Read any digital marketing blog or publication and you’ll probably come away thinking that “content” is the holy grail of all online business. Whether you’re in search, social or you’re a wear-every-hat kind of marketer, the reputable thought leaders in the space will be sure to give you an ear-full about how content’s the new name of the game. And in a way, it is. But the problem here is that the “word” content itself has become commodified. In reality, it’s now a relatively ambiguous, even materialistic, term; void of any discernible value outside of simply being content.
This obscuration of the word “content”, in turn, has led mainstream marketing philosophy down a path that proposes creating content simply for the sake of content itself. Of course, this mantra will never be stated explicitly. Most of the time, this philosophy is masquerading behind the phrase, “create quality content”. But honestly, what is quality content? And are we going to believe that the majority of content marketers have the resources necessary to build a publishing system that accounts for content quality? I have a hard time believing so. Although I’m sure there are many advanced organizations that do have content marketing standards in place, the point here is that the amount of “create content” advice heavily outweighs advice about “creating something valuable”.
The Marketer’s Task
Marketers, especially content marketers, are responsible for the increasingly difficult burden of continuously providing value to a specific target audience, be it customers, prospects or leads, in hopes of converting them. The modern marketer’s advantage, however, is that the introduction of new technology allows us to not only understand our customers in new ways, but also to provide them with value in awesome new forms and functions. Consider features like the Beginner’s Guide to SEO by Moz, or OpenTable for the restaurant industry. Both are instances of creative, value-focused content made possible by a combination of user/customer knowledge and technological acumen.
But simply providing this value is not enough. Marketers must also provide value as efficiently as possible. Lest they risk being misunderstood, ignored or downright wasteful altogether. Can you really provide the kind of insight that drives return readership with 400 word blog posts? Is the fancy intro video on your product landing page really contributing to your conversions? Should you be spending time making link-bait infographics when your FAQ page is propelling visitors off your site? These are the kinds of questions that need to constantly be asked and answered by content marketers, because they get to the root of two important variables: value and the efficiency of value delivery. For marketers seeking a way to more accurately define the quality of their content, I’d argue that the relationship between these two variables marks an excellent starting point.
The Difficulty of Value-Delivery Efficiency
Both value and efficiency are heavily subjective, each depending on the very specific set of preferences and circumstances surrounding a situation. So having a deep, introspective understanding of your business and your target audience is the starting point when trying to optimize for both of these measures. Your internal knowledge of your organization and its resources coupled with what you know about your customers and their preferences will be the largely determining factor in how you can most efficiently deliver value to your users.
This idea may seem basic, but it’s constantly overlooked. Sometimes, businesses have a very set-in-stone way of developing and publishing content, or sometimes businesses just wants to produce more content, faster. It also could be that businesses are looking to produce “next big thing” content, rather than something that provides real value for their end-user. All of these scenarios represent very realistic problems businesses face that can disrupt a successful content marketing strategy.
A Practical Example
An online furniture retailer that offers in-home delivery and installation is looking to institute a new marketing initiative. They are a relatively successful Ecommerce site, with no investment in mobile or educational content. They understand that their main target audience is mothers who have a strong taste in interior design and who are looking to improve the aesthetics of their home. They’re not interior design experts, so they often seek online advice on design elements and how certain pieces work together. The company also knows that their target audience is relatively adept with technology and that about 19% of their total visitors come from a mobile device, be it a phone or a tablet.
When brainstorming their new marketing initiative, the company sees that their overall site has been dealing with poor base-level performance and conversion metrics. Their pages per visit, time on site and conversion rates had been steadily declining over the past couple quarters. The most poorly performing segment, the company sees, is mobile visitors. Thinking that they can improve their performance and conversion metrics with one large fix, the company decides to invest in responsive design for their site. This design initiative will use up the majority of their available budget and will take a little over 5 months for a third party to develop.
But is this really the most efficient way for the company to provide value?
To start, the company needs to understand what value their customers are seeking in the first place. Research may show that visitors coming from mobile devices are doing so only to browse and do not prefer to purchase expensive items (like furniture) from their phones or tablets. Additionally, they may find that their lack of content is leaving no reason for users to stay if they are not purchasing something. Educational content, for instance articles about “how a glass coffee table can bring together a spacious TV room” or “how a China cabinet makes the perfect decorative display for a dining room”, helps the user understand how each of the site’s product fits into their interior design vision. In total, the value desired by the user may very well be helpful advice rather than a mobile-friendly experience.
To deliver this value efficiently, the company could take their responsive-design budget, and use it instead for a content development program; one that provides advice on different products and how they work with various interior design elements. They could start with written articles and test other forms of content to see what works best, throwing in cross-sell opportunities along the way. This way, they can keep their costs down during the beginning stages. Developing this content first provides a valuable “base” for the site; something that can keep visitors coming back regardless of what device they come from.
The Fix: Focusing on Value
The best way to practice value-delivery efficiency is to start understanding the concept of value itself. Now, I’m not telling you to bury your head in a dusty philosophy book. I mean you should be taking the time to understand what value means to your customers and the relationship they have with your business. Because spending your resources on producing something that isn’t valuable for your end user is a waste, regardless of how well it turns out. Once you know what kind of value you’re shooting for, you can start to determine the most efficient way to put it into action. Here’s a 3-step outline you can use to make this happen:
1. Understand your user’s preferred value and consumption methods. What value do consumers seek from your company and what are their preferences in regards to consuming this value? The answer to this question should be your starting point and if you’re lucky, it will already be outlined in user/buyer personas. If it’s not, this information can be obtained through analyzing your customers’ keyword usage, your Analytics metrics, primary research and purchase data.
If you sell tablets, for example, your customer could be the type of person that wants a quick study of a tablet, including a list of the tablet’s best features, some specs and some gorgeous product shots. On the other hand, the target could be the tech junkies that want every last minute detail and specification of the product before they’ll even consider purchasing it. Regardless of which persona is more accurate, the value being desired by each persona is product knowledge and the preferred consumption method (either long-form or short-form content) is what differs between them.
Balance this against your organizational resources. The next step is to figure out how your company’s budget, personnel and content development capabilities coincide with your target audience’s desired value and consumption methods. If your audience values educational content around how to use your products and they prefer to consume video content, that’s all well and good. But if producing that much video content isn’t within your means, you may have to settle with producing instructional videos for your top products and then producing graphic instructions for the rest, until you can secure more funding.
Often times, producing the most ideal content won’t be the most efficient way to do deliver value. That’s why this step is so important. Understanding what resources you do or do not have access to will have a huge effect on the way you view efficiency, and help you determine what content initiatives you should focus on in your content marketing efforts. Like mentioned earlier, meeting the user’s exact wants and needs is the ideal, but balancing these wants and needs against your organizational resources is the reality; the way to actually get things done.
3. Develop, test and refine. Very rarely do things work out perfectly the first time around. That’s why it’s vital for you to continuously test the tactics you’re using for their efficiency in value deliver. Using a combination of behavioral metrics, conversion metrics, on-site feedback and more, you should be able to find poorly performing initiatives and understand whether they’re simply not valuable or they’re not efficient in how they provide value. For example, if you find you’re spending tons of cash on bi-weekly email campaigns, but they aren’t leading to high site engagement metrics or conversions, you’ll know that something has to change. Trying to reformat that newsletter content into other channels and monitoring the success of those channels will give you a better idea of whether the content is not valuable or the newsletter is inefficient.
Over to You
Does your organization have a system in place that monitors how efficiently they deliver value? What Analytics metrics or other data sources help you determine your efficiency in value delivery? Remember, this idea could very well go by another name in your organization! Leave your questions and comments below.
Alex- Great article! The distinction you make between value and efficiency is one that can be easily overlooked. Yes, marketers are charged with adding value for customers, but the additional charge of delivering value efficiently can be overshadowed when planning campaigns. As I read your article I interpreted the idea of adding value efficiently as focusing on how to deliver value on the customer’s terms. I think your #1 point speaks to that directly- Understand the user’s preferred value and consumption methods… not how we prefer to deliver value!
Hey Don. Thanks for the kind words! You’re absolutely right. I think an excellent summation of my point was working on the customers’ terms, but doing so in a way that’s feasible with your organization’s resources taken into account. There’s a fine balance balancing your customers’ wants/needs and staying within the limit of your resources. I think that idea needs more spotlight as more companies attempt to implement content marketing programs.