One of the biggest impacts of the shift toward digital marketing and selling has been the increasing use of content that serves to educate and inform, rather than simply promote products or services. While the use of content to improve CX didn’t begin during the COVID-19 pandemic, the shutdowns underscored the need for brands of all types to double down on using content to help drive awareness, engagement, and the customer’s overall experience, in lieu of the ability to conduct this outreach in person.
A wide range of companies have focused on the use of proprietary content that is designed to keep customers engaged and help position the brand as a trusted source of information. While there is often a sales component to the content, the primary function and tone of the content is around customer education and customer success. Some examples of content designed to improve engagement and CX include:
Sweetwater.com
This online retailer of musical equipment dedicates an entire section of its website to Insync, its collection of customer education articles, product roundups, tutorials, and how-to guides. While many of the pieces feature products that are available on the site, the overall voice and tone of each piece is designed to focus on the customers’ needs and are often authored by experts and professionals working in the field, in addition to staff writers, lending an air of authenticity.
Dollar Shave Club
The provider of shaving products and accessories provides an eclectic mix of content on its website and on an insert that is included with each product shipment. While most of their content is focused on tutorials relating to shaving (such as “How to Keep Winter from Ruining Your Beard”), the site also includes humorous and offbeat content designed to entertain and engage customers, such as this piece on “The Very Absorbing History of Toilet Paper” and “What Happens to Spiders When You Wash Them Down the Drain?” The end result is content that is written to both inform and entertain, which creates a true identity for the brand, helping it stand apart from others in the segment.
Reebok
The international seller of athletic apparel and shoes uses its Blog to connect and engage with its customers. While some of the content is geared at pushing product (“Sneaker Trends You Need to Try in 2022”), others are focused on activities, athletic training tips, and other topics, such as nutrition, that are related to athletics, but do not explicitly push product. By positioning the brand as a source of knowledge, Reebok can generate additional marketing exposure that simultaneously builds greater trust among its customers.
Always
This manufacturer of feminine products takes a two-pronged approach to providing content. It offers a Tips & Advice section on its web site, which provides a plethora of how-to articles relating to its products, as well as female-specific health advice. The brand also provides more general women’s advocacy and support pieces in its “We Care About All Women & Girls” section, which is designed to generate greater affinity between the brand and its customers, by spotlighting what it considers to be shared values.
USAA
This provider of insurance services to qualified U.S. military veterans and their families has an extensive Advice Center, which contains a wide range of content that encompasses insurance, military life, debt, tax planning, and natural disasters, among others.
Because USAA’s products and services are restricted to a specific type of customer, there is a built-in level of affinity between the brand and its customers. That said, the company is leveraging that affinity to position advice that can apply to anyone, but may have a specific impact or relevance to its customers (e.g. “Guard against these 10 scams on service members.”) In this example, most of the advice is applicable to any consumer, but the article has been written with service-member specific examples, highlighting its relevance to a typical USAA customer.
These examples highlight several best practices, which can be summarized as follows:
- Provide insights and education that are valuable to the customer, which will keep them engaged and returning for more.
- Ensure that content remains fresh and is updated frequently. Customers will return more frequently if they are assured more content is always on the way.
- Write content in a voice that is relatable to the brand’s audience, and generates affinity between the brand and the customer, to drive more engagement.
- Utilize outside experts and contributors to lend greater credibility with the audience and keep the hard sales pitches to a minimum.
- Track and review the performance of each piece of content to identify how it is impacting sales, marketing, and CX initiatives, and adjust the type, frequency, and number of content pieces if necessary.
Author Information
Keith Kirkpatrick is VP & Research Director, Enterprise Software & Digital Workflows for The Futurum Group. Keith has over 25 years of experience in research, marketing, and consulting-based fields.
He has authored in-depth reports and market forecast studies covering artificial intelligence, biometrics, data analytics, robotics, high performance computing, and quantum computing, with a specific focus on the use of these technologies within large enterprise organizations and SMBs. He has also established strong working relationships with the international technology vendor community and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events.
In his career as a financial and technology journalist he has written for national and trade publications, including BusinessWeek, CNBC.com, Investment Dealers’ Digest, The Red Herring, The Communications of the ACM, and Mobile Computing & Communications, among others.
He is a member of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP).
Keith holds dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Magazine Journalism and Sociology from Syracuse University.
