Does your content ecosystem make your future customers happy?
Hello,
This week I had a big fat reminder about not trying to do things when tired. I was trying to get a lovely page ready for the Supercharge Your Content workshop on 9 November.
“Oh I know, I’ll copy the last SEO workshop one”, thinking this would be a quick and dirty copy change. Bung in a new image and done.
Yep. I managed to overwrite the ACTUAL live page.
Oops.
Don’t do things when tired. You’ll do twice the work.
If you want to check out my new quick and dirty signup page for the Supercharge Your Content masterclass, it is here.
I may even tweak it between writing and your reading this.
One thing I didn’t do tired this week was give a presentation on lead magnets - what they are, what they are not and why you might be thinking about them all wrong. It was for the Bigger Brighter Bolder community, who are awesome.
Anyway, it inspired a whole load of brilliant lead magnets that I look forward to seeing.
But onwards to the second of three parts in my content ecosystem series. This week I’m digging into the customer journey.
Does your content ecosystem make your future customers happy?
When we talk about content systems, there are two at play. The internal one that you use behind the scenes and the external one that brings in the big bucks. You need both sides of your content ecosystem to work in harmony to make your future customers happy. No matter what the size of your business.
I’ve got a lovely example of how this can work so that you can develop your own blueprint for creating a better customer journey. I’ll get into all of that in a moment, let’s first dig into those two different kinds of content systems.
Your front-facing content is everything that your audience and customers can see from the outside. It’s the blogs, social posts, freebies, sales pages, emails etc. All that good stuff. Then you’ve also got content going on behind the scenes.
Next week, I’m going to dig into the behind-the-scenes content but for now, we’re going to be looking at the forward-facing content. And if you want a taster of the processes that underlie making all of this work (no matter what the size of your business) then you should sign up for the Supercharge Your Content masterclass on Thursday 9 November.
Connecting the content to the customer journey
Last week, I went over how to think about your content ecosystem. If you missed it, you can read it here. We’re now looking at why we create all that content in the first place: to nudge someone along from not knowing who you are to buying from you again and again.
Your content needs to work within a larger customer journey to shift people along. Otherwise, what’s the point? It’s creating content for the sake of it which is a massive waste of your time.
Mapping out your customer journey is the foundation for mapping out what content you need. And here’s a little story to illustrate why.
Once upon a time
There was a brand new business owner, wide-eyed with fear about what the heck they’d just done. “Won’t everyone know I’m winging it?” they thought.
So while pretending to do market research online they came across a podcast episode talking about exactly how they are feeling. The new business owner plugged headphones in and told themselves this was definitely not procrastination and listened to the podcast.
What they heard was a woman, who talked like them, sounded like them, and was someone they’d like to know a lot better. They binged loads of episodes and then went looking for the website.
When they got there, they found blogs that spoke to them. This woman was someone they could recognise themselves in and they needed to know more. So they downloaded a freebie and started getting emails. They joined up to their Facebook Group and though they didn’t fancy getting involved and actually talking to this person, they watched and found it thoroughly entertaining and helpful.
So when this podcaster launched a membership, the new business owner joined. They got to know the woman better and took on some sound business advice. Business advice that changed the course of their plans.
Over the years, this new business owner bought 1-1 coaching and mastermind groups from the woman in the podcast. And each step of the way, they got to know each other a little better.
They are even in touch to this day.
The lesson here?
Okay, that was a nice touching story. If you didn’t guess, the shit-scared new business owner was me and the podcaster was Jo Milmine. One of a handful of people whose advice I trust. Interestingly, the other three are also readers of this newsletter.
What Jo built was a customer journey that met my needs at every step of the way. And her content was hugely relatable. Not because she is Northern (although that helps) but because her outlook on life and sense of humour match mine.
The sale was not instant but a build-up of trust over the years where, when I now consider how many different products I’ve bought from Jo, has paid off immensely.
Your customer journey and the content that supports it should build this level of relationship with your buyer. And the content doesn’t stop the moment that they’ve bought either.
But here’s the problem
Not everyone has the same journey. My route to discovery is probably very different from another customer. And it’s about understanding the best route that people can take, making that so brilliant that you don’t lose them while also plugging the gaps where people are likely to lose interest.
There’s always one
There will always be one person who comes in through a different route. An outlier. I’ve had a couple of people come in cold and buy my sales page package without my even speaking to them. While it felt nice - the sales page for the sales page package working - it also freaked me out a little.
I’ve put those down to freak incidents rather than wondering how I can get more income like that - as effortless as it was.
Alright, so how do you map a customer journey?
Start by looking at how they find you now. The easiest way is to ask your customers. Where did they first find you, what made them want to buy? You can also look at your analytics, which will give you some idea of what’s going on.
This will give you a rough guide about what’s happening at the moment. While you’re digging about in your analytics, you also want to look for any opportunities. This means spotting what you might be missing out on.
When I took my first client through the PIMP My Content Programme - which does exactly this - I spotted that she had a load of traffic coming through to one specific page. These were people with a very specific problem looking for a very specific answer.
The client wasn’t aware and these people were all disappearing off back into the abyss. So we put together a plan to try to get some of these page visitors onto the next step. We could use some content she already had and tweak it a bit for this particular problem. By the following week, lots of people had downloaded the content. She had lots of lovely new leads.
This was a new step added to the customer journey and we could then work on the next one: getting them to buy.
What this looks like is different for every business. I caution against using templates for this kind of thing because your business is unique with its own goals, audience and content. So, therefore, you need to look at what’s needed for your content journey.
It’s not about putting together a proven system but instead about putting the right steps in place for your customers.
You need to look at each step they are likely to take and make sure there is content that answers their needs when they get there. So work out what destination you’re taking them to after the first piece of content and then second, and so on. Then figure out what needs to go there.
The easiest example of this is a lead magnet. You’ve created it so you need a landing page for them to download it. And some signup boxes that you put into your content. Probably a pop-up or a widget. Then when they get to the landing page, you need something on the other side. A thank you page that gets them excited about what you’ve sent.
After that, you need to deliver it. Then warm them up to the idea of you and your services. From here, you might send them some emails or get in touch.
Let’s remember that not all of this content and customer journey needs to be at arm’s length and automated. In fact, doing as much of this yourself when you have the capacity is a good plan because then you can see what’s working or not. As your business grows, you can stick in some more automation but keep yourself in the process as much as possible.
Remember, they are getting to know you. That means building a relationship.
Of course, this is easier said than done and you will need to make tweaks as you go.
So how is all of this different to a content strategy?
The work you do on your customer journey will help inform the strategy you need to take with your content. And that, in turn, will inform your plan. It’s why putting a plan in place takes time because if you don’t get it right, you’ll end up wasting a whole load of your time. And there is nothing more valuable in your business than your own time.
And do content types matter?
At this stage, I’d look more at how you can best deliver the information. Not all content is words. And your audience will have different ways they want to get the information. When I do a content audit, I check if a client is using a full scope of content types and if not, find out why.
A lot of the time it’s things like not wanting to put their face in front of the camera. I can fully understand that and when I know that’s what’s happening, we can work around it. There are other options for video and ways you can build up to the idea of having your mug front and centre.
But having the time to create the content is also a drawback. There are always formats that you’d like to use but have no capacity to create at the moment. And an unproven content format can be too big a risk depending on where you are in your business growth.
This is a long-winded way of saying that yes, the content types do matter but you’ve got to work to your capacity. Although getting creative around any issues is going to bring up new and unexpected ideas so don’t be put off if you think you’ll feel icky or be running yourself into the ground.
Content ecosystems only work alongside customer journeys
Your content exists to bring people into your business so all of your content needs to match up with that customer journey. Planning it out now before you go in and chuck up some content will save you more time in the long run. And a lot of money depending on what you do.
Got questions?
Hit me back with an email and I’ll try help.
How I can help:
Get your content mess sorted out with a Content Clear Out
Untangle your SEO with an SEO Audit
Solve your content conundrums with a Content Clinic
Half term starts at 3pm today for me. I’ve got Friday plans of outdoor adventures and afternoon cake with my daughter. It sounds very idyllic and I’m sure the reality will match the expectations.
I’ll see you all next Thursday!
Fiona