By Ian Gatt
Marketing, business and cricket enthusiast.
So why are you still doing things this way? Well, it’s because you are conditioned to view qualified leads sourced by your sales team as a positive result, rather than wasted time and resources trying to make one sale. If this was 1980, I’d say congratulations. Better yet I’d put on free drinks as your sales team made inroads getting appointments when big companies were spending huge dollars in advertising to achieve the same result.
However, here we are deep into the age of the internet. More connected than we have ever been. Yet so many industry leaders, niche specialists, founders of innovative companies and even marketing managers allow their expertise to stay trapped in their own heads.
Stop aggressively hunting, set some traps and wait at camp
The ideal scenario is to get qualified leads to approach your business, rather than the other way around. These contacts are invaluable because not only do they have a need your company can potentially service, but also your resources can be better spent servicing those needs to ensure repeat business rather than attracting them in the first place.
It’s less about selling face-to-face and more about assisting a customer at each stage of their buying process.
How can you get these qualified leads to contact you rather than your competitor?
The answer is content marketing - consider the benefits it can provide:
- It costs 62% less than traditional marketing yet generates 3 times as many leads.
- It solves your customer’s problem at the research stage by arming them with information about the options and how your company offers a potential solution.
- Essentially it’s selling to them before they walk in the door.
If you already have a website a few tweaks can lead to direct sales. All for the cost of writing a few articles.
Setting traps takes initial effort
All it really takes is some effort, organisation and a willingness to guide your target market through their buying process.
You will need to sit down and write down some answers to frequently asked customer questions. Are you willing to educate your target market on your industry and what to look out for? This knowledge will better make your buyer feel comfortable and ultimately they will come to you when they are ready to buy.
Your goal should be providing great value to your customer and how your industry insights provides real solutions for your ideal customer.
Sure, some people may only be interested in the information only, but as a long-term strategy a well thought out content marketing campaign will do wonders for not only sales but brand awareness. The more consistent and updated the content the more likely people will stop in and check for an update on new products or information.
What do you think? Are you content with sharing your expertise with one genuine sales prospect meeting per day, or do you agree there's a better way?
Until the next day's play,
Ian
Thank you for reading my blog! If you like this, I’d love a comment or perhaps you can tell me about your experience using content marketing to build your sphere of influence? Of course, also please feel free to share with your communities.
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