How Good Content Lets Your Customers Know You Care

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Whether you are a start-up company, regional SME or global corporation, chances are how you and your staff provide great service to your own customers is a process that has been carefully honed and refined. The customer care you provide should after all be your biggest USP as a brand, especially as super savvy consumers expect more from the companies they spend their hard earned cash with.

Nowadays you have more versatility than ever to deliver the very best customer care, but social media channels and live chat tools aside, content as customer service is becoming more important. In recent years, content marketing has become integral to the online profiles of organisations of all sizes and niches. Now, with the right strategy, you can use good content to engage, inform and even inspire your customer base, regardless of whether your aim is to attract new customers, retain existing ones or both.

In this article, we take a closer look at how important providing the right information in the form of blog posts, infographics and social posts is when it comes to your customers and whether publishing such content can in fact increase customer engagement as a result.

Is content the key to customer engagement?

Publishing your own content both on-site and off of course harnesses a great number of benefits for businesses. From increasing visibility in search and upping your domain authority to boosting referral traffic, social reach and conversion potential.

The right content published in the right places also has the power to improve a brand’s reputation, cementing their status as a knowledgeable and experienced market leader in their respective fields. As well as having lower upfront costs, utilising content marketing as part of your brand strategy unlocks deeper, long term benefits, particularly when compared with other tactics such as pay-per-click advertising. But, the question is, does producing brand focused, customer orientated content lead to better customer service and indeed enhanced engagement? In short, yes, and here are the statistics that prove it:

• Brands that publish blog content on their website have 434% more indexed pages than those who don’t.
• Even for small businesses, blogging on a regular basis leads to 126% more leads than those who don’t keep their on-site blog updated.
• After reading recommendations provided on a blog, 61% of online consumers make a purchase.
• Content marketing as a whole, generates conversion rates six times higher than any other traditional marketing method.
• Blogging has a direct impact on traffic too, with websites publishing 16 or more posts each month enjoying 3.5 times more traffic than those publishing four or less according to HubSpot.
• It’s not just on-site blogs where content makes a huge difference to the customer experience. Some 71% of consumers said a good social media service experience would make them more likely to recommend a brand to a family member, friend or colleague.
• There are a vast number of opportunities that are just waiting to be unlocked by brands willing to invest a little time in implementing a content marketing strategy. Good content is an excellent communication tool, and effectively connects brands with consumers who have an interest in their field of expertise.

How can I use content as customer service?

Despite the successful statistics connected to content marketing methods, using content as customer service is under-utilized or under-resourced across a variety of industry sectors. Many brands now provide customer service through their social media channels. Social media is in fact the top choice for consumers looking for good customer service, yet 89% of social media messages received by brands are ignored. The average response time for the messages that are replied to is also poor, taking brands on average 10 hours to get back to a customer with a query. The average social media user however is only willing to wait 4 hours according to research conducted by Sprout Social.

Publishing content across your social media channels, blog roll and off-site via a network of carefully selected, credible websites is the key to promoting a customer focused culture brand-wide, but how can you really make the most of your content offering? Here we provide our top tips for using content as customer service to increase engagement and reputation, whilst staying true to your brand.

Post regularly and with purpose

As we’ve seen from the statistics mentioned above, posting good content on your website’s blog roll is often a sure fire way to increase traffic but it is also an excellent way to stay engaged with your target audience. You don’t have to just post via your blog either, mixing up content production and publication across a range of channels, including your blog roll, social media profiles and third party websites is important.

Choose topics that will resonate with your audience for the biggest impact. Posting for engagement is about finding and talking about subjects that your audience is genuinely interested in, so do some market research and get to know what your customers are really passionate about. As well as using your findings to focus on the evergreen topics that are integral to your brand, you can use content across your blog, social media channels and guest post appearances to answer the questions commonly asked by your audience, set service or product expectations, and communicate product or service information and news.

Go long form for quality

Posts come in all shapes and sizes, and whilst you are restricted in some respects with social media posting, the possibilities are endless in terms of word count when posting to your own blog or indeed selected third party websites. Long form content however is an excellent route to better engagement and higher quality. Take this long form how-to guide for example, a fun subject matter with lots of useful information, two factors that are certain to impress your audience.

Get creative with your content

Good content doesn’t have to be just words, there is so much to explore in regards to the creative, brand consistent content types. Infographics are favourites among industry insiders; as well as being a colourful addition to your blog roll and guest post contributions, they garner excellent engagement results on social media. Infographics are liked and shared three times more than any other content type on social media so it’s certainly worth the effort of teaming words with graphics.

Like with long form content, there is tons of infographic inspiration out there – this infographic from MacFly Pro is a personal favourite of ours. As our example proves pretty much any subject matter can be explored with infographics, even the long running debate of whether Apple or Android is better!

Using content as customer service is a tactic that can be easily called upon by so many brands, and there are plenty of rewards for those brave enough to embrace content as customer service. From building a community of loyal customers and branding your company an authority figure in its respective industry to getting to know your audience, improving SEO and simply adding value to your online offering, content marketing has the power to not only show your customer who you are as a brand but show them that you care.

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Sharing The Spotlight: Customers Are The New Celebrities

Influencer marketing is nothing new: companies have been using celebrity endorsements to promote products for decades, if not centuries. But the rise of social media has inspired a new generation of brand ambassadors, and they are real people.

I can still hear Paul Higham’s voice resonating in my mind, “Real People, B.J., Real People.”  Paul was the CMO of Walmart at the time.  After analyzing over 2,000 touch points of influence, Paul was confident that “Real People” were the best ambassadors for the brand. In those days (1989), the internet was not as influential as it is today. So, Paul created a strategy featuring real customers on National TV; this allowed the brand to share 30 seconds of fame with its best customers. Ten Countries and $200 billion in sales later, Paul’s “Real People” strategy was a complete success.

In an amusing side note, most of the TV commercials did not win any awards. However, they did win where it counted most: at the cash register.

The Power of Authenticity

Authentic, customer-led storytelling enhances brand awareness and influences purchasing decisions. We recommend starting small by building relationships with a few carefully selected Brand Lovers—your best customers. Embracing your Brand Lovers and giving them a stage can accelerate your business growth.

Let’s take a quick look at influencer marketing by the numbers:

• Consumer-to-consumer word-of-mouth marketing generates more than twice the sales of paid advertising. (Source: McKinsey)
• 81% of consumers make purchasing decisions based on friends’ social media posts. (Source: Market Force via Forbes)
• 43% of social media users buy a product after sharing or “liking” it. (Source: Vision Critical)

It’s easy to see that people trust themselves and each other more than they trust advertising. Once a person validates his or her choice socially, the purchasing follows.

Here is how three top companies have augmented their traditional marketing messages by partnering with Brand Lovers to share brand and product stories:

Zappos’ VIP fashion and style bloggers

To promote its offerings beyond shoes, the digital retailer engaged with influential fashion and style bloggers, giving the VIP group $300 in shopping credits each month to purchase and design an outfit from Zappos.com.

The strategy paid off. After just a few months, the top referring blogger had generated $9,000 in trackable revenue.

Pottery Barn’s holiday influencers

The beautiful images in Pottery Barn’s catalog can be inspiring, but the level of perfection can also be a bit intimidating.

Brand Marketing Director Kris Mulkey wanted to expand the company’s holiday marketing to show what items could look like in real homes.The brand worked with 12 influencers to show how different types of customers across the country celebrate and decorate for the winter holidays.

“When we’re posting things that are real and feel authentic, people respond,” Mulkey said.

ThredUP’s #badassmoms

ThredU, Chief Marketing Officer Anthony Marino builds the brand by showing customers that the company “gets it.”

“We have a campaign right now running on the site … where we profile some ‘badass moms’ —moms who are makers, breakers, strivers, doing great things in their communities who’ve had some fascinating lives,” Marino says. “We’ve found this has been an incredible bit of storytelling that helps our customers see the types of other moms [who] get involved in ThredUP and how they choose to live.”

Powerful Marketing

The allure of Hollywood stars and charismatic athletes is far from over, but for many brands, the realness and authenticity of everyday customer stories hold powerful marketing potential.

Delight Your Customers Before Your Competitors Do

Cult Brands are masters at building meaningful, long-term relationships with their customers.

Understanding the strategies behind these businesses with raving fan communities enables you to apply the same principles to your business, and build sustainable growth.

Here are four ways to give your best customers a VIP experience:

1: Surprise Them

Connect your brand promise with customer rewards to delight your biggest fans.

MasterCard made their brand promise a reality by surprising customers with “priceless” moments: VIP tickets to the Grammys, jam sessions with Justin Timberlake, and acting lessons with Hugh Jackman.

What can you do to surprise and delight your customers?

2: Give First Access

In 2014, pop sensation Taylor Swift searched the Internet to find fans across the US and UK to invite them to a secret gathering. The unsuspecting fans were joined by Swift at private listening parties for her album “1989” a month ahead of the release. Swift’s brand lovers—her Swifties—were rewarded with first access to her music and personal time with their idol. Swift took the opportunity to connect with her best customers on a human level. The “top secret” sessions generated 2 million views and Swift sold 1.2 million albums in the first week.

First access to a product or service can drive loyalty and create positive word of mouth towards your brand.

What are some new products or services that you have in the works that your brand lovers can experience first?

3: Break Bread

Friends who eat together, stay together.

Inviting your best customers over for dinner is a great way to create genuine friendships. These moments are ideal for listening to customers’ needs and finding out why they love doing business with you. It also allows your employees to meet the people they are serving and create positive memories with them.

With time, customers can even consider you a part of the family.

Try creating an event where your team shares their favorite foods with some of your best customers.

4: Care About Them

Connecting on a human level with a customer makes them feel like a VIP. Support their cause. Send them flowers when they are sick or celebrating. Congratulate them when they reach important milestones in life. Show them that you care about what they care about.

What do your customers care about?

Customer satisfaction is just the start.

When you make your customers feel very important, you unlock the power of your brand.