Customer service excellence is an initiative that most companies strive to achieve. The first step is to convert prospects into customers. One way to accomplish this goal is by delivering relevant, customer-centric content at every stage of the prospect’s journey.

As such, it is marketing’s role to produce content that answers the basic customer service question, “How can we help you?” Whether it’s through your social media, website, advertising, articles, white papers, customer success stories, newsletters, email campaigns or other forms of communication, your audiences want to know how you solve their problems and the answer to the universal question, “What’s in it for me?” To keep them interested, informed and engaged, focus on customer-centric content.

B2B Customer-Centric Content Defined

“Customer-centric” is a phrase that identifies the most valuable types of content. It’s a critical business initiative that’s more than a buzzword. Customer-centric content appeals to the readers’ needs: how they can increase productivity and/or profitability, how they can minimize loss or risk, and how they can look like a “hero.” The goal of this type of content is to earn trust, respect and the desire to do business together.

“You” vs.“We”

How we phrase our messaging can have a major impact on its meaning and effect. In a recent study by the Warwick Business School and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine, four different types of phrasing were tested in marketing and sales messaging:

1. We-we phrasing: “We understand your problem, we will provide a solution.”
2. You-we phrasing: “You have a problem, we will provide a solution.”
3. We-you phrasing: “We have a solution to your problem, you will provide a solution.”
4. You-you phrasing: “You have a problem, you will provide a solution.”

In this study, researchers discovered the you-you phrasing resulted in the best conversion rate. By phrasing the problem from the prospect’s perspective and the solution as their responsibility, prospects are more likely to take action. It increases the prospect’s ownership of the issue along with urgency and demand.

Tips for Producing Customer-Centric Content

Here are some quick tips to help highlight the “you” in your marketing messaging and become more customer-centric.

1. Address known challenges and provide solutions.
2. Focus on benefits, not features.
3. Personalize messaging to specific prospects and research/understand their companies before reaching out.
4. Align sales and marketing teams with respective viewpoints for extended perspective.
5. Stay timely and relevant through understanding industry news and trends.
6. Maintain a consistent frequency of contact.
7. Share data and discoveries that can spark new and productive conversations.
8. Let the introduction of your own company come secondary to understanding the prospect’s company.
9. Encourage open communication between and within your company, prospects, and clients to maximize understanding.

Before you can adopt a customer-centric approach, you need to identify and understand the challenges of your prospects and customers. Ask for insight from your sales team. Talk with existing customers and valued partners. Remember, your content needs to provide value. Address prospect and customer concerns and challenges, and tailor content to the various stages of the sales funnel. When content is created with the mindset of solving a problem, it will build relationships, enhance trust, encourage dialogues and transform transactional relationships into long-term partnerships.