Lead generation, identifying potential customers and encouraging them to show interest in your product or service, is a crucial aspect of any business. And one of the most effective ways to generate leads is through content marketing
Your potential consumers want to feel like they’re buying from someone they know, trust, and can depend on. Humans are hardwired for connection, so we make purchases based on brands we identify with. By understanding who your customers are, and what drives them, you’ll produce content that meets their needs, answers their questions, and allows people to form a direct and trusted relationship with your brand so they choose you over your competitors.
Year after year, engaging content is proven to impact audience decision-making more than any other marketing technique. And with 77% of Internet users saying they read blogs, they’re a sound marketing investment. Not only that, but they can heavily influence a potential customer’s view of your brand, capturing their attention, building trust, and keeping them coming back for more.
Almost 60% of consumers made a purchase after reading a blog and once people have been drawn to your website, you have all sorts of opportunities to engage them further by answering their questions or solving problems they’re facing so they’ll start to associate your brand with things they want to read. In short, the more informed you help your potential customers become, the more trust they’ll have in you – and the more likely they’ll be to choose you over your competitors when they’re ready to do business. With 70% of consumers preferring to learn about a company from a blog post to an ad, you really start to see just how powerful content marketing can be at getting through to potential customers.
Quality ‘gated’ content like white papers or eBooks, which visitors access in exchange for basic contact details, provides you with qualified leads to nurture down the sales funnel with personalised content that connects with people on a personal, relevant, and thoughtful level – building a relationship that can convert into paying customers. Unsurprising then that as many as 72% of marketers say content marketing increases leads and engagement, generating three times as many leads as traditional marketing strategies.
And remember, a single piece of content can provide an array of touch points for potential leads to find you. Not just where the piece is published, but everywhere it’s shared – from social media channels and email to syndicated print.
Just don’t forget your call to action; if you sign off your content without an invitation for your reader to something, even if it’s just to leave a comment, then you’re basically creating a lost lead. So, ask them to download, sign up, click, read another post, install, subscribe, etc. Otherwise, it’s like finding those shoes in the sale, in your exact size, walking past and expecting them to still be there, till waiting, in a week’s time.
With so many things to think about, maybe you’re starting to wonder if your content is up to scratch? And when you consider that the typical blog post takes around four hours to create, and has to tick al the boxes above, there’s a strong chance it might not be. Outsourcing your content writing can help you scale far quicker and more affordably than doing it all yourself – not to mention being one of the best ways to ensure you get good SEO content that people want to read.
Need some help with that? Drop us a line and we’ll put everything we can do into words.