1. Good content is determined by the audience, not the writer.
Have you ever had a conversation with someone who always assumed they knew what you were going to say before you said it? Annoying, right? Keep that in mind when you are writing the content for your company blog and social media outlets. The best thing you can do for your business and your customers is to answer the questions they are actively seeking, not giving them information you are assuming they want to know.
We'll get into how to write relevent content in another blog, but for now, the first step is to be aware that you may not be saying everything your customers want to know (yet).
2. Good content speaks human.
Another important thing to remember is that your audience and customer base are human. At least, the last time we checked. This means the folks reading your web content and blog like to laugh, engage with real-life stories, identify with anecdotes, look at attractive visuals, and feel something once they are done.
After all, that is your ultimate goal--to draw them in and make them do all sorts of action verbs: dig, want, buy, contact, give, love, share, rave.
3. Good content pays it forward.
While inbound marketing can be the most efficient use of your advertising dollars (seriously, every penny is worth it), it's only effective if you can commit to writing blogs and pages that help to improve the lives of the humans reading it. We're not talking "Meaning of Life" stuff. We're not even talking about direct product promotion (even if you know your product is positively life-altering). Good content is about making a positive impact, whether by showing how they can save money, how they can make an informed decision, the varied or unexpected uses of your product, or how they can make their goals more easily.
Your approach each and every time is to leave them with the feeling that they can count on you to make them feel better about what they can buy, what they can do with it, and what they can handle.
4. Good content speaks for itself.
What we mean is this: The content you deliver to your customers shouldn't always have to beg for the sale. Or the email address. Or the information form. By all means, keep those buttons and tools available for when they are ready; just don't make them do the heavy lifting. If you keep the above rules in mind as you write, you can trust your content to do most of the work for you.
After all, you've connected with them, shown you know a lot about them and the questions they have about your product and how it can be used, made references to things that are important to them, responded to their concerns, and kept them in the loop of product updates, additions, and arrivals. By the time your customers are ready to commit, they are more than halfway to becoming a raving fan.
5. Good content can only go so far.
Of course, all the amazing words in the world aren't going to save you if you drop the ball on the customer service end. Your inbound marketing will only ever be as successful as the ability of your business to actually deliver on promises and on product. We say it all the time--do good business, get good business--and we mean it. It does no good to write engaging, approachable, mind-blowing paragraphs if customers are treated negatively on the phone or in person, or if your products fail to deliver as promised.
Stay the course (which is always set to "high road"), and use as many resources as you can to reach as many prospects as possible (hint: that's us. And also coffee).
