Are you producing irresistible content for your audience? I hope so, because the truth is, there seems to be no other way. It doesn’t matter whether you’re doing paid ads or standing on the shoulders of influencers, content is still the key to success online.
However, somewhere along the way, content lost its appeal in the buyer’s journey — but the dynamic nature of the web and user behavior have once again made it a viable tool for persuading prospects and customers.
Content marketing is a great strategy you can leverage to help increase your sales conversion rate. A recent study by Forrester shows that 82 percent of buyers view at least five pieces of content from a vendor before they become a paying customer.
Despite the misconception that content marketing works only at the top of your sales funnel, it can actually be used at every stage of the sales funnel to increase conversion rate. According to HubSpot, “68 percent of consumers feel more positive about a brand after consuming content from them.” After consuming content from your brand in the first stage, customers may not buy from you immediately. They might even switch to your competitors. So if you want to move your prospects from one stage of the sales funnel to another and convert them to paying customers fast, you’re required to produce relevant content in every stage of the funnel.
Let’s look at how you can do this for each stage of your sales funnel:
Stage 1: Discovery.
In this stage of your sales funnel, you want to indirectly acquire customers by creating awareness for your brand. You want to create content that educates your potential customers and gets them ready for the next stage.
This is the top-of-the-funnel (TOFU), and the purpose is to get leads into the funnel. Don’t be pushy. Simply ensure that your content is informative.
You’ve got to find out what your potential customers want to learn, and teach them those things. This is the stage where you can apply your inbound marketing strategy properly.
You must have a proper understanding of your potential customers to be able to know what they want to learn and how they learn best. To do this, you should create buyer persona, not just for this stage, but for every other stage of your sales funnel.
Unlike the traditional sales funnel methodology, you want to make your customers know you beyond your name. You’ll give them so much…
