If you’re thinking of how to leverage content marketing to grow your prospect pipeline and deliver solid leads, taking one early action can make all the difference in how that content is received by your target audience. That action — align your content directly to their pain points.
Aligning content to your prospects most pressing pain points maximizes engagement from your most promising audiences. Capitalizing on the solutions for which they’re looking will deliver better leads and, ultimately, higher ROI.
You can uncover which area your content should address through direct audience research or search for other content in the industry to see what topics are prevalent. All prospects’ pain points likely fall into one of five general buckets:
- Identity Pain Point: They want to be known more or differently
- Financial Pain Points: They want to make money or save money
- Productivity Pain Points: They want to more efficient
- Process Pain Points: They want to be more effective
- Resource Pain Points: They want their staff to be or feel “better”
Not everything you find will be black and white; for instance if your audience needs to “highlight the positive environmental implications of our production practice,” content could focus on identity, process, or both. A great way to suss out the “real” content need is through user stories. Instead of using a questionnaire, ask your prospects to describe a typical day and listen for clues on what excites them, frustrates them, and how they move through their work. More than anything this should help clarify their true pain points and help you start developing content that fits their needs.
Download our latest ebook “How to Create Content Your Prospects Need” to learn other key steps in developing content that resonates with your target audiences and encourages them to take the next step in their buyer journey.
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