Think about how you create your manufacturing or industrial marketing content. How does it start?
Does this sound familiar?
1 “Hey we have a new product. We need to create a piece of literature about it.”
Or
2 “Sales are lagging in sector “Y.” Let’s write an e-book about it to push sales.”
Now, these seem like reasonable requests, right?
Sure they do, but there is one problem. Yes, we want to promote and sell our new products. Yes, we might need to prop up sales in a faltering division.
However, the entire premise of the question is flawed. These requests are focused inward. They focus on your company and what you want.
Do you think your customers care about what you want? Quick two-word answer.
Hint: It rhymes with Bell Sew.
What your customers care about is how your solution or service can help them.
So look to them to see what they want. Then have your sales and marketing efforts reflect that.
“Look to who is using your solution and why they choose it over the competition.”
Let’s go back to our initial request and see how we can formulate our questions to make them more about your customers.
1. “Hey we have a new product that solves this problem for our customer. We need to create a piece of literature about it.”
Or
2. “Sales are lagging in sector Y. That’s a shame because marketing doesn’t know that we solve this problem for our customers. Let’s write an e-book about it so our clients know about it.
The first step is to look at your products and see what problems they solve for your customers.
Identify the problem.
Try to find a few problems your product or service might solve. Hopefully, you will find a few. Now work with your team to find the strongest one. The team should consist of at the minimum a representative from sales, marketing, and engineering.
Want to make this easier?
If you have customers that you have a good relationship with, consider calling them and talking to them about why they chose your solution.
Want to make it way easier? You might already have some of that information stored in your CRM.
Got your solution to the problem? Great.
Identify your target:
What customers have this problem? Is this issue something to which the CEO of a company can relate? Or the CFO? Or is it something that is more closely aligned to the operations manager?
This is a big question because this will gear how you create your content and your message. Continue to look outward throughout this entire process to make your content as compelling as possible.
Unique Selling Propositions:
Ok, you what problem your customers face and you know who your customer is.
Why does this solution to your client’s problem work better than your competitions? Is it faster, easier, is it a complete solution? You need to be able to differentiate and identify why your solution is clearly superior.
Benefits: Now focus on the supporting benefit to your customer. Why your solution is better than the other. Why it solves the problem that they have.
Format: What format is best for your content? Is it an e-book, video, or infographic? What format will have the most value to your customers? What stage are they in the decision making process?
Want more information about inbound or content marketing? Learn how to strate your own inbound campaign with our checklist.