It’s likely you’ve heard the axiom “Content is King,” to which many online marketers have amended, “Context is Queen.”

In keeping with the monarchy analogy, to these decrees I add “Relevance is Prince.” Here’s why.

Content – technically well composed and stylistically appealing – is a critically important component of inbound lead generation and brand image development. Simply put, smart white papers, case studies, opinion papers and the like demonstrate your company’s commitment to the industry in which it belongs, and its intent to advance the product or service category. The King and Queen may be well attended due to your consistent content production and promotion efforts.

But what about the Prince Relevance?

Content marketing relevance

It’s unlikely that good prose alone will tip the shopper’s allegiance in favor of your brand. But the right information, formatted for easy consumption and delivered (or made available) to prospects at the opportune point can be just the button-pusher your marketing team has been looking for.

Content relevance presumes a deep and abiding knowledge of your prospects and clients. In the old days, a crusty old salesperson’s anecdotal thoughts about what prospects wanted to know and what they cared about was sufficient insight to inform a copywriter tasked with updating a sales sheet or product brochure.

Thankfully, we now have more sophisticated and quantitative methods for understanding our content audiences and the best ways to get our resources out to them. Here are some tools that may enlighten your process for continual content production and distribution:

  • Google Analytics: Consistently monitor and compare key metrics like top pages visited and time spent on those pages. You’re looking for cues that suggest the type of content your site visitors find most interesting and spend the most time on. Conversely, you should monitor for signs that some content isn’t hitting the mark at all (bounce rate will be a clue).
  • Google Insights for Search: Does all of your web content center around “higher education marketing”? Google Insights for Search may help you grab low-hanging keyword fruit like “college marketing.” If you find some relevant alternative key words loaded with opportunity for rank, then you can adjust content on some of your pages (and perhaps produce a new content piece specifically optimizing the phrase) to reflect the discovery. Hello, new traffic stream, have we got relevant content for you!
  • Twitter chat schedule: So you know some groups have chats sometimes. But did you realize that some of the chats have significant drawing power? Each week, scores of people follow and participate in the #solopr chat. Those that can’t attend read the blog for the summary or digest the transcript in its entirety. Find the chats closely related to your industry and follow along. Granted, some chats are better organized than others. But you’re sure to find new (possibly influential and definitely relevant) folks to follow, and you’ll gain firsthand accounts of their key issues, concerns, and successes. Let the insider information fuel your content plans.
  • Twilert: A simple tool that filters through tweets to cull the hash tags, users, and terms most important to you. As you scan results, keep track of new users and hashtags (often used in tandem with those you may already know). Explore your findings to discover new folks to follow and woo. You may also learn new terms to start folding into your messaging.
  • Triberr: A Twitter tool that helps Twitter users of similar interests group together to promote each members’ blog posts. Whereas you may often have a RT or several for your new posts, Triberr ensures that through the collective group boots the retweet factor.

Use the technology and tools at your disposal to improve your content’s relevance to its audiences. When you focus on the King, Queen, and Prince of content marketing (content, context, relevance), you’ll have all the right jewels in your crown.