Get Real With Relevance: Creating Content Isn’t Enough

While the first to say “Content is King” may have been the founder of Microsoft, a la Bill Gates, there’s an important piece of that monarchy analogy. Relevance is a must, but some are forgetting the importance of relevance when creating offers, ads and promotions. Content may be king, but relevance is queen and she’s been too forgotten by today’s marketers.

A recent

How Important is Relevance Really?

It’s probably more important than you realize. According to the Janrain study, the majority of consumers would leave a site if they were being shown ads that were in stark contrast to their interests, e.g. being shown dating site ads while married or political donation requests from an opposing party’s ad. In situations like this, you can expect to lose 50-65% of your site visitors.

When it comes to email marketing, there are already tight restrictions on businesses and the types of emails they can send. Increased targeting and relevance can boost revenue numbers. A 2012 case study from Marketing Sherpa found that businesses were able to increase their revenue by 10% just by adding 3 personalization tactics focused on relevance.

Relevance can keep customers coming back and keep them engaged each time they visit. Similarly, irrelevance can drive customers away and even to a competitor.

How Can I Deliver Relevant Content?

More and more, marketers are getting on board with real-time marketing and are focusing on refining their marketing strategy to deliver relevant content to their audience. A recent Business.com Performance Marketing post notes that 71% of marketers explain that content success begins with relevance. Nearly three-quarters of marketers are aware of relevance’s importance, but how can a business really deliver? Here are a few tips:

Get more information from your customers. Cookies and individual registrations can help. If you’re worried about driving consumers away by requesting more information, keep in mind that 57% of consumers are OK with providing personal information on a website as long as it’s for their benefit and used responsibly.
Tap into your analytics and information databases, then test. Different types of content, including text images, will appear more relevant than others. Take a look at what interests your users and segment them accordingly to deliver the right content at the right time.
Refine your retargeting approach. This is where relevance really plays a huge role. When a customer leaves your site, you still want to continue providing them with a positive and fluid experience.
Ask. Ask your customers what types of content they want. Is it quotes, deals, the latest blog post, or a combination of something else? If you’re unsure where to start, customer feedback is a great catalyst and the information they provide will likely spark change.

You know who your customers are, or at least you should. You create the products and/or services they use, you answer their customer support questions, and you market to them in a multitude of ways. All of these actions provide your business with ideas for creating relevant content in the form of blog posts, emails, ads and social media status updates. While creating content may be a top priority and the first to the throne, relevance sits right their alongside content and demands your attention as well.

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