Businesses need their content to satisfy multiple goals. They want it to:
- Help them rank high in search engines
- Get more clicks
- Increase awareness
- Establish trust and authority
- Convent readers to customers
These are worthy goals, no doubt, but they have one thing in common: they’re set to help the business, not the customer.
If you want to achieve better rankings, earn trust and convince people to open their wallets, you need to foster relationships. It’s easy to lose sight of that in the constant battle for the peak of Mount Google, especially when many companies trust their content marketing strategies to SEO agencies that focus primarily on keywords, structure and metrics. All best practices, to be sure, but in the process, many lose sight of the customer.
An audience-centric focus differentiates great content from good content, and it’s not difficult to achieve when you ask one question:
How does this improve my customers’ lives?
Ask this question before you start to shape your next article, social post, white paper or video. Keep it top of mind while you develop your content. When you read or watch your finished piece, ask if the answer to that question is obvious. If not, your content isn’t finished.
Answering this question is a simple way to ensure your content delivers real value. When you do that consistently, you’ll become the authoritative resource your audience trusts. You’ll climb the search rankings and convert visitors to customers. By helping your customers achieve their goals, you’ll achieve your business goals.
This isn’t to say you should ignore SEO. In fact, we’d argue that it should be included on any list of SEO best practices. However, in a highly competitive world where nearly everyone knows SEO basics, improving customers’ lives – creating value – will help you rise above the noise and earn the respect you need to succeed.