Content Marketing for creating Quality Sales Funnel
Picture this.
You were invited to a gala party that would be attended by the town’s who-whos.
Being a business owner and inherently excited about networking with people, you immediately start getting along with the other guests.
This is what happens.
You approach some people to have a nice little chat over a drink.
Conversations get carried out over mutual likes, dislikes, and finally, a bond develops. Some of the prospects invite you for a game, dinner, or a party at some other place.
Things start rolling and the business interest is finally revealed after a few meetings.
Within some days, your assistant gets a call and bravo, you have closed a deal. This gets repeated.
If the above account seems like a very common scenario and makes no sense why such a thing should be highlighted as a blog, here is the deal
THINGS THAT SEEM INTUITIVE OFFLINE or in REAL LIFE in business scenario’s are often missed out in Digital parlance ( So much so for creating differentiators)
WHAT you have experience in the above scenario is formation of a quality SALES FUNNEL through meaningful interaction or communication
You went to the right place, interacted with the right people at the right time. Then, gradually trust was gained, connections became stronger step by step, and finally the same were molded into leads.
Quite in resonance, last week we demonstrated how to develop content at the right platform, communicate at the right time, and target the right people.
This week, let’s dive into the Funneling FRAMEWORK which is another important dimension for content marketing — the step by step process on how to engage the targeted audience, build their interest on your offerings and finally turn them into potential leads.
And, just as we love, here are three stories rightfully funneled for you. (The pun was intended here !)
STEP 1: ENGAGEMENT — CENTRIC AWARENESS: YES MY BRAND EXISTS
The first step is to let the world know that you exist.
And, it is not only about posting a nice looking AD representing the brand. People see hundreds of such Ads every day in some form or the other.
The right content needs to have two specific takeaways.
First, , highlighting what the brand essentially is.
Second, most importantly, attracting the audience to engage with your communications ( read getting stimulated to use the CTA embedded in your communication)
The audience won’t like, comment, or click on your post just because YOU FEEL it’s great.
Here’s an example from a well known personal development firm based in Malaysia. Using the famed MATRIX connotation, the founder floated a Youtube ad that asked people to choose either the RED PILL or the BLUE PILL.
Once one clicked on the RED PILL, a video opened that spoke of an enthralling, mind-bending consciousness program linking back to the program landing page!
YOU JUST HAD TO CLICK THE LINK IN THE WAY IT WAS PORTRAYED
STEP 2: INTENT BUILD-UP: YOU JUST CAN’T THINK ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE
Congrats on successfully taking the first step , some of the social prospects have been successfully directed to the central asset — landing page, website, App etc.
They are one step deeper into the funnel and one step closer to become your value consumer.
The next step is to embed your landing page with content that not only captures the attention but also allows visitors to visualize your offerings at one shot — building interest.
That means streamlined USPs, clear-cut benefits, transparent details, and finally a HOOK!
Yes, a contact form with an additional perk (‘Fill up today for Early Bird Discount’, ‘First 100 entries to get a free E-book’, etc) to transform the website viewers into potential leads.
See the one below for an example. The Achievement and the offering is the click-bait headline, USPs given crystal clear. A user won’t need to grind out extra efforts to understand the benefits.
Let’s give another example. This is a well known brand selling workplace connectivity solutions for their businesses. Notice how they pictorially describe the USPs and keeps minimal content. Also, instead of a contact form, they provide a FREE ONE-TIME USE option.
Businesses could always offer a free seminar, webinar, or dry runs of their products so that clients get a tripwire before taking up paid subscription
The third example is an institution chain looking for franchise. Now this demands a lot of information but notics how their first landing page is simple and to the point. Instead of one landing page, they have created a sequence of two.
STEP 3: THE CONVERSION POINT: WE HAVE A DEAL!
Here’s the reality.
In the initial stages, almost 90–95% of your visitors would bounce off the page instead of clicking on the form.
That’s where the next step (s) comes in.
Instead of a direct form that sells, you can choose to keep a normal newsletter form that would turn your traffic into subscribers. This way, the visitor won’t feel compelled to buy and as a brand you can get a chance to interact.
The subscribers could now be re-marketed via mailers (subscribers) or adverts to increase conversion chances. Since this is a filtered audience that is already engaging with your content, the conversion chances increase much higher than plain selling!
This is what we did for a renowned healthcare brand.
We had molded the landing page subscription or contact form into a self-assessment chart that allowed visitors to click on the frequent issues they have and click subscribe.
On subscription, based on their filled symptoms, we would send specific mailers with personalized content.
Below is for people filling gastro-related symptoms:
Along with the image, there was a CTA that asked people to book an appointment.
Every mailer doesn’t need to have an image. This is wordplay at its best from Neil Patel, the world-famous marketer. Notice how he emphasizes the achievement, establishes authority, and provokes the audience to know the same tactics behind his success with a link.
On the other hand, here are some brilliant re-marketing ads for the visitors or non-subscribers
Notice how they have written direct copies, straight-forward images, click-bait headlines (You don’t need to tell everything since this audience segment already has interest over your offerings, the same need to be just boosted)
The next one introduces the Fear of Missing Out for the interested audience
CONCLUSION: WAY AHEAD
That’s content marketing funnel 101.
Post our two episodes, we know have a comprehensive understanding of the implementation process to generate relevant content and how to use the same to churn an audience segment into leads.
However, there’s more to the process. Especially, at the interest building phase! Customer behaviors and psychologies play the pivot roles in deciding how the engagements are turned into long-lasting intents.
Precisely put, there can be innumerable ‘behavioral steps’ inside the intent phase where marketers have to continuously churn content to warm up users.
Well, those behaviors are called MICRO MOMENTS.
Interested? Stay tuned for the next episode — Discover the art of content development to address the major micro-moments or request for a session with one of our content marketers by dropping a note at mitul@ursdigitally.com
CIAO!
