5 Sources Of Content To Persuade Your Prospects To Buy

Content is the primary driver for capturing prospects and converting them into leads. However, in order to pique their interest and draw them to your website, it is important that you provide a variety of information. Until you capture the lead, you probably don’t know what stage your prospects are in the buyer’s journey. Therefore, you need to continually reach out with educational and informative information to attract their attention and to maintain it until they are ready for more. Prospects will need to see the benefit over and over before they’ll become interested and engaged. And at some point they are going to move into the decision-making stage and will want to learn more about your product offerings.

Are you ready?

Take a look at these 5 sources of content to persuade your prospects to buy:

1. Customer testimonials
2. Product comparisons
3. Employee advocates
4. Expert reviews
5. Live demo or free trial

Customer testimonials provide the best example of the true customer experience with your product and company. Nearly 9 in 10 consumers have read online reviews to determine the quality of a local business, and 39% do so on a regular basis.1 Customer testimonials are great way to demonstrate the value of your product from a customer’s perspective. Highlight the customer’s pain points and how you were able to solve their problem. Include quotes of their experience throughout the process.

A product comparison chart gives you the opportunity to visually show how your offering ranks against the competition based on features or benchmarks. Highlight your product strengths focusing on solutions that tie to your prospects primary pain points.

Employee advocates provide a unique perspective within a company. Content from employees are more personal and oftentimes more relatable. This type of content can serve a similar role to that of customer testimonials in terms of providing information that is credible. Have employees from your customer service department describe a situation where they helped solve a customer’s problem. Demonstrate your ability to easily connect with customers and communicate immediacy to solving a problem in a timely manner. Let them know how important they are to you.

Include expert reviews that highlight’s your product in their review guides. This information helps prospects see how you rank in relation to other offerings within your industry. Inclusion in an expert review could be the tipping point of consideration for a prospect that may be concerned with products that are not mainstream.

A live demo or free trial allows a prospect to try your product to see how your product really works – a great way to convince those who might be a little skeptical to convert into a customer. In a benchmarking study involving 63 web-based companies and startups, an overwhelming majority of 93% offered a free trial period at least 14-30 days to their customers.2 Let them see for themselves how invaluable your product is to solving their problem.

Quality content is informative, useful. It instills trust. Having the type of content your prospective customer needs when they are ready to make a decision is imperative. Convince your prospects with credibility, usability and customer proof. It will be enough to persuade them to buy.

1 Search Engine Land

2 GetSocial

Turn That Meager Social Media Presence Into One That Is Remarkable

Tweet? Occasionally. Post on Facebook? Every now and then. Have a presence on Instagram? No.

While you may have taken a step forward and created a presence on a couple of social media networks that are most familiar to you, your occasional efforts are not helping you establish a dedicated presence – one that customers and look for and rely upon. And that every now and then effort is probably not producing the results you had in mind. If that sounds familiar then its time to put more effort into how and where you communicate.

Yes you have a Twitter account and tweet on an occasion. However upon review, the content of your tweets are always promotional. Yes you have a Facebook account and again post every now and then promoting a press release about the launch of your new product or new features. But here’s the thing. Aside from the infrequent timing of communications, and the lack of direction about what to communicate, is not focusing your efforts on the where – which social networks are the best for reaching your audience. For instance, if your target customers are spending their time on Instagram, isn’t that where you should be?

This social media marketing effort may make seem like time sink, with little value, as it takes time and effort. However, you can’t expect buyers to magically appear once you have a major announcement. Nor is it realistic to envision your ability to handle customer inquiries or resolutions will be managed smoothly if you haven’t already generated the interest and built a relationship online.

Unfortunately, social media isn’t the field of dreams – build it and they will come. Yes you have to build it, but you also have to give them a reason to come.

How do you turn that meager social media presence into one that is remarkable – one that will entice and engage?

Research

Start by researching your target customer. Document who they are – their demographics, behavior patterns, motivations and goals. You will learn their pain points and the key issues and problems your target customers are dealing with on a day-to-day basis. By mapping the details of your buyers, you will be able to design your content to engage, and pinpoint the social media platforms where you can reach them. Knowing the details of your buyers will help you to narrow your focus, determine where you need to have a presence, how you need to structure your communications as well as the type of information you need to create – 140 characters, images, or videos.

“To be successful and grow your business and revenues, you must match the way you market your products with the way your prospects learn about and shop for your products.” – Brian Halligan

Editorial Calendar

There are so many benefits to planning content. It takes the guesswork out of what to write and promote and ensures you are providing quality content to your target customer on a regular basis. An editorial calendar aligns your communication efforts. Use an editorial calendar to set goals, specify content themes and actions, plan campaigns, determine distribution channels, assign tasks, and set measurement criteria.

Content

Now that you know who your target customers are and their pains points, use that information to develop themes in writing, creating and curating content. Start a blog that educates buyers about the industry and provides benefit-oriented solutions to resolving their problems. Create fact sheets, such as a product comparison chart to help buyers determine what solution will work best for them. Work with industry influencers to leverage bias-free content. Become a trusted source of information by providing content that is educational and helpful the majority of the time, with the rest promoting your products. This will entice and encourage interaction between you and your buyers.

“Remarkable social media content and great sales copy are pretty much the same – plain spoken words designed to focus on the needs of the reader, listener, or viewer.” – Brian Clark

Automation Tools

Due to a lack of time and often a million other priorities, you will find incorporating a few market automation tools extremely helpful and useful when implementing your communications throughout social media. There is a wealth of mainstream and inexpensive tools that can make the process of scheduling and posting a breeze. Plus you will gain the benefit of analytics. You will quickly know what is working and what is not.

I come across many small companies who are moving at lightning speed building their company and selling their products. Putting effort into communicating and establishing a relationship with target customers takes time, commitment and persistence. Turn that meager social media presence into one that is remarkable. Create interesting content and interact where they are, will help drive customers to buy – from you. Don’t wait for the planets to align, get started today!

Take charge of your content distribution efforts

Creating content, such as writing a blog, on a consistent basis can be challenging. Rather than spin your wheels trying to come up with a topic of focus, use an Editorial Calendar. Putting a plan in place helps you to focus your efforts on the actual creation of content. After spending time researching your topic, writing, editing, re-editing, and wrestling with the headline, the final hurdle remains – distributing your content. And similar to the Editorial Calendar, identify your channels for content distribution as part of a distribution plan.

Built it and they will come. No, not really. You have to take charge of your content distribution.

“Content is king, but distribution is queen and she wears the pants.”--Jonathan Perelman

One of the first steps to mapping your distribution plan is to set your goals. What is the theme for your piece of content – generating awareness, increasing conversions? Is paid distribution an option, or will you be strictly relying on organic? Identifying your goals will help narrow your field of distribution. There are a multitude of social channels. Pick a few that will help you reach the majority of your target customers.

Next, determine is where your buyers spend their time researching - getting information to help them identify and solve their problem. Map the social channels where they are spending time to help you focus your efforts and to determine the format of your content for a given channel.

For example, with Twitter, while only 140 characters are used to capture attention, include a visual, a #hashtag, and URL to your website for them to get more in-depth information on your topic.

And with Facebook use less copy and provide more images. Share content that is highly visual — photos are liked twice as much as text updates, while videos are shared 12 times more than links and text posts combined.1 Use your post as a chance to interact with your community.

Pinterest is a great channel for those whose products, or the results of using the product, are visually appealing. Pin images, along with a brief description, with a link back to your site. Use this as a way to tell a story to really engage Pinterest fans.  

In addition the standard social networks, consider other communities and forums that fit your audience to grab attention of those who may simply be more active in this type of environment. Communities such as groups found on LinkedIn and Medium, and forums such as GrowthHackers and reddit.

Help your content find its way through the SEO route by making sure you optimize your content. Use relevant keywords within your content. For each piece select one keyword phrase, known as a long-tailed keyword, to identify the theme of your content. Include the keyword in your headline and a few times within the copy of your piece.

“ Content is of great importance, but we must not underestimate the value of style.” -- Maya Angelou

And finally, measure your content reaction for each distribution channel to ensure you are reaching your target audience. See what is getting attention, and what is not. Don’t be afraid to abandon one channel for one that might be a better fit. The goal is to reach those who are your ideal customer, not the masses, to excite and convert into a customer. Don’t short-change your content efforts, set goals, plan and measure.

Save time, money and sanity AND reach more customers by repurposing your content.

You’re busy. You have too much to do. And every week you need to deliver new content. Using an Editorial Calendar can minimize the pain. An Editorial Calendar will define the type of piece, the topic of focus, timing and distribution. Having those plans in place can relieve much of the pain and help you use your time more efficiently. With a topic in mind, rather than spend time brainstorming, you can use it to research your topic and write an outline. From there, write and edit your piece. Still, it does take time and effort to create. So why put all effort into creating one piece?

Why not repurpose?

The benefits of repurposing content include:

• Reaching more people. Extending your distribution channels enables you to reach those who may not have much of a presence on your primary social sites. Also, providing content in a variety of styles allows you to connect with more people (more people who can share your content), as some prefer to read text, while others prefer visuals.
• Boosting your SEO. Having a variety of pieces available, using the same keyword, can help improve the quality of your SEO ranking, as there are more pages to index via search.  Google will not count content that has been repurposed as duplicate content.
• Saving time in the creation of additional content from scratch.
• Using pieces distributed in one channel to promote like pieces across another. Your Infographic can promote the extended details available in your blog.

“You don’t have to create content, day in, and day out. You just have to work on getting the content you already have… in the hands of more people.”-- Derek Halpern

Start with your original piece (typically a blog) and rework the content to create a multitude of other pieces. So let’s say your topic is “10 Ways To Change A Light Bulb.” Write your blog, using statistics and quotes to augment your view. Once your blog is complete, look to see how you can repurpose the content. Here are a few examples:

1.     Original content piece – 10 Ways To Change A Light Bulb blog. Use the content in your blog to detail the steps, utilizing industry trends and helping to solve your customer problems. Surveys show that people trust information from blogs and are more likely to pay attention to blog content than traditional advertising.*

2.     Tweets – Use the character limit within Twitter to your advantage. Get creative and Tweet each step, 1 through 10, of the ways to change a light bulb over the course of a week. Include images, a hashtag, and the URL to your original blog post.

3.     Facebook – Post the steps to Facebook and use it as way interact with your community. Ask your community for other ways to change a light bulb.

4.     Instagram/Pinterest – Post a photo or illustration collage demonstrating the 10 ways.

5.     Infographic – Create an Infographic leveraging the photos or illustrations from Instagram and Pinterest.

6.     Slideshare – Create a presentation. Keep it simple. One step per slide, again leveraging the photos or illustrations you already have available.

7.     Create an offer  - ‘The Official Guide to Changing a Light Bulb’. Use this as a way to reach your customers through email, or attract new customers to your website through social.

8.     Webinar/Video – Some individuals prefer to read copy, some are visual learners, and yet there are others who prefer to have you take them through the process step-by-step. Create a webinar or video to show your customers how to change a light bulb.

“Create less, promote more.” – Salma Jafri

Repurposing your content gives you a way to reach an extended audience. It provides them with the information they are looking for to solve their problem, in a way that works best for them. And for you – you save time, energy and a bit of sanity.

*Groove Digital Marketing - http://groovedigitalmarketing.com/benefits-of-starting-a-blog/

Create Content That Educates Your Buyers And Helps Your Sales & Support Teams

While creating content comes with numerous challenges, there is often a wealth of content hidden within your company. Two of those places include your sales and your support teams. Sales and support can provide unique perspectives as they are already interacting with potential buyers and current customers. Often they have already created content to assist them in the sales or support process. Leverage this information to create content with the goal of educating buyers. Extending the life and use of this content benefits not only potential customers, but also helps sales qualify leads and those in support assist customers. Take advantage of the knowledge and experience of those on your sales and support teams to focus and add meaningful depth to your content.

When creating content that is intended to reach those who are in the awareness or discovery stage, your content is most useful if it educates. Reach your buyers where they are and be helpful. In doing so, you will reap the benefit of familiarity, credibility and trust. As they move along the buyer’s journey, they will already have answers to their most fundamental questions. Should they proceed and contact your company, you know this is an interested lead, one that you can then help move along the path to purchase with even more detailed content. And you will already have saved your company time and money having provided them with answers to their most basic questions.

Over 60% of the sales cycle is over before a buyer talks to a salesperson.

One source for introductory questions can typically be found in pieces such as an FAQ. Additional sources include presentations from sales – what types of information resides at the beginning of the conversation? Use the information from support (FAQs) and sales, and repurpose it into a:

• blog
• fact sheet
• how-to guide
• an infographic

Keep your content focused on the solution to the problem, rather than providing and promoting features.

80% of business decision-makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement.

Therefore, when creating and distributing content, follow the content GOLDEN RULE: 80% of your content should be focused on those in the awareness and consideration stages, 20% for the decision stage – sales focused. Share helpful, relevant content. By providing useful information, you are enabling people to make their own decisions.

"Just be useful." - Jay Baer

Talk to your sales team. Sit in on a support call. Take advantage of the information already available – solid questions that need answers. Educate your buyers, help your sales and support staff, and save your company money with content.