and exciting way—and our stunning custom templates place your brand
front-and-center. As if around-the-clock lead capture wasn’t enough, our Sign-up
Forms also include video auto responders that follow up with your contacts
instantly.

• HELP THEM GET TO KNOW YOU. Lose the “corporate speak” and remind them
that your company is made up of people just like them. Try sending emails from an
individual, not just the company. When HubSpot experimented with this
approach, they found that an email sent from the company resulted in a .73%
clickthrough rate while one sent from a member of their marketing team jumped
to .96% and generated 292 more clicks.

It just goes to show that people like interacting with people.

BREAK UP YOUR TEXT
Short bursts of text separated by subheadings and bullet points are more visually appealing than long pages of copy.
Using subsections also gives your writing a clean, easy-to-follow format that allows readers to quickly scan the page
and focus on the information they want. Take it to the next level and change the color of your subheadings where
appropriate; emails, newsletters, and blogs are meant to be interesting and conversational so use a little creative
freedom to spruce it up. Changing hue will do more than beautify your copy; Xerox reports that adding color actually
increases recall and attention span by 82%.

ADD GRAPHICS AND IMAGES

Another way to keep your readers engaged is by adding graphics or images to your copy. People tend to lose interest
when faced with big, bulky, blocks of text—avoid that pitfall and give them something to wow the senses. The results
will prove this tidbit is worthwhile; according to Jeff Bullas, articles with images receive 94% more views than those
without.

FOLLOW THE FORMATTING TRENDS

Lists and numbered articles are popular for a reason—people like them. When it comes to marketing your company, it’s
important to keep track of what customers enjoy and use those strategies to your advantage. The internet is filled with
blog posts and articles noting the top 10 places to eat in a particular city or 30 things no one told you before you got
married.

These formats provide insight into how much content is being presented and how much time is required to read it. In a
culture pressed by time constraints, this insight is invaluable to (and appreciated by) consumers. These outlines also
serve as the perfect avenue for fast-paced, light, and punchy writing that might not be appropriate for white papers or
case studies, but are widely popular in blogs.
PROVIDE STATISTICS AND RESOURCES
As your company establishes itself as an authority in a particular field, showing proven
statistics and other data will be key to building your credibility. This allows you to
incorporate the findings of other reputable sources that support your claims while still
expressing your own thoughts, opinions, and insights. This way, you’re not just asking
readers to take your word for it. Just be sure to provide proper credit and link to those
sources in your article.

CHOOSE YOUR “VOICE”

All forms of writing have a style—flow, word choice, tone, speed… These are all part of the
overall voice. It’s up to you to determine which voice to use based on the material you’re
presenting and your intended audience. Oftentimes, companies will use different voices
when addressing different types of customers.

If your chosen voice is playful, keep the copy light and entertaining. Humor and creative
analogies work well to keep your reader engaged. If you want to use a more serious or
professional tone, keep your writing informative, but interesting (not boring). If your voice is
somewhere in the middle, keep it conversational; subtle humor may be your best bet for
balancing interest while maintaining a professional tone.

SIMPLIFY YOUR CALL TO ACTION

The purpose of a call to action is to motivate consumers to do something—buy a product,
visit your website, etc. The copy itself should be brief and simple; make it easy for readers
to do what you want by embedding hyperlinks where you want them to go or including
phone numbers you want them to call. Enabling social media share buttons is also a subtle
yet effective way to encourage them to create a call to action among their networks.
THE PAYOFF
Today’s consumers want to feel like they’re in a reciprocal relationship with brands. It’s no longer just about
customers handing over money for a product; they expect businesses to provide helpful information, discounts,
offers, and—most of all—gratitude for their patronage.

It takes effort to create thought-provoking copy that gets read and delivers results, but the benefits are invaluable to
your business.

CONSIDER THIS:

• 80% of customers appreciate learning more about companies through custom content (DemandMetric)
• 78% of consumers perceive relationships with companies that use custom content (DemandMetric)
• 72% of Twitter followers are more likely to make a purchase after following a brand (Twitter)
• 70% of customers feel closer to a company as a result of content marketing (DemandMetric)
• Companies that create 15 blog posts per month also average 1,200 new leads per month (Hubspot)

When you provide valuable, engaging, and

comprehensive content, you’re doing more than just
holding your customers’ attention; you’re building
brand loyalty, relationships, and your customer base.
And that’s a powerful way to grow your business.