Table of Contents
Content Marketing Reimagined the Sales Pitch
In marketing’s dinosaur era, companies used physical ads, cold callers, and door-to-door salespeople to drive business.
Now the web and information age gave way to businesses and consumers alike who want to find all the information they need to make purchases via the web.
Content marketing is a new wave of marketing and sales methods reimagined for the web and dominates when it comes to turning prospective buyers into paying customers.
Why You Need Content Marketing
Content marketing is a way to pull in your prospects with information instead of pushing it in their face. The goal is to create content about your product or service on the web that your prospects will find, grow to trust, learn from your expertise, and finally make a transaction with your salespeople.
Marketing Strategy
Your strategy will keep your marketing endeavors on course with your business goals and will ensure your time and budget are only spent on smart moves. Look at your marketing “map” and define where you are at point A, set your goals up at point B, and then plan the steps that close the gap.
Plan your strategy around the big picture
Buyer Personas
Buyer personas are fictional representations of your target customers. Perform in-depth customer research needed to understand your target customers, then build the personas around the facts. You’ll understand what content your prospects’ want and how to speak their language.
Walk in your prospect’s shoes with buyer personas
Organize Content
Save yourself time and energy: don’t publish a bunch of content without thinking. Brainstorm many topics built for the persona so you can deliver messages that resonate, then log the topics in an editorial calendar. The topic queue and calendar organize your content and keep it timely, active, and aligned with your strategy.
Map out content like a storyboard
- How to Conduct a Content Audit of your B2B Website
- How to Keep a Content Calendar: A 7 Step Process
- 5 Things to Do Before You Write a Word of Content for Your Website
- Download: Content Calendar Template
Consider different types of content
Write for the Web
Your content needs to speak to web surfers because they’re impatient text scanners. Pack a punch with fewer words. Load the action at the beginning of your headings, break up your text blocks, and bullet point your lists. This “chunkified” style is optimal if you want your blog posts read, reread, and shared.
Write strong copy that catches web surfers
Chunkify your writing for easy reading
- Chunkify! Watch a web page transform itself with each click.
- Chunkify! Part 1: Writing for the Web: Declaring Page Content
- Chunkify! Part 2: Write Effective Headlines That Make People Read
- Chunkify! Part 3: A Page People Can Scan and Get the Big Idea
- Chunkify! Part 4: Writing Paragraphs People Read
- Chunkify! Part 5: Using Lists to Break Up Content
- Chunkify! Part 6: Improve SEO Value & Readability With Better Formatting
- Chunkify! Part 7: Compelling Conclusions That Inspire Action
- Download: Chunkify Checklist
Writing home pages & about pages
Rank in Search Engines
No one will find your content if you don’t rank high in search results. Research topic-related keywords people search a lot. If you have a chance at ranking for them, use them and variations in your content. Higher search rankings will increase your web traffic, which means higher chances of drawing in more prospects.
Write content that search engines will reward
- Content Marketing 101: SEO Basics for B2B Marketers
- SEO Checklist: 7 Musts to Optimize On-Page Content
- Backlinking: Build a Backlink Profile Search Engines Love
- 5 Blogging Best Practices to Rank High in Search Engines
- Keyword Research for Blogging - Making Sense Under a Mound of Data
- How to Get More Traffic to Your Blog: B2B Inbound Marketing Approaches
Design the User Experience
Each piece of content (whether a web page, call-to-action, email, etc.) should guide your prospects from A to B without having to think, with a design that “looks the part” or sends the right message. You also need to ensure users can consume content from any device with a responsive mobile design. A well-designed user experience increases your chances for high open rates, click-throughs, and conversions.
Engage more visitors with a user-friendly experience
- Don't break the Back Button!
- 5 Things Your Homepage Must Do
- 5 Ways to Boost User Engagement on Your B2B Website
- Changes to the web aren't about the web at all; They're about the user
Keep visitors interested by “looking the part”
Promote on Social Media
Social media is another channel you should use to nurture prospects and leads with content. Second to your website, It’s an effective medium for projecting your brand’s values. But of all things, social media’s most valuable function is sharing and the potential to spread content on a viral scale.
Post social promos people actually want to share
Convert Prospects into Leads
You want your content to push your prospects through the sales funnel. That means they need to engage with offers you place in your content. An offer gives them extra information they can take home. Offers also tell you where that prospect is in the buyer’s journey and collects their contact information for future lead nurturing.
Stack up leads with conversion-magnet offers
- How to Use Your Website for B2B Lead Generation
- Calls-To-Actions Need Specific Language and Good Design
Convert blog visitors to leads
- Blogging Best Practices: Calls to Action that Convert
- 4 Steps to Maximizing B2B Lead Generation Via Your Blog
Content offers & conversions
Nurture Leads with More Content
Email is still the preferred communication channel of the web. When written with a captivating subject line, personalized text, and rich copy: emails lead to more conversions. They allow you to nurture your leads with linked content offers and build trust and credibility with your audience.
Keep leads interested with email marketing
Align Sales & Marketing
The two departments mainly responsible for customer acquisition and retention have a long history of bumping heads. Align your marketing and sales teams. When they’re on the same page, they can divvy up their separate responsibilities and joint responsibilities for each stage of the buyer’s journey. By working in tandem, they will turn leads into customers with ease and efficiency.
Stir your sales funnel into a cyclone with one Sales-Marketing team
Track Metrics
You can’t judge whether your content strategy is headed in the right direction if you don’t measure your progress. Track analytics and KPIs to gauge your success. Measuring your results will give you more direction on where you need improvement.
Improve performance with metrics-driven decisions
- One Metric to Prove Customers Originated From Inbound Marketing
- B2B Tech CEOs: Why You Need Your Marketing Team to Calculate Cost Per Lead
- The Marketing Metric that Proves Whether You're Impacting Customers
- Ultra Target Your Marketing With Google Tracking Codes
- How To Set Goals in Google Analytics to Measure Website Performance
- The 6 B2B Marketing Metrics Your CEO Actually Cares About
- Offer: Google Dashboard Setup
- How a Marketing Audit Improves Conversion Rates & B2B Marketing