Learn About the Value of Content

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Explain what makes content valuable.
• Describe some challenges for content marketers.
• Explain why it’s important to create empathy for your consumers.

Introduction

Why do marketers spend so much time creating content? Because they know it’s helping to build valuable customer relationships, encourage customer loyalty, and drive significant returns on investment. That is, if you do it right. 

Jared Spool, an expert on usability, software, and design, said it best when he said, “Good design, when it’s done well, becomes invisible. It’s only when it’s done poorly that we notice it.” And that, of course, extends to content. 

Content gives you the power to reach a massive audience, which is critical for many businesses as they continue to grow. One piece of content can reach hundreds of millions of consumers. Integral to broad campaigns and 1-to-1 communications. Email is a main vehicle for content. Brands rely on email to share marketing messages, product information, and education with customers. 

As important as email is, keep this in mind: Consumers receive an average of 88 emails a day (Radicati Group). Talk about a cluttered inbox! How can you break through the noise? 

It starts with empathy for your consumers: Understand who they are and what they care about. Put yourself in their shoes. What type of content makes them want to click and learn more?

The Changing Nature of Email Marketing

Email has been around for decades, and as technology has changed, the nature of email has changed with it. It’s adapting to faster speeds and greater volume, and like all modern methods of communication, email is taking on new forms. These days, emails are far more interactive than they used to be.

The rise of mobile devices has had a huge impact on the nature of email. For marketers, which device an email is opened on can have a big impact on how their customers choose—or don’t choose—to interact with it. Email templates need to be mobile-ready. They need to adapt to a wide variety of screen sizes and even lifestyles.

Artificial intelligence is giving us the opportunity to drill down into our own data to learn much more about our consumers, so that we can create personalized content, even for individual customers. We can understand which type of content is optimal for achieving our goals at any point in the customer journey.

It’s an exciting time to be a content marketer. However, with this great opportunity comes great responsibility. Brands of every size and industry must take care to create highly valued experiences for their customers. Otherwise, they can turn their customers away.

Good Content Meets High Expectations

With the insights from your own data, you can fully understand your customers and deliver content at a massive scale, while continuing to send personalized, relevant messages on any device or channel. No matter what industry you’re in, you are competing with the experiences that brands across the spectrum are creating for their customers. Content marketers are tasked with meeting customers’ high expectations. 

This is why content is so valuable when it is used in the right context. If you create subpar content, you are actually creating a negative experience for your customer. You are adding to the clutter in their inboxes without giving them a reason to pay attention to your brand. On the other hand, if you create a well-designed content strategy, you can surprise and delight your audience and create long-lasting relationships. 

Resources

• External: Email Statistics Report (PDF)
• Salesforce: Trailblazers of Email Anthology (Download PDF)