How To Steal Hearts Using Context In Your Content Strategy

There is no doubt that social’s impact on the purchasing decisions of consumers.

According to a recent study, roughly 75% of people make decisions on what to buy based on the reviews and product descriptions that they read online.

So, what does this tell us?

While it may seem that investing in social media marketing might not longer be wise, due to the overwhelming clutter these days (consumers are exposed to anywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 marketing messages per day) – this is not a roll call for brands to get out of the platform altogether, but instead to start relying on a different, better content strategy to maintain the interest of your most valuable customers.

If you are already enrolled into a Digital Marketing Course, then good for you! You should already be familiar with the type and standard of content you need to produce in order to be seeing results.

However, it might be time to introduce context into the mix.

Essentially, context is your brand’s ability to present your content in a way that provides the most value for your audience.

Content is what you write, while context is the meaning and purpose behind what you write.

That means knowing your audience so well that you know exactly what they are looking for – doing whatever it takes to give it to them.

In fact, context is so valuable in that it adds another layer of dimension to your content, increasing engagement rates and lowering ad avoidance – and because you are providing so much value in a non-intrusive manner, users are more likely to trust you and buy from you.

That being said, we will be enlisting the help of the 5Ws and H – “Who”, “What”, “When”, “Where”, “Why” and “How” to help us fire up your content and steal the hearts of hundreds, even thousands of customers – and their dollars.

“Who is your target audience?”

It always pays to know your main target audience inside-out – creating personas to segment them accordingly to their demographics, interests and behaviours. You can even go further as to segment them based on which part of the customer buying journey they are currently at.

 “What are they looking for? What do they want?”

Detailing out multiple scenarios of what your customers are looking for can be helpful in understanding their goals and aspirations – allowing you to create better content to match them to a tee.

Instead of creating content that you want to create – give them real solutions to their very real problems, providing statistics and data to increase your credibility.

“When are they looking for content? When do they want it?”

Context can be extremely time-sensitive. Seek out the habits of your target audience – from the exact day of the week to exact time. Your brand should be presenting information to each target audience at the right moment – when they are most likely to be receptive.

“Where are my prospects and customers?”

Google has made it possible for advanced location targeting and localized search results – make sure that you take full advantage of this by delivering content based on your target’s location, IP address, and the platforms they most often use to consume information.

“Why should users choose to engage with my brand?”

This will act as the pillar of your content, the purpose that we addressed earlier – each piece should always have a deeper purpose to fulfil, you don’t want to be creating content for the sake of it.

“How am I going to meet their goals and expectations? How do users want to receive content?”

It helps to think about the life stages that users are currently going through. This will affect the tone of voice that you will be using, as well as the type of content that you will be eventually craft and produce.

Will your customer be more receptive to an informative how-to video on using your product? Or will they appreciate a simple, easy-to-digest infographic instead?

Once you go through the list and answer these questions, you will be better able to understand the type of content that you will need to churn out in order to satisfy users. Whether it is educational, promotional or transactional content – make sure to align this with your broader marketing goals at the end of the day.

Ultimately, you will need both context and content to work together to provide the best experience for your audience and spark them to take action – this is why so many brands end up working with a creative Digital Marketing Agency!

It now pays to go beyond the headline – and moving towards how you can utilize a range of elements such as imagery, statistics, quotes, hashtags and compelling storytelling to provide additional value to users. The type of media is also becoming increasingly crucial – whether it be a striking visual, cheeky GIF, or awe-inspiring video to supercharge your content.

When Gary Vaynerchuk said: “Content is king, but context is God.” – we think there might be some merit to that after all.