How much you know and how much you care
I’ve discussed before that knowledge is an important element in your content marketing but another thing, just as important, is emotion. Controversial? Yes, as many think that showing your emotion is a form of weakness, however, it is also a form of connection. So, how does it have a place within your content marketing?
In short: yes.
Why is emotion necessary within content marketing?
What value does it bring to your clients, and what value does it bring to your firm?
First, let’s discuss a simple concept. Your content marketing should focus on how much you know and how much you care. Let’s quickly place a definition on each distinct aspect:
- How much you know. This is your expertise, your years of learning and your experience in supporting clients and their businesses to succeed. It speaks directly to the information you share within your content. This can be very specific, like statistics and cut-and-dry facts, or more general information, like best practices and advice.
- How much you care is more in line with how you couch this information. This is about offering value to your clients and providing ‘how much you know’ within the context of their environment and business situation – it’s one thing to be an industry expert, but are you just yelling facts and figures at the wall? Or are you actually giving your clients valuable content that offers them takeaways and not just an info dump?
Both of these concepts should be present within your content marketing seamlessly, blending both emotion and knowledge throughout a piece of content.
We’ve set the stage for explaining emotion within content marketing. Now let’s break things down, question by question.
Why is emotion necessary within content marketing?
We reflected above on the idea that how much you care speaks to the value you offer your clients, but let’s take a deeper look. If you want to build relationships with your clients, thus fostering loyalty and creating stickiness, you have to forge a connection with them. This isn’t done with simple statistics and informative blog posts.
Your content is a teaching tool, and the best teachers are the ones that develop a one-on-one rapport with their students. Your firm and your clients share a similar relationship; you teach them how to operate using your knowledge and advice in the specific areas they need your support. They tach you about their business so that your advice becomes more relevant and valuable, the more you understand about them. Showing that you care about offering them value means you’re deepening your bond.
What value does it bring to your clients, and what value does it bring to your firm?
Building brand loyalty isn’t easy, no matter what industry you’re in. Your firm will find success when you truly connect with your clients. This creates a symbiotic relationship: by adding emotion and value to your content marketing, your clients are more inclined to feel loyalty to your firm. In return, your firm establishes a list of clients that are loyal and unlikely to switch to a different service.
How do you blend both emotion and knowledge throughout a piece of content?
There are two easy ways to pull this off: tone and value proposition.
- Tone is how you speak to your audience and your clients through your content marketing. Think about writing every piece of content like you’re speaking to a client directly across the table from you. It should be friendly and speak to their needs as much as possible.
- Value proposition is how much value you’re actually providing to them. Again, it’s not wise to simply drop a bunch of facts in their lap with little to no explanation. Add value to pieces by explaining why services and information pieces are important. Your content should provide information, then explain the context as to why they should find it so crucial.
I’ve seen many clients who want to keep their content ’professional’– very stoic, clinical and filled with complicated jargon. But that’s not how you actually connect to your clients.
Your content marketing should work towards fostering that relationship, and you can’t do that without forging that connection between how much you know and how much you care.