It has happened to all of us. 
After watching a movie on Netflix and giving it five stars when prompted for a rating, we are fast-tracked to a screen that introduces us to other movies we are likely to enjoy. Cue another film marathon, as well as the perpetual renewal of our Netflix membership.
Thanks to changes in modern consumer habits with the rise of services such as Netflix and iTunes which allow the customer preference to drive the shopping experience, no single content strategy will resonate with everyone. Personalized content marketing has been gathering momentum over the last couple of years and will be mandatory for colocation data centers that hope to grow in 2016 and beyond.
Buyer Persona
To create a truly customized experience and fill colocation space, marketers must get to know their target clientele. Buyer personas are an invaluable resource because they provide insight into the following:
- What is important to these customers
- How they make purchasing decisions
- What their priorities and goals are when they buy
This important information can be used to create the personalized content that will:
- Convert a prospect into a customer
- Swing a purchasing decision in a colocation center’s favor
- Make customers loyal
By demonstrating that the company can solve its customer’s problems and deliver what is valuable to them, it stands a better chance of filling colocation space and developing a long-term relationship with its clientele.
Lifecycle Stage
The customer lifecycle is a series of steps taken by a prospect as they contemplate, buy, use, and then continue using a product or service. Smart marketers maintain an ongoing dialogue with these people by tailoring marketing content to whatever stage they are at in the lifecycle.
This level of personalization is essential to success because the information that customers and prospects seek will vary according to the stage. An otherwise excellent piece of content can fall flat when distributed at the wrong time.
- During the awareness stage, a prospect recognizes that a colocation space provider could help them solve a problem, but they are not ready to commit to purchasing anything. Content at this stage should focus on the service the buyer needs and why the data center is the best one to provide it.
- When prospects are ready to buy and weigh their options among all the colocation space providers, marketing content such as datasheets, case studies, and testimonials can help them make a decision.
- Once the prospect becomes a customer, the content used to engage them changes yet again. They want to know how to get the most value out of their new service and what to do if they need help with it. FAQs, user seminars, and customer newsletters will make the biggest impact at this stage.
- When a customer’s need is successfully addressed by a data center’s services, they can turn into brand advocates by providing them with information about loyalty programs, promotions, and customer-only specials.
Highly personalized content will deliver stronger results with the same marketing budget. Colocation space providers can fill up their facility by putting more thought—not money—into the way they reach and engage with prospects and customers.
Have you tried filling your colocation space using more personalized content, or are your communications still more general in scope? Sound off in the Comments below.
To learn how to create content that resonates with your ideal client at each stage of the customer cycle, be sure to watch the free, on-demand “How Colocation Data Centers Can Differentiate to Grow Leads, Revenue, and ROI”
