How do you treat content? Content marketing sounds really nice in theory. You write a couple of articles, drive traffic to your site, and get sales.
Easy, right? Yeah, not so much. So it’s crazy when you see companies assuming that a certain number of blog posts is “right.”
What are they basing this assumption on? They’re thinking, “Three blog posts a week is good.” Why?
This brings us to the age-old dilemma of quantity vs. quality. We want to produce a lot of content in our respective niches, but we also want to take the time to craft relevant, valuable content.
Purpose of Content Marketing
See, content marketing isn’t the end goal. We can’t forget about the real reason that content marketing is even necessary.
It is there to make sales. Our businesses need to generate revenue, and content marketing acts as an opportunity to produce subscribers, leads, and ultimately sales.
When we think about the sales funnel, content marketing is really the same strategy (we’re just looking at a different context).
Here’s a visualization of the content marketing funnel via the Marketing Eye:
Now, look at how it compares to the sales funnel:
You’ll notice that your content marketing complements the sales funnel, and that’s exactly why content marketing exists. It is a means to an end: sales. If your content isn’t driving the results you need, why bother with it?
Get People to Your Website
Starting off, you need traffic. That’s all that truly matters, right? And traffic is just like the “reach” metric on social. That metric doesn’t matter unless it’s relevant and encourages your audience to engage.
When it comes to your website, “engagement” means that visitors are interested in your content. And by “interested in your content,” I mean that visitors like it so much that they are willing to give away their email addresses to get even more.
After all, we are in this business for the leads. Those are the numbers that matter, not the number of blog posts we get out in a week.
And if we are collecting leads, that’s when we’re in business.
Getting leads means that people trust you so much that they believe your information can help them save money, time, or resources.
The purpose of content marketing is to leverage the content, not simply to create it for its own sake.
Write for Stages, Not Just for People
You cater to a certain niche. Everyone does. That’s a good strategy. But do you cater to the stages of buying within that niche?
Think about it: you have to align with your sales funnel. Here’s an example. At one point in your life, you were interested in information. You wanted to know how to do something or how to fix a problem.
At that point, you weren’t looking to pay anyone to fix the problem because you simply didn’t know how to deal with it.
You were uneducated, a beginner in the particular field that you were researching. Then you came to the point where you understood it.
You knew the ins and outs of this area enough to be able to understand what it was that you needed. This knowledge gave you the ability to search out an offering that provided exactly what you were seeking.
Content Solves Users’ Problems
Let’s recap this from a content perspective. First, you looked for informational content. Perhaps this included definitions and explanations of the information that you needed.
Next, you began to look for options within that field. You wanted problem solvers who could help you fix your issue. Perhaps your resources came in the form of case studies and product comparisons.
Think about it. There is a big difference between people searching for “how to build a website,” “should I use WordPress or Squarespace,” and “how to choose a web developer.”
The intentions behind these search queries are completely different and are based on the buyers’ journeys. Because of these different motivations, Google pulls up different SERPs despite all these queries falling into the same category.
In reality, they aren’t similar queries. When we look at the situation from a granular perspective, the searchers are seeking completely different information.
As a result, you must supply separate pieces of content that cater to these unique “wants.” You need different “levels” of content within your content marketing plan. Remember the content funnel above?
Less About Numbers, More About Value
If you are helping customers along their journeys toward buying a product, you’re winning. Doing so isn’t easy of course.
Often, it’s difficult to see the viewpoint of customers:
- For what are they actively searching?
- What do they want?
- What do they search for before buying something?
- How do the answers to these questions fit into what you have to offer?
These are some difficult, but necessary, questions to ask. Regardless, it’s important to be cognizant of customer intent. After all, it is the customer intent that guides your content strategy.
Ultimately, if you can align your content with the buying process, you’re creating a frictionless content marketing strategy that helps both customers and yourself.
Best of luck!
Henry Foster
Latest posts by Henry Foster (see all)
- Why Content Marketing Isn’t About Production Numbers - October 10, 2017
- 3 Simple Tactics for Massive Growth on Quora - August 18, 2017
Powerful Post……
I have faced lots of challenges driving traffic to my website
I am so happy I came across this blog post……
You eased my burden and gave me another angle to think.
This is nice. I enjoyed your post.
Absolutely Mehedi, glad you agree and enjoyed the post.
Absolutely Sunil!
Hi Henry, I agree, quality over quantity. The more frequent you blog you may increase traffic but it may not be quality traffic. And in time it will not grow.
If you do quality content the more readers will come BACK to your blog for more information. And when you are found organically it will be more targeted traffic.
That’s the key!
Thanks for the info and love the infographics in this one!
Thanks so much Lisa, glad to hear you agree. We’re in it for the long term so might as well create quality content!
thank you, sir, for the in-depth explanation about marketing, actually you clear many questions in a well-mannered way. most important thing which I learned is quality but not quantity.
Hi Henry,
Excellent! You have read the visitor’s mind. If we know what visitors are actively searching, buying and knowing about the trends, it’s is easier to create good content. Knowing about how different groups of people make their search for information or product is very useful to create different kinds of content for them.
Great, Amazing and informative!
Thanks
Reji Stephenson
Reji Stephenson would love you to read ..492 Dofollow CommentLuv Enabled Blogs for Blog Commenting
Always please the reader! Thanks Reji!
Hi Henry,
Really enjoyed reading this piece. It is no surprise that content is becoming the power behind most conversions today. Not any content, but creative content that connects with the audience as they make informed decisions about the products and services they are researching. Don’t stop there, it’s always good to promote your content and also re-purpose it to other channels in the form of PDF slides and video presentations.
This has been really informative.
Mark great point with repurposing. I completely agree and I think it’s a great strategy for distributing your content on various channels.
This is a very informative article on content marketing Henery. I really got the gist of the article from the infographics. However,i have also read from a HubSpot post that publishing more frequently helps you blog grow faster.
Harry Jason would love you to read ..17 Natural Home Remedies And Treatments For Earache And Pain
Hi Harry, you make a really good point. However, I would rather have few high-quality posts than many low-quality posts.
Both strategies “can” work tho!
While content marketing is initiated, it is important to think from the perspectives of client and not from ours in order to make it a success. Great Blog!! Keep sharing more.
Thanks so much Naseem, totally agree with you!
See the viewpoint of customers,
For what are they actively searching?
What do they want?
What do they search for before buying something?
How do the answers to these questions fit into what you have to offer?
Your view point Really makes my way different and helpful.
I agree also it’s not easy but important 🙂
Thanks Salim!
Hi there Henry,
First off, nice article! Straight to the point, yet informative enough.
Second, I definitely agree with you. Content marketing is not about the quantity. Yet most startups and small business fail to grasp this. Most are often eager to produce as much content as possible to increase visibility in the shortest period of time.
While they are correct about increasing visibility, they won’t do much good in increasing sales. They fail to understand that marketing services like content marketing is done to pique the interest of their audiences and not simply throw contents in front of them.
I completely agree with you Lucas. It’s a lot easier to create a certain number of posts a week/month than it is to create several awesome pieces that earn links, shares, traffic, etc.
Thanks!
Wow, that’s incredibly informative. I’m currently trying to learn more about how I can engage my audience and turn them from numbers into clients.
Your post basically contained everything I wanted in one post, so thanks! And by the way, I love your digital marketing sales funnel. Definitely saving it and the other funnel for the smart content lifecycle for the future.
George C would love you to read ..Lane Crawford discusses how they are getting ahead of Evolving Chinese Shoppers
Glad you found it helpful George! The funnel is everywhere, isn’t it?
You definitely nailed it Henry!
And your creative, although extremely practical perspective,
is incredibly refreshing!Thanks!
You definitely opened our eyes, to what’s really important and what’s not.
And even though I have takeaways for your excellent post.
I can definitely boil it down to, make sure our content is extremely targeted
and it addresses, our audiences, main issues and or concerns.
And doing so, definitely helps us move forward, in a major way!
Mark, so glad you liked the post, I’m glad you found it helpful.
Taking a rational approach to content is difficult, I struggle with it myself. But I try to look simply at “what works” rather than vanity metrics.
Not easy, but important!