Our sources of information get more digital by the day, which means that people have more access than ever to a ton of options for every service and product they’re considering. Getting your business to stand out from the crowd means understanding what it takes to succeed in this digital landscape: a distinctive brand voice and an effective strategy for customer outreach. It’s not enough to have great content, though that’s a major piece of the puzzle – it’s to make sure your content is seen by the right people. To get our expert tips on how to find your business’s voice and have it heard by the customers you want to reach, keep on reading.
Write Down Your Mission
Before you do anything else to develop your content strategy, you and your team need to have a clear, indisputable idea of what your business is all about. This goes beyond the services or products you offer: it’s about finding and distinguishing your “why.” What sets you apart from the competition? Why should customers choose you above the many other options they have? Why do you love to do what you do? Outlining these core values is the first step to making sure every piece of content you create going forward is in-line with what your business truly is all about.
Create a Buyer Persona
The world of digital marketing is not built for hail mary attempts and “this will probably work”s: it’s about a fine-tuned, specific strategy, and that starts with understanding your customer. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional, data-based biography of your ideal customer. It includes their economic standing, lifestyle, marketing style, buying behaviors, and digital preferences, and it is an invaluable tool for understanding your audience’s needs – and how to meet them with content. Not every customer you attract will have identical characteristics to the ones described in your buyer persona. However, the persona is an essential tool in describing the type of person you want to attract, the online behaviors you’ll have to match, and the pain points you’ll need to anticipate.
Describe Your Tone
The best way to ensure consistency across the board is to have specific guidelines describing the tone and general feel of your brand’s content. If your target buyer is a middle-class man in his 60s, it’s probably not a good idea to use Internet slang and memes. Conversely, if you’re targeting Gen Z college students, you should prioritize aspirational, image-heavy content with shareable copy. Guidelines for your tone must be true to your business identity and mission as well as your target buyer.
Reaching your target customers and standing out from the competition starts with having specific, well-crafted content that’s compatible with both your buyer persona and your business philosophy. Once you’ve taken the steps outlined above, you’ll be well-prepared to start meeting your customers where they are in their buyer’s journey and bring in more business than ever before. To talk about digital strategy and set up a plan for optimizing your content, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.