Quick – what was the key point of the last vendor email that you received? Or the main value points of the last website you reviewed? Or the core propositions in the last presentation that was delivered to you? Or the half-life of the last tweet that you read?

Nowadays, it seems that almost everything written about marketing is related to “digital” or “social media.” These concepts and the processes and technologies they embody are important, to be sure. The timing and channels of communication that we use to engage our customers are key, whether it’s 1:1 or 1:many, across the many available formats (email, chat, social media, mobile, etc.). Optimizing these interactions is critical to both effective customer engagement and marketing efficiency.

And who doesn’t appreciate fancy creative treatment in the materials that we use to engage? We like to focus on the visual aspects of collateral ranging from website design to brochures (yes, these apparently still exist) to white papers to the de rigueur PowerPoint presentation. The “wow” treatment – a rainbow of colors, spinning graphics, even multi-faceted screenshots of products – can provide a first impression of quality and meaning, at least on the producer side of the equation. But what messages are we actually sending the consumer of the material?

I assert that relevance is still the most important element of communication for us as marketers. It depends somewhat on timing, channel, and visual treatment, but it depends mostly on the content – the core elements of positioning and messaging – that we are trying to convey. Today more than ever, messages require a strong value proposition in order to stand out in our cluttered marketing environment.

So how do you know if yours hits the mark? The first order of testing is straightforward. Ensure that your content is:

1. Important – Can your value proposition meet a need, present or latent, that is of high value to the customer? Are you focused on the right message in the context of knowing your target customer, their business, and their pains? Does it pass the “so what” check to compel them to do something different than they are doing today?
2. Intuitive – Can your value proposition meet the need in clear, differentiated and non-imitable way? Is it obvious to the reader that they need to discuss this topic in more depth with you (good) or do they need to call a PhD for explanation (not necessarily good)? Does the value proposition make their “To Do / Must Do” list for this week?
3. Personal – Does your message resonate with the individual? Can they envision themselves performing better with your offering than the current state? If the CMO is your target, is it clear that you know how they measure their personal and organizational performance? Is your content aligned with their core business processes?
4. Progressive – Does your content flex to recognize where your customer is in their decision cycle? Does your messaging framework link the key elements of your value proposition to the decision drivers of each stage of the cycle – while maintaining the overall integrity and simplicity of the message? And can you maintain your content foundation (i.e., core positioning) fast enough to stay relevant in rapidly evolving markets?

All of these points require you to know your customer and their business’ value drivers. This is the easy part 🙂 The harder part of testing the relevance of your content requires a higher standard, one with two dimensions: Does your content reflect “thought creation” and have you successfully infused those new ideas into your messaging framework through effective collaboration? I’ll pick up those two topics in my next blog post.