Your Content Should Be Your Gift to Customers

Christmas is finally here this week, and for millions that means scrambling around trying to get those last-minute holiday gifts. Why do we go through the trouble? Part of it is naturally ritual, and two parts are guilt — we don’t want to show up empty handed, especially if others are bringing us a gift in turn.

Yet, shunting aside these pragmatic reasons, there’s another powerful reason we give: it feels great. Nothing can quite match the anticipation of someone opening that perfect, thoughtful gift you got them. If you are fortunate enough to be in the room when they open it, the way their eyes light up is magic. It can truly make your heart sing. Psychology proves it.

This “‘tis better to give than to receive” line of thought may seem hackneyed, especially since you’re likely hearing it a lot around the holidays. Yet, it is an important concept to incorporate within your daily life, even your business practices.

When it comes to content, a generous attitude is most certainly the best mode to be operating in. Despite all the benefits your content can serve to improve your site, your brand and your revenues, ultimately it should be about satisfying someone without really expecting anything in return.

Drop the Sales Pitch and Write Content You’d Want to Read

This maxim written above is the central tenet of writing good content. Yes, content marketing can be an integral component of your inbound marketing strategy. Along with other benefits, it helps improve your search engine ranking and brings traffic to your site.

But what do you expect people to do when they get to your site? Your very first answer should not be to “follow the call to action” or “immediately be convinced to make a purchase” but rather to sit there, read the article in its entirety and feel a heightened sense of awareness as a result. Good content has the power to elucidate — making dense concepts seem plain as day while connecting them to more complex conceptual webs.

As an example, a divorce-focused family law firm could write a piece of content on how to prepare for a child custody battle. A shallow version of said content would simply instruct a reader on a rigid set of actions to take; Step 1. Prepare documentation, Step 2. Identify key witnesses who can attest to your parenting skills, etc.

A deep piece of content would start with the philosophy behind custody battles, i.e. why a judge would award custody to one parent over the other. Without getting too deep into the letter of the law, someone reading that content can suddenly feel more in control of the whole process since they know what the judge will be looking for. They will also realize that the process will be different for everyone.

The family law firm could even generously suggest mediation even if that is something that will not gain them revenue. Why? Because the ultimate goal should be to give valuable insight to your readers. If need be, pretend that they are a close sibling, neighbor or friend and you would only want to steer them down the right path. This type of content is the type that resonates most with audiences, gets shares and builds affinity with a brand’s customers. Even if someone does not end up becoming a client, they can refer others to the brand’s website and begin building a community, all starting from the gift of knowledge they were given.

Using Generosity to Motivate Your Content Strategy

Note that we are not suggesting to completely ignore the more business-focused aspects of content marketing or an inbound strategy. Optimizing your posts with keywords should still be a priority, and calls to action should be compelling. But those qualities are secondary to having an article that genuinely desires to inform its audience and make them feel smarter as a result.

Case in point, many times during their career a content writer will be asked to write a post that is essentially a glorified ad. “10 Ways a Diving Watch Can Be the Best Father’s Day Gift,” with the copy all directed towards pitching that brand’s product and their product alone. Such posts are garbage and take away value from the customer experience. Almost no one will want to read such a post even if it is the number one hit on Google. Those that do read it will feel cheated.

Don’t go down that road. Instead, keep the Christmas and holiday spirit alive throughout the calendar year. Let your content be your gift to the world, one that spreads knowledge and that might some day lead to customers who always know the right questions to ask. Keep your marketing whits about you, but don’t let them make you cynical and spoil the magic of a good gift. Being generous and honest while going the extra mile with research will always pay off in spades, even if you can’t put the returns directly in your bank account.

Let EverSpark Help You Give the Gift That Keeps on Giving

We at EverSpark understand how to write content that adds real value to the customer experience while maintaining SEO and marketing best practices. We can help you develop strategies that align high-quality content with your other digital marketing tools to get you the results you want. Fostering trust between you and your audience is the most important part of this strategy.

Click here to get started today. We may not be on par with Saint Nick, but we like to think that the work we do can help put that delighted glow in customers eyes, just the same as when they unwrap that big, beautiful present.