You’re missing out on revenue when you fail to let your content sell for you.

In the business environment today, content plays a crucial role in a business’ success. Want more sales? You know that customers are buying less from in-your-face advertisements. So companies invest a lot of money in creating content – videos, blog posts, social media engagement.

Is there any sense in companies heavily investing in content?

It seems there is an effective strategy in doing content marketing right… That enables businesses to close more sales as a result.

And the secret?

It’s all in the setting how your customers discover you.

Here’s an analogy.

Suppose you’re selling life jackets. To sell them effectively, would you go to Raffles Place MRT station during morning rush hour and wave them around?

But if you happen to be on a sinking ship, with the only available supply of life jackets… you’ll sell all your life jackets right away.

To connect the analogy with your business, you should set your online marketing goal as being able to reach customers at the setting where they need your life jacket the most.

Content marketing, when done right, can do precisely that for businesses to reach their target customers.

Here are 7 ways how businesses can do content marketing right to enjoy increased sales and lower marketing costs:

1) Focus On The Customer, Not What You’re Promoting

[Image Credits: loyalty360.eu]

It is easy to enthuse about the unique selling proposition of what you have, in fact that’s probably what kept you up many nights. Thing is, content marketing works for businesses that asks what the customer needs to know, not what the business wants to say. Good content informs and persuades, it doesn’t advertise or pitch.

Content marketing done well comes across as helpful, never trying to sell you anything.

2) Identify When They Desperately Need Your Product Or Service

As the business owner, you probably identified the market need even before entering this market. If for whatever reason you are not clear, recall when and how you made the sale most easily.

Remember in what situation did the customer not attempt to negotiate the price, when they paid more for express service.

When unsure, or you need a refresher, look no further than your sales staff, or existing customers.

3) Put Yourself In The Path Of Heavy Traffic In Target Market

[Image Credits: www.auburn-rose.com]

When your customers do their online searches, you’ll benefit the most by being able to anticipate what they will likely search for in the search engines. What questions will they likely have that leads them to discover your brand? Knowing the questions your customers will ask before buying will be more valuable than after.

4) Present Answers For Your Customers In An Appropriate Way

What will be the best type of content to address the questions that your customer has? Is it going to be a flowchart, an infographic, blog post, videos, cheat sheets, a tool that they can use again and again?

At this point you will have to resist plugging your product while informing the customer. Be sure to address their concerns as the top priority. As many may just be searching for a solution on the go, you’ll have to ensure that your information looks just as nice on desktop as well as mobile.

5) Work Out How You’ll Walk The Customer Through

Having a customer’s attention focus on the solution they’re looking for is a first step. Next, you have to figure out the path you’ll lead them down till they eventually buy as a natural outcome of discovering your content.

6) Tailor Content According To Segments

[Image Credits: globalwebforcesocial.com]

Different customers will have different needs. You are going to need some effort in forming profiles of customers. Good content marketing will be able to reach different segments of their customers at the right moment.

7) Visibility In Social Media Is Crucial

[Image Credits: meeleeo.com]

A lot of value lies in building up your business’ social presence. It increases the chances of you reaching your target audience at the right time as your content makes its rounds on social media. As you put in effort to publish quality content, you increase in visibility and that’s when you see your content marketing strategy bring in results that you want.

Are you convinced that businesses can benefit from increased sales through investing in content marketing, to attract the right customers at the right time?

Featured Image Credits: www.christophgrizzard.eu