Idea: 5 Types of Customer Content That Generate Revenue

In our last Idea Email, we proposed that metrics like “pageviews” and “followers” are quickly becoming horse-and-buggy-era tools in the Internet’s supersonic content-enabled marketplace. The only metrics that matter, we said, are those that: (1) generate revenue and (2) lower costs.

So what kind of content accomplishes those goals?

We’ll tackle content that lowers costs in a future Idea Email. First, though, here are five types of content that generate revenue in direct and measurable ways.

1. Buyers Guides, Reviews and Ratings: Your first step when making a purchase probably involves Googling the product to find out who makes it, where it’s sold and what people think about it. Helpful content in the customer-research phase will lead to increased sales.

2. Photography: Not only is a picture worth 1,000 words, but it answers 1,000 questions customers may have about your product. Amazon constantly seeks new ways to add more photos to every product page, including customers’ personal snaps.

3. Video: One of the simplest yet most inspiring uses of revenue-generating video we’ve seen recently are videos Zappo’s has started adding to its product pages. They’re boosting sales of those products by 6 – 30 percent. (That’s the stat that inspired us at Hammock to include a video studio in our new offices.)

4. Training and Certification: If you look at your expertise and industry knowledge as a product, and not merely something that helps you sell your product, you will quickly understand why Zappo’s can charge $6,000 per person for a three-day “boot-camp” on how they run their business.

5. Insight, Research and Knowledge: You’ve probably been told that a white paper is a great way to help build your prospect email list. It’s true—we’ve helped several clients produce them, so we know it works. However, we also know that insightful media and content for existing customers can generate incremental sales or prove pivotal in renewal sales situations. Independent market research has shown several of our clients that providing access to such knowledge and content was perceived as the most valuable premium of membership–and the most important factor in continuing a product-customer relationship.

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