Everything is changing rapidly. Buyers want to control the buying process. They are drawn to companies that provide extremely valuable and highly informational content.
Content like this is designed to establish a customer relationship and is an integral part of the marketing in many organizations. Although everyone talks about “Content Marketing”, it can sometimes be a complete mystery how to implement a profitable content marketing strategy. Start with these three things.
Define a Target Market for New Sales Leads
Not a word of content should be created until you are very clear about who you want to attract into your sales lead funnel. Look around the internet and you will find a plethora of content that is unfocused and trivial for marketing purposes. Clearly, creating content without a targeted goal is worthless.
The best place to start planning good content is within your online CRM software. Rate your current clients into A, B and C categories. Those in the A category are clients that bring you a lot of business…but they are more. These are the clients your employees love to serve. They pay their invoices in a timely fashion and tell others how much they like your product/service. Those are the clients you want to duplicate.
Examine the customer relationship with these A category clients. Start with these questions:
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- What do they have in common?
- What pleases them about your company?
- What have they learned from using your product/service that has helped them become an A client?
As you answer these questions, you will begin to develop the message you want your content to deliver. Use this information to create an editorial calendar for your lead generation efforts using content.
Categories B and C may be new, unproven clients. They also may be sales leads that never developed into a steady stream of revenue. You may want to use your CRM software to set up lead nurturing processes to draw them closer to your company.
Deepen the Customer Relationship with Current Clients
Most companies are transactional in their communication with current clients. In the busy-ness of business, we don’t take the time to show appreciation or send your best clients information that would be beneficial to them.
When you use your CRM software to keep records of your client preferences, you can send them a brief email that seems very personal and considerate…even if you are using marketing automation to deliver the message. Something as simple as a special letter on the anniversary of them coming to your company can strengthen the customer relationship. Sending an article about their hobby is even better.
The truth is, our clients want to do business with someone they feel knows them. It is fundamental to our human nature. If your company sees customers in terms of the transaction only, loyalty cannot thrive. There are too many competitors out there anxious to get a shot at their business.
It reminds me of something basketball star Michael Jordon said, “The minute you get away from fundamentals — whether it’s proper technique, work ethic, or mental preparation — the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, your job, whatever you’re doing.” It’s time to use our marketing automation to get back to the fundamentals of the customer relationship.
Measure and Adjust Content Delivery
No matter how much you research and prepare, changes to your email marketing will need to be made. The good news is a powerful online CRM can be set up to keep you informed about each step of the sales and service process. In some circles, this feedback has been called marketing telemetry.
Use the tools in the CRM software to provide information about what is working in your email campaigns. Constantly find ways to improve the performance of your lead generation activities by utilizing your CRM software.