3 Steps to a More Customer-Centric Content Strategy in 2024

They say content is king.

But in reality, the customer is king; content is simply the medium through which we reach to them.

And customers, or people in general, don’t want to be sold a product. No one wants to be “sold” anything. 

People want to be inspired. They want empathy. They want solutions to their problems. 

This is why we as marketers, need to focus on customer-centric content instead of product-centric content.

Here’s what that means and how to do it.

Customer-centric vs. Product-centric

Product-centric content marketing is a style that focuses on product specifications, features, technical differentiators, and advantages. On the other hand, customer-centric content marketing focuses instead on the buyer’s journey and his/her business challenges.

Customer-centric content marketing makes a lot more sense than the alternative when we understand that people want to be offered information, inspiration, and solutions - instead of just a set of features and technical specs.

Nowadays, readers aren’t the only ones who want this type of informational and highly targeted content. Over the past several years, Google’s search results have been increasingly geared towards human-friendly content rather than keyword-stuffed algorithm-targeted content. Basically, to get your digital marketing content to rank, it needs to be original, unique, and, most of all, helpful and relevant to the target audience.

How better to offer highly relevant and engaging content than with a content strategy that revolves around your target audience as people instead of one that revolves around your product?

A new year is always a great reason to make some changes; for the DashThis marketing team, this means adopting a more customer-centric content strategy!

And for us, developing a more customer-centric content strategy is all about these three steps:

1. Analyse your key selling points as a brand

Your brand's growth is intricately tied to your customers, serving as the foundation for your success. To craft an effective customer-centric marketing strategy, pinpoint your key selling points and build your approach around them—the aspects that endear your customer base to your brand.

At DashThis, we've always identified ourselves as a brand that offers a straightforward yet potent reporting tool that adapts to customer requirements. Our strength lies in highly personalized, friendly, and efficient customer support, embodying our brand essence.

The customer's significance has consistently steered our actions at DashThis in our journey. Their needs and feedback actively shape our product features, with our account managers personally engaging with each customer instead of relying on automated channels.

Amid the plethora of customer feedback, one resounding statement echoes: our customer service team consistently goes above and beyond expectations.

Recognizing the paramount importance of the customer, our content marketing strategy becomes an extension of our core philosophy, aligning the service aspect of our business with the software dimension. We aimed to make our marketing content resonate with readers in the same manner our account managers connect with customers on a daily basis.

This seamlessly leads us to the next phase of our customer-centered approach to our marketing efforts...

2. Identify your customers’ pain-points, challenges, and questions

Revolutionary product development and customer satisfaction hinge on prioritizing customers, comprehending their needs, and tirelessly working to fulfill them.

In the realm of epic content creation, the focus shifts to prioritizing the customer experience over showcasing the product itself.

Every piece of content should address a customer's challenge and exude empathy and understanding, presenting actionable solutions that make it the RIGHT content.

Aligning with this philosophy, we delved directly into understanding our customers' business challenges by tapping into the insights of our account management team—the invaluable frontline of customer interaction.

Our account managers serve as our key asset, fielding questions and possessing an unparalleled understanding of our customers. They navigate every nuance of the customer journey with us.

Leveraging the expertise of our account management team, our content marketers adopt a customer-centric approach, viewing our content through our customers' eyes. This strategic shift enables us to identify the questions we're already addressing and pinpoint those that demand attention but remain unanswered.

In this process, we discern the content types we're producing and uncover content gaps. This insightful analysis informs how we need to tailor our content to transform into a comprehensive source of killer content, addressing the diverse needs of our audience.

This customer-centric approach, enriched by the collaboration of our account management and content marketing teams, is instrumental in refining our marketing approach, bolstering customer satisfaction, and aligning our content with the intricacies of the customer journey. It's a strategic blend of metrics, demographics, and social media dynamics, all aimed at enhancing the custom experience and elevating customer satisfaction to new heights.

3. Let your customers speak for themselves

The final stride in crafting a customer-centric content strategy takes a distinctive approach—one we deem the most pivotal: entrusting our audience with the role of writers.

While our account managers possess valuable insights into our customers, there's an acknowledgment that our customers are the true experts on themselves.

In the realm of a customer-centric content strategy, the ultimate aim is to engage the existing audience, fortify customer relationships, and allure new readers. In this light, having our audience actively contribute to the content creation process becomes intuitive.

This innovative approach yields ultra-targeted content that precisely aligns with our audience's interests, meeting their content needs head-on. Moreover, it grants our current customers a spotlight within their niche.

Imagine original, unique, and relevant content crafted by our audience, addressing their most pressing questions and providing a platform for them and their brand to shine.

This dynamic strategy ensures a win-win situation and strategically fosters customer loyalty, tapping into the wealth of customer data, buyer personas, and customer behavior. The content, shaped by our audience, becomes a potent tool in achieving key performance indicators (KPIs) related to retention and attracting potential customers at crucial touchpoints in their journey. It's a holistic integration of customer insights, relevant content creation, and strategic touchpoints to fortify relationships and propel our customer-centric content strategy to new heights.

Our customers are our biggest assets

The undeniable truth is that you don't merely coexist with your customers; your existence is intricately tied to theirs. This universal reality holds true for every business, ours included.

A strategic differentiation lies in placing the customer experience at the epicenter of product and service offerings. This customer-centric approach extends beyond the realms of product development and services. In content creation, we take it a step further by allowing our customers and readers to influence the type of content, subjects, and formats they desire from us. It's a seamless extension of our existing customer-centric ethos, where your preferences guide the direction of our content strategy.

Leveraging tools like Google Analytics, we delve into the nuances of customer behavior, ensuring our content aligns with the SEO landscape and resonates on various social media platforms. From webinars catering to specific customer needs to case studies highlighting real-world applications, we employ a diverse array of content types catering to our audience's preferences.

Our commitment to customer-centricity is not just a philosophy but a tangible strategy. Platforms like HubSpot aid us in not only understanding customer needs but also in delivering a user experience that goes beyond expectations.

Happy reporting!