Creating quality customer-facing content is a key part of a company’s efforts to establish itself as an expert in its niche, gain consumer trust and ultimately increase conversions, sales and growth opportunities. To achieve these outcomes, organizations need to make sure their customer-facing content is authentic, consistent and engaging. Below are 12 expert-recommended strategies to help get you there.

How can companies make sure their customer-facing content is consistent, engaging and authentic? What strategy can they implement?

1. Focus on Adding Value

Irrespective of your chosen business model, original and effective content is still king. Quality content should add value to people’s lives rather than take their money and time. When content is too focused on making someone buy a product, then it takes away the essence of the content. Instead, focus on solving readers’ problems by answering their questions. – Vikas Agrawal, Infobrandz

2. Really Understand Your Audience

The key to creating customer-centric content is to know your target audience. Some business owners think they can guess what kind of content their users want to see, and this rarely works out in their favor. Instead, research your customers across multiple platforms and create content that directly appeals to their goals or pain points. – Chris Christoff, MonsterInsights

3. Create a Style Guide

The key to content consistency is to create a style guide that all your writers can refer to. You can create a document with clear instructions on the tone to write in, who your audience is and examples of good content. When your team has clear guidelines to follow, they’ll be able to shape their content to present a consistent front for your audience. – Blair Williams, MemberPress

4. Lead With Information Overload

The most effective customer-facing content that is always engaging and authentic for your consumer is educational content. Lead with information overload first so they understand your positioning as the expert in that niche. The consumers who are truly interested will always engage with “how to” articles and listicle-style content. – Laura Egocheaga, Viral Growth Media

5. Have a Content Calendar

Building a content calendar and planning your content ahead of time can give you a bird’s-eye view of how your content looks. You’ll get an idea of how people visiting your blog or social media will look at your posts. You’ll be able to see whether your content looks cohesive and can fix things like designs, titles and other elements that don’t match. – Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner

6. Include Your Audience in the Content

Include your clients and audience in your content creation strategies, be it with video, infographics, long-form content or a conversation on Twitter about what benefits them most. In order to make your content valuable to your audience, include your audience. Be specific and remember to tag participants and exact comments. – Matthew Capala, Alphametic

7. Collect User Feedback

Collecting user feedback is a surefire way to gather authentic information from your customers about what works in your strategy and what doesn’t. Hearing from your audience regularly is necessary to continue building strategies, products and content that converts. Make it a point to create customer surveys and ask relevant questions to help you improve your current operations. – Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms

8. Get Input From Team Members

I think the best way to make sure your customer-facing content is consistent, engaging and authentic is to have several team members read and review it first. You’ll miss out on plenty of opportunities when there are only two sets of eyes on the content (the writer and editor). We have a system where at least five people get the chance to review and refine content before publication. – John Turner, SeedProd LLC

9. Add Engagement Options

Businesses that want to create consistent customer-facing content should think about what type of engagement options they can add to their posts. Consumers like engaging with brands more than ever before, so adding a comment section to your blog posts, asking questions throughout your articles and even adding gamification elements can dramatically improve your traffic and conversions. – John Brackett, Smash Balloon LLC

10. Carry Your Brand Messaging Across Platforms

Make sure that your brand messaging is consistent on all platforms. This includes online and offline marketing, your workforce, your thought leadership and your personal brand. You have to be consistent in order to be authentic. – Maria Thimothy, OneIMS

11. Create an Emotional Connection

To create engaging content, it’s important to create an emotional connection with your audience. Many brands can create content for their audience, but if they can’t connect to them on a deeper level, the audience will go somewhere else where they can fulfill that need. People want to invest in brands they care about that also care about them. – Jared Atchison, WPForms

12. Be Yourself

Be the face of your company and be you. Without going too far, state your opinions and stand behind them. Make sure that your voice is consistent across all channels, social media included. Be real, be honest and be authentic. Authenticity is the way to go, and not a lot of other brands recognize that, so it’s definitely a way to set yourself apart from the competition. – Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

 

Read more: 5 Design Trends to Make Your Content More Engaging