It’s vital your content marketing reaches the right people at the right time to ensure success. Greg Aris, director at Smarts Illuminate, reveals how to make content part of your customer journey
There is a huge amount of content creation going on in the world of business marketing – over the past two years, interest in content and content marketing has risen to fever pitch. Not since the great social media gold rush five years ago, where the scramble for likes, followers and fans eclipsed all other strategic communications objectives, has there been such all-pervasive use of a marketing buzzword.
However, marketers need to have a clear purpose in mind – creating content that lacks this is pointless and worse than creating none at all. Focusing on your customers when thinking about content can go a long way in helping to minimise the risk that your businesses key messages, expertise and beautifully crafted content drift unseen into a cold, dark corner of the internet.
Making sure your content is engaging the right people, at the right time and in the right way is fundamental to ensuring the success of your campaigns. Here’s how:
Using content to attract and secure new customers
The problem with content – both its creation and marketing – is that it means different things to different people. Whether your jumping-off point is as a marketing novice or a marketer with an SEO, digital PR or content marketing perspective, your view of what content represents is likely to differ.
What few should disagree on, however, is why create content at all. The answer to that question – regardless of your knowledge and experience – is the same: to convert customers.
Content is the currency that drives interaction, engagement and ultimately online sales. If we all agree that this is the reason to create content, then making it relevant for a potential customer as he or she is considering making a purchase is a prerequisite, and every other objective, method and technique falls in line.
Creating content to support the sales process not only makes PR and marketing even more relevant to a business’s bottom line, it also ensures that you’re not contributing to the already sizeable content black hole.
Make it part of the customer’s journey
In order to decide what content to use at the right point in the sales process you need knowledge of the buyer’s journey.
Sales processes vary from company to company and sector to sector. For larger organisations offering a variety of products or services, there will be a variety of processes to follow and barriers to hurdle. Each business and market has nuances in customer behaviour and acquisition that should always be taken into account when considering any marketing strategy that is linked to the conversion of leads into customers.
However, regardless of the size and type of business, there is a common thread which runs throughout every sales process. And that is a potential customer’s need, wants and goals when buying a product or service. Understanding their thought process, will enable you to create content in an efficient, helpful and credible way to support and guide them towards making a purchasing decision.
Although each business will have subtle differences that are specific to their sector, product or service, a buyer’s journey typically can be grouped into three broad categories, which move from the top to the bottom of the sales funnel. The three main stages of a buyer’s journey are as follows:
Awareness of a problem
Almost all purchasing decisions start with a problem that needs to be solved. Whether a shopper needs a new outfit for a special occasion or a business owner needs to navigate the complicated world of tax returns, there is a problem that needs a solution. Creating content that allows them to see that you provide a product or service that could help them to solve their problem is key to attracting that potential customer to your business.
Consideration
The second stage of the journey is where a customer aims to solve the problem they have. Rarely does this happen without an internet search being involved. Content created for this stage of the buying journey should seek to educate the potential customer about how to solve their problem – and at the same time demonstrate your expertise.
Decision
The final stage in the process is where a product or service is discussed in great detail, to put clear blue water between you and your competitors. Defining USPs, benefits or introducing an offer or incentive in the content you create is important at this, hopefully, final stage of the buying process.
What type of content to use – and when
As customers move along the buying journey, so the type of content and its subject matter should alter. Essentially, it needs to move from being simple and varied, to detailed and precise. Understanding the buying process from the customer’s point of view will ensure that the type of content developed and used is as effective as possible at each stage.
Most businesses are already creating content in some shape or form – either because they know it is important, or because they are being asked by senior people to ‘do content’ in the same way they were probably asked to ‘do social media’ a few years ago.
In summary, if you are already creating content and are questioning its value then try asking if what you are doing is relevant to your customers’ needs and checking it is aligned to their buying journey.
