As marketers, we all wish that every piece of content we create is anticipated and valued by our audience. But with so much content out there and people having so little time, that’s probably not the case.
So what really makes a piece of content stand out? What makes it valuable to a customer or prospect so it will drive engagement and prompt action?
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs has been around for a long time, in fact before content marketing entered the conversation. But it provides a great framework for brands searching for opportunities to provide valuable content that taps into their consumers’ needs, desires, challenges, and goals.
Let’s look at how we can apply the aspects of that motivational theory to our content marketing.
Physiological Needs
At the first and most basic level of Maslow’s hierarchy, there are physiological needs: the need to breathe, eat, drink and sleep.
For brands that sell products or services that help with those basic needs, a unique opportunity presents itself: to create educational content that helps consumers with the most basic functions of a good life.
Plenty of tourism groups provide essential eating guides to their area — like these lists for New York and Seattle — and countless brands offer recipes for specialized diets and other educational cooking content, such as these grilling tips from Weber or this delicious-looking Turkish Red Lentil Soup recipe from Chobani.
Or look at consumer food manufacturer General Mills (think Betty Crocker and Haagen-Dazs) which created a branded site Tablespoon with content dedicated to recipe ideas and food. Software company Adobe also takes this approach with CMO.com, a successful website that focuses on insights, expertise, and inspiration for and by digital leaders.