Content marketing works like a charm if you want to try your hand at a marketing strategy that sells but doesn’t sound salesy. It’s highly effective in bringing warm leads and is an inexpensive way to hook potential customers in the long term.
You’re doing content marketing the right way when your audience feels like a part of your community and encourages other people to trust you. That’s how content marketing drives sales without forcing people to buy from you.
Around 50% of marketers plan to invest in content marketing in 2024 which clearly shows the value it brings to your business. Let’s learn how creating and distributing quality content can increase your sales. We’ll also share 5 tips on strengthening your content game.
What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a strategy businesses use to draw and retain customers through specific and relevant content to build relationships over time.
If you sell tourism packages or products, guiding and educating customers about tourist places through detailed travel blogs is content marketing. Your main aim is not to sell those packages in the first place (which is a by-product of content marketing if done correctly) but to build a relationship with your audience which is much better than having a one-time transaction.
All the blogs, social media posts, and YouTube videos do the same job. They understand what their customers want, create relevant content consistently, and eventually convert them through relationship building.
How Does Content Marketing Drive Sales?
Content marketing does more than usual selling. It’s like a long-term vision of how you can attract potential customers and build a lasting bond with them so that they will continue buying from you.
You need to provide free but useful information to your audience first that not only helps them understand your product but is so good that they trust you to buy from you.
How does content marketing make people buy from you without you forcing them? Below are some ways how content marketing drives sales.
1. Makes People Aware Of Your Brand’s Existence
How do people know if your brand exists on the internet? They know it through the content you present before them as blogs, videos, and social media posts. When a travel agency publishes blog posts on new destinations for travel enthusiasts, it can reach the right audience when the right strategies are used. This helps the agency become visible to its customers and extend its offers to build trust.
The same agency can also post on social media and travel-related videos on YouTube to attract new customers and establish its brand identity as one that offers travel packages and can later upsell its services.
People are more likely to buy from those they know, and content marketing can create brand awareness and make people buy from you.
2. Positively Influences Buyers’ Decisions
You can’t sell from day one when you’re new in the market. You need to start from somewhere to build your lasting presence. You create your website and ensure that your audience can find you. Then you build your online presence through different channels and share your stories, helping people through content that ultimately draws people to your brand.
You create useful content that makes your buyers learn more about the product or service and helps them make a purchase decision. Your audience starts trusting you for the information you help them with which makes your audience see you in a positive light. When you show them that you have a product that can solve their problems, they’re more likely to buy from you only because you prepared them for this purchase and have helped them before.
Also Read: Best SaaS Content Marketing Agencies To Generate Leads
3. Builds Customer Trust
Content marketing focuses on building relationships of a brand with its customers through consistent and useful content. Your business can earn its audience’s trust by genuinely helping them with their issues.
Imagine a travel enthusiast looking for a travel guide to learn about the trending places for their next vacation. They come across your YouTube channel offering helpful tips and ways to survive in different areas. They like your content, follow you on social media, and see happy customers engaging with your posts. This will strengthen their trust in your brand and increase your chances to sell your services to them.
4. Attracts Potential Buyers To Your Sales Funnel
A well-planned content marketing strategy can attract the right audience who might buy from you eventually. It all depends on the content you create at each stage of the sales funnel. You create strategic content for your target audience through your content marketing strategy. That means you create what your target audience is searching for after considering everything instead of offering random content to everyone.
Your audience might not know that your business exists. They are only looking for solution-oriented content and that’s what you have to offer them. That’s how your content marketing attracts potential customers.
Once they find you, they engage with your content and visit your different channels. You can nurture them at each step or interaction and see them turn into your potential buyers.
5. Keeps You Relevant And Visible To Prospects
Content marketing is a long-term game to build your future presence for your business which is even beneficial to your audience. You never know when and where you find your customers. They will find you through your content if your efforts are focused and consistent while serving actionable content to them.
Knowing your audience’s specific needs and serving them consistent content throughout your journey helps you build a loyal audience. They will return to you repeatedly for their needs because they see you as an authority through your content marketing efforts.
6. Enhances Brand Loyalty and Improves Customer Retention Rates
Content marketing improves your relationship with your customers when you regularly solve their specific problems. It helps in building trust over time and loyalty in the long run.
When your audience notices your effort in creating personalized solutions to their problems, they feel a connection with you and return to you again which ultimately helps you build a community.
Changing your relationship with your customers from your target audience to your loyal community who keep buying from you is what content marketing aims for.
7. Encourages More Purchases From Existing Customers
Successful businesses operate on how loyal their customers are and loyalty comes from trust. Businesses maintain the trust of their audience by constantly providing them with valuable information before they become buyers. Happy customers buy from you again, buy your new stuff, and bring in more customers and thus success to the business.
So, creating regular content and maintaining quality is necessary for a content marketing strategy. They give results in the long term.
For example, a customer buys a skincare product from you. You send them an email to inform them about the new skincare guide you wrote on the latest trends in skincare. They get curious, read it, and decide to buy a few more of your products because they feel that you understand their needs well and are an authority in your space. That’s how you upsell your customers through your content marketing.
Creating Content To Drive Sales With Content Marketing
Content marketing is a magical tool for building a great customer base and acquiring new ones. Its potential isn’t limited to building and maintaining relationships; it can also drive sales. As discussed above how content marketing drives sales, we’ll now see different stages of the buyer’s journey and what kind of content you should create at each stage to generate sales from your content.
Content For The TOFU Stage
This stage is called the awareness or top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) stage. This stage is all about targeting your potential customers and calling them out from the crowd. You identify your ideal audience to guide and solve their burning queries. You create content that suits their needs and give solutions to their existing problems. The customers you attract are likely to move further if your content is helpful and not salesy because, at this stage, they are all looking for information. Blogs and ebooks are examples of TOFU content.
Content For The MOFU Stage
This is called the interest or consideration or middle of the funnel (MOFU) stage where the customer shows that they’re interested, and you need to capture this interest to nudge them towards the next stage down the funnel. This stage comes when a customer is happy with your content and decides to stick to learning more about how you can help them. The customer needs more knowledge as they’re still considering many options and you need to ensure they choose yours. Case studies and webinars are examples of the type of content to create at this stage.
Content For The BOFU Stage
The last one is the decision or bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) stage. After evaluating different options, the customer finally chooses your brand or product. At this stage, ensure that your solution or product is the best so that customers become buyers. Customer stories and testimonials are examples of BOFU content.
You should also check out how to generate leads for your business through content marketing.
5 Tips For Effective Content Marketing
Content marketing focuses on creating and distributing valuable content, generating and increasing sales in the long run. What makes this strategy effective is how well you use it.
Here are 5 tips that will make your content game top-notch and bring more revenue to your business.
1. Create Content For Your Target Audience
Even high quality content can’t give you the desired results when you don’t know your target audience. The success of a content marketing strategy depends on how well you know your audience. It’s essential to gather the necessary information to target a set of audiences so that your targeted message reaches your audience and encourages them to take action.
2. Write With Your Voice
The internet is full of content produced on a large scale. But how much of it is original is a good question to ask. The answer offers a big opportunity to stand out among the huge content pile. As most of the content tells the same story using different words, the best way to stand out is by taking a different stand or sharing what others have overlooked or are too afraid to point out.
3. Use Data To Back Your Content
Your content becomes high quality content only when the readers find it reliable and trustworthy enough to share it with others. You can build trust with your readers by using data and backing it up with the source. When you use stats and research to level up your content game, your sales upgrade too.
4. Track Your Performance Time To Time
Using a content marketing strategy and being unaware of the results it brings is like working on a goal without a plan. Your wins and sales depend on the desirable results it brings for you. You need to set some goals for your content and look at the numbers periodically to know whether your strategy is working. So you need to keep making changes in your strategy to stay ahead in the game and reap the best results.
5. Repurpose Your Content
Repurposing content is a good way to increase the lifespan of your content. Your best-performing content is best for a reason and you must make the most of it to show yourself as an authority and make more sales. Repurposing content into different formats can also help you attract a new audience. For example, repurposing your blog into a video or social media post can attract new people on other social media platforms.
Final Words
Now you know too well how content marketing drives sales. If you want to use content marketing and generate sales for your business, Rank Scholars can help you with that. We are a content marketing agency that knows the ins and outs of the content industry and can help you make more money with your content. Reach out to us to learn more.
Author
Shagufta is an SEO content writer for websites who writes content around wellness and relationships. She’s an avid dreamer and learner. Growth, loyalty, and simplicity are the words that describe her.
