How Content Marketing Drives Sales

Content marketing is a great way to build your brand, generate leads, and drive sales. But it’s not just about creating high-quality content; you also need a solid strategy for getting your audience to read what you create. Here are the steps I take when creating a successful content marketing strategy:

Create a content marketing strategy.

To get started, you need to define your target audience and the goals you want to accomplish with content marketing. For example, who are your ideal customers if you’re a clothing brand? Are they millennials in their 20s who live in urban areas? Or are they more middle-aged professionals living in suburbs and rural areas? What are their interests and motivations? Once you’ve defined this information, creating relevant content that resonates with them will be easier.

Once we know our target audience, we can better define what new content types would work best for them and how often we should create them (e.g., weekly blog posts). It also helps us determine if there are specific events related to our industry (or even outside industries) where people might be interested in hearing from us again soon after reading one of our posts!

Create valuable content.

Content marketing is all about providing value to your audience. You want to be someone other than the person who’s just selling your products and services. You want to be the one helping them decide what they need and how you can help them achieve their goals.

Content marketing aims to create something your audience wants to consume—and hopefully share with their friends! This helps build trust between you and your audience, which is crucial when it comes time for someone to make a purchase decision.

So how do you create valuable content? Here are a few tips: 

• Ensure it’s relevant – Your content should be based on your target audience’s wants or needs. Don’t make assumptions!
• Ask questions that get people thinking about their problems, then provide solutions. That way, they feel like they’re getting something out of it too! (And hopefully, they’ll even share the answers with their friends!)
• Use real-life examples – Let people know what success looks like by sharing stories from other customers who have achieved similar results using your product or service.

Create useful content.

Content marketing is a great way to build your company’s brand and increase sales. The key to making it work is creating useful content that solves problems for your customers, helps them solve their problems, or makes better decisions. It can also help people achieve their goals.

When you create helpful content, you show your customers that you care about them as individuals and not just as dollar signs. Your audience is more likely to engage with your content if they feel they can trust you and stay engaged longer if they find the information useful. They’ll also be more likely to share your content with others who might benefit from it—which means more exposure for you!

Make sure you’re offering a solution to a problem people have.

The most effective content marketing campaigns offer a solution to people’s problems. If you’re not offering a solution, then what’s the point?

You must ensure your content is relevant and valuable for your audience. You don’t want to waste their time or yours by writing about something that doesn’t interest them or isn’t useful for them.

For example, if you sell widgets and want more sales from customers who already use your product, then talk about how using the widget will help solve their problems easily and efficiently (and maybe even save money).

Offer value by providing lots of value for free.

One of the best ways to gain customers is by offering them value. And one of the best ways to offer value is by giving away lots of free content.

That’s right: FREE CONTENT! Think about it. If you’re selling something–like a product or service–and you want to get people to buy, why not give them all the information they need before they even have to ask? That way, when they decide they need what you’re selling, they’ll already know all about it!

You can do this by offering the following:

• Tools and resources that help your audience do their jobs faster and more efficiently. 
• Ebooks that give readers an insider’s perspective on your industry or niche, such as how to succeed with a specific tactic or strategy in their businesses (or whatever it is you do). You can also create an ebook full of tips from other experts in the field who are willing to contribute their knowledge for free–that way, you’re offering them something when all they’re doing is helping promote yours!

If there’s one thing we know about humans at this point in history: we love getting stuff for nothing (especially if there’s no catch). So make sure that every content shared through social media includes some offer. Hence, people know what they’ll get from reading/viewing/listening/etc. Otherwise, there will be no incentive other than curiosity, which isn’t enough motivation to buy.

Create persuasive calls-to-action (CTAs).

When creating a call-to-action (CTA), you should ask yourself: “What do I want people who read this content to do?” Then, make sure your CTA is clear and easy for them to convert.

Use a compelling headline that tells readers exactly what they’ll get if they click the link. Use strong offers–such as discounts or free trials–to encourage conversions. Social proof helps convince visitors that others have already taken advantage of your offer, so use testimonials from happy customers whenever possible!

Finally, remember color! Research shows that certain colors evoke emotions in readers, which can influence their decision to click on your CTA button; choose wisely!

Tie in with your sales team and other departments in the company.

Your content marketing efforts should be coordinated with the sales department. This can be done by:

• Targeting the right audience. The best way to understand your target audience is through research and data analysis, but if you have a sales team, they can help you identify who might buy from you (or at least be interested in learning more about what you do). That way, when it comes time for them to reach out and make a pitch, they’ll know exactly what kind of person their potential clientele is made up of. They’ll also have an idea about what kind of content will resonate most with those individuals–and, therefore, how much effort needs to be put into creating that type of material!
• Generating leads through content creation, distribution, promotion, etc. A lot goes into generating leads; however, one thing that all businesses need, no matter how big or small their business model may be, is generating quality traffic toward websites and converting it into new leads generated daily. When people sign up after reading something interesting enough on the website, this will lead them directly back.

Conclusion

To create a successful content marketing campaign, these are the most important task:

• Create a strategy. Before doing anything else, you must decide how to achieve your goals. You’ll also want to consider your target audience and what content will appeal most to them. If possible, this should include specific metrics that show whether or not the campaign has been successful (for example: “increase sales leads by 20 percent”).
• Create valuable content for your audience that offers value by providing lots of value for free–and then tie in with the sales team and other departments in the company, so they know how best to use it!