Content marketing is a new way of marketing. Thousands of businesses live by its core values of utility, entertainment, timeliness and relevancy. When businesses market with content by adhering to these core values, their ability to exercise the following business goals increases significantly.
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Generate more, targeted and quantifiably better prospects (leads)
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Shorten the sales cycle
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Talk to prospects in various buying stages more effectively
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Keep selling 24/7 as prospects search for your solutions and services
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Dominate your marketplace by becoming a better expert than your competitors
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Show your audience that you care about their needs
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Build your own media channel (print, audio, video) and cut your advertising costs
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Create a brand loyalty with customers so that they refer others to you
Content marketing educates your audience. It provides a wealth of information they need to know, when they need to know it. It helps them become a best version of themselves. It gets published in formats they love. It positions you as a valuable and friendly business – worthy of your customers’ money.
Let’s look at the various aspects of content marketing and the benefits that come along with it.
Like I said, content marketing is at its core all about providing value and enriching the life your audience. You teach your customer about the various aspects of evaluating, buying, using, maintaining, even recycling your products and services. You educate them without holding anything back – and you come out ahead of your competition. And this will…
generate more, targeted, better prospects for you.
The traditional sales process looks something like this:
Your well-written and relevant content has already answered prospects’ concerns and helped them decide whether your solution could help them: for example, the options, the price, details about alternatives, case studies, etc. When they contact you they will not have as many concerns. You have put your best version forward. This
shortens your sales cycle.
(According to a study by Google and CEB, customers reported to being nearly 60 percent through the sales process before engaging a sales rep, regardless of price point.)
Prospects usually arrive at different stages of buying, usually much further down the sales process. Their questions at each stage needs to be answered persuasively so that they move to the next stage. The format in which the answers are provided also varies with the stage – articles, testimonials, FAQs, white papers, demos, case studies, analyst reports, data sheets, pricing guides and so on. Content marketing can help you do all of this so that you
talk to buyers in different stages of buying effectively.
All of your best arguments for your product, comprehensive information, buyer testimonials, case studies are online. They generate the website traffic for you and qualify your prospects for you. When prospects search on Google, if you answer questions and insights through content, your prospects should be directed to you. It’s like having your best salesman on the job who
keeps selling automatically 24/7.
Because you provide entertaining, useful, relevant and engaging content regularly, your audience follows you all the time. They don’t want to miss anything. They share your best stuff to their friends, family, colleagues. They talk about you when they meet. You become part of their thought process, front of mind – both online and offline. All of this allows you to
dominate your marketplace and be better than your competitors.
Why are you doing all this? For just money and fame? I doubt it. Not everyone can do what you do on a daily basis, generating high quality content that enriches the life of your audience. It takes a big heart and talent to do it consistently. You’re able to do it because you want to…
show you care about your audience.
By building a loyal audience who cheers for you – with their insightful comments, encouragement, ideas, valuable advice – you’ve created something no money can buy: a strong community. This community lives in YouTube, subscribes to your podcasts, visits and shares your website, forwards your newsletters. Offer useful products and services to your community and they’ll grab them in the blink of an eye. Ka-ching! You’ve done something that was impossible 10 years ago:
build your own media channels and cut your advertising costs.
As you put out content for your audience and interact with them, you’ll become keenly aware of their desires, perceptions, concerns and limitations. You move your brand closer to them. In time, you’d have
created a thriving brand that your audience just can’t live without.
Please think about the possibilities with content marketing. Get started with content marketing today. It is a proven brand-builder and money-maker. If you have a question or two, feel free to send it to us. We’ll get back to you in no time. After all, you’ve just experienced content marketing. Isn’t it great?
