Content marketers: don't overlook the basics
In Relevant and Valued, I've been writing about how content marketing is a great way to 'attract, acquire, engage and enthuse a clearly defined and understood target audience with the objective of driving profitable customer behaviour'.
Last week, I received 'Remote working: a complete guide' through the post to my office address from THUS: 'a UK-focused business telecommunications company with a strong belief in its people and the services it provides to customers'.
The guide is an expensively-produced brochure which discusses the merits of remote working and its value for business and provides an overview of the technologies available. It usefully defines 3 different segments of remote worker: home, mobile and field workers in order to help the reader understand the distinctions between and the considerations for each when considering the solutions and services that will benefit your business. It takes on the issue of security and explains how a balance needs to be struck between enabling accessibility for remote workers and keeping the corporate network secure. In short, it is a reasonably strong attempt at educating and informing prospects about the issues at stake.
However, the mailing has significant weaknesses which will limit its success.
- Why me? I have never shown an interest in THUS or their services or in remote working as an issue. Like millions of others I already remote work and my organization has an effective policy and set of tools to facilitate it but it's not likely to be something I'm going to take a lead on in my business, nor do the ins and outs of remote working particularly interest me. To be frank, I'm not sure why THUS mailed me or thought that remote working was specifically relevant to my needs or interests.
- They have my job title incorrect. So they got my name from a mailing list and not a particularly useful one at that. This is saying 'we don't really know you'.
- Calls to action are weak. It's all a little understated. 'for further information on remote working please call...', 'if you are looking at how to mobilise your workforce, please contact us on...' Where's the value statement? What's making me want to get on the phone? Give me a reason to act.
- It's all a little bland - although I would say that as I wasn't interested in the first place! If it's not relevant then it won't be valued.
The marketers at THUS would do well to consider the following:
- Pre-qualify leads by asking prospects to sign up rather than mailing them cold. This could be achieved through targeted e-marketing, advertising with a strong call to action or through search engine marketing. Pursuing a permission-led strategy will ensure that the content reaches the people that are likely to be most interested and most likely to act. This makes for a much more effective use for your marketing spend.
- Pull not push? - maximize search engine results for key phrases that your customers care about. THUS does appear in the first few results of a UK Google search for 'remote working', so scores reasonably well on that front.
- Communicate a clear value proposition. THUS is weak in this regard: the sales letter states that the company is 'one of the few providers that offer a wide range of hardware, services and applications, as well as the expertise needed, to create solutions that overcome these concerns as well as help you to realise the true benefits of remote working'. This doesn't pass the 'so what?' test.
- Integrate offline and online marketing messages. I can't find the THUS guide online and whilst they do have a remote working landing page on their website, the content is positioned as the 'Remote Working Solution', defined as 'a comprehensive communications package for remote employees'. The offline communication does not refer to this branding of the solution in any way. Inconsistency will confuse customers - you have to replicate online and offline messages.
All this goes to demonstrate why a well-conceived but poorly excecuted content marketing campaign will not deliver its intended objective of driving profitable customer behaviour, no matter how compelling the content is. I suspect that THUS needs to get back to direct marketing basics if the company wants to make the most of its otherwise promising content marketing strategy.
Be relevant, be valued and get your customers to act.
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