The Biggest Thing Content Marketers Forget About Sales and Conversions

If you are in the business of producing blog posts, videos, and social content to improve your bottom line, then you’re probably used to watching these key metrics: visits, conversions, and sales.

It’s always smart to know which way the numbers are pointing, of course, but it’s also easy to get so focused on these details that you miss the bigger picture. Specifically, looking solely at figures related to sales and conversions can inadvertently cause them to decrease.

I’ll let that sink in for a second…

That’s because the sale you’re measuring is really the result of lots of smaller conversions that have already taken place, and in a certain order. To help you see how this plays out, and why it matters so much for your content marketing campaigns, let’s look at the chain of events that has to happen before you win a new sales opportunity…

First, You Have to Sell Someone on Visiting Your Website

Simply putting your content online isn’t enough. That’s especially true today, when more marketers than ever are competing for the attention of the audience you want to attract.

Knowing that, every piece of content you put online needs to be properly optimized for search engines, social media, and content consumers. Otherwise, you don’t really stand a chance of generating any conversions because no one will see your marketing messages in the first place.

Next, You Must Sell Them on Viewing Your Content

Your customers don’t look at every blog or social post that’s put in front of them, just as you don’t have time to read everything that comes your way.

We all make quick decisions about where to devote our attention that are based on instant impressions. Your titles, headings, and images must make viewers feel as if they can’t afford to ignore them. In other words, your first sale is in convincing people that your content is worth their time to take a look at.

Then, You Need to Sell Them on Your Credibility

Many marketers assume an increase in traffic will lead to a bump in conversions, but that’s not necessarily the case. If you don’t have credibility as a marketer, no one will take you seriously.

When it comes to establishing yourself as a reliable source of ideas and solutions, it’s hard to beat stats, references, expert testimonials, and customer reviews. Readers and viewers want to trust you before they will contact you.

And Finally, You Have to Sell a Reader or Viewer on the Next Step

With all of these other “conversions” out of the way, you still have to convince a prospect that it’s in their best interests to take the next step. That usually means offering them something of real value.

Whatever call to action you put in place to close your article or video, make sure it’s compelling enough to drive viewers to action. Otherwise, all the effort you put into creating your content, making it visible, and establishing your credibility will have been wasted.

You can generate conversions from your content marketing campaigns, but only if you are able to convince buyers to follow a series of steps like this beforehand. When any of the points I’ve outlined are missed, you lose the opportunity to turn a searcher into a customer.

How confident are you that your posts and articles are doing the job?

Source: B2C