If you want your business to grow, it’s no good just putting a sales message in front of your customers. You need to establish a reputation for sincere and informative content that gives the reader something for nothing – it’s the only way to stay relevant and secure future success.
Engaging people at the right time in the sales process is imperative if you want them to continue on their sales journey. Providing a website that is full of informative, interesting, shareable, thought-provoking content is possibly one of the most important strands of your marketing strategy. And putting the right information in front of the right people at the right time is a crucial component of your marketing machine.
Knowing your target audience, knowing your industry, knowing the breaking news within it and then translating, explaining and communicating it all back – these are the areas that will ensure repeat visits to your website and enable business growth, because your customers will start to recognise your voice as one of authority.
Sharing is caring
What you ideally want is content that can be shared on social media – a like here and there is great but you want someone to read your copy and say ‘blimey, that’s interesting/funny/relevant’ or ‘I wonder if Cath is aware of this’ or ‘that’s brilliant – Martin loves a funny cat story’ – if someone read it and felt the need to put it out there for other people to read it, you’ve succeeded in writing shareable content.
Where do I find the inspiration?
Well first and foremost – make sure you suck your own resources dry. So case studies, PR, interviews, videos and beyond. You are sitting on top of a mountain of internal knowledge that will add unique and bespoke value to your website.
Secondly, know your industry. Subscribe to online magazines and newsletters, follow them on social media, know their websites and twitter feed, follow their main players on LinkedIn. Don’t be afraid to look at your competition, used wisely it will spur you on to do even better.
Consistency is everything
It’s no good having short bursts of content and then disappearing into the ether for another two months. Content must be flowing, regular, on trend and pertinent. It must tell the customer that you are there, keeping an eye on the industry, ready to let them know any updates or points of interest – it needs to strike a chord of trust and belief, your customer should want to seek out your opinion.
Our customers range from apprentices to CEO’s – who do we pitch our content at?
In marketing terms, it’s called catering for the lowest common denominator, the person reading your content with the least knowledge and yet is still an influencer in the sales process. To do this without patronising your customers or under-estimating your audience, your home page plays a crucial role – acting as your business satnav, pointing the customer in the direction they need to take so that regardless of their knowledge, you are sending them to the right place with the right content for their needs.
Content doesn’t need to be sugar-coated or dumbed down to spare feelings; it just needs to be easy to find according to the customers requirements.
It’s not all about something for nothing
Of course, content needs to give your customer knowledge without always attaching a sales message – customers grow tired of outwardly salesy content, they begin to distrust your intentions. But as a business, what exactly is in it for you aside from becoming a respected voice and some brand awareness?
Creating shareable content is one thing; creating shareable content that supports specific SEO keywords is next level. Without your customer even knowing, each click has enabled your site to rise through the google search engine.
Where does Sugar come in?
…well there are 642 words above this paragraph and we’ve not mentioned Sugar Marketing once – however within this text you’ll find all our SEO keywords amidst completely unbiased, yet knowledgeable information. That’s worth a share, isn’t it?
