Does Your Content Have The … Quan?

PICTURE THIS

Have you seen the movie Jerry Maguire? Remember the famous scene where Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) is greeted by his client Ron Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr):

Ron Tidwell:      ‘Jerry Maguire, my agent. You’re my ambassador of Quan*.’

Jerry Maguire:   ‘Quan. That’s your word?’

Ron Tidwell:      ‘Yeah man, it means love, respect, community… and the dollar too. The whole package; the… Quan’.

It seems like Ron could just as well have been talking about ‘The 4 Key Elements of Successful Content Marketing’, including the aspects of respect, trust, community…and the dollar too.

AND THE DOLLAR TOO

Much has been written about being a respected and trusted member of your (on-line) community.

But how about ‘the dollar’? How about communicating the specific value your products or services bring to your (future) clients?

While targeting large corporate clients I’ve experienced firsthand that:

• making the value your products/services deliver explicit is essential; repeated communication of this value will improve your clients’ perception of ‘value for money’;
• it can be challenging: I’ve spent many hours with product managers to find the right angles to determine and express the client value in a way that is relevant and easy to relate to;
• although challenging at times, it can be done (if not, you may want to reconsider offering the product/service in the first place).

VALUABLE CONTENT

Specifying ‘the dollar’ in a way that resonates with your target audience is not always an easy task and requires both analytical and creative skills. The good part: once you get a very clear specification of the value your products and services bring to your clients, you got some of the most powerful material for your content marketing program.

At the end of the day, especially in b2b markets, it all boils down to the effective combination of value and connection as also sharply articulated by Jerry and Rod in the movie Jerry Maguire:

Jerry Maguire:   ‘Show me the money!, Show me the money!’
Rod Tidwell:     ‘I need to feel you Jerry!’

Wishing you, and your customers, lots of…Quan.

Author: Reinier Willems | Website | Twitter

Reinier is Marketing Manager and member of the management team of LeasePlan International, a global market leader in automotive leasing. He is member of the B2B Expertise Group of the Netherlands Institute for Marketing, and guest lecturer on B2B Marketing at the Rotterdam School of Management.