Deliver A Meaningful Customer Experience With Content

By , Published November 4, 2014

The role of content marketing in B2B organizations is growing in exciting and specialized ways. It’s not uncommon these days to come across titles like content localizer, technical communicator or communication taxonomist. It’s given the content community lots to talk about.

Last week, content enthusiasts gathered at Information Development World in San Jose, Calif. to discuss these changes and to learn from specialized content experts at companies like Google, HP, Sony, and Yahoo.

The theme of the event boiled down to this: Content marketing is only successful when integrated across all marketing channels for a singular, meaningful customer experience.

Here are four tips to help you deliver a meaningful customer experience with your content marketing programs:

1. Update existing tools and technologies for creating and distributing content

Content marketers are bogged down with a variety of responsibilities. This lack of focus can keep them from doing what they do best: writing or designing original content for prospects and customers. A large part of this time sink can be attributed to outdated tools and technologies. Evaluate processes regularly to identify responsibilities or processes which can be eliminated or automated by a new or existing technology. A good example of a content marketing process that can be automated is the updating of a content resources page. There are publishing tools available to instantly update content availability across web locations.

2. Create a transparent and group-oriented approach to content development

Great content doesn’t happen in a vacuum. At BrightTALK we have an editorial team who is responsible for determining a content strategy and roadmap. The content editorial team consists of individuals in a variety of organizational departments, including product, sales and marketing. A cross-functional editorial team can better pinpoint gaps in existing customer experiences and predict future content needs.

Once finalized, it is important to publish that content roadmap to the business and its partners. There are two benefits to communicating your content goals to stakeholders: the business will better understand the value content brings to the business and stakeholders will be more likely to utilize the content that is created.

3. Modernize outdated content production processes

Organizations need to keep a steady content conversation with their customers. In addition to original content creation, modern content teams are effectively repurposing their original content for new formats. Repurposing content allows a modern content team to efficiently produce the amount of content needed to stay relevant with their customers. In addition to repurposing, these teams are curating content for easier accessibility on the website and website visitor relevance. Curation can also be expanded to include partner content. By performing a full website content audit, teams are better able to organize content based on consumer need — sometimes what you need already exists!

Webinar pro tip: Have a transcript made from every webinar. The transcript of the webinar can be partitioned out as the basis for multiple blog posts or expanded to become a full guide.

4. Make customers your content priority

There are many “asks” on a content team: sales decks, meeting collateral, marketing resources, etc. It is easy for a content team to find themselves with multiple internal customers. Yet with so much bandwidth spent on internal customers, the actual customer can become a secondary priority. The better a customer’s experience is, the fewer resources will be required to move the partnership forward. Instead, keep a running list of content requests outside of the customer experience and tackle them as needed. Your customers will thank you.

To learn more about using content to create an excellent customer experience, watch the keynotes from Robert Rose, Greg Parikh, Janice Zdankus, and more from Information Development World.


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