It’s not about you!

Today’s marketers must meet prospects on their “online” turf and engage them with relevant content. The higher the relevance, the higher the value your content has as currency to pay for their attention. Marketers must understand why the imperative for buyer knowledge presents a huge opportunity for increasing both lead quality and quantity with the precision that helps turn

prospects into buyers. By flipping your focus to parallel buyer perspectives, marketing online content can be used to higher effectiveness during each stage of the buying process

Flip your marketing focus

Marketing content is no longer relevant if it’s focused on what companies want their customers to know about them. The only thing that matters is to provide information that your prospects and customers care about—content that addresses what matters most to them. The ability to do this well requires a flip in focus away from your company and to the people you serve, your customer. Marketing content needs to focus on what prospects are buying instead of what companies think they’re selling.

Relevant content is the new currency

Relative content is the new medium of exchange between companies and buyers. With customers taking control of their buying process and so much information competing for notice, the relevance of your content must be perceived as high enough to pay for their attention. The value of your marketing content as currency is also determined by how many of your prospects decide to pay you by sharing their information and opting in to receive more.

The importance of buyer knowledge

The strength of your marketing content’s currency depends upon the level of relevance assigned to it by the prospects you want to become customers. The only way to reliably improve this perception is by addressing what matters most to your prospects. Not just for the decision maker, but for all the people involved in the buying process.

Marketers need to take the initiative to continuously update and refine what they know about their buyers.  One of the best ways to increase relevance with prospects is to use the language they use to talk about their problems. If they talk about bottlenecks, discussing performance improvements may not produce the same level of engagement as using the words they use intuitively. When you listen to prospects, make note of how they describe issues of importance. Remember that listening to your customers may not produce the same results as you’ve already indoctrinated them with some of your company’s terminology and language.

When asked, nearly half the customers said they’re taking more time during the research and consideration stages. The implication for marketers is that by improving relevance and helping your prospects learn what they need to know in an efficient manner, your online marketing content could play an even larger role in reducing cycle times.