Many people can write content, but being able to write doesn’t always equate writing well – and this is why you need deep subject matter experts.
Truly well-written content provides high-quality information that is thoroughly researched, drives your marketing goals, and provides value specific to your brand identity. This intersection is exactly how deep subject matter experts can be invaluable for your blog content. Read along if you wish to learn the importance of content developed and/or written by these deep subject matter experts.
If we know anything about consumer behaviour, it is that content must give a customer information that both informs and guides their decision-making.
As such, catering your content will help prospective customers weigh their options between you and your competitors.
Moreover, you must pay extra attention to audiences who are still getting acquainted with your offering – i.e. awareness stage consumers (1). To do so, you must prioritise high-quality, useful content on both the subjects that pique their interests, and their problems that need solving.
This is where deep subject matter experts can bring value to your business, driving your marketing goals towards success.
The value of content
Before we dive into how deep subject matter specialists provide value to your business, let us define value in this scenario.
Value is “the quality of being useful or important” (2).
In other words, it is the benefits associated with the content.
Your prospective customers value time, honesty, and learning. By providing informative, engaging, and trustworthy content, you will satisfy both your prospects’ and your business’ needs.
Lastly, it is well-known that valuable content leads to increased traffic. This results in more leads, which ultimately leads to more sales (3).
Internal experts vs. deep subject matter experts
A deep subject matter expert is “someone who has unique expertise and speciality in a certain area” (4). They can come from a variety of backgrounds and often focus on just one speciality.
Here are just a few examples of experts in different fields:
- an IT professional who specialises in cybersecurity or software engineering
- a medical professional who specialises in pain management or orthopaedic surgery
- a health and wellness professional who specialises in musculoskeletal rehabilitation or nutrition.
Knowledge and insight can be uniquely synthesized by experts compared to generalists. But why is this?
Because experts tend to have a connection to scientific research while still navigating commercial development.
Let us dig deeper into this powerful combination of skills.
Internal experts
Before we talk deep subject matter experts, we must talk internal experts.
Because they are not the same, per se, although they share qualities.
Your internal experts are your marketers’ go-to people when they need information about your product or service. They are able to answer questions about the technologies deployed to make your product or service stand out. Additionally, they will help your marketers understand how your product or service differs from your competitors, and why it is better.
This information is valuable for the decision-making process.
So, in comparison to an internal expert, what is a deep subject matter expert?
Deep subject matter experts
It is equally important to provide content developed by experts. Experts know the ins and outs of specific topics that your audience is interested in. This helps to establish your authority, especially when it comes to decision-makers in the B2B landscape.
It is interesting to note that, according to Demand Gen, 58 percent of B2B buyers look to blogs for awareness stage research (5). This is the audience that is not yet well-acquainted with your product.
Furthermore, content that effectively translates the complexities of scientific research is what 54 percent of decision-makers would prefer to read when looking for a topic- or sector-specific expertise (6).
In the end, this simply means that leveraging content developed (and preferably written) by a deep expert will be invaluable to your marketing efforts. Particularly in the early awareness stage of your prospective audience.
To illustrate this, let us look at a few examples.
Example 1: Cybersecurity expert
Data security experts have used genetic sciences to create a new form of cryptography for data security (7).
Most prospects would no doubt shy away from this research from the title alone, given that it is steeped in scientific research, analysis, and complex mathematics.
However, a deep cybersecurity expert could translate the technical jargon. These experts would creating content that shows the value of cryptography for a cloud that computes company’s prospective clients.
Example 2: Orthopaedic surgery expert
The use of three-dimensional (3D) printing technology is used more and more in orthopaedic surgery (8).
Researchers have looked at how 3D printed models of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance image (MRI) scans can be used to prepare surgeons for operations. These scans are replicas that surgeons can use to simulate procedures and develop patient-specific tools for surgeries.
This information could be developed into a series of content by a deep orthopaedic surgery expert for a medical hardware company’s website. The deep expert could combine the research with a client case study to show prospective customers—e.g. a surgery department at a hospital—the benefits of buying customised surgical tools.
How deep subject matter experts can support your marketing goals
Now that we know what a deep subject matter can offer your content strategy that an internal expert may not be able to, let us dive into the ways in which deep experts can support your overarching marketing goals.
High-quality and engaging content
The benefit of a subject matter expert is that they will be deeply immersed in a topic. Not only will the quality of the information be better based on their intimate knowledge, but they will also ensure that all references and examples are both up-to-date and relevant.
Fundamentally, deep matter experts have a unique way of tickling the brain. They educate and entertain the reader at the same time.
This means customers are more likely to view your site or blog as a valuable resource and place to spend their time.
Deep experts, of which some may be skilled writers, will be able to translate complex information (such as peer-reviewed scientific journals or through consultation with other experts) with the added value of storytelling.
Bu why is this important?
Because content that is steeped in storytelling will always engage your audience at a higher rate than straight facts or statistics, creating value for your content strategy. Moreover, this type of content is preferred by 77 percent of buyers over senior executives (e.g. CEOs or CIOs) whose input speaks to high-level business issues (9).
SEO content that E-A-Ts
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one of the most important factors when it comes to your marketing strategy and goals.
Thus, it is the way that will get your content out to your target audience.
One thing a deep expert can support your SEO with is the E-A-T factor: expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (10).
Deep expert-driven content stands on the foundation of years, if not decades, spent cultivating a niche speciality. Through extensive reading and research of their own, deep subject matter experts understand discoveries of the past and can interpret (even predict) future developments.
The pieces they develop will provide your content as authoritative, using high-volume keywords while telling a compelling story.
Together with your brand identity, a deep expert’s input can ensure that your content is trustworthy, which we will explore in the next section.
Trustworthy content
Trustworthy content provides your audience with a credible source that they can trust when looking for informative, well-backed information.
As such, for truly trustworthy content, you must produce valuable, well-researched content on a consistent basis.
The trust comes from your use of authoritative references and sharing your domain knowledge. We have previously covered this in our own blog post: three tips for trustworthy content.
While this takes time, it will always be worth it in the long run.
Conclusion
Ultimately, deep subject matter experts will provide perspectives that only niche specialists can provide.
Through their refined knowledge of their specialization, content developed and/or written by a deep expert will be:
- engaging
- good for SEO
- help position you as a trusted source.
Ultimately, this leads to more traffic, leads, and sales.
At ContentAvenue, we strive to provide your business with content developed and written by vetted deep expert writers. Our writers have refined their knowledge and use peer-reviewed scientific articles and credible resources to provide the most relevant, up-to-date, and valuable content that will help your marketing goals.
Browse through our premium content here.
References
- HubSpot, How to Create Content for Every Stage of the Buyer’s Journey, 11 August 2022, https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/content-for-every-funnel-stage
- Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. value noun, 2022, https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/value_1?q=value
- HubSpot, Why Blog? The Benefits of Blogging for Business and Marketing, 29 July 2022, https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/the-benefits-of-business-blogging-ht
- HubSpot, Why Marketers Should Leverage Subject Matter Experts for Audience Growth, 27 October 2021, https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/subject-matter-experts
- Demand Gen Report, Content Preferences Survey Report, 2022. https://www.demandgenreport.com/resources/research/2022-content-preferences-survey-b2b-buyers-crave-concise-research-based-content-to-inform-purchasing-process/.
- Financial Times Longitude, Learning from Leaders, 2019. https://longitude.ft.com/resources/learning-from-leaders/
- Thabit, F., Alhomdy, S., & Jagtap, S. (2021). A new data security algorithm for the cloud computing based on genetics techniques and logical-mathematical functions. International Journal of Intelligent Networks, 2, 18-33. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijin.2021.03.001
- Dereje Gobena Alemayehu, Zhi Zhang, Elena Tahir, Djovensky Gateau, Dang-Feng Zhang, Xing Ma, “Preoperative Planning Using 3D Printing Technology in Orthopedic Surgery”, BioMed Research International, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/7940242
- Edelman, 2021 LinkedIn-Edelman B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, 2022,
https://www.edelman.com/expertise/business-marketing/2021-b2b-thought-leadership-impact-study. - Semrush, EAT, YMYL, & Beneficial Purpose: What Do Google’s Quality Standards Mean for Search?, 15 January 2022, https://www.semrush.com/blog/eat-and-ymyl-new-google-search-guidelines-acronyms-of-quality-content/
