Some of the most common complaints we come across here at Heard when it comes to starting a content series or a new campaign are as follows:
- “I don’t know where to get ideas from”
- “I don’t know what to say.”
- “I’m not sure what my customers really want and I’m not sure where I should start.”
- “I don’t know where to begin.”
- “I want to do this and I see content working, but don’t know where to begin.”
If any of that resonates with you, we have some great news:
This is the easiest thing to fix when it comes to content creation.
If you need ideas at any time, the first place you need to look is your customer suggestion box, your customer complaint mailbox, or—let’s be honest—probably just your email inbox. Where is it that your customers talk to you and express their complaints?
The point of content is for you to identify the customer’s problem, offer a couple of solutions, and then guide them towards understanding that your solution is the best possible outcome. That’s it. That’s all that content is.
There are a million different ways you could go about it from creative to a podcast to videos to in-the-street guerilla marketing. The execution is irrelevant.
The point of content is to solve a customer’s problem clearly and effectively.
Where do you get questions? Where do you get ideas in order to begin creating content? Anything your customer complains about, expresses, or says offhand is something that’s relevant for you to talk about.
For example…
Our show, Content is for Closers, and this very short snackable type of content exists because we’ve heard so many of our clients say they’re not able to find reliable marketers who are not selling them anything but just providing valuable advice.
Most people cannot listen to a marketer without feeling like he’s trying to sell them something. We don’t do that, so we decided to start creating these short daily videos to help make your content 1% better each day.
We heard from our customers, “I can’t find wholesome advice. I can’t find advice without strings attached,” and we designed this show. That’s the exact process you need to go through.
The key here is to not overthink or get too cute with where your content comes from.
Intellectual Meritocracy
We talk a lot internally about intellectual meritocracy, which is a fancy way of saying we’ll take ideas from anywhere. An intern, a customer, the mailman, something we’ve seen online— we don’t care. If it solves the customer’s problem, we’re in for it.
The only thing that matters is that the content…
- Relates to your customer
- Offers them relevant solutions
- Presents simple steps for clear action
That is the goal of your content, so the next time you need ideas for a new content series, a new piece of content, or something to post online, head over to your complaint box and start making.