Today’s customers are better informed and more empowered than ever. As a result, a lot of marketing activity goes on behind the scenes, before customers decide to make a purchase. The content marketers’ job is to guide customers on a seamless journey towards conversion. However, it can be challenging to create content that keeps potential customers interested. Let’s take a closer look at content that captivates!
The Attracting Strangers Stage
The first stage in the customer journey is attracting strangers to find out more about your brand’s products and/or services. At this initial stage of the inbound marketing journey, it’s important to use your expertise to create content and conversations that spark meaningful relationships with your potential audience. The main goal content marketers face is to solve their readers' pain points and problems by creating interesting content that they can easily discover and consume.
At this point, the reader is trying to find an answer, or meet a need, so they’re looking for top-level, reliable content that will help guide them towards a solution, like informative blog posts, eye-catching social content, webinars and credible eBooks. Even though there’s no guarantee at this stage that they will make a purchase, it’s essential to grab their attention with answers, resources and valuable insight as this may help to encourage them further down the middle of the marketing funnel.
An educational blog post is an ideal piece of content for audiences in the top level of the funnel. By creating online content that focuses on a buyer persona pain point, you’re essentially creating a brand asset that’s not only crawlable by Google but also easily discoverable by search engine users who meet your buyer persona criteria. Keri Witman, Founder & President of digital agency Clever Lucy, explains, “One of the most critical things to keep in mind when launching a blog for a brand is to spend time upfront to define your target buyer's persona. Identify very specific details about your best target customer such as their title, role and the specific pain points that may drive them to your product or solution. Use that as your guidepost for developing content that addresses those issues.” Not only are blogs a great way of speaking directly to your target audience but they’re also a great tool for building your authority and brand presence as a thought leader in your industry. And what’s more, if you consistently create valuable, engaging content on a regular basis, this will also help towards encouraging inbound links and conversion rates, which ultimately drive more leads in the long term.
If you need any guidance on tapping into what your target audience is already asking search engines, Damon Burton, Founder of SEO National, suggests using a tool like AnswerThePublic.com. He comments that this tool helps to “identify historical variations of search questions that surround your target keyword(s).” He continues, that if you infuse your writing with relevant keywords “then you get to answer your audience's questions, attract leads and increase the unique content on your blog”.
TechLurn, one of the leading online resources for tech news, creates captivating content on stories ranging from the latest tech gadgets and digital marketing to science and artificial intelligence. When asked about the art of blogging for attracting potential customers, Jithendar Dharmapuri, Founder of TechLurn comments, “The trick is to combine both expertise and opinion. When writing a blog, the best thing to do it be precise and to the point. Your reader is there to learn about something new or something they identify with. Voicing our opinion can help draw them in, and showcasing your expertise on the subject shows the reader you know what you’re talking about. This will keep them engaged and leave them wanting more”.
The Engaging Prospects Stage
The middle stage of the marketing funnel involves engaging prospects. This is where content marketers build long-lasting relationships with their target audience by providing insights and solutions that align with their problems while highlighting that their brand is the best solution to their problem in the market. Once you’ve captured their attention and awareness with educational and informative content, it’s time to show the potential customer that your solutions are the best answer to their particular pain points. As the prospect is getting more invested in researching for a solution, you as a content marketer will need to show through your content that your brand is the greatest option out there.
This middle “evaluation” stage is a point of extended engagement with a prospect, a time when you need to nurture the lead and establish trust between the prospect and your brand. Content tools at your disposal may be an engaging email marketing campaign to open the lines of communication further; a comparison guide to showcase what your Unique Selling Points (USPs) are; interesting case studies that solidify your credibility or free samples, whether that’s exclusive content, a personalised box of mini products or add-on products to encourage a full sale. In the middle stage, your prospect will be making the final purchasing decision, but whether they’re going to buy from you, is still to be decided. This is why these content efforts to convert are so essential. You may find that a final content nudge and compelling call-to-action may be enough to ensure a purchase is made.
They say “the best things in life are free” and this might be why promotions, giveaways and free samples are very effective in engaging and converting potential buyers. These incentives and extra perks may encourage your target audience to invest in your brand for the first time, as they believe what you’re offering is a better deal than your competitors. A recent consumer behavioural study by Sampler has indicated that the pandemic has accelerated consumer demand for personalised free sample boxes. Research shows that consumers have increasingly become accustomed to getting to try before they buy. Since lockdown, 98% of consumers say they’re more open to discovering new brands and trying free samples from the safety of their own homes.
Sampler’s founder and CEO, Marie Chevrier, explains that these findings reflected why product sampling is increasingly becoming a bigger part of a brand’s digital marketing strategy. “Being able to digitally target consumers who have an interest in your specific products is light-years ahead of traditional in-store sampling approaches,” Chevrier comments. “Brand managers at consumer-packaged-goods companies and retailers are amazed at how targeted and measurable they can be, reaching more people who really want their products, and staying close to them. Every consumer brand needs this higher level of targeting, and the pandemic just accelerated that demand.”
Relationship-building and content marketing comes into play when the brand emails their consumers afterwards to ask how they felt about the products they received, and if they were likely to purchase them in the future. This follow-up communication also encourages consumers to leave reviews or ratings with feedback, and make it more likely that they will take advantage of additional offers, sign up to a brand’s newsletter and make purchases further down the line.
Also, it’s important to think of others in the wider sense when giving gifts. Some brands that do promotions and offer free product samples also donate a percentage of their earnings to a charity. Communicating this effectively is another great way to help build customer trust by winning hearts and minds. A charitable cause unites people, especially during the pandemic, and in many cases, it can encourage new buyers that might not have considered reaching out before to do so.
The Delighting Customers Stage
This final stage in the marketing funnel is where you provide outstanding content experiences that help add real value for customers so as they can reach their goals and possibly become advocates for your brand. Just because you’ve managed to convert the customer doesn’t mean that your content marketing efforts should stop. In fact, putting in the time to cultivate a relationship with your customers beyond the sale through content marketing can lead to a higher Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), a better online customer review rating and an increase in word-of-mouth referrals.
Once the customer has purchased, you should continue to create content that delights your customers and encourages them to keep on interacting with your brand in the hope of stimulating repeat purchases and instil loyalty. An example of this could include a comprehensive (and routinely updated) FAQ page and live-chat-box service to make the customer experience easier and more linear. Time-sensitive coupons for the opportunity to upsell could also work well at this stage. A cost-effective way to delight loyal customers can also be to promote exclusive educative content, like free trials, live demos or presentations from experts in your industry that can help to deepen their understanding of a topic that interests them. The key at this stage for content marketers is to go above and beyond the customer’s expectations to provide a seamless and unforgettable brand experience.
Loyalty begins when customers feel a connection with your brand, where buying your products and/or services becomes part of their routine. Your customers may be loyal to your brand because of your competitive prices, the quality of your products, the customer service or the nostalgia they feel towards the brand itself. But no matter what the reason might be, it comes as no surprise that one of the best ways to nurture and promote customer loyalty is with a loyalty program. When brands offer reward points or modest discounts via a robust email marketing campaign, this can motivate customers to make more visits to their site and more importantly, increase the likelihood of repeat purchases. Research by Fundera reported that 43% of customers spend more money on brands they’re loyal to, with loyalty program members spending 12–18% more per year than customers who are non-members.
With the pandemic significantly reducing marketing budgets, many brands have shifted their priorities to developing content-heavy content marketing strategies that promote their loyalty programs in order to retain and acquire more high-value customers. Katie Thomas, head of the Global Consumer Institute at Kearney, comments, “Everybody has a loyalty program these days, but some brands have been under-utilizing their loyal customers through the COVID pandemic”. However, restaurant chains like Taco Bell are stepping up and enhancing their loyalty programs in an effort to woo and delight dedicated customers who are willing to come back more and spend more. When Taco Bell rolled out their Taco Bell Rewards content, which included new exclusive offers, free rewards and bonus point challenges, it generated such pent-up demand that their website and app crashed temporarily on the launch date.
Sastry Penumarthy, Co-Founder and VP of Strategy of loyalty platform Punchh that helped Taco Bell strengthen their loyalty program comments, “When we think about loyalty, it’s not just the program. We’re thinking about the customer behind the scenes, the insights about those customers. Loyalty can give you insights across all channels about who your most valuable customers are and their patterns”. He continues, “If you’re a brand that delivers breakfast for example, then you know during this time, breakfast has been hit hard and customers are shifting their spending. A loyalty program provides insights as to where that shift is taking place and allows a brand to adjust accordingly… loyalty is now about more than points, it’s about experience and personalisation”.
Now more than ever before it’s essential to create spell-binding content for every stage of the customer journey that not only entices your target audience but encourages them further down that yellow brick road to conversion. From informative blog posts and robust email marketing campaigns to content that promotes free samples and loyalty programs, the content marketer constantly needs to have their finger on the pulse when it comes to giving the stranger, the prospect and the customer exactly what they want – a brand that effectively solves their problems, while delivering a seamless customer experience.