{"id":21220,"date":"2019-01-21T08:23:39","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T13:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/?p=21220"},"modified":"2019-01-16T18:23:58","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T23:23:58","slug":"strengthen-content-strategy-customer-input","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/strengthen-content-strategy-customer-input\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Strengthen Your Content Strategy with Customer Input"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the first things you learn when you start doing content marketing for your business is how important it is to learn who your audience is. Marketers use a lot of different techniques and tools for this-reviewing analytics, turning to <\/span>market research tools<\/span><\/a>, investing in <\/span>social listening<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

But surprisingly, <\/span>research from the Content Marketing Institute <\/span><\/a>found that 58% of marketers are skipping the most obvious tactic of all for getting to know your audience: talking to them directly.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Importance of Talking to Your Customers<\/span><\/h2>\n

Analytics can show you trends in what products customers buy, or which content topics they respond to, but they can\u2019t always tell you why. And social listening can alert you to complaints about your products online, but they often leave out key information you need to understand the problem and provide a satisfying solution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of the tools and tactics you can use to learn about your audience are second hand. They can help you see overall trends, but they leave out important context. By asking your customers direct questions-or even better, actually having a two-way conversation with them-you can fill in the gaps in your knowledge and hear directly from the source.<\/span><\/p>\n

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How to Get Customer Input<\/span><\/h2>\n

The why of talking to your customers is pretty self-explanatory: you want to get to know who they are and what they care about. The how is what makes it a challenge to do at all and, more importantly, do well.<\/span><\/p>\n

For those in the 58% of marketers that could use some help to start communicating with your customers, we talked to Cathy McPhillips, Vice President of Marketing at the Content Marketing Institute for some tips on how to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n

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1. Make sure you ask the right questions.<\/span><\/h3>\n

First things first, if you\u2019re going to make an effort to start listening to your customers more, you have to be strategic about the questions you ask. <\/span><\/p>\n

'Definitely have questions planned in advance and definitely take those questions and cycle them through the whole organization,'\u009d Cathy recommends. <\/span><\/p>\n

One person shouldn\u2019t be deciding what to talk about in a vacuum. Consulting other departments ensures you\u2019ll get a wider view of what you need to know and that you\u2019re not overlooking important information other people in the company need <\/span><\/p>\n

And don\u2019t just stick with that same list of questions as you go. Each person you talk to is unique, so tailor the questions you ask where relevant. And use the feedback you get early on to make changes to your questions that make them more useful.<\/span><\/p>\n

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2. Use social media.<\/span><\/h3>\n

'The easiest way to [start getting input from customers] is to start using your social media<\/a> and use places you\u2019ve already started building an audience,'\u009d Cathy suggests. <\/span><\/p>\n

The whole point of social media is to be social, so treat it like a platform for two-way communication with your followers. \u00a0Ask questions via LinkedIn groups or Twitter chats, or wherever you\u2019re already connected with people. Listen to what they say and make an organized record of what you learn. Social media may be a good place to hear from your audience, but it\u2019s not the greatest place for organizing that information or finding it again later. <\/span><\/p>\n

You definitely don\u2019t want to stop with social media, but it can be a good place to start communicating more directly with your audience and may help you spot some of the best customers to reach out to for more detailed conversations. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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3. Conduct a survey.<\/span><\/h3>\n

A survey is one of the easiest places to start getting more direct feedback from your customers. If you\u2019re worried about getting people to actually spend a few minutes taking a survey, Cathy has two main suggestions:<\/span><\/p>\n