Webcare is the second engine for content

Creating more engagement with your content is easier than you think. All you need is your content to add value to your audience. You can add value by fulfilling their needs. Simple as that. A few basic principles...

Open mindset

This all starts with an open mindset. What I mean is that content is not exclusive to the marketing department. My advice is to involve other departments in your content ideation, production, and evaluation. Content is holistic, about your brand and it travels through all silos and layers. Pretty much a no-brainer, yet in reality content still is silo’ed.

Purpose of your content

Secondly, before you continue to read, you should realize it all starts with the purpose of your content.  Are you a one-way broadcaster or do you want to inspire and interact with your audience to create some kind of relationship?

If you want to engage with your audience, involving webcare can make a huge difference. If done correctly, webcare can be the second engine of your content ideation. The first engine is the brand strategy and marketing calendar — obviously.

Customer-centricity

The third is your customer-centricity.  Do you practice what your preach, do you put your customer in the heart of all your communications?  Do you really listen to their feedback to integrate those insights into your content production? Or are you just broadcasting?

Be honest with yourself. When is the last time you asked for and listened to feedback from your customers? Your webcare agents do this on a daily basis. 

Why webcare

If you really want to create an impact with your content via higher engagement, integrate webcare into the editorial board. The main reason is simple, webcare is the first point of contact with your audience and customers. Webcare knows what makes them tick and what’s going on in their minds.

• Webcare can predict the buzz and the sentiment of the content: if and how are people going to react to this piece of content.
• Based on audience feedback on social posts, webcare can help with content ideation.
• Due to their close contact with the customer, webcare has an overview of your audience’s concerns.

You just need to realize that webcare is not there to pick up the garbage of the marketing and communications department. And they are not only there to fix what others have broken. They are your co-workers and have valuable insights and data. Integrate them in the content team and make them part of the production process.

Webcare and data

As webcare is in close contact with the customer care department, they have an overview of the complaints, concerns, and feedback of your customers. They should have a list of the frequently asked questions and a list of the top 10 complaints about your products and services. Use those insights to produce content to engage with your audience on social.

Next to this, webcare monitors and reacts to social posts, therefore they get direct feedback and suggestions. Use this feedback to create new content. E.g., you sell a natural deodorant, and a mother reacts this product also works amazingly for her teenage son.

Editorial board

This is also pretty easy. Invite the customer care and or webcare department to your editorial board and content meetings. In this meeting, you discuss the content already published, the new content, and the content ideation list.

No editorial board?

If you do not have an editorial board yet, and you just jump from campaign to campaign without any structure, I kindly suggest creating this immediately. If you want to connect to your audience, you need to strategize, plan, and evaluate your content. And this is done in the editorial board, not in a PowerPoint report with some doggy vanity metrics and vague KPIs.

More impact

How this creates more impact? Easy answer. Content that fulfills audience needs, answers their questions, or provides a solution for their problem, by default has higher engagement than broadcasting and boosting your production features and technological advantages. Don't overcomplicate, just create content that adds value and your audience will engage. 

Photocredits: Rachel Claire via Pexels