The Content makes up almost 50 percent of a website. It helps a business communicate with the audience of its website. Content is King – is the well known saying of the decade. Content is essential for a business at every stage of customer acquisition. It is used in different ways to attract the customers.
Creative and promotional content is often used in the sales strategies of a business. It has a strong role at every stage of the sales funnel. At the top of the funnel, creative content is used to attract the attention of the customer.
In the middle stage, it is used to provide further information on the product or service (s) provided. Later, it helps in maintaining customer loyalty. In this way, there is no stage of the sales funnel which can do without content.Let’s explore more about the role of content in the sales funnel.
Let’s First Look at What Content Marketing Means
“Content Marketing is a marketing technique that involves the creation and distribution of valuable, informative, and relevant content to acquire the attention of the target audience with a main aim to urge customers to take some action.”
Consistent creation of valuable and useful content is essential to survive the online competition. It is an ongoing process which is integrated with overall marketing strategy. It serves as strategy useful in every stage of the sales funnel. All the content created by the content developer, marketing strategies implemented by the marketing team, and activities undertaken by Public Relations to ensure customer loyalty; all of these form the entire conversion funnel. Though a company has different goals for content marketing, all the content marketing activities undertaken, from attracting customer attention to urging the customer to complete a sale, form an essential part of the sales funnel.
What has Content to do With the Sales Funnel?
The top of the conversion funnel can be easily defined. The top funnel comprises of the people who are seeking information to solve some basic problems. They tend to trace a company through the information that they are searching on the internet.
In the middle of the sales funnel are those prospects which convert into qualified leads. Here, the main aim of the funnel is to analyze a company on a number of levels and arrive at a decision to buy.
At the bottom of the funnel, the leads transform into customers. Even though they have arrived at the bottom completing a sales lead, content is required to ensure customer loyalty, bringing down turnover, engaging customers, and transforming them into brand ambassadors for the business.
Why Sales Funnel is a Kind of Cycle?
- The Marketing department is expected to generate varying content for customers at different stages of the sales funnel.
- Content at the top funnel comprises disseminating information about product and/or service through different channels such as blogs or social media.
- At the center of the funnel, proof points and conversion tools such as case studies and demos would be useful for buyers.
After customer acquisition, newsletters are required to build customer loyalty and create strong relationships with customers. The outcome at this stage is word of mouth publicity which once again serves as an important input or feed for the first stage of the conversion funnel (information dissemination). The role of testimonials, in acquiring new customers, cannot be underestimated. They play an important role in attracting the attention of a number of customers.
This way all this information serves as ‘content’ for the first stage of the funnel and as a result a cycle is formed.
Empowering Sales Team With the Right Content
Marketing team needs powerful content to engage prospects and transform them into customers. The team also makes efforts to strengthen relationships with customers. This is the reason why sales team can be empowered with the help of content. Useful and creative content can be used as a tool to achieve sales goals.
Sales empowerment comes with the delivery of the right information to the right resource at the right time and at the right place. Thus, the sales team and the process of sales empowerment serve as yet another content marketing channel.
Why Content is Important for Sales Teams?
Creating content for sales team is akin to creating content for other channels. The only difference is when it comes to promotional content the messaging must be attractive and relevant to the prospect’s stage in the buying process.
Members in the sales team used to have personal conversations with prospects as this was the only way to disseminate information to customers. However, with changing technology tools, content is now readily available to customers who are seeking information about the product and brand. Any content created for the sales team should help in building lasting relationship with customers.
Sales teams must work conjointly with the content marketers to help them understand the importance and variation in content required at different stages of the sales funnel. Relevant content must be used at every stage to ensure the smooth flow of a customer through the purchase process. Content is no longer confined to creating awareness about the brand or its products/services; today, content is about supporting the entire sales process whilst keeping the customer informed at every stage of the purchase he or she makes.
Images: ”One funnel with a white and red sign and a target on the floor – Abstract schematic 3D render concept image suitable for conceptual illustration of a marketing campaign or marketing audience. /Shutterstock.com“
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