As more and more business-to-business organizations are embracing the power of social selling, content marketing is fast becoming an important technique to success in the new marketing dynamic of social media marketing. This includes middle market P&C and large group benefits brokers.
Understanding the role content plays in the sales funnel is a key element of designing a winning strategy. Knowing how to use online content to attract a potential customer, make a connection and build a relationship that leads to a deal is critical to your online marketing effectiveness.
In today’s internet-based world of commerce, successful sellers are content creators. Today’s customers recognize the value of information to help them make buying decisions. The best social selling teams and representatives are content creators who know how to deliver the right content to the right customer at the right time in the sales cycle. Research shows that consumers spend a great deal of time online self-educating – searching, reading and researching. Many have made a buying decision before even reaching out to a company representative.
- 90% of customers start their purchasing decision with a search engine. (Forrester) Provide the type of content that will get you found early in their search efforts. LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Search are top B2B search networks. This is the “secret sauce” to beat and differentiate yourself from your competition.
- 46% of buyers consume content weekly. 37% spend time daily to better understand business problems and solutions, reports ITSMA/CFO. Another study found that buyers will consume at least 3-4 content pieces to help them make a purchase decision.
- 45% of buyers require person-to-person contact in the buying process, reports ITSMA/CFO. Customers are looking for expertise and answers to their questions. LinkedIn and Twitter are excellent avenues for demonstrating your expertise through content.
There are three important reasons to use content to build your social selling advantage.
- Unique, relevant content will differentiate your company from your competition. People are tired of being sold to. When you offer useful, distinctive, remarkable content you are signaling to the potential client that you are here to help. People will naturally gravitate to sources of beneficial information, where they will be turned off by relentless inundation to try to get a prospect on the hook.
- Content can address common sales objections. A well-crafted article or blog post can help answer frequent questions or protestations before they even become a full sentence.
- Content marketing will help move prospects through the stages of buying. At each stage, the customer will be hungry for the next stage – so make sure you give it to them! Your bottom line will thank you!
Interested in learning more about you can gain a competitive edge with a content marketing strategy? Contact StartUpSelling and we will be happy to help you explore how content marketing can benefit your company. Call us today at (518) 222-6392 to get started. We’d love to hear from you!
Originally posted by John Scranton on July 28, 2015