January 28, 2019 All, International Business

Why Creating Good Content Is Vital For Customer Acquisition

Introduction

In today’s world, there are many different ways of acquiring customers, and one of
the most valuable methods is content marketing. What many people that are new to
content marketing, or marketing in general, don’t realize is that to effectively acquire
customers and leads through content, you have to know what good content looks
like, when to deliver it, and who to deliver it to.

What is ‘good’ content?

You may be wondering what classifies content as ‘good’. I would put it this way;
anything that can provide value and that resonates with your target audience is good
content. The value that a piece of content can provide is different for each platform,
topic, purpose and audience, and you can usually tell the value that a piece of
content aims to provide just by looking at the title. For example, if you post an article
on LinkedIn titled ‘How My Digital Marketing Success In 2018 Can Help You In
2019’, then it’s clear to see that the article aims to provide educational value to its
readers.

What does good content look like?

Good content doesn’t come in a particular format or style: it can be an article, blog
post, e-book, video, graphic, podcast and more.

Although good quality content comes in a range of formats and styles, most of this
content is created using a similar set of rules when it comes to structure. For
example, the rules typically used for written content include the following:

• Use a descriptive title that tells the audience exactly what to expect from the
  content
• Use headings and subheadings to organise and tell the reader what they are
  about to see
• Long paragraphs should be broken up into chunks of about 4 – 5 lines
  Include a relevant call-to-action
• Use videos and images to break up and add variety to text-heavy content

These rules are used to provide value to your audience’s reading experience and
increase your credibility with each post.

Consistently creating in-depth and well-structured content covering topics in your
business’ niche allows you to build a reputation based on your knowledge and
experience in your industry.

How does this help with customer acquisition?

One of the main things that many people seem to forget is that acquiring customers
through content marketing doesn’t happen overnight. Creating content shouldn’t be
for the sole purpose of driving sales: this should certainly be considered, but it
shouldn’t be your primary focus.

The key to content marketing is to build a relationship with your audience through
consistent, valuable content that is made to meet their needs and expectations. Your
main focus when creating content should be your audience. What do they want to
see? What will benefit them the most? Do they have any questions that you could
answer? What problems do they have that you can help solve?

Answering these questions helps you to come up with new content ideas that will
fulfill your audience’s expectations and requirements. By giving your audience
something of value, you are more likely to have regular returning visitors to your
content on various platforms. In short, you could become one of their main go-to
places when they have a problem that needs solving or a question that needs
answering or when they are looking for information or entertainment.

It may come as a surprise, but when it comes to business, it’s not the goods or
services that matter most: it’s the interaction. At our core, we are all emotional
beings and when it comes to making a purchase, it’s often the emotional and social
factors that influence a person’s buying decision. That’s why high-quality content is
so valuable because you can start to build an emotional connection to your audience
that can lead to sustainable growth in conversions.

What is the buyer’s journey?

When creating content to fulfill your audience’s needs, you need to remember that
not all members of your audience will have the same needs and they will be at
different stages of the buyer’s journey. The buyer’s journey is the process that your
prospects go through that result in their decision to make a purchase. There are
three different stages to the buyer’s journey: Awareness, Consideration, and
Decision. Throughout the different stages, your prospects’ content needs and
behaviours will change depending on their stage on the buyer’s journey. To make
your content marketing ventures a success, you need to ensure that you are
providing high-value content to your audience throughout these three stages.

How does this link to inbound methodology?

One thing that will definitely help when it comes to creating content for the stages of
the buyer’s journey is incorporating inbound methodology. The inbound methodology
is the process of turning complete strangers into promoters of your business, through
valuable content delivered at the right stages of the buyer’s journey.

Using an inbound methodology, you use a range of content in different formats, to
attract, engage with and please your customers. Similar to the buyer’s journey, the
inbound methodology is made up of different stages: Attract, Convert, Close, and
Delight. A good way to think about it is that inbound methodology is essentially the
seller’s journey and what types of content they should be publishing depending on
their prospect’s buyer’s stage.

Content types like blog posts and forms of socials media marketing are used to
attract people to your content and turn them into regular visitors to your blog, website
and other platforms.

By showing off your expertise through in-depth content on landing pages and
including relevant call to actions, these visitors are likely to fill out forms and can then
be converted into leads.

Following up by email and nurturing these leads through content such as case
studies and testimonials you can then begin to turn these leads into closed sales.
Finally, through surveys and event offers after the successful close of business, you
are able to turn your happy customers into promoters of your business.

Conclusion

To summarize the points given in this article, content marketing isn’t about trying to
boost sales with one piece of content, but rather steadily and consistently increasing
sales through valuable content.

To a build a trustworthy and long-lasting relationship with your audience, your
content must provide them with some form of value. Being a reliable source of
information and being able to solve problems for your audience means you are more
than likely to be one of their main sources of quality content.

Rather than treating your audience as one entity, you need to recognize the
individual members of your audience and the challenges that they face. By doing so,
you can create content to support them through the different stages of the buyer’s
journey.

By understanding the buyer’s journey and how it links to inbound methodology, you
can create a process that not only supports your audience through the buying
process but also supports your strategy for customer acquisition through high-quality
content.

 

Will is a digital marketing professional and creates a range of content and manages the website development for Inspired B2B Marketing. He has a good understanding of different content marketing tools and techniques, and how to create content for different purposes and audiences.
Inspired B2B Marketing Website: https://inspiredb2bmarketing.com/

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