They say marketing, or content marketing, is putting the right message in front of the right audience at the right time. When done well, it’s not easy. Even seasoned marketers struggle with the ability to hit a home run and then repeat their success. Conjuring up clever phrases, terms, or pithy slogans that stick, or even better, convert, takes talent and hard work. The best content builds connections, networks, relationships.

This is going to be mind blowing for my SEO and social media marketing friends, but some of the best content never hits the web. Some marketers and sales professionals still use snail mail and voice mails to connect with their audiences. I’ve even seen selfies shared phone to phone between colleagues during an in-person meetup. 

While that type of interaction is not scalable, you can take the sentiment behind it and use that to reach more people. How? 

Connect with Others 

If you take time to really see the person or audience you’re wanting to connect with, you’ll realize what content they want to see. It likely has their name, town, favorite food or singer in it. You can even name a specific person in your content and then use that example to share out with others, or better yet, let them share it out. 

This requires seeing a face when you create your blog, video, email or social media post. As marketers it’s hard to get away from seeing numbers. See faces. Audiences are more than a follower count. They are real people having really bad days or really good ones. Treat them as such in your content. 

Speak Their Language 

It wasn’t until I was working in the residential real estate industry that I received my first “work related voice text message.” I wasn’t even sure how they did it. It sounded like a personal message just for me, but then I later learned this one real estate agent had sent this same voice recording, that I received as an SMS message on my phone, to nearly 500 people. For less than a quarter per cell phone number. Genius. Or not, depending on your audience. 

Some people are never at a laptop or sitting behind a desktop computer. They run around all day, checking their phones…in line, in traffic. Don’t send these people a whitepaper. Don’t waste time creating 30 pages of content they will never read. If your audience likes to watch videos (and you should know this after reading the previous section), send them a YouTube link or a Bombbomb recording, or a Loom or a TikTok. They will be more likely to actually watch it, read it, listen to it. 

You’ve Got Mail 

Only if you’re Meg Ryan is this relevant. But she does fit a certain profile of audience type. Make sure to deliver the content or publish the content (or both) in a space and time where your audience hangs out. It’s sad how many blog posts I’ve written during the span of my career that were like trees falling in an empty forest. It happened, but if nobody shares it out, welp. That’s what Google Analytics calls zero page views. 

In today’s multimedia world, you’ll likely have to deliver your content a few different ways – just to make sure they actually received it. But please, make sure their preferred location is among them. It’s also helpful to know which social media platforms play nicely with which types of content. There was a time when LinkedIn hated YouTube videos and you could only view a Pin on Pinterest, but now everyone watches TikTok videos on Instagram because someone smart figured that out. 

Most importantly, use content to help people with their jobs or their life, or else you better be comedic-level funny so you can just entertain with your content. Unfortunately sarcasm does not translate at all on social media, so if you want to appreciate my sense of humor we’re going to have to hang out in person. 

If the thought of creating this content is intimidating, there are more resources today than ever to assist. From freelance writers to chatbots, you’ll find all the help you need to generate content. Once it’s created, articles like these help inspire ways to share it out! 

Happy content creating!