HOW TO GET MORE CUSTOMERS ONLINE IN A SIMPLE AND EASY WAY

Photo Credit: Dilate Digital 

You may be reading this article because you are in a dire situation. The dreams of growing and sustaining a business are fizzling out. You are in crisis! Many of your problems lie in your inability to attract and generate quality and constant flow of customers. Customers are the lifeblood of every business. The more you have the merrier.

The way of doing business in Ghana is changing. Technology is changing the way Ghanaian businesses market and promote products and services.

Once upon a time, a well-placed billboard at the most congested road or traffic hotspot in Accra or Kumasi was enough to keep you top of mind. But today’s consumers are well sophisticated and their eyes are usually on a touch screen seeking news and not noise.

As every day passes, more and more traditional methods are becoming obsolete. For instance, many consider sharing leaflets and brochures annoying. When overdone, leaflets and brochures can lead to disgruntled prospects who form a negative outlook of your brand.

As a marketer or captain of a business, you need to unlock the potential of technology and the Internet to give your consumers what they want.

To improve your customer lists, you need to re-evaluate the tactics you’ve taken. And also reconsider the tools at your disposal to enhance and improve the process.

You might have tried print, billboards and the old leaflet sharing campaigns on the streets or even radio. Even though they might have done well, you know you can do better.

In this article, I will take you through some of the easiest and yet simple ways you can get customers using content marketing.

What is Content Marketing?

It is a marketing approach used to create and distribute valuable and relevant content to attract a defined audience and get them to act.

Bloggers, consultants and agencies have used the adage "content is king". For good reason, too. According to research, 82% of B2B senior executives report that content is a significant driver in their buying decision.

The way you attract and get customers must include content development and publications. This help to stay competitive and relevant to your audiences.

Content marketing as a form acquiring new customers works to capture your target audience and inculcate your brand and expertise in the minds of potential customers. By diving deeper and providing more thorough ideas and topics that will envelop readers and make the case for your brand reigning supreme

HOW TO BUILD A CONTENT STRATEGY

As a company, you must decide your own path to a successful content marketing strategy. I recommend using the following as a good place to start:

1. Define Your Readers/Consumers

Start with your ideal customers or current customers. An ideal customer is a fictitious representation of people who buy from you or you wish to target. You’ll find coming up with content ideas easier when you put a face to your reader or consumer. Example; if you provide counselling services. Then some of your contents will look at attracting struggling marriage couples, parenting among others.

2. Identify the Pain Points

Your content must provide a solution to your persona's or reader's problem(s). To make it valuable and worth exchanging contact information. These pain points could vary from lack of brand awareness and education to common customer issues.

3. Create a Content Team

This is often undermined. The content team is critical to your strategy and requires much consideration and resources. Ensure you have a talented team of writers and designers (and a developer or two). If you can’t find professional agencies or a freelancer to get you the quality you need. Give them the direction and what you want to address and you are good to go.

4. Plan Your Editorial Calendar

What topics will you cover? The sales cycle is seasonal. So planning content by month or quarter can give your creativity guidance. Furthermore, take into account the frequency of your publications. If you’re starting, don’t over-commit. Pace yourself and manage expectations. Weekly publications are reasonable for blog posts. While white papers may take a month to complete.

CONTENT TYPES TO CONSIDER

Different contexts and audiences need different content mediums. Different content appeals to different users. It's important you keep your editorial calendar fresh at all times. Your content can include blogs, social media posts, Infographics, videos.

LANDING PAGES

A landing page is a special page set up to allow your audience opt-in to your contents. In other words, it helps you to convert website visitors into prospects.

At its simplest, a landing page should address a pain point for your prospects. It should provide a value proposition, and offer a simple solution. A solution that users can access by connecting with your business (e.g., a form submission or phone number).

To create a conversion-focused landing, it must focus on one call to action. One action a user should take that aligns with your strategic goals. It should have compelling images, fonts, subheadings, bullet points, and bold/italics to communicate the message to visitors.

Too many choices are distracting and can overwhelm users with “analysis paralysis”. A term that describes when users freeze up when faced with too many choices and not taking action as a result.

Your one action might include:

• Download a piece of content 
• Register for an event 
• Enter a contest 
• Request information 
• Demo a product 
• Sign up for a free trial 

BLOGGING

For you to grow your customer list your content marketing strategy will need many channels for attracting new prospects. Your content marketing tactics should not be without a blog. Besides its ability to drive prospects, when done right, a blog presence can increase your website organic traffic, brand reputation, and thought leadership.

WHAT TO BLOG

An engaging blog is crucial to attracting new visitors and driving new prospects into your funnel.

When considering your corporate blog, the content you create depends on the goals of your business and the audience you wish to target. Your blog could focus on customer service, thought leadership, industry news and trends, and much more. The content you publish to your blog should focus more on engagement rather than conversions.

Blog contents should be at the top of your marketing funnel. Attracting and driving the widest viewership possible within your targeted audience. So, keep content high-level and short to keep your users engaged and coming back. You should gate your in-depth and lengthier content behind landing pages.

When you publish a hefty white paper or ebook, you can write secondary blog posts around the topic ideas addressed in the larger publication to continue the story.

CALLS TO ACTION

To use your blog post to attract prospects to your business, use strategic calls to action (CTAs). In everything you post, encourage your readers to take that next action (especially if it involves contacting your business).

TOOLS & MANAGEMENT

Managing your content promotion on social networks can be time-consuming. There are some tools available to help you keep up and stay ahead.

• Buffer 
• Hootsuite 
• TweetDeck 
• Klout 
• SpredFast 
• HubSpot 
• Sprout Social 

Scheduling content should never be a “one and done” tactic. Don’t do yourself a disservice by underutilizing social media promotions. Because all network feeds to distribute content based on time decay (older posts are at some point removed or buried by the more recent news), users visiting the sites at different times of the day/week won’t see your content the first, second, or even third time you post.

SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT PROMOTION SCHEDULE

You may spend weeks or months on your content. So, your promotional tactics should involve the same level of dedication. From the time of your content’s publication, begin scheduling promotional posts on each of your social networks. This helps to maximize your visibility and reach.

Each social network comes with its own personality, and attitudes about content promotion. So make sure you understand your audience on each network before launching a big campaign.

Here’s a list of tips for promoting your content. Starting from the basic, must-dos to the advanced maybe-dos:

Use industry-related hashtags on Twitter, Facebook, Google+.To expand your reach and find users already engaged with your topic. Find popular hashtags using https://twitter.com/ search-advanced.

Join online Social media groups. LinkedIn Groups in your industry. Though the groups are smaller sections of LinkedIn, the users tend to be more engaged with content or messages you wish to promote. You can self-promote within groups. But you should contribute a generous part of thought leadership and helpful comments to avoid turning members off.

Target Facebook fans for higher conversion rates. When you create a post on your Facebook Page, you can target the audience by some factors. Such as age, gender, location, etc. Segment based on your content to gain more quality responses

Post on Pinterest. Though not right for every business, Pinterest’s visual-focused network can be a haven for content promotion. Infographics and videos perform particularly well there.

Create video trailers to promote your contents. This last tip isn’t as executable as the rest especially if you’re strapped for time and resources. But a 10-second video trailer promoting your content may increase visibility and awareness. Instagram is a good place to start for short-form content like this. But recently even Facebook has seen high engagement with videos.

SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING

SEO tactics, blogs, and social media work well to drive new web visitors to your content. But to take it to another level of acquiring customers, consider social media advertising.

You might be familiar with paid search tactics, such as Google Ads and Bing Ads. Social media advertising is the same in both form and function:

You can choose either the cost-per-click (CPC) or pay-per-impression model (CPM). You can develop ads sets inside campaigns with different ad images and copy. You can target by Geo-location, by interest, and often by keyword.  You can set budgets of $100 a day and start seeing immediate results. 

Retargeting

You put a lot of work in developing content and attracting new visitors. But sometimes the visitor doesn’t opt-in and take the action you want. Retargeting allows you to direct new messaging to past visitors who failed to take the desired action the first time around.

The brilliance of retargeting is that you get a second chance to make a first impression. When a visitor doesn’t take the action you want, don’t assume the prospect is not qualified. Prospects can fail to opt-in for reasons surrounding your content. It didn't spark interest or it's too long. It could be due to some circumstances outside of your control (bad timing, poor web connection, etc.). You can try again to convert the prospect through retargeting.

Be data driven, optimize through Analytics

One of the more fun and challenging parts of content marketing is improving and enhancing your tactics’ performance through analytics. Like retargeting mentioned earlier, optimizing your campaign gives you a second (and third and so on) chance to hone your messaging.

TEST & IMPROVE

Some tools are available to test the performance of your content based on thousands of different metrics. The possibilities are endless. The simplest way to optimize through analytics is by setting up A/B or multi-variant tests. Start with what you wish to prove (or disprove). Then test it by comparing your original content versus your altered content. And then iterate and improve your content based on the results.

Common A/B Testing

• Headlines 
• Images 
• Form length and/or position 
• Landing page copy 
• Call-to-action position, design, and/or copy 
• Ads 
• Personalization 

Your Turn,

Have you tried using content marketing as a strategy for attracting and growing your funnel? What have you tried in the past, what worked and what didn’t? Share your insight with others in the comment session.