Five Tips to Improve Sales with Content

By Joe Pulizzi

Are you driving sales with your website content? There are many ways to run a successful business, but website content may not be the first thing people think of when it comes to improving sales techniques.

The type of content I’m referring to is educational content based on marketing objectives. It’s the kind of content that is informative, useful, and entertaining to the user, and ultimately drives the sales of a product or service.

In order to lead the industry in sales, contractors need a successful marketing strategy. You must know what your customers want to hear, and deliver meaningful and relevant content to your customers and prospects.

Creating relevant content for your customers can help build a strong marketing strategy. It can help develop and maintain a true and loyal relationship with your customer. So much so, that you’re the first they call when their unit goes.

When you can deliver good content and really show you’re educating your customers, you build a level of trust. The more communication that you have with a customer, the more likely you’re going to give them exactly what they’re asking for, and the more likely you’ll be to know what they will need in the future.

The customer, in turn, may be more willing than before to give you contact information, such as an e-mail address, so that you can build a database which will help in providing better customer service than before.

Good content, whether it’s a print or electronic newsletter, content on a website, or a post card series can make a significant long-term impact on your sales. Here are five items to focus on to improve content:

1. Dedicate an editorial resource to your marketing program. That way, there is a sole resource to focus on developing content.
2. Promote your website to your customers. Good content will make a website truly valuable to customers.
3. Make content the main focus of your marketing strategy. In your next marketing meeting, think about how the marketing strategy would improve if you focused on creating truly valuable content for your customers and prospects.
4. Experiment with the delivery of your content. The web has made new channels of communication easy and economically efficient. Take a look in to the different methods of web communication such as webcasts, e-books, blogs, and podcasts to see which is the best fit for you.
5. A picture says a thousand words, so make an investment in design. Great content wrapped with low-resolution, second-rate images won’t compel the customer to flip the page or the magazine cover.

In years to come, not only will the industry change, the way it’s marketed will change as well.

Marketing isn’t as easy as it once was, because of all the options we have to choose from. There are hundreds of ways to market your products and services. Your prospects are viewing thousands of marketing messages per day. If yours isn’t worth paying attention to, good luck getting the sale.

Employing a healthy dose of quality content on your website and in your marketing strategy can truly drive your sales today, and in the future.

Joe Pulizzi is Founder and President of Z Squared Media. Z Squared Media helps both marketers and publishers develop multi-platform communications programs that focus on value-based content. He can be reached at [email protected], or by visiting www.zsquaredmedia.com