"Just creating content doesn't bring people in, so I feel I need to run ads. What should I do?"
"I want people to explore more content, but how can I make that happen?"
I've heard these kinds of questions repeatedly lately.
Who do you want to attract? What benefits does browsing offer users?
Upon closer examination, it became clear that in both cases, planning centered around what they wanted to communicate, and the audience receiving the content had somehow slipped out of focus.
Content is fundamentally "information that is beneficial and persuasive to the recipient." Yet, this "to the recipient" aspect seems to be a common pitfall, one that even those with extensive experience in advertising or brand planning, or those with deep expertise in web marketing, easily fall into.
For instance, they might conduct user research that appears to properly engage with the target audience, yet fail to fully bridge the gap between survey responses and true feelings, or they might understand the audience as a mass rather than as individuals. Or, despite defining personas in detail, they end up being stereotypes lacking real-world authenticity—personas created for the sake of creating personas. Or, even when results appear solid on paper, the focus becomes solely on hitting target numbers, leading to superficial tactics disconnected from users' true feelings.
Furthermore, especially for products like financial services, housing, telecommunications, and automobiles—where the consideration period is longer than for daily necessities and users seek diverse information—the inherent information gap tends to lead to sender-driven communication. This often results in purchase support and harvesting that serve the sender's convenience. The question remains: are we truly meeting what users genuinely seek? It seems we need to be even more meticulous and attentive than in other industries.
Therefore, while it may seem obvious, I want to revisit and clarify the most important and fundamental points when implementing content marketing.
1) Who is this content intended for?
The "who" here requires envisioning a very specific "someone." It's often said that a message meant for everyone ends up reaching no one.
Having a specific "someone" in mind allows you to plan not only the content itself but also the delivery methods like SEO and PR from the planning stage.
2) What action do you want them to take?
This is where content differs significantly from advertising—it's not just about reaching people. You need to plan what you want recipients to do next. What actions do you want them to take? However, it's crucial that the actions you envision aren't forced or self-serving, like making them navigate through multiple pages just because you want them to.
3) What benefits does the content and action provide to the user?
Merely creating content that aligns with users' lifestyles or interests won't easily capture their attention. Furthermore, if you only offer incentives to prompt action, it becomes difficult to build long-term relationships.
What benefits do users gain from viewing that content or taking that action? We must constantly consider this, encompassing not only functional aspects but also emotional ones.
Whether these aspects are working effectively often becomes apparent once actual operations begin. Content marketing that properly identifies its "audience" from the start makes each analysis and PDCA meeting highly effective during the operational phase. This is because these meetings become focused on interpreting the psychology of the targeted audience based on the emerging data.
On the other hand, content marketing launched without properly identifying the audience often leads to analysis and PDCA meetings that devolve into mere reporting of numbers and discussions about tactics to boost those numbers.
Both approaches might yield similar short-term results. However, a difference will surely emerge in the medium to long term.
So, which direction is your content marketing heading right now?
From the Front Lines of Content Marketing [29]
