The Power of Empathy for More Customer Focused Content Marketing

In This Edition

• The Power of Empathy for More Customer Focused Content Marketing

• Industry News to Know

• Case Study: Leading Health Care Technology Company Doubles Its Blog Traffic & Subscribers

The Power of Empathy for More Customer Focused Content Marketing

While the number of marketers jumping on the content bandwagon is increasing, the definition of what “content marketing” actually means varies greatly between industries. For example, I read a very clever post about content marketing on a popular SEO website providing an impressive array of content types, tactics, tips and shortcuts for content to be created and used as a marketing asset. But not once were “customer journey,” “buying cycle,” “customer insight” or related concepts mentioned.

The focus on tactical execution without insight into a targeted audience that the content is intended to reach, engage and inspire seems pointless. At best, it’s a speculative exercise in “seeing what sticks.” The same thing often happens with social media marketers curating content from influential publishers in the hopes of sticky engagement.

While online marketers are admiring their clever content sourcing for SEO and social media purposes, savvy content marketers are focused on one of the most powerful perspectives to be successful: empathy.

We’re long time advocates on the role of empathy for more meaningful digital marketing. Here are a few ways to create customer empathy in content marketing, SEO, blogging and social media.

   1. Take a leadership position in your messaging. It’s not all about listening to customers and giving them what they want. Show customers what they stand for. The combination of brand leadership and customer empathy equals a win for everyone.
   2. Create a blogging strategy. Short attention spans and the gravity of “path of least resistance” has created competition in many marketing organizations. With a strategy for using empathy, blogging can be one of the most powerful marketing assets for a company.
   3. Develop an elegant marketing mix. This will help you to see your product across platforms and channels. Learn to shift from an egocentric to empathetic approach to content and digital marketing.
Despite the variety of new marketing technologies and best practices, the one skill that continues to stand out is empathy. Thinking about how you approach content ideation and sourcing is key for connecting with your customers.

Thank you for working with TopRank and please do not hesitate to contact me directly with any questions or ideas on how we can serve you better.

lee@toprankmarketing.com

952 400 0192

Industry News to Know

Twitter has More Users in Asia than North America
	Slightly less than a quarter of all Twitter users — about 60 million profiles — are based in the U.S. However, Asia Pacific represents about 32.8 percent of Twitter users in 2014, rising to more than 40 percent in the next four years. By 2018, the U.S. is expected to account for just one in five Twitter profiles, followed by Western Europe (14.2 percent) and Latin America (11.2 percent).
5 Questions About Content Marketing Analytics
	Content marketing, once totally obscure, is a hot topic thanks to the emphasis on fresh, high-quality content in Google’s ranking algorithm. What’s been missing from the conversation is a deep concern for monitoring content marketing analytics. By doing this, your B2B and B2C firms can make better decisions to support multiple, common goals, such as driving brand awareness, generating leads, acquiring new customers and becoming thought leaders in their industry.
The State of Content Marketing in 2014
	A vast majority of marketers use content marketing today. But how do they do it? Uberflip published a very insightful infographic with data by some of today’s top experts in content marketing, including Marketing Profs, Demand Metrics, and Content Marketing Institute. The visual highlights in this article display the latest findings regarding tactics, adoption, and measurement of ROI.
How Digital Media has Changed the Art of Storytelling
	The digital revolution changed the way we find and share information. It upended the music, telecom, publishing and retail industries. For marketers, the digital medium has leveled the playing field for businesses both big and small to reach audiences more effectively than ever before.
5 Social Media Trends Buzzing Right Now
	Social media has become a key component of marketing, and the proper strategy is necessary to bring out the full potential of sites like Facebook and Twitter. As this space continues to evolve, take advantage of new tactics for your digital marketing that are working especially well and yielding positive ROI.
The Top 10 Benefits of Social Media Marketing
	Social media has developed a reputation by some for being a passing marketing interest, and therefore, an unprofitable one. The statistics however, illustrate a different picture. Learn how these statistics demonstrate a huge potential for social media marketing to increase sales, but a lack of understanding on how to achieve those results.

Case Study: Leading Health Care Technology Company Doubles Its Blog Traffic & Subscribers

Current Situation:

Within the health care technology industry, competition to reach c-level executives and professionals with content is more challenging than ever and yet a 2014 study from DemandGenReport reports that 82% of senior executives say content is a “significant driver of their buying decision.”

To meet this need for information, a leading health care technology company started publishing a blog, providing insights and initiating discussions around the diagnostic imaging industry for radiology and cardiology professionals as well as c-level executives. Unfortunately, the content wasn’t resonating with the target audience and the blog experienced declining traffic and flat growth in subscribers.

The need for information about the diagnostic imaging industry for radiology and cardiology professionals continues to be in demand and this healthcare technology company needed to find a way to reinvigorate its core audience to meet that demand amongst its target audience.

Solution:

In order to reach the target audience and drive people to the blog, the company worked with TopRank to develop tactics to support objectives, including activating employees and current customers to visit and amplify blog content, building a community of engaged employee influencers, and refining the content strategy to reflect current radiologist, cardiologist and C-suite pain points.

After establishing these approaches, TopRank completed a series of steps to reach the company’s primary goal of attracting more visits from the target audience, engaging audience through increased blog subscriptions and converting prospects via downloads.

• Blog redesign. After updating the look and feel of the blog to match new branding guidelines, a campaign was launched to attract and engage visitors the with new design and content.
• Email campaign for employee and customer subscription. A series of email campaigns targeting a list of over 7,000 employees, customers and prospects, showcased a sample of the refined content strategy and blog redesign. The goal of the campaign was to encourage subscriptions to the RSS feed of the blog, building a consistent, engaged reader base.
• Outreach to employee subject matter experts. Employee thought leaders targeted to each persona were engaged as authors of blog content. Tactics focused on drafting content, building author social communities to help amplify content and outreach to other industry influencers with established communities. By engaging with influencers, the content was amplified outside of the existing network in order to reach and build influence with a new audience.
• Informational surveys for targeted audiences. To activate current customers and attract the new C-Suite audience, the company distributed an email survey inquiring about topics of interest, trends and concerns in the health care industry and preferred social media networks. The response from the survey were leveraged in order to draw engagement from the audience and refine the content and amplification strategy to resonate with target audiences.

By launching an integrated promotional campaign that activated current employees and customers to visit and amplify content, TopRank helped the health care company exceed goals and expectations by doubling its blog subscribers and traffic. Moving forward, TopRank will continue to incorporate influencers into posts and engage with employee authors.

Results:

• 60% increase in page views month over month
• 57% increase in subscribers
• 2x the number of downloads and requests for more information

Want to learn more about connecting with industry influencers to create content for B2B marketing programs? Contact TopRank® Online Marketing today.