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May 2004
Customer-centric Content
Produces Long-term Sales
The days of brochure-ware are over.
Whether as Web content or an article in your client e-newsletter, product and service focused editorial is no longer effective. Studies have shown that in the world of B2B marketing, the harder you sell the less you'll get in return. To succeed, your marketing messages must continue to shift from product oriented to "customer-centric" content that provides added value to readers.
The new term to describe this brand of content that engages its audience is WIIFM ("What's in it for me?").
To meet this standard, always weigh proposed content against your target audience's needs and interests. The ultimate goal should be to move clients to action, to retain brand loyalty and to increase clients' lifetime value to you by delivering "need to know" content to them. The simple truth is if you give customers what they want, they will pay attention.
To avoid the common pitfall of publishing content of little interest or no value to customers, consider hiring a custom publishing agency or an editor specializing in your industry to assist in your content development. Even if you have the time and resources to develop content internally, experts agree that a professional from the outside can bring greater objectivity to the writing of your client communications, and this typically yields far superior results.
Give readers more choice
One way to be more customer-centric is to offer more choices in content. An effective means to accomplish this is an e-newsletter that offers a broader array of content reflecting issues and trends related to multiple bank business lines. A highly customized, multi-line e-newsletter provides choice and inspires action as long as it contains relevant, informative content.
Want to see how you might structure such a multi-channel communication? Click here to view a composite newsletter. Note that its format allows readers to quickly scan and choose topics of interest.
Re-purposing content for long-term ROI
Publishing compelling, useful and diverse content will allow your institution to be perceived by your prospects and clients as a valued business partner. That in turn will help create and sustain long-term relationships and ultimately build better sales.
Most people would agree that this approach is sound, but if you're like many bank marketers you may be concerned about its cost. Developing quality editorial using professional sources carries a price tag. But the good news is that the long-term cost can be greatly minimized if you utilize the content that you purchase to its fullest advantage. One of the most cost-efficient ways to do this is by creating a resource library.
A resource library can be completely customized to serve the specific interests of your customer base. Content categories are unlimited but might likely include topics by industry (healthcare, communications, agribusiness, etc.) and business function (collections, disbursements, international services, card program management, etc.).
Most of you already have this type of content posted to your site, but often the user may be required to waste time hunting down what they want. A common mistake made by publishers of online newsletters and special reports is archiving the information on their Web site by date. Archiving by topic is much more useful.
An easily accessible, user-friendly resource center will add return on investment to your content by giving it greater longevity, and will be considered by users to be a valuable customer service. Click here to see a sample resource library.
FPS regularly works with financial services companies to maximize the impact of e-mail and online communications. If you would like to discuss a strategic marketing communications issue with FPS President Vince DiPaolo, please contact him at 847-501-4120 or vince.dipaolo@fpsc.com. You can also write him at the following address:
Financial Publishing Services Co.
464 Central Avenue
Suite 8
Northfield, IL 60093
For an overview of FPS' wide-ranging capabilities, please view our audio-visual demo.
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