Getting businesses to your website is only a quarter of the challenge, because only 25% of leads are ready to buy at the present time. Despite this figure, traffic is listed as the number one way that B2B marketers use to measure the success of a content marketing campaign. (Image credit: Flickr)
What does it matter if you get traffic if that traffic does not lead to sales? That question highlights one of the top challenges any content marketing campaign is faced with. Here are two ways that you can increase the quality of your content marketing campaign to reach out more effectively to present and future B2B clients.
Content Marketing Campaign to Nurture The Lead
Seventy-four percent of lead-generation marketers who describe themselves as effective have a lead-nurturing process. This does not mean that you should try to hand a potential client immediately to a sale person which can scare potential clients off. Remember around 75% of traffic is not ready to make a purchase right now, and are actually only doing some research on your site.
The best way to nurture your lead is by starting an informative dialogue with a client that will give them incentive to come back in the future. Instead of pushing the client towards your product, you are giving them invaluable information to help them make their purchasing decision for their business.
A content marketing campaign can try reaching them through webinars, newsletters, white papers or case studies. Content marketing saving tip: frequently you can use content you may already have lying around to create nurturing for clients. For example, you can use data from a blog post to create a webinar.
Do NOT be Pushy
Making a decision to purchase for a whole company is a very stressful one, after all, this decision will frequently affect more individuals then just the decision maker. The client has to weigh lots of positives and negatives, values and priorities of the company as a whole.
Due to the complexity of the decision making process behind a B2B sale, you must show patience with clients. This means that not all of your content will just be towards making a sale of your product or service immediately.
The best content marketing campaigns will gradually introduce the solution to the client. You want the client to feel like you are offering them information without a price tag, so that they will be making the decision not being tricked or pushed into it.
If you do not meet this need, 9 out of 10 marketers are using content marketing, and your client can find someone else who is not driving them too hard towards a sale. View your content as more of a nudge in the right direction, not a shove.
Your content marketing will involve actively engaging potential clients, so that they will think of your product when they are finally ready to make the purchase. This means a lot of it will be beating around the bush, but when content marketing is done right you will eventually get to your goal of sales conversions.
How has content helped your business’s lead nurturing process? What challenges are you facing? Leave a comment below or let us know on Twitter.
