Because so much of what we do with marketing nowadays is online, we tend to forget that we are dealing with people. We lose sight of the fact that our core purpose behind everything we do is the people—helping them with an issue, converting them to customers, and so on. If you are not constantly thinking of the people who you create your content for, it will show.
As great as catchy titles and creative imagery are, content is king. When we focus only on creating something for Google, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. based on keyword density, image sizes, and audience demographics, we lose something very important. We lose that human element. We have to think about the people we are actually creating said content for. The Social Marketers very own Susanna Gebauer had a great quote about this:
“Shouldn’t we concentrate more on creating content from people for people? Speaking as humans to humans?”
SEO content is important, yes, but cheap and easy does not help you gain trust with the people who land on your page. It is more critical to focus on engaging people in a conversation. You must be a thought leader in your field. Getting people to your site is one thing, but keeping them there—actually convincing them to buy your product or service—is a whole other one. People don’t want some half-assed attempt at content; they want to be wowed by your knowledge and personality. When you show them that they are just like you—that you’re not some strange marketing robot—they are more likely to trust you as a brand.
The main thing to take away from this is to bring in that human element at literally every point of contact. Here are some of the many places you should add in some of your own personality:
- Blog posts and comments
- Tweets—and responses too!
- Customer service (this one should be obvious)
- All forms of social media
- Forums and such (thought leadership at its finest)
- Conferences and trade shows
It can be kind of difficult bridging the gap between safe behind a computer screen and dealing with people. We have to remember that we are always dealing with people. And no matter what we do, they are constantly assessing us, sizing us up, deciding whether or not our brand is worth their money. It is our job to impress them with our reputation and exceed their expectations.
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