What's the most important step when writing marketing content?

It sorta depends on what you mean by "marketing content."

If you are talking about mid-funnel content, like whitepapers, case studies, data sheets, product decks, certain blog posts ... then I am 100% with Ardath [always a safe place to be ;)].

Alternatively, if you are talking about "marketing content" as in, top-of-funnel stuff (awareness-generating content like videos, infographics, eBooks, curated lists), then I'd say the most important item is to shift your focus to writing about what you know versus what you sell. Pretend for a moment that your company has nothing to sell except its own ideas. How would that adjustment in thinking affect your content's appearance and substance?

Joe Chernov / Eloqua / @jchernov

The Number One step is to determine how you are going to DIFFERENTIATE your company/product/service — what makes you special, unique, different than the other guys, the compelling reason for the target audience to stop buying from wherever they're buying now and start buying from you.

By far that's the biggest factor that will determine the ultimate success or failure of your marketing efforts.

Al Shultz
www.alshultz.com

I've always found it useful to speak with a handful of those who fit our profile, to learn what specific language they use to describe the problem we solve. That lets us sound more like one of them and less like someone from the outside trying to break in. That way, we're more likely to be welcomed into the existing conversation about the problem. (If there's no existing conversation about the problem, you're either too early or too late.)

I like Joe's answer - it depends on the stage in the customer's buying cycle (or evaluating cycle, as it is at that point). Of course, you'd have to KNOW the customer's stage in their cycle, but that's a whole other issue (dependent on the right MA tools, etc).

I find the different perspectives interesting. One is that you know your customer (Ardath, Joe later stage & Mike) while the other is that you know yourself (Joe early stage and Al). These are smart folk, so they both must hold significant value in the process.

Jon, it certainly is important to know both your customer (who they are, what they really want/need, etc.) and "yourself" (what you have to offer, what it can do, etc.). However...

You can know all of that and still not generate successful marketing content -- that is, content that changes market preferences from where they are now (preferring and buying from some other guy) to preferring and buying from you.

The fallacy (a very common one) is thinking that it's just about the customer and you. It's not. It's always about the customer and you — AND all the other competitive options the customer can readily choose from (most notably, the competitor they're buying from at present!). To win the customer's order you need to not just satisfy the customer's wants and needs — you need to convey what differentiates you from all the other viable options in the buyer's mind.

To put it more simply: Satisfying the customer's needs just gets you in the door. Differentiation is what gets you the order.

Al Shultz
www.alshultz.com