Throughout the last few years, technology has seen significant changes. These changes have affected the way we speak, listen, and converse with audiences and will continue to do so into the future. Sanjay Dholakia, of Marketo, shared that "By 2020, marketing leaders see social as the top way to engage with their audiences.” Since this is the way of the future, now is the time for marketers to focus on their conversation strategy in order to avoid falling behind.
Additionally, thanks to ad blocking and limited attention spans on social media and other popular marketing channels, business marketers are seeing the difficulty and importance of producing well written content that can be paired with analytics and personalization to create engaging conversations with consumers.
Content Is How We Speak
Everyday people are posting pictures on Instagram, status updates on Facebook, or planning events and their social life on social media. Different phrases and terms, like blogosphere and troll, that were once internet or social media specific, have creeped into everyday life and it has even become commonplace to hear people speak text lingo.
With all of that in mind, it’s important for marketers to think about the content they are producing for their brand on social media channels. On average, “Content marketing leaders experience 7.8 times more site traffic than non-leaders.” Consumers want to know that the content they are consuming is valuable, so it is important to craft your writing (conversation) in a compelling way.
Since much of the content being develop is for a larger, more global audience than ever before, the content that is being used to communicate with consumers has now become more concise and straight to the point in an effort to hold the attention of readers and communicate points. Keep this in mind when creating content for any future conversations you have with consumers through blog posts, social media posts, etc.
Analytics Is How We Listen
Analytics is the process of analyzing data, often with a tool, to gain insight into the conversation and better understand an audience. When you pair analytics with social listening, “It gives marketers real-time access to what their audience is talking about, sharing, and consuming.” The data gained through social listening can happen over blogs as well as other social media avenues.
The data that has been collected and analyzed can help marketers find insight about their consumers, especially when trying to figure out what content is working. By looking at how their audience interacts with preferred topics, hashtags, and photos, and utilizing this information to develop new strategies that are tailored to the consumer, brands can show they are listening to consumers. Dholakia also shared that it is important for marketers and their teams to show consumers they are listening by analyzing “webpages customers spend time on, social media posts engaged with, emails opened or not opened, Interactions with call centers, and digital ads clicked.”
Personalization Is How We Converse
According to Sprinklr, “Personalization, which boosts relevancy, is a prerequisite for catching a customer’s attention—it makes customers feel like brands actually care about them and want to make their day better by adding real value.” Simply put, personalization results in higher quality content for consumers. Whether that’s through consumer personalized blog posts, Instagram photos, or posting videos, every conversation a business initiates should be personalized with their audience in mind.
By incorporating analytics as listening, personalization as conversing, and content as speaking into a marketing strategy, marketers can increase engagement and the conversation between brands and consumers. Taking this approach to future strategies is an important tactic for creating new, meaningful content that represents not only your brand, but the wants and needs of the audience.
