In this episode of Actionable Marketing In Minutes we give 5 ways you can turn your content into sales!
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Problem
Hopefully by now you have stopped asking yourself why you need a content marketing strategy. But just in case you still think of content as only a tool for engagement, let’s talk about how you can use it for sales.
The goal of Content Marketing is to affect consumer behavior by communicating with your audience without selling. While that holds true, it is a vital tool in the sales process.
Solution
Before you can make a sale, your target market needs to know about you, your product or service, and what makes you different from your competition. Your content must be written with value, create emotion, and be relevant to what the market needs.
Did you know that your potential customers are somewhere between 50-90% of the way through the purchase process before they ever engage with your sales force? Many, many studies, including one from CEB Marketing Leadership Council indicate just that. This begs the question: how do you disrupt customers who are already greater than halfway through to their purchase decision in order to become an option in their consideration set? The answer is through wildly captivating content. Let’s look at five ways that you can do this:
1. Strike a balance: Get the right mix between content that educates/entertains and content that sells. Your web pages, email newsletters, blogs and any other content that your market engages with should start with an unbiased purpose and carefully weave in a sale. For example, if you sell snorkeling gear and are writing an article about the best beaches in North America, be sure to add a little something about snorkeling and add a text link to the gear that your company sells.
2. Vary your content forms: People like to consume information in different ways. Relying on just the written word can harm your chances of being noticed. At DirectiveGroup, we use this podcast as part of our content marketing mix to offer an alternative way for people to hear about important marketing tips outside of our blog. You can also switch it up by using visuals like infographics and videos whenever you can.
3. Identify pain points and provide solutions: When you know your target market and you understand their needs you can write your copy to address those needs. It’s the old “what’s in it for me” mentality. Don’t tell your target audience how great you are; rather, illustrate what you can do for them.
4. Optimize your content for search engines: this one is pretty obvious. If you can’t be found online you can’t make a sale. Enough said.
5. Use call-to-actions carefully: This might sound easy to do but if not done correctly, a call to action can backfire and push leads away from your product or service. So what is a good CTA? For starters, it keeps in mind that how and when you say it is as important as what you say. A call to action keeps in mind your goal or what you want the site visitor to accomplish. As Wayne Gretzky once noted; you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. If you don’t ask for the sale, you won’t get it. With that in mind, ask for the sale but ask appropriately. Not tentatively… but appropriately…
Benefit:
You know by now that maintaining, updating and adding content on your website and throughout the internet is essential for good search engine rankings no matter what the industry. But it’s important to remember that this content isn’t just there for traffic or engagement. The addition of compelling industry-specific content that will bring in informational-based traffic will ultimately deliver net new leads for you to convert into sales.
We hope you’ve found this information helpful. Please connect with us on Twitter @DirectiveGroup or on LinkedIn. Let us know what you think and what you’d like to hear about next. And if you like our podcasts, please share with your networks using hashtag #actionablemarketing. Join us next time as we discuss the top five most important daily social media tasks.
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