Tweet This
Since content marketing is still a relatively new methodology – at least when we’re talking about digital marketing – it should come as no surprise that one of the most common searches associated with it is “content marketing strategy”. Just look at this suggested search provided by Google.
It’s tough for anyone started off with a content marketing strategy to really know where to begin. Similar to folks looking at SEO and wondering if they should start with onsite, link building, or one of the other dozen or so tactics, marketers can be left scratching their heads on exactly where to start with their content marketing. This is why I see so many starts and stops with companies that try and deploy a content campaign. They often dabble with blogging or long-form content, but the campaign as a whole rarely takes shape.
But if you strip away all of the “how to” articles and “foolproof systems”, you’ll see that content marketing is actually an easy concept to embrace if you look at it from a funnel point of view.
Diagram Your Funnel
Before you outline a single blog or conceptualize a video, you’ll want to start by grabbing a whiteboard, sitting down with your team, and drawing a simple funnel. Then, segment that funnel into three separate sections: awareness, convincing, converting. Here's an example of one that my agency uses:
These sections have different taxonomies depending on who you’re talking to, but they all follow the general rule that the top of the funnel is driving awareness of your brand, pain point, and value proposition. The middle of the funnel is where you convince your customers that your solutions is what they need. And finally the bottom of the funnel is where you close the deal.
Once you have the funnel, you can now begin to fill it up with content. You see, the funnel is the machine that will drive your marketing initiative. The content is the fuel that keeps that machine running.
Top Of The Funnel
If you’re looking to drive awareness, then you need to know who you’re targeting. Thus, the next step after labeling your funnel is to develop a buyer persona. This is done by asking a series of questions that result in a profile of who your target audience is, what they engage with, and what their motivations are.
Once you know that, you can effectively target them and know what topics will engage with them.
To drive top of funnel traffic, think of the content as your first touch with the customer. It shouldn’t be heavy-handed, otherwise you’ll scare them off with your sales pitch. So don’t write a blog about why your company is the greatest at doing "X".
Additionally, it can’t be too light of a touch. Otherwise it won’t fulfill the task of actually creating the desired awareness. So, if you’re an auto mechanic shop, don’t write an article entitled, “which car color fits your personality”. Yes, you might drive traffic to your site, and you can justify it by thinking that because they’re reading an article about cars, then they must own a car and therefore they are in our target audience. That’s way too broad of a strategy and doesn’t really qualify your audience.
Instead, you should research the problems that your customers are trying to solve, and write content that will help them solve this. For instance, if we’re that same mechanic, you’d instead want to write blog posts entitled, “the top reasons your engine is making a knocking sound” or “the main causes of a check engine light”. These are topics that identify your audience as not only car owners, but also car owners that might be having car trouble.
And don’t be afraid of giving them solutions in your content. Even if they understand what the problem is and how to fix it, odds are the solution will be complicated enough that they’ll want to use your services anyways. This is why I tell our clients to “show the customer how the sausage is made”. Because once they see all of the work that goes into it, they’ll understand your value even more and want to use your solution to save them the hassle.
The following are ideal pieces of top-of-funnel content:
Infographics
Quizzes
Surveys
Blogs
Videos
Podcasts
Middle Of The Funnel
Now that you’ve successfully attracted your target customer to your site, you’ll want to work on convincing them that you’re the best solution for their pain point. To do this, you need to address a few basic fears that all customers have.
The first fear is that everyone is afraid of being the first to try something. It’s human nature. We’re hesitant to attempt the unknown because a few thousand years ago, our ancestors who did venture into the unknown usually ended up as something’s dinner. So, it’s a biological function. Thus, you shouldn’t fight it, you should embrace it.
To let them know they’re not the first ones to try your solution, you need to provide the customers with testimonials, case studies, and use cases. These three pieces of content tell them that it’s okay to give you a shot. After all, someone else already did and it turned out great for them!
And if you’re so brand new that you don’t have any customers to reference for these pieces of content, don’t fabricate them! That’s a big no-no. Instead, you might have to give your first few customers a massive discount (read: free) in order to convince them to give your solution a chance. But make sure that they agree to let you use their story to create a case study and testimonial.
The next thing you’ll need to overcome is the customer’s fear of being betrayed. Again, I’m sure this hearkens back to some evolutionary trait that saved us from being eaten by some big hairy creature back in the day, but today it’s simply a reason why your customer won’t buy your new pair of shoes.
This is where you’ll want to deploy trust factors and social proof. Trust factors and social proof are your way of showing customers that you are trustworthy and that their money is safe with you. The aforementioned case studies and testimonials work well here, but you can also use a list of your trusted customers. This is why companies put the brands of their biggest customers on their websites and marketing materials. After all, if Coke trusts them then shouldn’t you?
Here is a list of some forms of content that do the job of convincing your customers to use your solution:
Webinars
Case Studies
Use Cases
“Trusted By” lists
Data Sheets
Whitepapers
eBooks
Bottom Of The Funnel
Alright, we’re in the bottom of the ninth inning, your customers know who you are, know what you offer, and they are pretty sure you’re not going to take their money and run. Now you need to seal the deal. This is where you deploy your content that will convert them from a prospect into a customer.
To do this, you have to make your customers visualize what it’s like to work with you or to use your product. A great way of doing this is showing them the effects of your solution. You can do this with an ROI calculator, free trial, or a personalized walk-through.
The goal here is to make your value proposition tangible. Once the prospect can personalize your solution, they’ll be more likely to plop down the cash.
This is why car dealerships allow customers to test drive a car overnight. They want them to understand what it would be like to drive home with a new car every day. Similarly, software companies will often give free trials of their software away. That way customers can start to use the solution and start solving their problems right away.
The key to your bottom of funnel is the emotional connection you need to develop for your customer. You want them to become emotionally attached to your solution. Because, as we’ve been discussing, there was probably some evolutionary reason that becoming emotionally attached saved our ancestors from the things that lurked in the dark.
But this is where you also have to be very careful. If you’re product or service is too complicated for the customer to grasp on their own, then you’ll want to give them a guided experience. This is why some companies have their sales people give demos or why real estate agents give a personalized walk-through of properties. You need to make sure the customer really understands all the ins and outs of your solution and why it’s such a great offer.
The types of content that work well at converting your customers are:
Video walk-through
Free trials
ROI calculators
Assessments
Demos
Test Drives
“Satisfaction or your money back” guarantees
Don’t Complicate Things
And that’s how you create a content marketing campaign. You strip away all of the noise and focus on who your customer is, the journey they need to take, and the content you’ll need to facilitate that journey.
What I didn’t mention in this article was the deployment of the content. I’ll cover that in a later article, but as preview, emails make for excellent delivery systems. Also, social media promotion will be critical at each stage of the funnel. And a robust remarketing/retargeting campaign will make everything you do more effective.
