Generate leads with content marketing

Content marketing: an all-terrain strategy between traffic and conversion

The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as:

A strategic form of marketing aimed at creating and distributing content of value, relevant and consistent to attract and retain a clearly defined audience, and in the long run, to generate business opportunities.

The most relevant part of this definition is that content marketing begins with attracting or generating traffic for your website, but it does not end there.

Compared to other more technical marketing disciplines such as SEO, the content marketing approach is holistic and has the enormous advantage of not only generating visits for your website, but also converting those visits into leads.

Developing a content strategy allows you to build a relationship between your brand and your ideal customers and give them exactly what they need at each stage of the funnel to convert.

Data on lead generation with content marketing

The content marketing is one of the most efficient to get leads for your business forms. Costing three times less than paid traffic and generating three times more leads, it is not surprising that in recent years, content marketing has displaced PPC techniques as the main source of lead acquisition.

Just developing the most basic form of content marketing, blogging, already has a noticeable impact on lead generation.

Companies that have a blog generate more leads and of higher quality than those that do not. In fact, blogs in which there is a greater commitment and investment in terms of frequency and development of content, can produce up to 9 times more leads than those simpler or with less frequency of publication.

There are many statistics that demonstrate this reality. One of the most relevant comes from a study in which it was found that companies that publish more than 16 blog posts a month get about 4.5 times more leads than those that publish between 0 and 4.

Generate traffic and leads for the different stages of the funnel with content marketing

Having a well-defined content marketing strategy helps to better meet the needs of the different stages of the buyer's journey or “buyer’s journey” that your potential customers go through. By giving them the type of content they need at all times, you get them to move forward in the relationship, or what is the same, down the funnel.

The process has 3 stages: recognition, consideration and purchase and each one of them offers different opportunities to generate qualified traffic and leads in the different stages of your sales funnel.

To attract traffic and take advantage of the different opportunities to convert that traffic into leads and sales, it is necessary to understand how different types of content adapt to the three stages of the journey.

Generate traffic and leads in the recognition stage

At the top of the funnel are all those who have just realized that they have a problem or a need and start looking for information about it. Your business may become the solution to that problem and they end up buying your product or service, but don't get ahead of themselves, at the moment they are just browsing, looking for information.

To attract buyers in this early part, you need to publish informative and pedagogical content that solves their problems. It is not necessary to be commercial or try to sell your product, because they simply have not gone out to buy.

Of course, if they like your content, they could move forward and take a small step in the relationship by subscribing to your blog or newsletter or leaving their contact information in exchange for lead gen content that provides them with enough value, such as an ebook, guide or checklist.

The contents that best adapt to this stage are those that multiply your chances of being discovered but do not go too deeply into your products or services such as blog articles, how-to guides, ebooks, checklists, videos and infographics, content in social networks and content designed for digital media.

In the B2B sector, some more specific or technical types of content such as white papers, reports or webinars could be included at this stage.

Generate leads in the consideration stage

Buyers who are in this stage know they have a problem, they have been learning about it, they have consumed related content —on your website or those of your competitors— and they begin to assess the different options available before making a final decision. This pre-purchase stage is crucial in the lead acquisition process.

At this point you need your future buyers to consume not only blog articles or ebooks on more general topics. You have to create content specifically designed to earn their trust and show them that your product or service is the best solution to their problem.

The key word at this stage is "demonstrate." The types of content that provide evidence or allow you to verify the solutions that your business provides help buyers at this stage to visualize your qualities above those of your competitors and generate credibility.

Among the best content that you could produce to convert your visitors into leads in this part of the funnel are case studies or success stories, demos, webinars and product videos and detailed analyzes of the characteristics of your product or service in relative to your competitors.

Generate leads and sales in the purchase stage

At the bottom of the funnel are those who have decided to buy the product or service you offer, although they have not yet decided whether to buy it from you or one of your competitors. They have gone shopping, but still do not know in which store they will stay to buy.

The goal here is to close. It can be to close the process of conversion to lead or sale, depending on whether your commercial strategy is oriented to online sales or to get leads that are then treated by a commercial team. But all the content that is produced for buyers at this stage has to get them through to the end.

At this stage, the contents that work best are those that get rid of the last brakes that can prevent the purchase or those that encourage action.

For example, testimonials, opinions and FAQs can work very well to dispel specific fears or doubts about your product or service, while landing pages with irresistible offers or promotions move those buyers who only lack the last one to action. nudge, calling for feelings of exclusivity or urgency.

If you want to learn more, contact us at Jeznorthweb today!