Content Strategy - Step 2 - Finding your Voice

Finding your voice is really about learning how you fit into the conversation.  If you've followed  conversations in your customer communities for a while, you've seen that the language they use is different from what your company is used to.  Their main issues tend to be centered around their specific vertical - if they are a healthcare provider, for example, they will be talking healthcare problems.

Learning "customer speak" in this way is essential to establishing a voice that resonates in your customer community.  Publishing authentic customer success stories is the fastest way to establish this voice, and should be your number one content priority.

Such stories, however, are frequently mishandled.  Marketing writers try to put words in their customers' mouths, looking for ROI confirmation and other metrics.  As well, content is often force-fed into highly predictable (and boring) case study templates.  No wonder customers hesitate when asked to participate in a case study.

Let your customers tell the story their way!  Find out how they recognized a problem, how they selected your company, what they hoped to achieve, and what they have achieved so far.  If you use their terminology and their framing of the issues, your readers, who are also their peers, will become engaged in the content.

Marketers will ask, "okay, it's great to tell nice stories, but where do we fit in and how do we benefit?"

Good questions. The key here is that authentic customer success stories give you the opportunity to position your company in the manner that is most attractive to your customers - in a supporting role.  This is a little tough to swallow if you have visions of building a blockbuster image, but in the B2B world, how you helped other companies succeed is what your audience wants to see. 

Your voice, therefore, is all about how you support success.  Your readers should see you as promoter / coach / enabler who acknowledges that his or her customers are the real heroes.  What your audience will see is they too can become heroes if they work with you.

The customer success story becomes the main focus of your narrative.  From this base, you can create other materials such as news items, blog posts, tweets, brochures, etc.  If these address the same issues that are in the customer conversation, you can be sure that your voice will resonate.