The most forward-thinking companies know that building relationships with their potential and existing customers is one of the best ways to increase sales. And there’s no better strategy for building relationships than working content into your marketing mix.
Today, most companies have realized the value of a having a blog. According to a 2022 report from HubSpot, blogs are the second-most popular media format used by marketers (No. 1 is video). Most marketers have even figured out how to SEO their blogs to help drive traffic to their sites. However, it isn’t always the case of “build it and they will come.” Marketers need to think about what types of content will resonate with their users, and how best to distribute it to gain maximum results.
Here are three ways to tweak your content marketing strategy to drive more sales:
- Create more evergreen content. Evergreen content is content that stands the test of time – it makes as much sense today as it did a few years ago. People refer to evergreen content over and over when providing information about a particular industry or niche. A few examples of evergreen content include case studies, 101-type articles, how-to guides and original research. One of the best examples of evergreen content in the Internet of Things (IoT) market, for example, comes from Cisco. In 2017, Cisco noted in an original research study that nearly 75% of IoT projects fail, with 60% of those failures coming in the proof-of-concept stage. That statistic is not only interesting five years later, but still relevant, used in articles and corporate presentations, and causing companies that are building IoT solutions to ensure their product and go-to-market strategy are airtight to avoid becoming “a statistic.”
- Go beyond the blog. If you’ve nailed your blog strategy and are consistently getting incoming leads, it might be time to consider some new types of content. Many companies have successfully added video to their websites as well, but video for video’s sake will only get you so far. Consider the types of video that make the most sense for your customer base. For many B2B companies, how-to videos and tutorials can help engage potential customers by pointing out different scenarios in which your product works best, as well as tease out your key differentiators from your competitors.
- Engage with your sales team. Specifically targeted blogs or other types of content can help your sales team in several ways. For example, salespeople can use it as a targeted sales technique, sending an appropriate blog to prospects to help them move to the next stage of the marketing funnel or help warm up a lead that has gone cold. When new blog content is posted, send it to your sales team and let them know who the content is most appropriate to share with. For example, certain blog topics might be best for CEO-level prospects while others make more sense for developers or the CTO. Segmenting the content into appropriate topics for appropriate audiences will help sales stay in frequent contact with their most important customers and prospects.
Content marketing, as part of an overall strategy, can help drive customers to your website (or directly to a salesperson to learn more), and it ultimately can lead to a sale. Make sure you’re incorporating key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your program, and don’t be afraid to try new things to find out what strategy delivers the best results.
Want to learn more about building a content marketing strategy? View our white paper: Content Marketing Rocks, so Why Are You Still Struggling?