#30: 8 Guiding Principles For Creating Content That Drives Customer Outcomes 📝

Scaling companies understand that content is the engine of growth. 

From attracting the right prospects to converting them into paying customers and nurturing their growth, content is the force that makes the flywheel spin. 

The problem is that most companies suck at content creation.

And that includes the Customer Success Team, who often leans heavily on [long and unengaging] emails. 

This has always been a pet peeve of mine.

And it's why I've spent 500+ hours in the last year alone in writing courses, reading the masters, dissecting the stuff the creators I admire put out, analysing the data relating to my own content, and in other activities that help me improve my content creation muscle. 

I am maniacal about creating high-quality content because I know it's the difference between failure and success.

There are no two ways about it: engaged customers generate more revenue. 

This newsletter, for example, has a 50% open rate (2.5x higher than the industry average). And it's my second biggest revenue-generating tool. 

A recent customer growth campaign my team ran at HubSpot reached some of the highest engagement rates of the entire business and generated an outsized impact on revenue.

So what makes content content fly or flop?

What I learned about great content is that it has the following traits:

• Relevant: Speaks directly to your target audience.
• Original: Stands out from the crowd by being unique.
• Value-Driven: Offers something that people can benefit from.
• Understandable: Simple, concise and clear so your message is easily grasped.
• Engaging: Uses compelling language and format to maximise engagement.
• Actionable: Guides the audience on the next steps they can take.
• Proactive: Delivered when and how people are most likely to need or want it. 
• Measurable: You track and analyse data that will help you make the content better.

Once you understand how to create great content, you open up a whole new opportunity to connect with, enable and grow your customers.

Here’s how.

Relevant:

Before you start writing anything, establish WHO you are communicating with.

• What's their level in the organisation?
• What do they care about?
• What do they need from you right now?
• What are the pain points they are looking to address?

If you don't know the answer to these questions, you should press pause and engage with the customer to gain insights into what they truly want.

This can be a discovery session (if in 1:few model) or surveys (if in a scale model). 

Don't forget to map your key personas so you can start bucketing users and scaling your communication strategy.

Original:

 Avoid duplicating what others have already said. If all you are doing is copying content that this persona is already seeing elsewhere, your comms will end up on "select+bin". 

It's ok to touch on popular topics, but always bring your own perspective and voice to it (ie. why you are sharing this right now?).

This is what helps establish a connection with your customers.

You should avoid copy+paste from popular blogs or ChatGTP-generated content. These tools are great for inspiration, but for the final product to be great, you'll need to bring your own flavour.

Authenticity builds trust. 

Value-Driven:

Value is what keeps the customer coming back for more. 

Whether it's informative, educational, entertaining, or inspirational, the content should offer something that your customer can take away and benefit from.

Ask yourself: What is the customer getting out of this specific content I am creating? 

Understandable:

 Plain, simple language is always more impactful. You don't need to use big words and acronyms to sound smart. In fact, that does the very opposite. 

Once you've written your content or script, review and remove:

• Jargon
• Acronyms 
• Complex Language

Aim for simplicity and clarity to ensure that your message is easily grasped. 

Engaging:

 Content that engages the audience is more likely to be consumed and shared.  I always use a "3 C's" rule here:

• Content: Use storytelling, visuals, and interactive elements to make the content more compelling.
• Channel: Choose the right medium for the content. Is it better on an email, video, instant message, blog post etc? 
• Conversation: Encourage discussions and feedback to foster a sense of community around your content.

Actionable:

Effective content should guide the audience on the next steps they can take. 

Before you start writing, ask yourself: What behaviour am I trying to drive through this content?

Make sure the entire piece is compelling the customer to take that very step. 

And avoid the most common pitfall: Too many CTAs.

You want each to drive customers to ideally take 1 action (and if that's too little, then keep it to a maximum of 3 actions). 

Pro Tip: If you are trying to summarise a call and next steps, ask yourself if an email is truly the best place to collaborate on tasks, or if you should be updating your shared success plan instead.

Proactive:

 Waiting to communicate with customers in batches, you once you've had a call is a recipe for missing opportunities. 

You want to engage with customers at a time that is convenient for them and not you. 

Here is where you want your scale engine to kick in:

• Enrol customers in behavioural-triggered automated communication
• Develop in-app communication
• Implement a behavioural alert system to help CSMs communicate in real time

Measurable:

You can't improve what you don't measure.

When it comes to content you should aim to track key metrics such as views, engagement, click-through, behaviour changes, conversions etc.

Analyzing this data will help you understand what content works best and what needs improvement.

It will allow you to double down on what works and eliminate the noise.

It will highlight the brilliant communicators in your team and those who need support in developing these skills.

TL'DR:

Creating content your customers want to consume is the key to unlocking your growth. 

Creating great content involves focusing on relevancy, originality, value, engagement, understandability, actionability, proactivity, and measurability to effectively connect with and engage customers.

Be maniacal about these 8 guiding principles and watch your company flourish!

See you next Friday :D