Customer 1st Content Focuses On The Wants & Needs Of Your Ideal Customer

Customer 1st content is content created specifically to appeal to, interest and draw in the type of people you want as customers. You already know who your most profitable current customers are and you've talked to them. You've discovered what they like most about you and your stuff, and you've identified key traits all your ideal customers share.

What's the difference between your customers and your prospects? It's the relationship. You have a relationship with your customers: you don't with prospects.

The Search For PLU

And that leads to the simple truth: we all, as individuals and groups are searching for PLU.

Without PLU, we're unsure and can falter or fail in our business. PLU help us create opportunities and solve problems. And PLU is where we start when looking to build rapport and trust.

PLU are "people like us" we feel comfortable speaking with and intuitively feel we understand because we don't feel threatened.

Creating customer 1st, customer-centric content marketing campaigns exposes you and your stuff to the general marketplace creating awareness. It acts like a beacon, attracting like-minded businesses and individuals who positively respond to your messaging. Which signals acceptance and the possibility of creating a relationship over time. Now don't misunderstand me: I'm not talking about an friendship, I'm talking about a professional or business oriented relationship. You can only earn trust over time, and you do have to earn it.

How You Talk Creates Perceptions

Creating customer 1st content is not about what you're writing. It's about how you say what you're saying, and the broader issue of interests and problems. When your perspective and intent is focused on providing valuable content to potential prospects and customers, your content quality improves and begins building relationships. And your audience begins to perceive you and your stuff as something more than "just another business".

The business case for producing customer 1st content is straightforward. Your current most profitable customers act as a representation of your targeted ideal customer. They're:

Powerful Relationship Knowledge

When you understand the reasons why these current customers are so profitable, and their shared characteristics, you have baseline knowledge to apply to your marketing pipeline messaging. And all of this is with the intent of making your content marketing campaigns build relationships as well as be informative and action oriented.

First, you'll have a crisper, clearer picture of who your target is - providing the opportunity to segment that target and describe the key buying personas you need to speak to - if you want to attract new prospects whom share traits with your profitable customers.

Second, you will have uncovered what attracted those customers to you and your stuff, giving you the opportunity to replicate and adapt your messaging and offers across all your marketing campaigns and content elements.

Third, your investigation and discussions will reveal to you why they decided in your favor and why they remain customers given the power of the web and marketing in general to deliver competitive messages on a regular basis.

Fourth, if you speak to enough customers and work with them to solve their problems and improve their lives and their businesses, through those relationships you'll discover how they made their buying decision.

Fifth, your fundamental research will have allowed you to find out where they spend their online time doing business, researching, learning and socializing.

Relationship Building Content

Knowing the who, what, why, how and where about your ideal customer provides the knowledge to craft messages and campaigns that reach your ideal customers through a combination of language, attitude and locale. More than keyword phrases and attractive offers, your content marketing efforts will payoff by presenting the brand characteristics you believe will propel your prospects from stranger to lead the quickest. And the quickest journey is fueled by trust, belief and relationship.

Long after your words have been forgotten, the way you presented you and your stuff and the way in which that induced a budding relationship that grew over time - those good feelings will be what your customers remember. And those perceptions, all that goodwill and positivity will help you build loyalty over time as well.