Need to invigorate your business-to-business marketing strategy? Looking for an effective way to support your sales staff? Do you question whether your current lead-generation activities are truly effective? If you answered “Yes!” to any of these questions, you may want to consider using a content-based marketing strategy.
What is content-based marketing?
A content-based marketing strategy uses high-value information to attract potential prospects, retain existing customers and drive sales over time.
Is content-based marketing effective?
White papers are most commonly used as a persuasive tool in business-to-business marketing and political positioning. Are they effective? Yes! Content-based marketing techniques, including white papers and webinars, are among the most effective lead generation techniques in use today.
A 2012 study conducted by MarketingSherpa showed that when organizations employ content-based marketing strategies, they encourage a higher rate of sales conversion and improve the return-on-investment for lead generation activities. Which content-based marketing tools deliver the best return? White papers and webinars each offer exceptional lead-generation and sales conversion capabilities.
A content-based marketing strategy that combines multiple channels to deliver the same message can produce superior results. Paired together, white papers and webinars that support the organization’s website content create an extraordinarily cost-effective path to generating highly qualified leads and a higher sales conversion rate.
White papers have a natural appeal to potential buyers who are trying to define their needs, or searching for turnkey solutions to their most frustrating challenges. These readers are hungry for reliable information about how existing products and services can modernize their business processes, reduce their costs, improve their operational efficiency, and enhance their ability to deliver services to their own customers.
Webinars deliver information conveniently and without the need to travel to seminars, business meetings or trade shows. They’re available whenever and wherever the potential customer is ready to hear the message, and they can support and extend the information that’s available on the organization’s website and in other content-based marketing materials.
When confronted with a range of options, readers want to know how to determine that one company’s solutions better address their needs or provide better value than a competitor’s solutions. There are few better ways to develop a sales lead than by putting this information directly into the hands of a potential new customer.
A content-based marketing strategy isn’t just for large companies. Small businesses, local businesses and start-ups can all effectively employ content-based marketing to improve sales lead quality and sales conversion rates. If you’re new to the world of content-based marketing, and would like more information about how you can use this strategy to energize your lead-generation and sales conversion processes, please contact me or call me at (734) 961-0408.