How Content Marketing Drives Sales?

“Content is the fuel. Content is the king.”

We all are fed up listening to such statements, but all of us know that it’s sales that rule the business world. So the bigger question is,

Can Content Marketing lead you to sales?

Can Content Marketing work as a tool for sales?

Well, the answer is an absolute Yes! Let’s see how Content Marketing can upscale your business and can bring more sales!

But, how?

Content Marketing drives sales by letting people know more about your brand. It builds the trust that pushes them to take out their credits card and purchase something from you and not your competitors.

Let us know more about the process below:

People Don’t Randomly Buy

How many times have you bought products of a brand that you have never heard of? You don’t recall, right?

Do you know why? Well, people don’t buy products, they buy the story behind them, and storytelling is one of the most prominent qualities that turn a business into a brand!

In fact, Steve Jobs once said, “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.

Storytelling influences people’s emotions and emotions influence people’s decisions.

And people don’t randomly decide to buy stuff and there can be hundreds of reasons why they exactly choose any certain product.

So it’s the customer journey that is the most important thing to understand.

Brands focus on their sales funnels but never really bother to check the customer journey. It’s important for brands to understand how humans make buying decisions, what factors they consider, and what expectations they have?

The more clear answer a business has to these questions the better they perform in sales.

Let’s Understand the customer journey

Acquisition

This is the first stage of the customer value journey. This is when your target audience isn’t aware of the existence of your brand.

How will you generate awareness for your brand? This audience has never heard of you. Are you going to say the old form of brand advertisements?

Then let me tell you a fact – 72% of marketers think that branded content is more effective than magazine advertisements. Digital media has already showcased how effective it is, and if you are planning to create straight videos about your products then it may not work.

Would you be willing to buy from a brand, who you’ve never heard of, just by watching a product video, for the first time?

But how can Content Marketing help in driving sales?

People’s on-screen time is constantly increasing, and they spend most of their time on social media.

What do you think they do so much online? They consume content!

Content is the gateway to people’s minds. The content for this set of people should not always be directly related to your product, for example, if you are selling cameras then content around photography is an awesome bid.

At this stage, there should be a mix of promotional and educational content. The goal here is to educate people in the field they are interested in and show them how your product can help them. Let’s take an example of photography,

If you start creating content for educating people on photography, a lot of interested people can consume your content and this will create the initial trust that you need.

In the future when they are fully aware of your product/service, they can consider buying as you have already built a strong relationship.

Whom will you prefer more, someone you know for one year? Or someone you just saw an ad of?

Nurturing

Once a person is problem aware, we nurture them with content to make them discover a solution to the problem they are facing.

Marketers around the world are using content for nurturing their target audience. In fact, 72% of marketers are producing significantly more content than they did a year ago. Why do you think they are doing so?

This is because the content is the best way to nurture people’s minds. Nurturing allows you to:

• Educate your target audience better.
• Understand your users better by seeing their reaction to your content.
• Build trust and better relationships with your audience.

Not everyone is the same, and everyone prefers different channels before consuming content. Some prefer reading long reviews before buying something while others prefer watching videos, and that’s why being omnipresent is very important.

Now as we have seen how content helps you in the acquisition and nurturing process. Let’s see how content helps in creating a brand identity.

Content Creates Your Brand Identity

This is how Content Marketing helps you:

Brand Awareness

Putting initial content helps businesses get the initial exposure that they require, and it makes the business visible to the people. Putting value-adding content consistently on social media can work wonders for brand awareness.

Building Positioning

What is the first thing you feel when you hear the names Apple or Nike? Don’t you love their storytelling? Content helps you ensure exactly how you want people to see you.

Do you wish to be perceived as the most luxury brand that people absolutely crave for? Or do you wish to become the budget segment king? Well obviously your product decides where it fits in, but it’s the content that makes people create notions about your product.

Lead Generation

Lead generation is the process of finding people who are interested in your product/service. But not everyone who shows interest is a lead. Instead, focus on qualified leads. Everyone who’s interested doesn’t necessarily buy the product, Do they?

Content on social media is mostly the first touchpoint that a potential customer has with a brand, but as he/she moves ahead in the buying journey other touchpoints are introduced. Like your website.

But a person who is not aware of the existence will not directly search your website. This set of audiences will need some other touchpoint before. And content can work as a touchpoint. In fact, Content can help people attract quality leads. Just the understanding of what exactly your target audience needs is very important.

Nurturing Your Leads

Once a person decides to buy any stuff online, they mostly check the content in order to know how the product really is and that’s what the business exactly should do.

If a business creates relevant content for people, there’s a higher chance that the people will be buying the stuff which the business is trying to sell.

But before you start stressing out that if Content Marketing is so beneficial it must be really expensive, but actually it’s not that expensive.

Let me tell you a fact Content Marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads. Doesn’t it sound absolutely crazy? But yes that’s the truth!

Most of the marketers around the globe are getting how Content Marketing can take your business to the next level and If you don’t take the step now, you will be left out!

Content Marketing stats are really interesting to look at but before the conclusion, let’s see what are some major content types help people skyrocket their sales.

Major Content Types

Videos: It’s absolutely crucial for you to get started in videos in 2021. Videos are in serious demand. People are spending even more time on YouTube, Instagram, or even short video platforms. This is the best time to make the most of the wave.

Podcasts: Podcasts have a serious audience. Because of long forms of content and a higher retention rate, people take the content more seriously and the content makes a much larger impact.

Articles: We still have readers! This segment prefers reading more than watching or listening, so creating articles, blog posts or even eBooks is the best content for this breed! If you want content for articles then do connect with our team.

Webinars: If you are in the info product or SAAS, webinars can help you 10X your business. It’s a very underrated form of content, but people around the globe are choosing it and are observing huge amounts of growth

Let’s Take a Quick Recap:

We learned about the customer journey, how content helps in creating a strong brand identity, and what are the major content types to get started.

Marketers around the globe have started taking content marketing tips seriously and it’s the perfect time for you to get started. Will you feel good to be left behind?

“Now” is always the best time to start anything and you are not very late. You can still start and leverage content marketing and drive sales to your business.

But don’t rush, here are five important steps in the content marketing process. Do your research well and draft an effective content strategy for you.

Now that you have learned the impact of Content Marketing, do let us know when are you going to start your content game!