Quick… Think of your three closest friends. Now, describe each one’s personality in a couple of words. You may think that John is hilarious yet hardworking, that Mary is straight-laced and serious, and that Suzy is carefree and optimistic.
Quick… Now think about your business. Can you describe its “personality” in a couple of words?
If you can’t, your customers (and potential customers) can’t, either!
Sure, if people do enough business with you, they’ll learn that your company is professional, efficient, reliable, and all kinds of other good things.
But what about the people who haven’t done business with you yet?
The only way they’re going to know anything about your business’ “personality” is through your content – whether it’s the sales copy on your home page, the posts on your blog, or the articles that you’ve given to other websites in your niche. So, if your content marketing strategy isn’t “human” enough, they’ll never know what to think about you. More importantly, if people don’t know how to describe you, they’ll never be able to relate to you.
That means your odds of getting them to spend any money with you are slim.
After all, people are cautious about which businesses get their hard-earned money – and they tend to be even more cautious when the business doing the selling is online. Unfortunately, the less-than-stellar online businesses have created a steep hill to climb for the rest of us. If your web visitors don’t know what your “personality” is (which is really a measure of what they can expect from you), they’ll never trust you enough to buy anything from you!
So, how do you come up with a “human” content marketing strategy?
First, think about how you want people to view you. This is similar to building a brand; the only difference is that you’re thinking in terms of human emotions. Specifically, if your business was a person, how would you want people to describe it? Professional and serious? Formal and straight-laced? Reliable and witty?
Once you come up with the “personality” that you want, you have to figure out how to actually create it. That means coming up with a content marketing strategy that matches your chosen adjectives. For example, if you want people to think that your business is reliable and witty, create a blog that presents things in a humorous way – but be sure to include lots of hard facts. That way, people will come to discover that you give them everything they need to know – but that you do it in a way that’s funny and engaging.
As soon as your content marketing strategy has a specific “voice”, people will begin to feel like they’re talking to YOU – not some corporate entity. That’s crucial, because successful web content is supposed to make readers feel like they’re having a one-on-one conversation with the author. If they feel like you’re talking in “corporate-speak”, they won’t relate to you.
The important part, though, is to stick to your voice. If you have a blog that’s normally witty, and you throw in a post that’s really serious and straight-laced, your readers will feel like they’re talking to someone other than you. And unfortunately, heaping a “stranger” on them is no way to earn their trust!
So, the next time you’re about to hit “Publish”, make sure that it fits in with your human content marketing strategy. If it doesn’t, you’re doing your business a real disservice!