If you’ve heard it once you’ve heard it a zillion times, content is king. Unfortunately, because we’ve all heard that a zillion times we’re now close to drowning in content, of varying degrees of quality.
Something we seem to be forgetting while pumping out all of this regal content is the real reason it was deemed so important in the first place.
Yes, content plays a big part in search rankings, but the real reason content even does that lies in its true purpose: providing assistance to customers and moving them to a purchasing decision.
Content = customer service.
Service with a Smile
Anyone who’s ever purchased anything anywhere knows that customer service ranges from terrible to excellent. The same goes for content, and it’s for many of the same reasons.
Consider the following scenarios below:
Terrible customer service – Pete is shopping for a new garden hose. He enters the gardening supply store and looks around. After 20 minutes he still can’t find what he needs and finally hunts down a store associate for help. He explains that he’s looking for a new garden hose and the associate stares at him blankly, then points him in the direction of the lawn mowers.
Terrible content – Pete is searching for information about replacing his garden hose. He comes across multiple links that take him directly to garden hoses he could purchase, but he’s still not sure which one he should buy.
Finally, he stumbles across a page that promises to tell him which garden hose would best meet his needs. After struggling through 800 overly technical, meandering and link-studded words, he realizes that the page he’s reading is actually an ad for lawn mowers.
Mediocre customer service – Pete is still shopping for a new garden hose (poor guy). As he enters the store, an associate asks him if he needs any help. He says no, but when he can’t find the garden hose display he seeks the associate out.
The associate points him in the direction of the garden hoses and goes back to stocking shelves. Pete buys the cheapest hose and heads home.
Mediocre content – The cheap hose Pete bought has sprung a leak, so he’s still searching for a replacement. He finds several websites with blog posts about how great their respective garden hoses are. He still doesn’t know which one he needs, so he gets the cheapest one.
Excellent customer service – Surprise! Pete still needs a new garden hose. As he enters the store an associate asks him what brings him to the store. He recounts his tale of garden hose woe and the associate asks him what he will be using the hose for most often. It turns out that he had recently planted a garden in a prime part of his yard, but his old garden hose couldn’t reach it and his plants are dying.
The associate brings Pete to the garden hose display and points out which hoses have the greatest reach, but she also suggests that an in-ground irrigation system might better suit his needs. Pete is intrigued and after a brief discussion about the pros and cons, he purchases everything he needs to install the system.
Excellent content – Pete didn’t go to the store to replace his leaky online purchase, but decided to give the Internet one more try. He does a search for replacing garden hoses and finds a blog post about the best ways to water gardens.
The post touches on the pros and cons of several garden watering options, ranging from basic watering with a simple garden hose to installing an in-ground irrigation system. The post is easy to read and informative, and makes Pete feel like the writer understands his needs. He decides that the irrigation system best suits his needs and purchases everything he needs to install the system from the website where he found the post. Pete and his plants are now happy.
It’s Never Just a Garden Hose
Content works as a marketing tool because it accomplishes something for the customer, or, more often, the potential customer. Content is king because search engines want to make sure that people find what they’re looking for, even if they don’t know what that is yet. Content = customer service because, done successfully, they both anticipate the customer’s needs and supply them with a solution.