Content Versatility
How creating modest amounts of unique, quality content can serve a variety of purposes to engage customers at all stages of the buyer's journey.
Attract, Engage, Delight & Grow
Content marketing is a proven method for increasing website traffic and leads. But the reality is, the same assets you create to bring more opportunities into the top of our funnel can also serve your business for critical sales and customer service initiatives. This simple guide is going to explain how creating a steady stream of content can help with a variety of objectives to help your business grow.
Start with Core Content
Core content is whatever content you create on a regular basis. It can be executed across a variety of platforms, frequencies and styles. It can include at least one of the examples below.
Blog
Write and publish articles about almost anything - your services, news, industry trends, best practices, case studies and more.
Webinars
Conduct webinars on a regular basis and record them. The videos, slides and transcripts can be used in a variety of ways.
Podcasts
Have regular conversations with teammates, customers or outside experts. This is also a great way to expand your network.
Ebooks or Whitepapers
Create more long-format content that dives deeper into complicated subjects and provides answers to difficult questions.
Create & Publish Your Content
Blogging
Create a schedule and commit to it. Strive for a minimum of 4 articles per month. Start by mapping out all the broad topics you'd like your articles to explore. Then think of all the supporting content you can create within that topic. Then commit someone or a small team to produce the content. Have a standing monthly meeting to review all content for the month and plan your content for the following month.
Podcasting (with Video)
There's a lot that goes into starting a podcast (which you can learn more about here). But once you have that figured out, try to record at least one episode a month. Record with video so you can use both audio and video formats. This will allow you to publish to popular podcast streaming services while also leveraging the video to promote the content on your website and social media accounts.
Webinars, Ebooks and Whitepapers
No matter the format of your content, the important thing is to commit to producing it on a regular basis. We recommend a cadence of at least once a month, regardless of the format. A greater quantity never hurts, but quality and consistency is paramount.
Attract & Convert Leads
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Google's biggest turn-on is original, quality content. Producing content and sharing it through your blog and website can only help drive more traffic to your website by ranking higher on search engine results pages.
Lead Generation
Quality content not only attracts people to your website, it also gives interested prospects a reason to engage with your further. You can repurpose content into a long-form asset like an ebook or a white paper and offer it in exchange for a prospect's email address and contact information. You can also invite prospects to subscribe to your email list for more content. This is a great way to bring more contacts in your database and start marketing to them in a way that's comfortable to them.
Share Across Social Media Pages
Amplify Your Voice
The biggest thing that businesses struggle with when it comes to social media is knowing what to actually post. (You can only post so many photos of an employee's birthday...) When you produce your own content - whether its blog articles, podcasts, video content or anything else - you're giving your marketing team a great opportunity to share content that's highly relevant and interesting to the people that follow you on social media.
Empower Your Sales Team
Resources to Teach, Lead and Close
In addition to amplifying your voice, attracting people to your website and generating more leads, creating quality, original content also benefits your sales team.
Your prospects probably have multiple decision-making options between your competitors and/or keeping functions in-house. Your job is first to persuade them on the benefit of your service offering and then to help them understand why *your business* is the best provider for them. Often times these decisions require time, research and complex consideration. Your prospects want to choose a partner that's going to proactively serve their needs and make their jobs (and lives) easier.
Teach your sales team how to use your content to show your prospects why your business is different. Don't just "follow up" on their decision. Offer them insight. Show them the knowledge, capabilities and good will of your business *before* they higher you. It will only improve your chances of closing each deal.
Email to Customers, Prospects & Partners
Email Newsletter
You already have the content. Why not share it with more people who (1) might want to consume it and (2) already know and trust you? A simple way to get started is to curate your best or most recent content into an email newsletter and send it to your customers once a month. Over time, you can grow this list to also include prospects, partners and new contacts who subscribe through your website.
Sharing your content directly into the inboxes of your customers and those people closest with your business has multiple benefits:
- Increases the value of doing business with your company beyond just the transaction of a product or service
- Delights customers with ideas and insights, which encourage referrals, testimonials and product up-sells
- Predisposes more people with your business so they know you, like you and prefer you - so that when they need you, they'll be more likely to *choose* you
Book a Free Content Audit
What to Expect
By the time we meet, we'll already have reviewed your website and anything else you've shared with us. We'll begin by reviewing everything you've done from a content marketing perspective up to this point. We'll also discuss your ideas for new initiatives, and based on your goals, audiences and resources, make some strategic recommendations.
How to Prepare
You're going to provide us with your website URL when you book the meeting, so we're going to take some time to review your visible content beforehand. Beyond that, come prepared with a list of all your current and planned content initiatives
"We started off engaging with CJ and his team to help with content creation, but quickly saw their ability to be a true inbound strategic partner with SelectOne. We engaged at deeper into a strategic relationship and have seen amazing results across the board in our inbound marketing analytics."
Kevin Kerl
CEO, SelectOne