Research first. Content follows. Repeat often.
Research. Remember that discipline? As marketing careens into an overabundance of content and clutter, making sure that you are talking to the targeted audience, using the right words, and delivering those words at the appropriate time has never been more important.
While Marketers today are obsessed with volume, the need to absolutely understand the needs and desires of markets and sub-markets has fallen to the curb. The daily (hourly?) race to produce and publish content has driven us to “create at all costs”. It doesn’t matter as much if the recipient of our content really wants, understands, appreciates, and is willing to take the desired actions.
We create for the sake of creating. There are pages to be filled, posts that need to be posted and blogs to be populated. If we don’t take the time to build and understand the persona we are targeting, we are unlikely to be able to communicate effectively to them.
Research used to be the starting point. No marketer worth their weight in Sharpies would put pen to paper or fingertip to keyboard without thoroughly researching the disposition of the intended recipient.
Consumer research exists to find the links between the target desires and the product attributes. When research identified the opportunity, the client product or service could be presented to fulfill that void.
Consumer research is critical because it is the only way to ensure that your content lands, breaks through, and delivers. The smart folks at Grand Canyon University explained the value of research in five simple reasons:
It puts the customer first. Not the company, the product or the service. It allows the message to get to the heart of what the customer wants.
It helps the company to focus. And most importantly, to focus on the perspective of the customer.
It keeps you relevant. Allowing you to evolve, as you must.
It minimizes risk. Minimize wasted investments that miss the mark.
It defines your audience. You can’t build the persona without that definition.
As content continues to be king, we should also take a moment to step back, get a grip, and proceed carefully to understand who we are talking to, what they want and need and how our solution will satisfy that need.
Being able to craft content that lands directly into the intellectual sweet spot of our targets is our job. Research allows us to do that job effectively.
The research that went into this blog BTW, allowed it to reach you and hold you all the way to the end. Thanks for engaging. Exactly as research told me you would do.