Wouldn’t you love to have a window into the future? While technology hasn’t come up with anything close to a crystal ball, using predictive analytics in content marketing is the next best thing.
Having an inside edge on your content’s future performance isn’t science fiction anymore. With today’s AI-powered predictive technology, you can tweak your content to reach your goals well before it goes to press.
Learning how to maximize the value of predictive analytics can rocket your ROI to the moon and back. Here are some ways to get the most out of your tech investment.
Segment Your Audience and Target Them with Relevant Content
Without predictive analytics, segmenting your audience by both their interests and their place along their customer journey can be a tedious process.
However, with today’s technology, you can easily combine a wealth of data, including interests, pain points, demographics, and behavioral information, across all your channels to create various customer segments.
Then, you can target each segment with content that addresses their pain points, speaks in a voice they can relate to, and appears on their preferred channels when they’re likely to be online.
Anticipate Content Engagement
Your social media and content analytics already have plenty of data about your prospects and customers. Predictive technology analyzes that data using AI, machine learning, statistics, historical data patterns, and predictive modeling to give you an inside edge into what content your target audience will likely engage with.
You’ll have fewer “duds” among your content and provide more engaging user experiences. It’s a win-win proposition – and well worth the money you’ll spend.
Drive More Conversions
Predictive technology might not be infallible, but it’s a lot more accurate than even the most informed guess. Using it to suggest when people are ready to take the next step can help your teams send them specific content that will likely trigger a conversion.
You’ll likely need to engage with your analytics teams to determine the right goals, collect pertinent data, and create a predictive model. That model can let you know when an audience member is ripe for conversion.
In addition, predictive analytics can help your company score leads. For B2B companies who use account-based marketing to pursue larger accounts, lead scoring can help content teams target the most promising leads.
The more authority a prospect has to purchase, the more need they have for a solution like yours, and the interest they’ve shown in your brand serves as criteria to score a lead. With predictive lead scoring, you can avoid wasting time on pursuing dead ends.
As your customers move toward a sale, content collaboration with your sales teams can provide data about their conversations with prospects. Combining that data with robust predictive analytics can indicate when a prospect is ready to purchase.
Create More Accurate Buyer Personas
Predictive analytics can identify patterns and commonalities among your audience that your teams might have missed. Using those insights to flesh out buyer personas can help you identify new interests, demographics, and preferred channels among your target customers.
That information can help you create more personalized content. The more personal your approach, the more likely an audience member will connect with your brand.
Image via Raw Shorts
Use Customer Feedback to Improve Post-Sale Content
Like most large content teams, you probably monitor and respond to online reviews and social media comments. But with predictive analytics, you can take valuable feedback to the next level.
Predictive technology allows you to combine data from your usual sources of feedback with information your customer support teams provide. With such a panoramic view of your existing customers’ needs, you can plan content that addresses those issues.
Whether it’s a detailed FAQ page or videos and blog posts that teach customers how to get more benefits from your product, valuable post-sale content builds customer loyalty. Lend a helping hand, and these loyal customers have an excellent chance of becoming brand ambassadors.
Introduce New Solutions to Your Current Customers
Similarly, predictive analytics can help you identify ways to help your current customers solve problems they face. When you’ve taken the time to research their needs, introducing your products or services as the solution won’t appear salesy. Rather, you will have positioned your brand as a helpful advisor.
Decrease Churn and Calculate Customer Lifetime Value
Predictive technology can also identify when audience members’ or existing customers’ brand love is growing cold. While you likely can’t stop everyone from leaving your brand, you can look into the reasons why their interest has waned.
Using predictive analytics to estimate each customer’s lifetime value can help you decide which customers you need to prioritize in your retention efforts. Armed with that information, you can often revamp your approach, depending on what story the data tells you.
For Prospects
For instance, if the data indicates that you’ve swamped their inbox with a truckload of content, you can use predictive analytics to send them only content that they want to receive.
Or, you might need to narrow down your segments to provide them with only content that interests them. For example, if you sell both BMW and Subaru cars, a Subaru owner won’t appreciate an article on car repair that mainly focuses on BMW issues.
For Current Customers
As for current customers, the data might show that they find your product awkward to use. Instead of letting them drop away, leaving a trail of bad reviews in their wake, send them content that shows them how to overcome their discomfort. You might even alert your customer support team to follow up with a call to bring them back into the fold.
Find New Market Segments
Predictive analytics in content marketing can help you identify new market segments. Whether you’re expanding into new territory or have missed a key demographic, predictive technology can track down promising prospects.
Expanding into New Territories
When you expand into a new geographical area, predictive analytics can compare data on people in that area with your existing customers’ demographics and other characteristics. Then, you can create content that targets their interests and pain points to draw them into your sales funnel.
Identifying New Prospects
As for identifying new prospects, predictive technology can serve as your personal detective. Data you might have missed without such a robust analysis can see the light of day, allowing you to find and reach new customers.
For instance, suppose your company makes reflective vests, highly popular among hunters. Your target demographic probably skews heavily male since females comprise only a little more than 11% of all hunters.
However, predictive technology could peer into the future, using the uptick in female hunters to identify that growing segment well worth targeting. With content that targets female hunters, you could corner that market and gain an edge over your competitors.
As you constantly tweak your content by using predictive technology, you can reach a wider share of your potential market. Having a content marketing platform that can integrate predictive analytics applications enables you to find new prospects and create content for them – all in one place.
With DivvyHQ, you can do just that, as well as everything else content-related. With our 14-day free trial, there’s no risk to you – just unlimited opportunities. Begin your DivvyHQ journey today!