Content plays a prevalent role in the product marketing process. Not only does it answer key questions your target personas may have about your product, but it also helps you establish trust, build relationships, boost your conversion rates, and generate further leads for future campaigns.

Additionally, well-executed content plays a significant role in helping you build brand awareness, ensures the credibility of your brand remains intact, and solidifies your reputation within an increasingly competitive market. This trio of factors combines to reduce customer churn and help you retain more customers.

Effective content presents itself in a range of guises, and in this article, we’ll discuss:

What does good content look like?

When it comes to creating content, the definition of "good" is highly subjective as it depends entirely on the goals and medium. 

For product marketers, good content encompasses both the technical details and the overarching value proposition in a way that resonates with the target audience. More than just listing features, good content tells a cohesive story that educates prospects on how the product can solve their problems. It should be easy to consume, especially for those new to the space, and highlight what makes the offering unique compared to competitors. 

While the specific types of content may vary between assets like blog posts or sales decks, maintaining a consistent core message and voice tailored to the medium connects the narrative. 

Ultimately, good content comes down to crafting a compelling story that’s found by the right audience and leads with value, ultimately providing something useful for your desired audience, be that internal and/or external stakeholders.

How to use content to appeal to personas

While having one core message for a product is crucial, it should be adapted across content mediums to appeal to different target personas. 

As product marketers, we develop the overarching positioning and messaging that provides the foundation for the rest of the organization. This core narrative remains largely the same, with slight adjustments to terminology and phrasing to match the particular medium, whether it's blog copy, social posts, or emails. 

The goal is to take that singular value proposition and make minor tweaks to translate it effectively across every touchpoint. It’s less about changing the core message itself and more about molding it to resonate with the specific audience and medium, all while staying true to the essence of the product’s story. 

With a strong central narrative as the backbone, the message can be molded into various forms of content to reach diverse personas.

How to create unique content

In any industry, competitors pose a constant threat, making competitive differentiation in content crucial. 

Rather than solely highlighting features, focus on crafting a story specific to your brand and product that clearly conveys the value it provides. Understand who your target customer is and what problems they face to build content that speaks directly to their needs. 

Leading with the core value your product delivers makes it stand apart from alternatives right from the start, piquing interest. Back up that messaging with evidence of how features enable that value to become a reality. 

Building connections through compelling stories told in your unique brand voice helps content rise above the noisy competitor landscape.

How to create appropriate content for your market

To effectively reach your audience, create content that aligns with where your customers are and how they like to consume information. 

Conduct research to determine what media formats your prospects prefer and focus efforts there, whether it’s long-form written content, short social media posts, videos, or podcasts. Meet them where their attention already lies. 

Just as important is understanding your industry landscape to identify gaps and opportunities to provide value through content. If existing materials don’t adequately address your customers’ pain points, create helpful, educational content to fill those needs. 

Tailor tone, length, and medium to how your particular audience wants to digest information. Serving the right content through the right channels for your market leads to greater engagement and conversions.

Common mistakes when creating content

One of the most common mistakes made when creating content is leading too heavily with product features rather than value. This stems from a place of wanting to showcase how great your offering is. But prospects don’t care about features as much as they care about how those features will solve their problems. 

Start by resonating with pain points, then build your content around educating how the value you provide addresses those needs. Another misstep comes from choosing the wrong medium or content format for your audience. You may invest significant resources into polished videos when your customers prefer brief text-based content. Take the time to research where your audience is, the types of information they want, and how they like it presented. 

Creating content without this understanding of your customers won’t drive engagement no matter how compelling it is. Lead with value and meet them where they are.

How to create an effective content marketing strategy

An effective content marketing strategy requires clearly defining goals, analyzing existing content, identifying gaps, and creating a plan to produce helpful new assets across mediums. 

Consider both reaching external audiences and serving internal teams. What’s the purpose of each content piece in the broader picture? How will you measure success? Once you’ve defined your desired outcomes, audit what content currently exists and how it performs. 

Note areas lacking content or where new formats could make an impact based on consumption patterns, and develop a timeline for creating content across channels and formats to fill those gaps in a way your audiences will find valuable. 

Aim for a healthy mix of written, visual, audio, and interactive content tailored to user preferences, and don’t forget to continually assess performance to refine the strategy, meet customer needs, and create great content experiences. 

Having thoughtful goals and a grounded understanding of your users enables you to build an integrated strategy to engage both external and internal audiences.

The role of content in your go-to-market strategy

Content plays an integral role in every stage of taking a product to market, though it’s often only brought in at the end. 

To execute a successful go-to-market strategy, build content components into the entire process. When planning new features or product releases, also think through what content will be needed at each phase, from internal documentation to external promotion. 

Develop positioning and messaging early on to shape narratives around what problems the offering solves. Be sure to create content specifically for internal teams to facilitate tasks like training and onboarding – this cross-functional collaboration can be the key to a successful strategy.

As well as training and onboarding, develop the external assets needed to support marketing from launch through maturity. 

Having content mapped to each step allows you to execute a repeatable, scalable process for every go-to-market endeavor. With content tightly woven throughout, you can completely support product launches and continually engage your users.

Why is video content important in product marketing?

Video content allows brands to connect with and engage audiences on a more personal, memorable level. 

In an increasingly crowded and noisy digital landscape, video's unique format stands out and drives higher engagement. Product marketers should incorporate video throughout initiatives from launching new features to user education. 

Of course, there’s an array of video types you can invest in, and each have different and specific functions: Short, compelling videos integrated on key pages grab attention quickly to convey key messaging and value. Interactive workshops or training sessions via video build connections with users while teaching them about products. 

Videos can be repurposed across channels like social media, email campaigns, and ads, maximizing resources. People process information differently; while some prefer reading text, many find videos more compelling. Leaning into different formats allows you to reach a broader audience, making video an essential component for well-rounded content strategies.

Content advice for product marketers: Closing thoughts

Content remains one of the most valuable tools product marketers have to educate audiences and drive conversions. But creating compelling assets requires thoughtful strategy and execution. 

Here’s a roundup of some key tips we covered:

  • Define your goals, understand your personas, and meet them where they are. Craft cohesive narratives that lead with value, not just features. 
  • Adapt messaging and medium to resonate across content types and channels. 
  • Focus on filling gaps rather than replicating what competitors offer. And remember that people engage with diverse formats, so leverage different content mediums like video. 

Product marketers who set clear goals, have a comprehensive understanding of their audience and have a strong commitment to differentiation can develop content that captivates customers across the buyer's journey. 

Your content is your megaphone; make sure what you amplify offers true value.

Want to improve your messaging?

The principal aim of producing content is to communicate to your audience in a clear, concise manner.

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💌 Know how to build foundations for solid messaging and customer engagement
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🥇 Be a pro at drafting, layering, and reviewing your messaging
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…and that’s just the TIP of the iceberg!

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