As marketers, it is hugely important for us to create compelling content for our customers, but sometimes along the way, we forget to personalize our content so it meets all our customers’ needs. It’s an easy trap to fall in, but today, we have some insider tips on tailoring your content for your customers and avoid this problem.

The first step in customizing your content for customers is to stop automating your marketing. You ever try on an article of clothing labeled “one size fits all?” It probably didn’t fit you very well, did it?  That’s because one size never fits all and creating content without tailoring it for your different customers is like selling clothing that is only “one size fits all” and doesn’t come in regular sizes.

A recent example of this from my personal experience is getting a “Happy Birthday” card from my MINI dealer.  Wow!  How cool, I thought, they cared enough to send me a birthday card…maybe I will stop in and look at the models I  have been eyeing.  The bubble was burst when I read further…”hope you are enjoying your 2006 MINI Cooper S”…you mean the Cooper that I leased (from YOU!) and returned (to YOU!) in 2009?  hmmmm…that was really special!

Marketing automation has its place, but only after you have figure out how to tailor your content. Once you know how to create different content for different customers, then you can use automation do help deliver this content.

Next, go to where your customers are. If you have ever mapped your customers’ buying processes, you’ll probably find that they can take many ways to get to you—including visits to your website, your mobile site (you do have one right?), interacting with your brand on social media, as well as more traditional means such as visiting your bricks-and-mortar locations and calling your phone.

When you find where your customers are, stop talking and listen. Remember, you have two ears and only one mouth, so you should be doing twice as much listening to your customers as you do talking to them. Listen to them and find out everything you can about them—Who are they? What are their pain points and hot button issues? You can kick it old school and use focus groups to get this info, but an easier (and cheaper!) way is to use social media to listen to your customers.

However you get this data, use it to separate your customers into distinct groups. Chances are that you have several different types of customers. (Even if you only sell to one type of company, think about all the different people in the company you interact with—the technicians who actually use your product and the boss who signs the checks, etc.). Once you know who your customers are, craft personas for each of them.

Once you have your personas set, you are all ready to go back to content creation. This time around, since you know who your audience is—and you have divided it into discrete sectors (represented by the personas), you will be in a better position to speak your customers’ language and create really compelling content.

Don’t be scared by all the word involved in tailoring your content for your customers—the rewards it brings are worth all the extra work and more!