For years, B2B companies have offered webinars and white papers as ways to educate their prospects and guide them through the long process of making a sale.
The model makes sense.
No Marketing Manager is going to wake up one day and say, “Today I think I’ll spend $100,000 on a new CRM.”
Not only is it a large purchase, there’s a lot of personal investment in such software too. Will it do what both HR and sales need it to do? How is everyone going to be trained on it? The list of questions goes on and on.
To answer these questions and turn a prospect into a sale is the ultimate goal of content marketing.
Now that everyone from high tech software sales to to dog trainers selling a $49 ebook is engaged in content marketing, here’s how to get maximum ROI.
1) Define a problem your audience has and offer a solution. For example, if you’re a financial advisor, you can build trust with your visitors by offering a booklet on “10 Ways You Can Save $7,5000 This Year for Retirement”. Then, use the booklet to give 10 tips on saving money and little known retirement advice.
Offer it in exchange for an email address. This is how top marketers build their email lists.
2) At the end of the booklet, offer a call to action such as to call you for more information or to come to an informational session you’re holding online or off.
3) You can offer this on your sidebar in exchange for an email address as mentioned above. You’ll also want to offer a separate landing page devoted directly to increasing your number of sign ups.
4) If you’re using Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing, you can double your conversions by sending them to a specific landing page. According to marketing giant Marketro, 44% of B2B companies miss out on these conversions because they send visitors to their home page rather than a relevant page the ad targeted.
If an easy fix like this could double your revenue, don’t you think it’s worth a closer look?
5) Think of your audience. If you have an existing email list they already know who you are (you do send a regular, value added newsletter don’t you?) and you can offer more in depth value.
For example, if you’re a software company specializing in digital rights management (sensitive content restricted for a select group such as nonprofit board members) then you might offer a demo via webinar to your email list.
You already know content marketing is essential in today’s world. Why not plan how you’ll use your content and gain more trust and ultimately more business with it?
Do you have a content marketing success story (or miss, those are instructive too!) you’d like to share? If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
