My suggestion to businesses who do a little self reflection during this period of isolation is to focus on one word: empathy.

Those who see it as their most important tool will be best-placed to succeed in the post-coronavirus world. Whatever it ends up looking like.

While content marketing should include entertaining, educational articles that help your customers and solve problems for them, it should also be tactical and strategic.

Don’t lose sight of the fact that the end goal is to use the content you create to win more customers.

We tend to forget that customers have fears. They fear overpaying, not trusting the seller, or not being knowledgeable enough about a product or service.

Content marketing is powerful because, done right, it confronts and tackles these customer fears. That’s its main job. 

The best content can solve problems for your prospects.

Do you sometimes sound a little robotic when you write about your own business?

If so, you’re not alone. But in a tech-dominated world, your prospects are craving a human voice more than ever.

So, how can you humanise your brand’s content? Read on for seven valuable tips you can take away today to do just that, from dropping the business jargon to forgetting what your English teacher taught you.

When you feel like you’re being carried downstream by a torrent of algorithms, it’s normal to crave hearing a human voice. Someone who sees you as more than a number. Someone who sounds like they give a damn.  

And for that reason, it’s more important than ever for your brand to sound human. Especially if you want to make a lasting connection with your customers.

Creating content for your homepage is a bit like telling a story to a room full of strangers. You only have a limited amount of time to make a good impression.

That’s why it pays to focus on the benefits and keep your message concise.

Your ideal customer has hopes and dreams for how your product would make their lives easier and more enjoyable.  

It’s these hopes and dreams that you have to target if you want your content to resonate with your ideal customer.  

And that means you have to spend a bit of time finding out what matters most to them.

The best brands are obsessed with creating great stories.

They’re obsessed because they know that when there’s a compelling story, people invest more in their product.

They understand the universal truth that people love stories. And that’s why you should tell some.

Creating content isn’t some kind of woolly activity that’s only designed to make you look interesting and clever.   

These days content more or less is marketing. And given that most consumers make a buying decision before they’ve even had a conversation with the brand, content is also now the best way to sell.

Content works just as well for lead generation as it does to build awareness.

Your content has to resonate with your prospects and customers. It has to make them want to know more about you. And the best way of doing that is by writing in a clear, direct and helpful way.   

Your prospects choose brands that they like. Brands they can relate to. That’s why it’s so important that you show your personality in the content you create.

It might seem a strange concept to ignore vast swathes of the population with your content, but it’s actually essential if you want it to connect with those who matter.

Try to please everyone and your message becomes diluted.

The first step in your goal to use content to drive growth for your brand is to recognise the immense value of your prospects’ attention.

Nothing will motivate you to create compelling content quite as much as the constant nagging reminder of all of the other things your prospects could be doing instead of reading your blog.

The key to moving from content shock to content success is writing quality, helpful content. And the best way to do that is to have a clear idea of the person that you’re writing to in the first place. Who is your ideal customer? What motivates them?

Successful marketing (which these days increasingly means content) now requires that you care about your prospects and customers. It’s about serving them; providing them with useful information that will help them to achieve their own goals.