Developing Marketing Oriented Content And Not Purely Sale - Semalt Expert



When developing your web content, you mustn't get caught up in the action of attracting sales and forget to meet the needs of your viewers. Finding the right balance between an audience rich content that is an effective marketing tool to drive sales can be tricky. Frankly, the best way to advertise your products or services is to highlight their benefits rather than filling the entire article with "Buy Now!"

How to create content that's relevant to your audience

What are contents that are written for purely sales? This is one question you should ask. Now, as a small business, if there's something you want, its ways to improve your sales, so why not write content just for that purpose? Well, this isn't a great idea on the internet. One way to put this would be "internet users want you to show how you are of benefit." If you can do this, you've done all the marketing on your content.  

Imagine if you saw "Hire Semalt Today" and then you're given a list of services. You will never click the link or hire us right away. However, through our content, you can see that we are professionals, and we are more equipped to handle your website issues. 

Chances are that if you're having difficulty with your website, we have an article that addresses this problem. After reading this insightful article, you're more aware of how to fix the problem, but you also know that Semalt is familiar with this problem. With several professionals on our team and years of experience, you can easily conclude that we are the best pick to solve that problem.

Just now, you've seen how we used our content to not only educate our audience, but it was also enough to convince our visitors that we are enlightened on their situation. They then become more confident in our ability to get the job done, which makes them hire us, and we deliver. 
 
By providing rich content, you explain to your audience the problem you can fix. Remember, the goal is to make them see the need for you and whatever your website provides without making it obvious or seem forced on your audience.

Types of content for your audience

To speak the right language, you need to learn which types of content to create for your buyers. To do this, you must ask, are the top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, or bottom of the funnel?

This may sound like something alien or made up to some readers but trust us: these are terms that matter significantly to the success of your web content.

When designing your content, have you ever stopped to wonder how and when your target audience will consume your content? When thinking of your content, you try to make it as lovable as possible for the persona and disposition of your target audience. Many of us, however, fail to notice that subconsciously, we make our content choices based on "what content our viewers would love to see for this stage in the buyers funnel."

One of the two primary purposes of your web content marketing strategy is to push a reader or viewer further down the marketing funnel before and hitting a home run by generating sales by that viewer. 

All through your content, your audience is to be carried along. At first, they start as regular leads. Then, into marketing qualified leads (MQLs) before they evolve and become Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) and then the actual sales. 

The key to creating an impactful content is to avoid thinking of the potential buyer's journey at a subconscious level. It understands this that helps you bring the idea of hiring you from the back of their minds to the front. 

In creating your content, all must consider the needs of the TOFU, MOFU, and the BOFU, which are all the funnel stages

What types of content should you a website have? 

Content can't exist in a vacuum. The success of your content and strategy is very much influenced by the user's need for such assets. Users only go through content if it is useful to them. As long as it doesn't meet any needs or satisfy any demand, they consider it useless. This is why you must adopt a buyer-centric approach towards your content.

Do not create content only for the sake of sales. Such content might deliver immediate value, but in the long run, the content will suffer diminishing returns.

1. The TOFU

This is the first stage a reader walks into. It is the awareness stage. At this stage, your readers are researchers. They have encountered a problem and are researching the information that can solve or provide clarity on the problem(s). They are sorting through several tons of information on the internet. At this stage, the competition between you and other sources of information is fierce. This is the stage where you should be sure to rank on SERP so that internet users can come across your content assets, increasing your chances of finding a reader that gets converted to a customer.

Your customer assets include aspects of your website, such as your website blog, guest blog, infographics, and any other thing you think can boost the traffic coming to your site. To improve the visibility of these assets, there must be a blend with your content, SEO efforts, and online marketing efforts. Studies have shown that having a blog as a company can attract up to 55% more visitors than those that do not.

The TOFU stage can create a huge gap with your competitors, especially when trying to improve awareness for your products and services.

Note: your customers want to be more aware, and this is a great thing. Your job, therefore, is to ensure that they get the information they are looking for, and you do this from a business point of view.  

So when the scenario is right, you move to the next stage engagement. To convince your audience effectively, you need the right content.

2. MOTF

The middle of the Funnel content is the consideration stage of the buyer's journey. This is the stage where your awareness assets have begun yielding benefits. 

Now you've gotten visitors to your site, but you can't leave them hanging - you need the next move. Note that not all the traffic that coming to your site are lead. Some may have clicked on your link by mistake, and some others want to see what your site is about. On average, the landing page conversion rate is about 2.35 %. So with a percentage that low, you want as many people as possible to stop by. In 100 clicks, only about two end up becoming lead. Besides, you should check out for several other factors you need to put into consideration. For example, the conversions only happen when people see your products and services as an ideal solution to their problems. They must believe that it fits their interest and preferences before that become customers. 

Your job and the job of the MOTF is to let them know that "Yes, this is the solution you've been searching for." Come of the contents you can use to pass across this message includes:
  • Case studies: this is a factual report that offers proof of concept.
  • Whitepapers: great for showing the structure of a company, its leadership, and depth of domain expertise.
  • Product comparison: this shows areas where your product beats your competitions. 
  • Product guide: this is a user guide, explaining how the products work, its features, and how efficient your products are.  
By using these contents and other types, you can explain to your readers:
  • All that they should expect from your product
  • Why they can and should trust you 
  • How your products have been of great help to your already established customers
  • The benefits your product provides  

3. BOTF

The bottom of the funnel. All roads lead to this. The BOTF is the final stage where your leads are ready to make the transition into becoming buyers. Often, leads are interested in buying your products at this stage, but they require a little push to help them make up their minds. 

You must have content that convinces them that they are making the right move by patronizing you. If done right, this will hopefully guarantee a buying outcome for your business. 

At this point, you must use your content to capture the reader's mind and not let go. You begin to pitch your offers to them.

Some of these offers include: 
  • Product discount 
  • Extra features in products 
  • Free trial offers for some days or weeks
Note: this is not the time to have your salespeople contact your lead.

Here, you push the right kind of content that helps them make the right choice and then ask your sales team to connect these content with the leads. Some excellent contents you can use are:
  • Product comparison 
  • Third-party reviews
  • Solution briefs 
  • Clients reviews (videos are a great way to use these)

Conclusion 

The next time you create content that generates sales, try to follow the flow and not choke your content with CTA to buy your products. This shows your readers that all you care about is the balance sheet at the end of the day. However, if you follow the guidelines above, you carry your readers along, and at the end of the day, you are likely to have converted clicks into customers.