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Content marketing if done right can be one of the best and easily affordable marketing strategies anyone can use to drive sales.
This can be by far the most affordable and yet very effective strategy to promote a business.
Even in this day and age where paid advertising has become the most popular method of growing businesses.
Paid advertising in itself is a cool way to ramp up sales and media reach within a short period of time.
However, in the long run if you intend to continue to promote your business and without having an outrageous advertising overhead, then you really need to understand content marketing.
Using content marketing to drive sales can happen in different ways and at different stages of the sales funnel.
Let’s go through the processes one at time
Pick a medium for your content marketing
You need to pick a medium through which you are going to deliver your content with the hope that you will drive your sales.
Picking a medium is a very critical stage that you have to consider properly before diving in, because it can easily determine how long you will last.
More so, there are certain questions you have to consider before picking a medium for your content and this includes;
Where are your potential customers?
Knowing where your potential customers are likely situated will help you get discovered easily.
Take for example; if you are into photography, the easiest place will most likely be on Instagram, and if it’s cinematography or videography you might want to consider YouTube.
There are many other platforms also that can achieve the same or similar results, so don’t just focus on only the platforms I have mentioned.
But this will give you a sense of direction as to where you are most likely to get traction quickly based on the type of audience these platforms have.
On a more general note in this era that we are in, you have to try to be everywhere over time but not immediately when you start.
How do you communicate?
Understanding how you communicate comfortably will be very critical to how you perform on this Platform.
For example, you have to know if talking comes easy to you or if writing does.
If you do well at talking about the information you want to pass across, you will likely find it hard to sit down and write an article about the same thing so you might want t consider Podcasting.
Also read: What is Google Podcast?
You may end up trashing and writing one single article ten times and still not feel confident posting it.
Vis a vis if writing comes easy for you than making videos, you may find out that you will have more than 7 re-takes for your video and still not upload it.
It will actually become an excuse of ‘I want it to be perfect’ while in reality it’s about not being efficiently natural in that skill set
However, in most cases if you practice enough you might get better at whatever skills you are lacking, but it may take a while.
What resources are available to you?
The availability of resources can in a huge way shape your action when it comes to putting out content.
Now, I am not talking about big businesses that may already have a lot of resources, but rather of someone who might just be starting off.
Take for example to be able to shoot and edit great video content, you need to have a great camera, editing software and the skills (that’s if you are not outsourcing it to someone on Fiverr).
The mentioned items don’t come cheap, and so if you are in such a situation and you really want to start off, you may have to consider a different method other than making videos, writing a blog could come handy.
Identify a pain point
To be discovered and engaged with by your target audience, you need to have what they need.
For you to be appreciated by those who you are looking for, you need to find something that they need and make it available through your content.
Identifying a pain point is key to the process on how to use content marketing to drive sales.
To identify a pain point means to think or search for what areas in which your prospects may be looking for help either in their business or personal life.
Proffer solutions
When you are able to identify or presumably identify the areas that your target audience may be looking for help, then should you begin to make contents.
This is a smart strategy that will save you tons of money and energy, because it will not be a case of random expectations.
When you know your target audience and understand their pains, it will become almost very easy for you to create relevant contents that will address those challenges.
Providing relevant value is important, because that’s how your audiences are going to find your content useful and engage with you.
Over the course of time as your audiences consume your contents and they feel uplifted or helped by it, they will develop trust with you and your brand.
Use call to action
As you create a connection with your content it is important that you know when and how to drive your audience through the sales funnel.
Using call to action is a very powerful way to get the followers or fans to enter the funnel.
Now, depending on the medium through which you are delivering your content, there are different methods that may be effective.
Using a website or a blog page in this case will make it easy for you to collect emails.
You simply have to ask your readers to sign up for more information to be delivered to them.
The sign-up box will be linked to your preferred email subscription service like GetResponse, Mail Chimp, AWeber, Yandex and the likes.
Use of opt-in forms or lead magnets also makes it very easy because you will be offering the reader a piece of information which could be an ebook or simply a checklist, but they have to put in their email to get it.
Also read: 9 Steps How to Write an eBook That Will Sell
This method is very effective as it will help you to build an email list of relevant targets quickly.
If you make use of Platforms like YouTube, you may have to get a landing page and then attach the link in your description.
For other social media platforms, you could attach your landing page link in your bio.
Also read: What is a landing Page? and how to create one
Drip email
Making use of a drip email can be very helpful in processes like this.
Sending out emails on a regular predetermined frequency is a continuation of the content marketing drive.
You need to send out information that is relevant to the ones that cause the reader or followers to sign up in the first place.
This system of email is scheduled so that it is sent out automatically and you don’t have to do it manually every time.
Make an offer
To get the sale you have to make an offer.
In some cases when people engage with your content, that will just be enough for them to make a buying decision.
However, in many cases you still have to continue to gently guide them until they get to the checkout button and make a buy.
So, sending out relevant and useful emails may still not get some people to act.
You have to ask for the sale! And you do this by having a call-to-action in your emails.
When you send out your email, either within the content or at the end of the information you have to provide a link where you will ask them to take action by clicking on it.
Buy now, place your order, order, I want it, sign me up, these are some of the action words that you should incorporate to encourage them to act.
This process can be as long or short as you want it to be and also depending on the response of the prospect.
If someone is enthusiastic, then you should sell them fast. On the other hand, if they seem reluctant then guide them further along before trying to sell them.
Finally, content marketing will always work if you have the relevant contents that solves problems and it’s targeted to the right audience.
Else, it will be a case of wasted energy and resources. So please let the strategies on how to use content marketing to drive sales guide you as you try to make money online.
Good Luck.
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