Using Content to Increase Sales throughout the Buyer’s Journey
Whether you are selling products or services, chances are you want the content you create to have a positive impact on your sales. With 78% of video marketers saying video has directly helped increase sales, it’s clear that the right content used at the right time can help your bottom line.
In this blog we are going to look into the ways you can use content to positively impact the sales in your business throughout the Buyer’s Journey.
Using Content to Warm up Leads
When we think about using content to increase sales we generally go straight to the end of the process when leads are at the Decision Stage of the process. However, in order to get leads to the point where they will buy, we must make sure that we also consider the Awareness and Consideration stages.
Making sure you have enough content for both of these stages of the Buyer’s Journey will help to ensure you have warm leads for your sales team to close on at the Decision Stage.
Awareness Stage
During the Awareness Stage of the Buyer’s Journey, a potential customer is becoming aware that they have a problem but are not yet aware of any potential solutions or companies that offer solutions.
Awareness Stage content should be informational resources to more clearly understand, frame, and give a name to their problem. Often this content might include lead magnets such as whitepapers, eBooks, analyst and research reports or educational content, such as videos, podcasts, blogs and articles.
Educational content can be a great way of creating Awareness Stage content. Talk to your customers about the pain points they were experiencing before they discovered your product or service and then look to create a short podcast, blog or video based on each pain point.
The key here is to be helpful to potential customers by assisting them to recognise their issue and give a name to it, as well as some quick and easy wins!
A study by Pew Research found that 51% of people turn to YouTube looking to learn and videos that teach how to do things are among the most viewed categories on YouTube. Equally, podcast listeners love learning from podcasts, both of these options allow people to learn for free, at their own pace, and in many cases via mobile and on the go!
If you think educational videos might work for you, longer videos such as 6-8 minutes work well on YouTube and shorter videos under 60 seconds can work well on other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
If you are creating longer educational videos for the beginning of the Buyer’s Journey, we’d advise creating a blog for your website. Here you can embed your YouTube video and add a written transcription of the audio, which can positively impact your site’s SEO.
For example, in our Deep Dive video we delved into the reasons why some content flops no matter how beautifully it has been produced. This helps to engage with those who might have tried video content but struggled with positive results. As discussed above, we then created a blog around this video including a written transcription, as well as using CTAs.
If videos aren’t for you, then why not write an educational blog? Unlike Lead Magnets which are typically gated content, a blog (including one with a video) can be open to everyone to engage with and that includes search engine robots or spiders. Making sure you hit specific keywords and phrases in your blogs and videos, alongside publishing this type of high-quality content regularly, can help positively improve your site’s SEO.
For example, we created an educational blog for those interested in creating video content and who might be considering studio hire. As we understand studio hire is costly and might not be the right solution for every scenario we wrote a Focus on Studio Production blog. In which we looked at this form of video production and the pros and cons. This blog made up part of a series comparing Studio, Documentary, Onsite and Lifestyle video production to help educate on when each style of production might be the best fit.
Podcasts can also be a great way to share educational content, with the added benefit that listeners can engage whilst completing other activities, such as commuting, exercising, cleaning or cooking. The Edison Research found that over 50% of US podcast listeners listen whilst they complete chores. In our award-winning podcast Success Is In The Mind, we interview entrepreneurs and business leaders such as Miles Dunkley from SLG so they can share what they’ve learnt with other budding business leaders.
The main aim with any Awareness Stage content is to be helpful and to educate your potential customer on their issue. This can include helping them to give a name to their pain point, which will assist them to move onto the Consideration Stage.
Consideration Stage
Once a potential customer has recognised their specific problem and has been able to put a name to it, they begin researching and understanding how they might alleviate this issue.
Consideration Stage content should help potential customers to understand what solutions there are, which could help alleviate their pain point and narrow down which of these might be the best option based on their specific needs. It should also show how your products and services specifically answer the problems that your customers have.
This might include videos or articles around specific problems and how your product or service answers this or whitepapers that delve into specific pain points. In fact, 95% of video marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service.
For example, in this video for White & Guard, they touch upon the issues around house touring during the pandemic and how their 360-degree camera can help to set up fully virtual tours. This keeps house sellers, buyers and estate agents safe, whilst still providing a great service to all.
Whereas in this app showcase video for MoveMee the video concentrates on the pain points of having to queue for car hire, deal with high airport hire prices and hunting for your hire vehicle once booked and how their new app can alleviate these issues.
Both of these examples start with the problem that the potential customer has and how the product or service can answer this. No matter what product or service you are selling, the key with your Consideration Stage content is to connect the pain points your customers face with the solutions you have on offer.
Decision Stage
Now potential customers understand their problem and some of the possible solutions, they start to look at specific businesses who have products and services that might help. They look at the cost of any solutions and compare their options before making a decision.
Decision Stage content should help show why your products and services might be better than those of your competitors, as well as giving information about why buying from your company might be the best option.
This content might include free trials, demos, case studies, product or service comparisons and videos that specifically relate to your product or service. However, Decision Stage content can also include specifics about your company in general that might influence a buyer’s decision, such as how you approach sustainability or your company’s core values.
Animated or filmed video content that relates to products and/or services, such as explainers and demos, can help potential customers to understand the benefits before purchasing, and be a more entertaining way of sharing the key features. With two-thirds of people (66%) saying they’d prefer to watch a short video when asked how they’d most like to learn about a product or service, it’s clear that not only do videos work when it comes to selling products and services, but that they are preferred by customers too.
In this 2D animated explainer from Residential People, we were able to show how estate agents can use their platform to drive traffic to their site, increase their online presence and win more sales.
Whereas, in this video case studio we look at how we were able to help ECMA and ProCarton run their annual awards show virtually during the pandemic. One of the biggest challenges during this event was being able to stream the live reactions and on the spot interviews from the award winners - something other awards show organisers were also struggling with.
Ultimately with Decision Stage content it’s about showing a fully rounded view of your company, both in terms of how your products and services might be best for potential customers but also why you as a company are also the best fit.
Conclusion
As you can now see, content is crucial throughout the Buyer’s Journey as it can help us to lead potential customers from being aware of a pain point, to buying a product or service from you that can help to solve this problem.
Do you need help with your content strategy? Our team of strategists are more than happy to help! Click on the link below to arrange a free 1-2-1 with one of our expert team.
