Are you under the impression that writing is the most important skill you need to have when it comes to creating content for your business? If so, think again! Listening is the most important skill you can have. Your customers are always communicating with you, whether it’s through positive feedback, reactions, or a lack of engagement. If you catch it, it can be one of the most valuable assets you could ever have.
When you create marketing content, your customer is always foremost in mind. Many business owners have a well-established content plan, based on an avatar of their target audience. While this is immensely useful, it can actually drown out what your existing customers are saying right to your face. You end up so focused on the data that you forget that your audience is sharing more with you. In this article, we’ll show you how to harness the power of listening to supercharge your marketing content and connect even more with your audience.
Listen to your customers: Most business owners don’t blatantly ignore what their customers are saying, but they can often miss what a customer is trying to say. Take the time to actively listen to your customers, even if what they are talking about doesn’t seem relevant, or you don’t quite connect it with a problem you can solve for them. Take note of what they say, and go back over it again. The more you listen to customers, the more patterns form, which could affect how you create future content.
Ask questions: Don’t forget to ask questions. Your customers will be only too happy to answer them. You could ask more open-ended questions on social media that allow for a longer discussion, feature a voting poll with an option for people to add their own suggestions, or create surveys for more streamlined feedback. If you show your customers you are interested in hearing their opinions, they will share a wealth of information with you.
Promote popular content: It can be tempting to share lots of fresh new content that you think will wow your audience, but if you haven’t been listening to them, it might not get the interaction you were hoping for. Focus on promoting content that your audience engages with the most and try to understand why. This will allow you to create similar content in the future that resonates with your audience.
Feature customer stories: A fantastic way to show your audience that you care about what they have to say is to feature a customer story in your content. This could be a blog post or social media post telling their story or even interviewing them if they’re not too shy! Other customers will relate to this, and feel included, as it shows you are actively listening to your audience.
Create more: When your customer sees that you are creating content in response to their feedback, or that you’ve paid attention to what they’ve shown interest in, their trust in you grows. Listen closely to them and find the content topics that your customers enjoy the most. You can take the same approach when creating ads.
Conclusion
While writing is an essential skill for creating content, listening to your customers is equally important. By taking the time to listen, ask questions, promote popular content, feature customer stories, and create more content in response to feedback, you’ll be able to supercharge your marketing efforts and better connect with your audience.
