Going Beyond the Sale | Content Marketing

Isn’t it time you thought beyond the sale? Initially, when we think about content, we think about what we are selling and how we want to sell it. We focus on the product or service and our marketing strategy. Often, we overlook who we are selling to. Are we meeting their needs and desires? Are we solving a problem for them? That may in fact be what our product or service does, but when it comes to content, that isn’t enough. We need to ensure that our content is relatable and relevant to our audience.

When we meet a need or desire or we solve a problem for a customer, our product or service sells itself. There is no need to do any extra selling.

Selling is important, but the time and place isn’t in our online content.

This is where we connect and engage with our audience and explain the reasons behind why we do what we do. This is where we share a part of us and our mission and align it with what is meaningful to our customers.

Rather than writing from the point of view of our business, we should write from the point of view of our audience. What keeps them up at night and what gets them going everyday?

If we are connecting with them on a personal level, we are more likely to make an impact and see conversions.

When we are choosing keywords for our content, for example, we look for words that will sell. Words that are catchy, trendy, or impressive.

But are they relatable to our audience?
Do they make sense to our audience?
Are they words that they would naturally use or come across?

The most distant our language is, the more distant our customer is.

Our content should be a conversation and a give and take relationship. If we are constantly bombarding our customers with what we want them to buy, the relationship suffers. This can make our customers skeptical or defensive, and a broken relationship is hard to rebuild.

Take your Content Beyond the Sale

Content is important to take step by step and the initial steps of getting to know your audience and engaging with them is perhaps the most important. This is how you will create customers for life rather than for the moment. Our content should portray that our business knows what the customer wants. It should offer advice or solutions to concerns that they have. It should answer or clarify any questions or objections.

The more approachable and reachable we are, the more likely our audience will engage. Once all of this has been established, we can shift gears to a selling or marketing mindset.

To bring this content strategy full circle, we should continue the relationship and engagement after the sale.

We should be available to offer guidance and support. Once the sale is made, customers don’t appreciate being dropped or forgotten. We should always follow-up with our audience to confirm that we have met their needs or desires or that their problems have been solved.

Maybe some clarification is required or maybe there is more that we can do. The after-sale relationship is equally as important as it determines repeat sales and retention. This will ensure that customers are happy and that our efforts are not wasted.