Content marketing attracts the attention of consumers and can lead to increased sales. However, creating content that drives conversions takes time and money-something many marketers don’t have in abundance.
This article will give you an overview of creating content focusing on leading conversion rates while being economical! There is a widespread belief that content marketing does not increase sales. But none of my businesses would exist if it didn’t work. Content marketing is critical for brand longevity, and it’s how I’ve built each of my enterprises. Content marketing is the way to go if you want to get a lot of long-term traffic without investing a lot of money. It’s pretty basic at its core: Create and distribute helpful material to your target audience.
If you’re presently generating and distributing content, you’re on the correct route. However, it might aggravate those who aren’t getting results from your marketing activities. Why aren’t you getting results after putting in so much time and effort? What exactly is the problem? When I advise firms, I often encounter this issue. They don’t have a content plan in place. If this describes you, you should read this piece carefully. It’s fantastic that you’re still producing fresh stuff. However, if your sales aren’t rising, this is ineffective.
Yes, content marketing may be utilized for a variety of purposes. Corporations mainly use content marketing to:
- elicit leads
- get new clients
- improve brand recognition
- establish trustworthiness
- interact with the audience
All of these things are fantastic and necessary for success. You must, however, and corporations mostly use content marketing for sales. Isn’t that why you started your company in the first place? You were looking for a way to earn money. I will teach you what kinds of content you should be creating to get the most out of your other content marketing efforts. Some may be similar to your current material to drive traffic, while others will be unique. If you’re beginning to notice a steady stream of visits to your website but aren’t sure how to convert them into customers, this article will be pretty helpful. So let’s get this party started.
Creating content that drives sales:
1. Gain a thorough understanding of how the conversion funnel works.
Before generating highly relevant content, you must first ensure a solid understanding of the conversion funnel. Depending on the marketing website or expert, you’ll find numerous forms of this funnel. Depending on the sector and company type, it may also appear significantly different. However, the conversion funnel may be divided into three steps for the most part:
When potential consumer learns about your firm, they enter the top of the funnel. They’re either undertaking research or seeking advice. They’re looking for a response to a question and some insight. Once a customer is aware of your brand, they reach the conversion funnel’s middle stage. This is the phase of assessment. They’re still doing research, but they’re going further this time. Consumers are attempting to determine if your product or service is a good match for their requirements. Finally, when the customer reaches the purchase or conversion step, they have reached the bottom of the funnel.
When developing highly relevant content, this is the section of the conversion funnel where you should concentrate the most. The bottom of the funnel is your opportunity to convince buyers that your product or service is the best option. Demonstrate how you’re different from your competitors. Educate the public. Explain to them what it will be like if they become a client. Demonstrations, free consultations, free trials, estimates, quotations, discounts, and pricing are all marketing strategies that tempt clients. It’s everything that will entice customers to purchase. It will be a lot simpler for you to adapt your content strategy to increase sales once you grasp the conversion funnel and, more particularly, the bottom of the funnel. Regardless of whether you’re a B2C or B2B business, you’ll need to examine your funnel.
Yes, there are some minor distinctions between the business models. However, the funnel may still be divided into the three steps I mentioned before.
2. Draw a map of the customer’s trip.
Journey maps are helpful because they guide you through the purchasing process beyond the conversion funnel. Instead of right before the purchase, your travel map will concentrate on activities. While awareness and consideration will remain part of your journey map, you’ll also focus on client retention. Examine how the buyer acts after they’ve made a purchase. When it comes to increasing sales, this is critical. That’s because you won’t always focus all your efforts on ways to get new clients. You shouldn’t be. Of course, new consumers are lovely. However, targeting your present clients is less costly and more effective. A trip map may assist you with this. You’ll put yourself in your consumers’ heads. Once you’ve mastered this skill, you’ll be able to adapt your content approach to reflect their viewpoints.
3. Keep track of your leads and conversions.
What are the sources of your leads? It’s a significant issue if you don’t know the answer to this question. One of the reasons your content isn’t relevant or effective in generating sales is this. Understanding how clients found you might help you figure out why they bought from you. You may produce material that is more targeted to their requirements based on this information. Because the bulk of the client experience takes place online, it’s simple to keep track of their activities.
UTM parameters are the most effective technique to track your leads. Do you have any idea what a UTM parameter is? Don’t worry, and it’s an easy process. I’m sure you’ve seen something similar before. Even if you’re only on a firm site, the URL will look lengthy and somewhat sophisticated if you’ve ever clicked on a link from an advertisement. That is a UTM value. It’s a method for websites to figure out where a lead originated. For example, is it from Facebook, Twitter, Google Ads, a social influencer, or an email marketing campaign? You’ll have various tags for each distribution platform to determine where the lead originated from.
Additionally, each post inside a platform will have its tags. Knowing it originated from Facebook, for example, is fantastic. But where can I find it on Facebook? Which post is it, exactly? With your UTM parameters, you’ll be able to figure this out. Google Analytics makes it simple to put them up.
Navigate to the “Demos & Tools” menu and select “Campaign URL Builder” from the list of options. Another reason UTM parameters are crucial is that they may assist you in precisely measuring your return on investment. You’ll be able to view direct sales results to determine how effective each campaign was since you know how much you’re spending on it. Just make sure you fill out the complete form correctly to avoid any confusion:
This tool will automatically build a personalized URL for you when you fill out the needed details. This is a subject about which I could go on and on. However, I want to remain focused on developing material that generates revenue.
4. Use social media to promote a variety of adverts.
It’s now time to take this procedure to the next level. I’ve covered the basics of UTM parameters, but now it’s up to you to put them to the test. Because you have so many alternatives on social media, it’s a beautiful location to do this. For example, you may target specific audiences with sponsored marketing. All you have to do now is develop adverts that include various forms of information. Begin by formulating a hypothesis. What sorts of material do you believe will convert the best? Your industry, company strategy, target market, and other variables will all influence this. However, you must ensure that each campaign is distinct.
Don’t get me wrong: I think it’s great. You don’t want to spend money on advertising that isn’t relevant to you. However, it’s critical to rule out stuff that doesn’t function right away. Remember, we’re concentrating on relevance. Then you’ll utilize the UTM parameters you put up before to see how successful certain advertisements were. Finally, you can fine-tune your content strategy depending on which advertisements were the most successful and directly resulted in sales.
5. Create a buyer persona.
You may create a customer profile to enhance your conversion rates now that you know which content resonates with your audience the most. This will assist you in learning more about the folks to whom you are marketing. A client persona is similar to the trip map we created before, but it provides more depth. You’ll continue to tweak your content approach depending on your results. Examine the following elements concerning the person to whom you’re selling:
It’s a lot more tailored to your target demographic as a whole. That’s why you’ll create many client personas rather than simply one. Of course, a variety of circumstances influences each one. However, customer personas will eventually assist you in developing an appropriate content strategy.
6. Make use of a variety of content forms.
Don’t limit yourself to one form of material. Instead, mix things up a little.
Among the several techniques to consider are:
- blogging
- infographics
- studies of cases
- material on video
This may differ based on the platform and the audience you’re aiming to reach. However, you’ll have plenty of information for each content found in your research on your conversion funnel, customer journey map, UTM parameter tracking, and customer profiles. Personalization is the most acceptable form of material. You may even utilize narrative techniques to improve your material. This strategy will result in more excellent sales in the long run. According to research, the top marketing challenges that organizations face are generating visitors and leads:
You’ll boost the possibilities of your material appealing to a larger audience by broadening your content approach. But, again, this is because it will be relevant to their desires and requirements.
7. Stay up to date on current events and trends.
You must maintain your finger on the pulse to remain relevant. Recognize what’s going on locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Keep an eye on breaking news. Keep up with the latest news and trends in your field. Examine your competitors. Have you been beaten to the punch by someone else? If a rival is succeeding with a plan, you should be aware of it. Locate some reliable news sources. Attend industry events and sign up for industry emails. You may utilize trending events to promote your content whenever anything significant occurs. Do you recall the ALS ice bucket challenge, for example? You might use it as a marketing technique for your content strategy if you were selling ice buckets. Even if you were swimming in sale suits and goggles, you could be inventive. Don’t get me wrong: I think it’s great. I’m not suggesting that you take advantage of charitable organizations. I’m only trying to demonstrate how you may profit from current events and other noteworthy headlines. Simply use your imagination and apply it to your content strategy.
8. Use webinars to teach and sell.
I’d want to be clear: Just because a piece of content is focused on assisting you in making sales doesn’t imply it needs to be “salesy.” It is still possible to learn a lot from it. The main distinction is that these forms of content are more suited to generating sales than a broad “X advice about Y” post. I began this article with webinars since they are a fantastic kind of information. It’s not just better for education (compared to most material), but it’s also better for sales—it can generate insane numbers if done correctly. Let’s have a look at some instances. For a long time, KISSmetrics has utilized webinars. They produced 77 webinars at one time, with 155,386 signups. Although only half of those who signed up for the webinars (74,381) attended, we could convert 16,394 of them.
That’s a conversion rate of 22%. (of the people attending). Those are expected outcomes for high-quality webinars. Like Adobe and BuzzSumo, other companies have made their webinar findings public. Adobe claims a 19 percent conversion rate, whereas BuzzSumo claims a conversion rate of about 20%. It’s possible that you won’t obtain that high of a conversiLiketely, but it’s also another company not impossible. Webinars are one of the few forms of material that converts well. I’m going to show you how to make a webinar. An example of a typical webinar: Let me give you a brief breakdown of how webinars are typically created and operated if you’re new to them.
A webinar is a video conference, and just your screen provides the video stream. Then, at a particular time, your audience may join the “call,” and you can give a live presentation. The only sound will usually come from your microphone, but you may have numerous individuals present or even unmute specific viewers if they want to talk. A webinar’s only purpose is to educate the audience on a particular subject. It’s usually a question of how to accomplish things. In general, webinars last between 40 and 2 hours. Consider this: you have the majority of your audience’s full attention for nearly 40 minutes during a webinar. That’s something you won’t find anyplace else. Finally, most webinars concentrate on high-level issues, such as strategy rather than methods.
So, although you won’t receive a detailed description of how to execute one particular item, you will get a blueprint for developing a strategy to do something far more significant. The following are the essential components of a webinar: You’ll need to construct five different portions of a webinar slideshow for your webinar. This webinar guide goes into a lot more depth, but this outline will provide you with a high-level overview of the process and help you understand it better. The first slide is the introduction (s). I haven’t addressed it before, but webinars may draw in people who aren’t already part of your usual audience. So, although you’ll have some big fans on the webinar, you’ll also want to introduce yourself to sure folks. This emphasizes that you are someone they should pay attention to and that it is worthwhile to devote the next hour or so of their life to you. This is also the moment to bring up the subject again. Then you get straight to the meat of the presentation, which is the primary topic. It may account for up to 80% of the entire presentation duration. Next, you lead the audience through the procedure you attempt to educate in this section.
Because the most successful webinars are honest, I share much personal business information with my audience. When dealing with a high-level strategic problem, transparency is essential. When it comes to strategies, it’s easy to see if something will succeed or not. On the other hand, viewers of a system need actual data and experiment results to demonstrate why each approach component is included. Finally, after you’ve spilled the beans and provided all you’ve got, you should consider the overall outcomes that may be accomplished if people apply your teachings.
Finally, you may make them an offer in a few minutes. It’s usually a one-of-a-kind deal that customers won’t discover on your website.
The closer the offer is to the subject, the higher the conversion rate. The question period is the last component. Whether you do this before or after the pitch, it’s up to you. You may even have two question periods before and after the presentation.
9. Get influencers to evaluate your product.
One of the biggest reasons your authoritative content won’t generate any sales is because it has no connection to what you’re offering. You could, for example, sell coffee. You might also write articles like “The 5 Coffee Brewing Mistakes You’re Making.” Your readers may appreciate the writing. But what does knowing how to make the coffee have to do with purchasing it? There isn’t much. That’s OK; not all material must be sales-oriented, but some should. A product review is the most direct sort of material that sells. However, it’s also something you can’t make yourself. If you write a fresh piece on your product, your audience will naturally believe it’s biased (which it is!). Instead, you should seek out bloggers, freelance writers, and journalists who will evaluate your goods. How to locate content providers who will consider your interests is as follows:
To start, you’ll need a list of individuals who could be interested in evaluating your product and an audience that includes your target market. For the remainder of this section, let’s imagine that you’ve recently launched a new time management product. You’re now attempting to acquire reviews for it, which will help you sell it. To begin, look up “top (kind of product)” on Google:
Go tForpage’s findings and make a list. Let’s imagine all the options. The next step is to compile a list of all prospective review sites and authors for your product. We’ll look for websites that have already evaluated time management tools—specifically, those you just listed. Next, you must search for “(name of competitor product) review” one by one:
This might result in hundreds of reviews for popular goods. You’ll notice that the top few evaluations for a well-known product are found on authoritative websites. In this scenario, they’re included in both PC Mag and PC World, both massive publications. It would be fantastic if you could provide a review of those sites. However, it will be challenging unless you have a well-known brand or a robust connection with authors on such sites. I wouldn’t recommend attempting to get reviews on such sites straight soon unless you have a product that is unique and groundbreaking. You may give it a go but be prepared for a lot of rejection.
Instead, I recommend a more deliberate and rigorous approach. How to increase your chances of getting a positive review: It’s tough to gain a lot of attention when beginning from scratch. You must demonstrate that (1) your product is of good quality and (2) your target market enjoys it. In essence, you want social evidence. What’s the best way to obtain it? You begin at the very bottom and work your way to the top. When looking for reviews from your competition, ignore the first few results. Instead, look for reviews on less reputable sites on the third, fourth, fifth, and more profound consequences. Every week, hundreds of review requests are made to writers on these sites, and they are considerably simpler to persuade to review your product. I discovered a Rescue Time review on an unnamed site on the fifth page for our sample search.
They’re unlikely to have a large number of readers. Thus it’s unlikely to increase your sales. A review on a tiny site, on the other hand, may still es, so it’s not like it’s a waste of effort in the short run. Further to our sample searcher, smaller blogs often have a close-knit community of followers. As a result, smaller blogs may sometimes generate more revenue than more significant sites. The most excellent aspect of contacting a blogger in this manner is that there’s a strong possibility they’ll gladly evaluate your goods. I’d look up their email address and write them a message like this:
Subject: Content concept (blog name)
Hello there (name),
I discovered your site and was amazed by your (competitor’s tool) evaluation. So much so that I’d like to give you a copy of my tool for free. It’s called (product name), and it’s pretty similar to (competitor’s tool), with the exception that (how is it different in a positive way?). So please let me know if you’d like to try out the tool or have any questions! Thank you for your time and consideration.
Your given name.
There are three critical aspects of the outreach email that you should be aware of:
- The differentiator – It makes sense to compare your product to that of your competitors so that the blogger understands why they should evaluate yours. However, you must describe how your product differs, and its superior. Why would a blogger attempt yet another version of a program they already like?
- The free product offer – Let’s face it, the purpose of the review is mainly to benefit you. Therefore, you should provide some form of reward. A free copy or sample of whatever you’re selling is the most popular inducement.
- When you provide your free goods, don’t make it a condition for customers to leave a review. They understand what you’re looking for, and if they like the goods, they’ll leave a review.
Send as many of them to lower-tier sites as possible. You won’t be able to get all of them to agree to do a review, but you should be able to obtain at least a few. After that, you begin to focus on more prominent sites. If you started on the 5th or lower page of results, you might want to try the 3rd and 4th pages immediately. The outreach emails should be similar, but add a line at the Conclusion that says something like: Our product has previously been reviewed on sites like (site #1) and (site #2) and has gotten positive feedback from their audiences. Therefore I believe your audience would be interested in learning more about it. This paragraph style presents the social evidence you so desperately need right now.
The more successful it will be, the larger the two sites you include. You’re also assuring them that their target audience will appreciate it. If you contact 100-200 locations, you will receive another handful of reviews (10-20 sites for ten competing tools). Finally, you just repeat the whole procedure. Start utilizing their names in your outreach emails when you acquire better and better evaluations on better and better sites. You should have several significant areas to add as social proof by the time you get to the top five results on the first page, the most effective sites. It’s essential to keep in mind that this procedure might take months to finish. However, given the first reviews you get, you should continue to generate a growing amount of purchases throughout this period.
10. Create an email sales funnel.
People place a great deal of faith and value in emails. When they get one from a friend, they typically give it their full attention and expect to act on it. It may be as simple as responding to an email or as complicated as clicking a link and purchasing anything. Of course, there’s a little more to it, but it’s one of the reasons why email marketing is the most successful sales channel by far.
You’ll need an email solution if you plan to use content marketing. Without it, you won’t get a significant return on your investment. I’ll give you some figures to assist you in understanding why you should join up for an email service provider… You also don’t have to go for the most costly option. We don’t spend any money on email acquisition… Our sole expense is sending out emails. We pay just under $2,000 a month for our email provider, and every time we publish a blog post, we send out an email blast. We also use it to send out email drip sequences to users and publicize webinars. Though you’re on a budget, you may utilize MailChimp, completely free. We produce one to two articles every day on average, and we attempt to publish a few infographics each month. As a consequence of our efforts, we get a lot of traffic each month.
How to use email to increase sales: Even though it seems like the simplest thing to do, the best approach to sell most items through email isn’t to send a random email stating “purchase our stuff.” Email allows you to deliver a succession of related bits of material to your readers in one email. These may be used to educate your subscribers, assist them in understanding their difficulties, and then present solutions (your products). This sequence of emails functions as a tiny sales funnel:
It’s also really compelling. There is no such thing as a good or bad email funnel. You may have three or twenty emails in your inbox. It depends on the intricacy of your product, its price, and even the sophistication of your email marketing supplier.
However, you should include the following three sorts of emails in the following order:
- Educational (initial 1–5 emails) – You want to provide lessons to your subscribers so they grasp their issues completely. Suppose you sell high-end coffee, for example. In that case, you may send emails explaining the health advantages of high-quality coffee and how to recognize the difference between poor and high-quality coffee.
- Introduction to the product (1-2 emails) – You want Suppose to provide a solution to their issue here. In that case, (not being able to find high-end coffee). You don’t have to make a hard pitch; just inform your readers about your goods.
3. Product offer (last 1–5 emails) – Finally, you want to promote your limited-time offers or incentives. This is crucial if you’re selling something like a course that’s only accessible for a limited time.
While it isn’t mandatory, I believe it is a good idea to include at least one email in which you follow up with anybody who purchases from you. It’s a modest gesture that may help you win long-term consumers. In addition, you can integrate all of these emails to push your audience one step closer to a transaction with each email you send by thinking of a sales funnel as a complete.
11. Make use of content to get out to your target market.
Selling things from blog articles isn’t the best idea. People who read them aren’t looking to purchase. Much other information, such as social network postings, YouTube videos, slideshows, etc., is in the same boat. The best strategy is to leverage your content on these other platforms to attract attention (traffic) before funneling that traffic into an email list. Then you’ll be able to market considerably more efficiently through email.
- Option 1: Begin with blogging: I like blogging since I’ve seen how effective it can be for almost any company. I’ve developed mainly seven-figure enterprises via blogging. However, I seldom make a sale via a blog article. I can’t recall the last time I advertised my services in a blog post. The secret is that I put registration forms on every one of my postings so that anybody can join my email list. I can assist you if you haven’t already done so. I’ve published several pieces on how to write blog material that attracts attention and helps you convert that traffic into email subscribers:
- Option 2: The only aim of social media is to: There are a few outliers, but selling on social media doesn’t work for the most part. You won’t be able to tweet a link to a sales page and expect people to visit there because they’re in the market to purchase. However, it is possible to direct them to a blog post or landing page where you give a lead magnet in exchange for their email address. From a sales standpoint, social media’s goal (though it may be used for other purposes). Some social media platforms, such as Facebook, even enable you to link your email list to your profile, allowing your fans to join up straight on the site.
Otherwise, you may simply link to your material and direct your followers to a website that includes an opt-in form:
- Option 3: Slideshows and videos: Aside from your blog and a few social media sites, there are a lot of venues where you may receive traffic for your email list. There are thousands of them. However, I’ll concentrate on two since they’re more typically utilized in business. Slideshare and YouTube are two sites that specialize in releasing material in slideshow and video forms, respectively. It’s not simple to create a successful presentation on Slideshare, but if you succeed, your slideshow will be seen by tens of thousands of people. Then, either on the last slide of the slideshow or in the description, provide a link to a page on your website (ideally a landing page with a lead magnet offer):
YouTube is a comparable platform. You may receive thousands of views on each video if you continuously generate high-quality films. You might gain millions of views if a video becomes viral. By referring to a landing page or blog post in the description of videos, you may direct visitors back to your site:
12. Concentrate on the blog material that is most likely to convert.
Even though many forms of blog material do not result in sales, some do. Start generating more of these sorts of material regularly to enhance revenue from your blog. Tutorials are the first sort of content. There are two sorts of lessons that are excellent for generating revenue. The first is when you go into great detail on utilizing a particular product. For example, I did this when I discussed using the program ScrapeBox in one chapter of my advanced guide to link building.
The goal is to provide not just a lot of information but also to make it helpful. Demonstrate how to use the product to achieve a particular purpose:
In this example, I demonstrated how to locate free proxies and use the tools to construct linkages. This lesson style works best when you have a pretty well-known product (most SEOs know ScrapeBox even if they haven’t used it). As a result, this style of instruction is often used to promote things as an affiliate. The second form of education is instructing your audience on how to do a task. Then you include your product in one of the tutorial’s phases. Ann Smarty and her startup MyBlogU are a perfect illustration of this. She often creates tutorials for her own and other websites, and she frequently mentions MyBlogU as a tool that might assist the audience in achieving their objectives. She produced a piece on how to write noteworthy material, for example:
She describes the tool in the post as a technique to complete a particular phase in the process:
Product reviews are the second category of content. An excellent product review may persuade almost anybody who is contemplating purchasing it to do so.
However, you must first comprehend what constitutes an excellent product review. Unfortunately, the majority of studies are negative. They’re very prejudiced, include no genuine details about the product, and are created only to generate sales. On the other hand, a good product review is honest and objective, and it’s evident that the writer has utilized and tested the item.
To write a great product review, follow these four steps:
- Choose a product category within your specialization (e.g., link-building tools)
- Purchase the items you’re comparing (it costs more upfront but will allow you to write a credible review)
- Examine the goods (test the performance of each product in the way they are meant to be used)
- Quantify the findings and present them in a comprehensive report.
Studies of cases: Finally, studies of issues are a great way to get new customers. They consist of a thorough explanation of how a previous client successfully utilized your product or service. They’re great for complicated items where it’s unclear to prospective buyers whether or not the product is suited for them. HubSpot is a company that produces a steady stream of new studies of cases because they know they work:
A lot goes into creating a good case study, so I devoted an entire essay to demonstrate how to accomplish it.
Conclusion
Content marketing is, without a doubt, the most prosperous sort of marketing available today. First, however, you must ensure that your content is used to attract traffic and convert that traffic into purchases. If you want to increase sales, make sure your content is relevant. First, determine how to make the most of various features at the bottom of the conversion funnel. Then, to attract traffic and sires, construct a customer journey map. To follow their activity and analyze the efficacy of various initiatives, use UTM parameters. Finally, use social media to promote the adverts. Once you’ve determined which campaigns were the most successful, you may create customer profiles to go even further into your consumers’ brains.
Use the resources, tools, and data I mentioned to determine what kind of material your consumers respond to the most. Then, make the necessary changes to your content strategy. To remain current, keep up with the latest news and trends. You’ll notice a substantial effect on your sales results if you follow the suggestions I’ve described in this article for making your content more relevant. Content marketing is a strategy that helps businesses create, distribute and monetize content that drives sales. It is a powerful tool for both small and large companies.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you use content to drive sales?
A: Content is the one thing that will always be important and necessary to drive sales. It might not be a big deal for some people, but I believe content can work wonders if done correctly. If you don’t know what makes content so powerful, think about advertising or marketing campaigns like Nike’s Just do it campaign or Coca Colas polar bears with Santa Claus in front of the advertisement.
What kind of content helps increase sales?
A: Many different types of content help increase sales. Some examples would be contests, giveaways, and discounts for products.
Related Tags
- content selling
- sales content writing
- how to sell content
- how can you refine your content distribution strategy?
- how marketing drives sales