How to use content to drive sales

The game has changed, and content has become a key driver in creating new, cost-effective opportunities to acquire leads and close sales.

Yes, using content to drive sales is cost-effective, but it’s also one of the most effective marketing and sales strategies out there today. Why? Because Google, social media, and the Internet as a whole have changed everything.

I’ve touched on this topic in the past, but I want to take a moment to re-emphasize the importance that content plays in your sales and marketing strategies, as well as offer a few tips to help you get started. If you’re anything like me, it really helps to understand the big picture, so here it is.

Marketing and sales were traditionally done by shouting a bunch of noise—carefully crafted noise, but noise nonetheless—at consumers, regardless of their interest. For marketing, that might have been done through TV commercials, newspapers, phonebooks, billboards, and other antiquated channels.

Sales on the other hand, leveraged cold calling to get people on the phone so that companies could make their pitch. I’m not saying that there was no rhyme or reason to it, but just that the messaging might have been less targeted.

Then the Internet came along and changed everything. The Internet caused a power shift; the consumers became the wielders of power, leaving businesses tasked with transforming the way they sell in order to accommodate and satisfy consumers. Marketing and sales have moved away from just shouting their message (somewhat, anyway) and are focusing instead on pulling buyers in at the right time and place with the right message.

How? By creating and sharing relevant content on topics that your prospects genuinely find valuable. When I use the term valuable, I’m referring to content that is useful and informative, authentic, and even humorous.

Be helpful and earn trust; that trust will do much of the selling for you.

Consider your decision-making process when you make a meaningful purchase. Chances are you spend quite a bit of time researching online, reading reviews, articles, forums, and social media to learn as much as you can about the product or service of interest, as well as any other options or alternatives that exist.

As the business or seller, the tricky part is having the content you want the buyer to see, easily findable when a relevant search is conducted. Before I share some tips on how you can use your content to drive sales, let me share a few interesting stats that reinforce the value that quality content can bring to sales.

• Inbound marketing delivers 54% more leads into the marketing funnel than traditional outbound marketing.
• 82% of prospects say content targeted to their industry is more valuable.
• Buyers go through about 57% of the purchasing process before ever talking to sales.
• Organic search leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound marketing leads have a 1.7% close rate.
• B2C companies that blog generate 88% more leads per month than those who do not.
• B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not.

While all of the stats above are powerful reasons to focus more of your sales efforts on content, the one that resonates with me the most is that 57% of the purchasing process is already completed before a buyer ever speaks to sales. That’s huge! And if you’re not providing buyers with the content they want early on, you may be missing opportunities to use that content to drive sales and truly get them into your sales funnel.

Okay, now that you’re excited about this new opportunity to start acquiring new leads and close more sales, let’s toss around some thought starters:

Share your knowledge and experiences

As a sales professional who is always talking to prospects and customers, you possess an incredible amount of valuable information that you may or may not know you have. Think about the questions that you’re most often asked. Think about why those questions arise often. Think about how you answer those questions.

Instead of waiting for a prospect to ask the question directly, why not write a blog post that addresses these questions ahead of time? Get them in the sales funnel as early as possible! You never know how many opportunities were missed because a prospect found the desired information elsewhere.