If you ever knew what your audience wanted, you’re probably rethinking it now. And so are they. But now they're in charge.
Know your audience has stood as a content commandment since the dawn of storytelling. And, for just as long, content creators have struggled to live up to it.
Preferences, behaviors, and intent changing at mind-boggling speed as parts of the world reopen. The challenge is that much harder.
Another complication – the power dynamic has shifted. Audiences, prospects, and customers are embracing their roles as drivers of their own journeys, navigating to new experiences whenever the old ones disappoint or grow stale.
How can content teams keep up with these new and shifting expectations?
If you listen to the experts who spoke at ContentTECH Summit, it's going to take experimentation, a close eye on data, and (shocker) a willingness to talk with your new(ish) overlords.
Read on for their specific advice. – Kim Moutsos
We are quickly moving away from a world where different elements of the customer journey are handled by separate systems.
We must start thinking about the journey in a much more organic way, where technologies are connected, and look to a single source of data.
Every handoff of audience or customer data is an opportunity to fumble.
– Robert Rose, from AudienceTech – A New Way To Think About the Technology of Digital Content
There's still time! You can watch ContentTECH Summit sessions on demand until July 10. Just sign in to the event platform if you're already registered. Or, sign up for on-demand access at www.content.tech if you haven't already.
Marketers need to get comfortable being uncomfortable. We’ve been under a lot of pressure to create so many different types of content .... Customer expectations are changing while we’re doing this. It’s very hard to pinpoint exactly what customers need. Use this as an opportunity to try some things you haven’t done.
If you haven’t dabbled in video, maybe now is the time. It might not be comfortable, but it might really resonate with your audience. If you’re not leveraging personalization or testing but have talked about investing in a technology that not many people on the team are trained for, now is a great opportunity to try it. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable and taking those risks … you never know how great the reward is going to be.
– Jill Grozalsky, from Removing the Content Bottleneck to Power Personalization
When you’re working on something, try to identify the people who will be impacted by it but who have little say in that thing you’re working on. Try to give them more say – they’re going to have to live with the thing you’re making. That’s the biggest shortcut to more inclusive content design.
– David Thomas, from Design for Cognitive Bias: Using Mental Shortcuts for Good Instead of Evil
Really get close to your customers. I can’t overstate the value of being very close to your customers. Keep in touch with them, ask them what they need. How are you helping them do business?
It’s really about the ease of doing business with you. Don’t assume you know what they want. Talk to them on a continuous basis and keep the lines of communication open.
– Jill Sheffield, from Obsessing Over the Content Experience
Things have changed from that old world of super-high production values where only a few people could make videos. Lots of people still do it that way, and it makes sense for some videos. But not every video needs to be a Hollywood movie. You probably have some incredible storytellers in your company who just don’t have the technical know-how to make videos. If you can help them unlock their creativity in video, that storytelling can go a long way.
– Garrett Goodman, from Say It With Video – Amplify Your Content Marketing with In-House Video Creation to Drive Business Results
Give equal investment and equal attention to data, experience, and technology. They're all necessary. When one falls down, the project falls down. You aren’t able to execute for the audience or for internal purposes without the combination of the three.
– Jessica Bergmann, from The Tech Recipe: How Salesforce is Serving Up Audience-First, Data-Driven Content
We need to understand that content comes from everywhere across the organization. We all need to work together to make sure we’re producing the best content and that we’re taking the content beyond the expected. Think outside the expected and work together across departments to get it done. CCO
– Megan Gilhooly, from Consumerization and Customer Experience: How B2C Experiences Impact B2B Expectations
The best piece of advice I got from my mentor, Julia Child, was to always pay it forward. This is the best time to use that phrase and that mindset. We’re in this together. I love that everybody came together during COVID. I hope we continue to do that even after the world opens up. I hope that we continue to share, to collaborate, to empower each other and to inspire each other, to stay connected, to help each other.
Always pay it forward.
– Cat Cora, from Cooking with Cat Cora
See more great advice from the rest of the ContentTECH Summit speakers in the full version of this article on the Content Marketing Institute blog.
