How Do You Consume Content?

Every single day, businesses worldwide are wrestling with their online presence.

Do I do social media? Should we update our website? Blogging?

Well, it’s year 2015 and if you are in business, the simple answer to all is YES!
But it’s “YES BUT…”

Anything you do, needs to begin with a strategy. So a simple shortcut is this…

Ask yourself, “How do you consume content?”

To market anything well, you need to profile your customer.

I remember back in year 2000, when I was buying and downloading ebooks from guys like Yanik Silver and Joe Sugarman. I would print them out and read them because there was no such thing as reading devices unless you wanted to sit there reading them on your monitor (pre-flatscreen era).

Whilst I’m still a strong reader, my reading mix has changed over time. I now have a reading mix of something like 50% paperback books, and 50% online articles, special reports and iBooks.

A marketer who knows this, will know how to get in front of me.

A good exercise is this: Profile Your Own Content Consumption

Start by identifying exactly how you consume content. Look at all mediums online and offline and make a simple list.

Then you can do the same for your clients and customer base. It will change the way you think about your marketing. You’ll become more strategic in your marketing mix.

The Unspoken Variable of “Receptive State” in Marketing

One thing rarely talked about, is the “state” you are in when consuming content. Emotional states affect buying decisions.

When I am working, my radar and distraction filter is very high which means it’s harder to get through to me. Not surprisingly, it’s when I’m chilling out reading on a weekend that I get (or get given) ideas for products, content and services to explore to further enhance my own businesses because my radar is off. I’m more open to suggestion when relaxed.

Example of Content Consumption Profile:

So my content consumption would look something like this:

– Online article reading (usually triggered by my browsing through Linkedin and twitter which I do daily)
– Articles from my “favourites” saved in Google Chrome bookmarks – entrepreneur.com, lifehacker.com, Inc.com and PsyBlog etc
– Paperback books (1 a week)
– iBook or PDF from someone I stumbled across (1 a week)
– Podcast – Linkedin’s interview series, Seth Godin, Trail Runner Nation, Freakonomics, (1 hour a day)
– Email
– Video (first source originated from twitter links, I’m not searching youtube as a casual browser although many obviously do).

You need to know original source because the better you understand people’s “go-to” resources for information, the easier it is to get in front of them.

2 Lessons From This

You need to know what your target market does if you want to:
1. Be in front of them.
2. Appeal to them with stuff they want.

If you’re in business, you should never have to ask the question, “What do my customers want?” You should know them intimately. Do the work. Research. Interview them. Talk to them. Get to know them as well as you might know yourself.

If they watch video online 2 hours a day, you need to get serious about making high quality, interesting video content for them to come see as many days a possible if they are heavy consumers.

And don’t worry about ideas for content. If you involve your clients, they’ll give you the ideas.

Pulling a Strategy Together

Profile your customers. Know their bookmarks. Know the podcasts they download. What are they listening for? What are they reading? What do they want to learn? Where do they go to first to try and source answers to their problems in daily life? Then put yourself in front of them.

If your market is physically active CEO’s with a acquisition cost of $400 per sale and their profile reveals they never watch tv, listen to podcasts when they run daily, email from their iPad on the go and prefer paperback books over digital books by 80:20 – then you might consider something like this…

Creative Ideas that Come Knowing Your Customer Content Profile

Get creative and find a list of active CEO’s. Buy a $55 iPod shuffle and pre-load it with podcasts of yours with great content and their favourite running tracks (preferably songs with a tempo of 180 as runners like to keep a running cadence of 180 steps per minute), pack it up with red ribbon and letter as to why you’re sending them an iPod and let them know you’ll be in touch.

Your $55 could go 10 X further than your usual marketing if you know how your customers consume content in 2015.

Convert 1 in 5 with a high value, personalised approach for a cost per sale of $275 and you have a strategic approach to getting new clients on tap, that are high quality and save you $125 per sale over your general mass market approach.

Let’s start a discussion about “How Do You Consume Content?” .

Can’t wait to see the habits of people and ideas that spring from it.