A couple of months ago, I had the pleasure of attending a powerful presentation on content marketing by Marcus Sheridan, CEO of The Sales Lion. His main message: Your customers and potential customers have thousands of questions about your product and industry. Answer those questions through your website and blog!
Here are some key takeaways from Marcus’ presentation.
What Makes Us Fall in Love with a Website?
- Good information
- Easy to find information
- Good aesthetic
- Fresh content
- Valuable information that saves time and money
It’s All About the Content
- Good content keeps visitors on your website because they are getting the information they want and need.
- Search engines love good, fresh, authentic content. Websites that get updated encourage the search engines to keep coming back.
- Quality content that gets clicked, shared and linked gives you better search engine rankings.
- Gone are the days of just talking about ourselves and our companies. Prospects and clients expect and demand rich, quality content that will answer their questions. For free, of course.
Answer the Questions People Type into Google
According to Marcus, there is usually a set of questions prospects always ask. These questions are often about price, scope, timeline, quality, comparisons with other products, etc. So why not answer those questions on your website so that prospective customers/members/partners can be educated and the search engines can get busy referring traffic to your site? Some examples:
- A florist might blog about what types of floral arrangements are appropriate for a wedding/funeral/baby shower/etc., how much one should expect to pay for flowers at a wedding/funeral/baby shower/etc., and how much in advance one needs to place an order.
- A pediatric orthodontist might have content about when a child needs braces, how much it generally costs, how long treatment takes, the different types of braces, talking to your child about braces, etc.
If You Invest in Content Marketing
According to Marcus, investing in content marketing has these benefits:
- Your company brand and voice will grow
- Sales cycles will go down
- Your prospects will solicit fewer competitive bids
- You will have stronger relationships with clients
- Certain individuals and talents within your staff will rise and shine
- Your team will grow stronger through the process of developing such great content
Marcus says “Content is the greatest sales and trust-building tool in the world. Period. End of story.” I have to agree.
