Let's be honest! Who doesn't like to read a good book or watch a great blockbuster? I personally do! And I'm sure your audience would love it too!

That's why good content is king. How to make audience take action when seeing your brand’s online content is a tricky question that most marketers encounter.

Long gone the age when customers were bombarded with clusters of sale-oriented and pushy content. Today is the age where customers are in control of what they want to see and hear. As marketers, we should listen more, talk less. By listening I mean studying your customers’ persona, hearing what they are discussing online, getting their opinions about what they want to see more from your brand. Social media has reversed the roles of content creator and content receiver. Your audience is now the generator of their own story. They can create their own blogs, social media sites and make their stories viral without getting a professional publishing approval. By listening, we can become a part of their world, be their friend and make them feel comfortable with us.

Let’s dig deeper into the 3 best types of content that would work for your online marketing strategy and make your audience involved and take further actions.

ENTERTAINING CONTENT

Your audience will take actions if your content is engaging, funny or smart whether it is in the form of a well written story, a meme, a viral video, a funny picture, a KEEP CALM poster. Don’t treat your audience like a sale target, put yourself in their shoes to think like them to get the best content that fits their needs. For instance, if your brand is selling ice cream to office workers in the middle of summer, what content would you go for? A nice pick-me-up post in the afternoon? A motivational quote on Monday? Or simply a video of a little pup trying to eat ice cream? Don’t be afraid to test and try different types of media until you get the right one. Content marketers should play different roles of a journalist, a photographer, an entertainer or a film producer to find the right content. Aim to get your audience smile, LOL, LMAO and share that content immediately. Don’t try to sell anything! Associate your brand subtly by asking a question in the caption or placing a little logo on the corner of the meme. Be smart! Be creative! Be consistent! Be humane!

INFORMATIONAL CONTENT

If your content can create curiosity and generate interest of intellectual audience, you’ve done it right! The second type of shareable content should be informational and helpful. Keep asking yourself questions about what challenges your audience may have in using a service/ a product or simply a generic problem. Having a brainstorm session with your creative team to think of solutions for those problems. Creating customers’ persona, customers’ journeys and role playing can be great tools to use during the process. Your content can be under the form of a blog post, a link, a list of life hacks, some helpful tips, the ultimate guide to a service, a tutorial video, an infographic, a how-to post, a product review. Take your audience through their decision-making stage and subtly include your brand as the ultimate solution in the very last step. By adding value to the overall user experience, your brand can be on the customers’ top of mind. Keep it consistent to gain audience’s trust and build brand loyalty through time.

OPINION CONTENT

Perhaps this is the easiest way content would work for your audience. Imagine you walk in a brick-and-mortar retail store and get greeted cheerfully by a sale assistant. You are just browsing, having no intention to shop. However, as she makes you feel so comfortable about staying in-store and she also gives good compliments on your hair (which you’ve spent an hour to blow dry), you decide to stay and start browsing. Eventually, you will end up buying unnecessary things that you haven’t planned on getting. That’s the magic of exceptional front-end customer service. In the virtual world, each of us is a cyber-identity representing as a symbol, a copy, a logo, an image which makes it twice as hard to keep your customers delighted and take purchase actions. Having said that, by using the same tactic as the sale assistant, content marketers can always reach their goal. Asking a question to see if your customers are doing ok, inviting them to a special VIP event, getting them involved in a buzz quiz, getting their opinions about a product repackaging or the upcoming new product. Keeping your customers in the loop is as important as getting them to spend more. Don’t rush! Your audience may take time to get involved. If they still don’t take action, offer some incentives (who doesn’t love freebies) or make it a fun competition so it can go viral.

Overall, being subtle and humble is the key to your audience’s heart. Always be consistent and remember to create content that is relevant to your strategy and marketing goal. After that, don’t forget to track analytical data and measure results to see the difference from your audience insights.