Photo contribution by Thomas Hawthorne
Emails, postcards, blogs, text, posts, tweets and videos are just some examples of communication noise that is being directed at customers to buy products and services-but how much of this content is meaningful and connecting with the customer over the long-term?
To help small businesses owners maneuver through the world of content creation Rohit Bhargava, a trend curator, TEDx speaker and author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller book “Non-Obvious”, shared his secrets to developing a curated experience for ones’ customers at Infusionsoft’s ICON15.
“Curation is the act of turning the noise into meaning,” Bhargava said.
The key to curating content, he said, is to put the human side into it. In addition, begin to listen to the customer, open your eyes and observe what is going on around you and find a way to say and begin writing information with an elevated level of beauty. His top five tips to creating beautiful content include:
- Be more observant – Value comes from paying attention, observing the processes that are happening around you, and seeing things that others won’t see.
- Be fickle – While being fickle typically comes with a negative stigma, this isn’t so with regard to collecting ideas. Bhargava says to be fickle with your ideas and only keep the most important ideas relevant to your business.
- Be curious – Gathering more information about your customer may come from different places. Bhargava gave an example of reading trade magazines to learn more about the mechanical industry just to get a different perspective and understand what those customers care about.
- Be thoughtful – When gathering information, make sure you take the time to pause, take a moment and digest the information to create a beautiful outcome.
- Be elegant – If there is a more beautiful, simple or elegant way to write or say something, do it.
“ I am not a speed reader, I am a speed understander.” – Issac Asimov
Bhargava, known in the business world for his yearly “Non-Obvious Trend Report,” offered five trends companies are implementing into their content strategies to create more meaningful communications.
Unperfection – Companies are trying to be more human by becoming more transparent with their employees and customers. It’s important to embrace your mistakes, admit your mistakes and failures-now they can’t be continual mistakes-but people are responding to that transparency, Bhargava explained.
The reluctant marketer – So much of content marketing is “salesy” and that can be a turn off to customers. Bhargava said to develop content (written or video) that is closer to brand storytelling and an educational channel for the customers.
Everyday stardom – Who doesn’t want to feel like a VIP? Bhargava said to find a way to recognize customers in a special way and personalize the experience – give them a moment where they can feel, act and be rewarded for their business.
Microconsumption – Customers are becoming use to engaging with brands and services in smaller pieces, he said. If you can produce shareable and bite-sized experiences through your content, there could be a longer term payoff with engagement and interest.
Experimedia – Bhargava suggested content can be used as social experiments and real-life interactions to study human behavior, “it reveals something about your customers.” This research can also give you the opportunity to fight back against your competitors and approach customers in a unique way.
Read more coverage from ICON 15 at AZ Tech Beat
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