If you ask one question about every piece of content you create, make it this one:
Is it useful to my potential customers?
Wondering if a post is right for your blog? Trying to figure out how to structure a webinar? Just figure out if it will be useful to the people you're trying to sell to.
If your content is useful to the right people, you're done.
You don't need to worry about targeting because the content does it for you; good customers are interested, bad ones aren't. You don't need to worry about reach because your customers want your content and find you via Google and social networking tools. You don't need to worry about money, because you're just investing time and creativity.
Of course, it's hard to create content that's useful.
It's easier to speak in the jargony language you use inside your company. It's safer to create marketing collateral that just explains how your product works. It's more natural to spend time and energy on a project you think is fun, but that nobody else gets.
Charlie King reminded me of all this yesterday.
Charlie is a HubSpot customer who runs the Reynolds Golf Academy in Greensboro, GA.
It would be very easy for Charlie to do what resorts and golf academies normally do: pull together a few brochures, throw them on the website and use them as advertisements in golf magazines.
Instead, Charlie figured out what's useful to his customers. He's blogging about golf tips, he wrote a book of golf tips and he's putting instructional videos on his website. And customers are finding him.
What's useful to your customers?
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