A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) Makes Marketing Much Easier

Marketing products in a world that’s not short on options is not an easy task.

How can you assure customers will flock to your brand when they have plenty of options at their disposal?

In short, why should someone buy from you?

Unless you know the reasons, you will have a hard time creating effective sales offers.

A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) can make it easier to market your products and services.

It draws a defining line between you and your competitors. It allows customers to see what sets you apart from all the others thereby influencing their buying decision.

Importance Of USP in Business
The concept of a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) has been around for decades.

Simply put, it refers to the one specific feature or benefit of your product that helps it stand out – the primary attribute that makes it unique amongst its competition.

While it’s understandable that small businesses and start-ups are wary about traversing through uncharted territory, a USP works just as fine even during the changing times – identifying your USP gives all your marketing a concrete direction and focal point.

A USP is like a guiding star for businesses, however big or small.

For your business to have that edge, you need to locate your brand’s USP and make it work in your favor. Here’s how to get started:

Three Ways to Discover Your USP
Here’s how you can determine your USP and use it to stand out and boost sales:

What You Have to Offer That Is Unique
No customer wants to purchase a product specifically from you that they can get from anywhere else.

Conduct market research and use the statistics to your advantage.

Pull the data and show your customers that what you offer is unique to you.

It can be anything. Quality products, secret and not-so-secret ingredients, your customer service-anything.

Ask yourself, what do I offer clients that others in my business don’t?

Highlight it. Use it to guide your marketing strategy.

 

 

What You Do That Makes You Special
Now that you know how you’re unique from your competitors, use that knowledge wisely.

The services and products you offer are just one part of your business, your customer service and the way you do business are just as important.

Whatever sets you apart from your competitors makes you special. It automatically levels up your performance and puts you high on your clients’ lists.

If you’re working for a cause, let people know. Prospective clients are more likely to invest in a product whose sales can better the world.

 

 

Why Should They Do Business with You?
As a business, you need to be aware of your selling points and your weaknesses. If you can’t locate any, include your customers in the process.

You’d be surprised at the number of people who will voluntarily fill respond to surveys.

Here are a few questions to consider:
● Why do customers decide to buy from you?
● Are your products of better quality than your competitors?
● Is your business customer-centric?
That should answer why customers should do business with you, as opposed to the hundreds of other businesses in the market.

 

 

Conclusion
Use your USP to market your brand. However, be realistic. Not everything works for everybody.

 

A little soul-searching will help you to discover what makes you, your business, or your products special.

Once you know the answer, your marketing and sales efforts will become a lot more persuasive.

 

Avoid These Common Marketing Mistakes! Please visit WritingConversions.com and get your free report, 26 Marketing Mistakes & Simple Ways to Avoid Them: How to Attract Loyal Clients on a Small Budget.

Discover 26 of the most serious mistakes that entrepreneurs, small business owners, consultants, and other self-employed individuals routinely make when trying to promote their products and services.

You will also receive:
1. Weekly emails that will help you build a profitable marketing funnel
2. Tips to help you find competent and reliable freelance copywriters and consultants
3. Learn how to use direct marketing methods within your inbound funnel for more effective results
4. Bonus downloads that discuss best practices for building your own marketing funnel

 

 

 

Directly addressing customers is still one of the best and cheapest marketing strategies businesses can employ.

Using emails to share discounts and offers works great, even in the age of  the soft sale.

It facilitates a direct connection between the business and the client, driving customers to your website and encouraging them to purchase products by offering them incentives, coupons, and benefits.

 

Email Newsletters, as a Direct Marketing technique, is known to provide miraculous results.

 

Email Newsletters: The Key to Boosting Sales

An email newsletter is an effective marketing tool that facilitates sales and motivates  subscribers to purchase from you.

A well-crafted newsletter is informative. It promotes your brand in a subtle way, allowing you to get closer to each customer, while still promoting your products and services.

How do email newsletters boost sales? By:

• Promoting products and events
• Building a  community
• Offering tips, tricks, and hacks
  

 

Craft your email newsletter carefully. It should:

• Be short and precise
• Engage in the art of storytelling
• Be reader-centered
• Have a Call to Action (CTA)
• Be aesthetically appealing

Customer Retention Made Easy with Email Newsletters

Acquiring a new customer is hard. Retaining a customer? Not so much.

With a marketing technique like email newsletters, you can ensure you never lose touch with your existing customer base.

An email newsletter allows your small business to create a big impact. A targeted email will not only help you convert subscribers into customers but will also help you establish a rapport with the existing customer base by offering them additional discounts and reward/loyalty points.

Newsletters have an incredible ROI (Return of Investment). Basically, you can reuse the same articles over and over, as long as they offer valuable information.

Email marketing software allows you to schedule your newsletter messages to be repeatedly sent for as long as you wish.

 

As long as you  put the work in initially and make adjustments along the way, your sales and revenue are bound to increase.

 

Conclusion

If you’re looking to effectively market your products and services, instead of investing thousands of dollars in advertising, experiment with email newsletters.

Email newsletters keep your brand and services in your client’s minds which can influence their buying decision whenever they require a product or see a promotional offer they absolutely cannot afford to miss out on.

Simply put, email newsletters drive traffic to your website thereby increasing sales.

Avoid These Common Marketing Mistakes!

Please visit WritingConversions.com and get your free report, 26 Marketing Mistakes & Simple Ways to Avoid Them: How to Attract Loyal Clients on a Small Budget.

Discover 26 of the most serious mistakes that entrepreneurs, small business owners, consultants, and other self-employed individuals routinely make when trying to promote their products and services.

You will also receive:

1. Weekly emails that will help you build a profitable marketing funnel
2. Tips to help you find competent and reliable freelance copywriters and consultants
3. Learn how to use direct marketing methods within your inbound funnel for more effective results
4. Bonus downloads that discuss best practices for building your own marketing funnel

 

How To Sell Services Like a Professional

Selling services is an art – one that’s completely different than selling products.

You have to align your business perspective with that of your clients. Your service should hold a certain value to your customers.

Building a relationship with them is very important as they will repeatedly interact with you or your employees.

However, if you’re selling a service instead of a concrete product, how do you describe something your clients can’t see?

While it can be tricky, it is certainly possible. These tips and tricks will help you sell your services effectively, making clients out of prospects along the way.

 

The 101 of Selling Services

Always Stay in Touch

With multiple service providers on the market, you have to ensure you’re always your customers’ top choice of business. For that, you’ll have to do away with the notion that your job is to provide services only.

You also have to effectively communicate with your clients frequently and stay in their line of thinking.

Here’s how you can stay in touch with your customer base:

• Treat customers as valuable individuals and not just a means to an end.
• Stay active across various platforms. This will increase reach and give authenticity to your business.
• Write blogs, include reviews and success stories.
• Give them a special discount on their birthdays or other important events.

 

Don’t Promise Too Much

Most businesses fail when they promise too much to their client and can’t make good of that promise. It is always better to under-promise and over deliver than over-promise and under-deliver. The former will attract customers to your service, the latter will make you lose your clientele.

When you provide subpar services to a client, you’re not just losing one client, you’re also losing any potential clients you would have gotten from their recommendations.

Positive recommendation through word-of-mouth travels fast but a negative review travels faster. Always remember that.

 

Show Your Face on Your Marketing Materials

People need a face they can associate with your brand. Showing your face on your marketing materials gives your brand an identity.

People are more likely to avail of your services when they recognize your face and relate to your identity. This can make the brand-customer relationship relatable, fun, and filled with trust.

However, remember to not go over the top. Don’t make it all about you. You’re advertising the services you provide so stick with the narrative, and always focus on how you can add value for customers.

 

Conclusion

Your prospects can’t see your services, but they can see you. The way you ‘sell’ yourself can determine the authenticity of your services. Just like everything, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of options. Don’t let that demotivate you.

You are you and that’s your edge. While a product can have a copy, a person cannot. Use that to your advantage. You know the kind of clients you’re aiming for as a business, decide how you market them accordingly.

If you were in their shoes, in what way would you have been attracted to the service you offer? Adapt accordingly.

 

Avoid These Common Marketing Mistakes!

Please visit WritingConversions.com and get your free report, 26 Marketing Mistakes & Simple Ways to Avoid Them: How to Attract Loyal Clients on a Small Budget.

Discover 26 of the most serious mistakes that entrepreneurs, small business owners, consultants, and other self-employed individuals routinely make when trying to promote their products and services.

You will also receive:

1. Weekly emails that will help you build a profitable marketing funnel
2. Tips to help you find competent and reliable freelance copywriters and consultants
3. Learn how to use direct marketing methods within your inbound funnel for more effective results
4. Bonus downloads that discuss best practices for building your own marketing funnel

 

 

Remember the time you forgot about an assignment only to remember it shortly before submission? The fear of missing deadlines spurred us on. We scampered to deliver, and hopefully, we did a good job.

Fear is a powerful emotion, one that also works quite effectively in marketing when used by a skilled copywriter.

The fear of missing out, of being left behind is a major driving force for people to seek out certain products and services. Is it a surprise then, that fear-based marketing generates more revenue and profits compared to its counterparts?

Fear-Based Marketing

Fear is often seen as a negative emotion, but when done right, it can prove to be a profitable marketing tactic. How do you use fear? How do you make it work in your favor?

The fear appeal has been used in marketing for years, and successfully. It is intended to motivate the audience by presenting a threat. The end goal is to make the audience purchase a product or contribute to a specific cause.

How does this work? By essentially telling people they’re at risk of moral or social degeneration, for example,  if they don’t contribute towards a cause…or that they’ll miss out on a much-hyped limited edition product if they don’t purchase it right away.

Fear-based marketing works through a three-step fear appeal.

Introduce the Threat

Through the use of vivid words or pictures, illustrate the severity of a threat. Involve the audience. The reader must feel vulnerable or complicit in the threat posed.

Here’s an example:

Plastic straws wreck marine life. Killing sea turtles slowly, one straw at a time. Do you use plastic straws? If you do, it’s not too late to change that habit.

 

Support Your Claims With Statistics

Relate the threat to the audience, and add a personal factor. Why should they feel threatened and at risk? It’s time you introduce the statistics.

Here’s an example:

Contrary to popular misconception, men are at risk of developing breast cancer too. About 1 in every 100 cancer diagnoses in the United States is of a man.

Introduce a Solution

If you wish to highlight the effect of 12+ hours of screen time on the eyes of teenagers and young adults, don’t tell them to stop using phones altogether. Because let’s face it, they’re not going to do it.

Instead, give them a solution. Market blue-light spectacles as an effective tool to reduce the damage to their eyes. Highlight the multiple benefits of using it.

If you provide a solution that works well, you’re more likely to convince people to spend money on it. The bigger the risk a product can mitigate, the bigger the buying factor.

 

Conclusion

The key to fear-based appeal lies in persuading the audience, not paralyzing them.

Making use of robust statistics can make the appearance of a threat very much real.

People are more likely to believe in fear-based marketing when they know it comes from a reliable source and has multiple surveys and research backing it.

But the risk needs to be something that can be avoided with your proposed solution.

It’s easy to go overboard with this marketing tactic, so be careful. Make sure you know your audience and market accordingly.

 

Avoid These Common Marketing Mistakes! Please visit WritingConversions.com and get your free report, 26 Marketing Mistakes & Simple Ways to Avoid Them: How to Attract Loyal Clients on a Small Budget.

Discover 26 of the most serious mistakes that entrepreneurs, small business owners, consultants, and other self-employed individuals routinely make when trying to promote their products and services.

You will also receive:

1. Weekly emails that will help you build a profitable marketing funnel
2. Tips to help you find competent and reliable freelance copywriters and consultants
3. Learn how to use direct marketing methods within your inbound funnel for more effective results
4. Bonus downloads that discuss best practices for building your own marketing funnel

 

 

 

 

We are the leaders!

Our brands are trusted!

We employ the smartest people!

 

Many companies continue to use marketing to brag about themselves, despite the fact that this tactic has been proven to be ineffective.

However, marketing tactics and strategies only deliver results when they’re focused on prospects’ needs.

  If you’re like most people, you’ll react negatively when  a company toot its own horn far too much- here’s why:

 

Bragging About Yourself: A Sure-Fire Way of Sinking Your Business

Do you ever associate yourself with people who disregard everything you say because they keep talking about themselves?

Given the choice, most people would simply leave before too long.

Bragging about yourself is like covering your brands’ incompetency.

Businesses fail when they make it all about themselves.

They spend too much time bragging about what they can do, what they’ve done so far, and what all they can achieve if they wanted to – without considering how these accomplishments make a difference in customers’ lives.

Success is something we all pride ourselves over. However, when you run a business, your focus should be based solely on what you can provide your customers.

If you want your business to succeed, resist the urge to talk about yourself. Remove the ‘me-factor’ from your marketing completely.

 

 

 Customers don’t care about you

They care how your products or services can help them with their pain points, which may differ from category to category.

Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and try to figure out what they’re interested in and adapt accordingly.

Does your product:

• Offer better quality at a competitive price?
• Provide insane benefits?
• Help them live a healthier and fuller life?

What can they gain from investing in a product from you? Answer that question and you have the prime focus of your marketing strategy.

 

What Are Customers Interested in?

With millions of brands and businesses in the market, customers can afford to pick and choose without compromising on quality or stretching their budgets.

The only thing potential customers are interested in is knowing what you can do for them.

People, potential customers, are interested in the kind of benefits they can get by purchasing from your business.

They’re interested in all the things that set you apart from your competitors.

 

Why Is It Important to Make Your Marketing Customer-Centric

Running a business involves making choices, many of which could make or break your business. Instead of wasting time, energy, and resources talking about yourself, aim to actually provide  customers what they want.

Conduct surveys, ask for reviews, have people fill out questionnaires to determine the best course of action.

You can then make and market products that will solve your customer’s problems and benefit them in one way or the other.

You can add these very queries in your site’s FAQ section so other people with the same issues can benefit from the information.

Since you don’t have to answer the same thing again and again, it saves you time and solves customer queries while it’s at it! It’s a win-win.

 

The Takeaway:

Don’t use marketing to brag about yourself. It’s not going to get you brownie points with potential clients.

In fact, it’s going to do the opposite. Your potential customers will think you hold too high an opinion of yourself to accept your faults. This lowers trust.

 

Avoid These Common Marketing Mistakes!

Please visit WritingConversions.com and get your free report, 26 Marketing Mistakes & Simple Ways to Avoid Them: How to Attract Loyal Clients on a Small Budget.

Discover 26 of the most serious mistakes that entrepreneurs, small business owners, consultants, and other self-employed individuals routinely make when trying to promote their products and services.

You will also receive:

1. Weekly emails that will help you build a profitable marketing funnel
2. Tips to help you find competent and reliable freelance copywriters and consultants
3. Learn how to use direct marketing methods within your inbound funnel for more effective results
4. Bonus downloads that discuss best practices for building your own marketing funnel

 

 

 

With the popularity of social media on the rise, brands and businesses have resorted to marketing on various digital platforms instead of billboards, television ads, and in magazines.

To reach a larger audience affordably this has become a necessity.

The problem? Social media needs unique content to target audiences spread across various platforms.

This content has to not only educate, but also needs to persuade readers to take action.

You can write great piece, one that would’ve gone viral on the internet as ‘best article of the year’ but unless it generates sales and profit for your company, what good is it for your end goal?

Marketing content needs structure and sequence to be effective and provide results.

 

Structure and Sequence

Despite using content writing as a marketing tool, why do many businesses fail to attract people to their products?

It’s because they over engage in storytelling.

Audiences today do not have the patience to sit around and read a 2,000 word rambling article, when a 500 word article on another website gives them the same information.

Words are powerful. If you use them effectively, you can take your business to new heights.

The structure and sequence of your content should both inform the reader/audience and entice them into taking action.

The formula is the same everywhere:

Emphasize the pain point.

Relate to the struggles they face and sympathize with them.

Give them a solution.

To get people to purchase your products, your copywriting / content writing needs to consider these factors:

 

Why: Why are you writing this article? What do you aim to achieve?

What: What product are you marketing? What is the message behind it?

Who: Who is your audience?

Where: Where is your content going to be published? (Newspaper ads, pamphlets, websites, etc)

How: How to keep people reading your message.

When: When will your copywriting article be published?

This will help you structure and organize your content to ensure that your readers get actual value from your content —and come to see you as the solution to their problems.

 

Level With Your Audience

Your content should match your audience’s literacy level. Don’t use big words when you’re marketing a product suitable for 10-year-olds. If they don’t understand it, they’re not buying it. It’s as simple as that.

Conversely, if you’re aiming to attract industry experts, don’t dumb things down too much.

 

Employ the Correct Voice and Tone

The voice and tone of your copywriting content should match your brand’s voice and image. It should reflect your brand’s identity – safe, neutral text may fall flat when talking about risky or exciting topics.

 

 

Practice Good SEO

The structure and sequence you applied to content are no good if you practice poor SEO skills.

Google has hundreds of developers  working to prevent ‘Black hat’ SEO tactics that lure the audience in, then leave them empty and frustrated.

 

 

Break Your Content Up

Most people don’t want to read an essay. Break your content into subtitled chunks so that readers can easily skip to the part they’re looking for.

 

Get The Audience to Engage

Include your audience in your marketing tactic. Prompt them to tell their stories, their experience, and their views.

Your content is not the only content that’s important – sometimes, the audience’s input provides new insights, while making them feel heard and appreciated.

 

Copywriting: Promoting Your Content, Products, and Services

Copywriting is so much more than telling stories and bragging about your product.

Effective copywriting follows proven persuasion formulas, like AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action) to get the highest possible response rates.

A competent copywriter might mean the difference between a an effective marketing campaign and a campaign that falls flat.

 

The Benefits of Customer-Centric Content

The content you create should be customer-centric. You don’t just want to get people to buy your products, you want them to stay around. You want them to be a part of every product release, every brand promotion.

Remember, copywriting is meant to persuade and sell, not just entertain. If done the right way, it can also pave the way for word-of-mouth marketing.

 

When your product and service make a customer happy, they’re bound to refer your business to their friends, family members, everyone they come across. 

They’re also more likely to become outstanding clients who stay with you for years to come.

 

 

 

Avoid These Common Marketing Mistakes!

Please visit WritingConversions.com and get your free report, 26 Marketing Mistakes & Simple Ways to Avoid Them: How to Attract Loyal Clients on a Small Budget.

Discover 26 of the most serious mistakes that entrepreneurs, small business owners, consultants, and other self-employed individuals routinely make when trying to promote their products and services.

You will also receive:

1. Weekly emails that will help you build a profitable marketing funnel
2. Tips to help you find competent and reliable freelance copywriters and consultants
3. Learn how to use direct marketing methods within your inbound funnel for more effective results
4. Bonus downloads that discuss best practices for building your own marketing funnel

 

Living in a world that’s not short on options, the one thing that can guarantee your success is customer loyalty.

Your brand’s success depends on more than making one sale per customer – you need your customers to keep coming back for more.

That’s where customer retention comes in.

Customer-Retention: The Best Marketing  Strategy

Regular customers can make or break a business. For one, they already know your brand. They know the kind of service and products you provide.

Every time you release a new product, you won’t have to ‘sell’ it to them. They know it’s going to be good, which is why they already have their credit cards ready to purchase new items as soon as you release them.

Attracting new clients on the other hand? Now that’s a tough job. No sane person would readily hand over their hard-earned money to you on a whim.

They need a reason and you might just have to provide them with multiple reasons – considering that your competition is doing the same.

In short, customer retention is much more profitable and easy than attracting new customers.

Here’s a couple of steps you can take to ensure your customers stick around for the long haul:

 

Put Your Clients’ Needs Ahead of Your Own

You can retain clients only if your product is useful to them. Understand your clients’ pain points and aim to provide them a solution for their problems.

Know your customers. Know what they need and will spend money on, time and again.

If you can’t determine which product will help them out the most, conduct surveys and offer them incentives and discounts in exchange – this will drive interest, make you more memorable, and provide you with important insights.

 

Anticipate What They Will Need

Identifying potential products and services is a skill not many brands possess. You can either give them a product that multiple companies on the market are providing, or you can give them a unique solution to a problem they might face in the future.

How do you anticipate what your customer base needs? You understand market demographics and use the data at your fingertips.

Pay attention to social media insights and use other analytical tools to understand customer buying patterns, then formulate your products accordingly.

 

Show Genuine Concern

We’re humans. We all make mistakes. As a business, you have two ways to respond to a mistake you made.

• Act indifferent. After all, ‘it’s just one customer’.
• Take action. Apologize for your mistake and show genuine concern.

No matter the size of your brand/business, you should never resort to the first option. Remember, customer acquisition is hard.  Retention Is much easier.

You can fix your mistake in multiple ways:

• By providing them with a replacement
• By issuing a full refund
• Giving them discount coupons and codes
• Go beyond what the customer would expect from you

For a small investment, you’ll likely garner massive goodwill and possibly hold on to that  customer.

 

Appreciate Your Customers, Value Their Choices

Your customers need to know they’re not just a number to you. They need to know they’re an important part of your business, that they’re appreciated. Customer retention will become easier when you start rewarding your clients for their loyalty.

Positive reinforcement works wonders. Most successful businesses on the market will tell you a client’s first order is really not as important as their second one so make sure you give them a reason to make a purchase again. ‘Buy 1 Get 1’ offers are the norm – rise above it. Give your customers multiple options and let them choose.

 

Conclusion

Whether you’re a small business or freelancer, customer retention will always top customer acquisition. Happy customers market your brand without any additional cost on your part. People are more likely to purchase a product from you when others have vouched for it.

Customer retention can take your business to new heights and give you an edge over other businesses. It will effectively set you apart from all the others.

 

Avoid These Common Marketing Mistakes!

Please visit WritingConversions.com and get your free report, 26 Marketing Mistakes & Simple Ways to Avoid Them: How to Attract Loyal Clients on a Small Budget.

Discover 26 of the most serious mistakes that entrepreneurs, small business owners, consultants, and other self-employed individuals routinely make when trying to promote their products and services.

You will also receive:

1. Weekly emails that will help you build a profitable marketing funnel
2. Tips to help you find competent and reliable freelance copywriters and consultants
3. Learn how to use direct marketing methods within your inbound funnel for more effective results
4. Bonus downloads that discuss best practices for building your own marketing funnel

 

 

 

 

Implementing an inbound/content marketing funnel strategy is the most recommended way to replace outdated methods like traditional ads and cold calling.

 

Unfortunately, marketing funnels can easily become complex and costly to maintain if you don’t do a lot of research and planning before implementing inbound marketing.

 

You may end up paying thousands of dollars a month on marketing software and inbound agencies or consultants  to keep your funnel running effectively.

 

Today, it is possible to build and maintain an affordable inbound content marketing funnel using  simple cloud-based applications, and working with freelance designers, writers, and virtual assistants.

 

A basic marketing / sales funnel allows your website to attract more visitors, turn visitors into potential customers, and convert a portion of them into paying customers.

 

The following steps will help you to start building an inbound marketing funnel now:

Start with a basic marketing plan

• Who are your ideal customers?
• What is unique about your product or service?
• What is your message (selling point) to them?
• What are your preferred channels (writing, audios, videos, social media) for offering educational content?

 

Make your website the center of your funnel

• Add a blog to implement content marketing, and provide educational content to potential customers
• Add free downloadable offers, available to people who provide their email address
• Build a landing page with an opt-in form to capture contact information. this usually requires separate software (apps) that link to your website platform
• Add separate sales description webpages for each product / service you offer
• Include an order page for your products and services
• Add a thank-you page that appears once an order is placed.
  this page can be linked to a thank you  or welcome email that is also sent to new customers

 

 

Optimize your website for SEO (search engine optimization)

Use tools such as Yoast SEO to add the right keywords and meta descriptions to your website.

 

This data will be processed by search engines to categorize and index your website for online searches

 

 

Connect your website to email marketing software

Create a basic email lead nurturing sequence that repeatedly sends informational and promotional messages to people who have provided their contact information to you.

This is easy to do with email marketing software like Engagebay or Zoho Campaigns.

 

 

Use social media to promote your website

• create a Twitter or Facebook account to share your website content and to create posts that promote your free offers.You can also pay for social media ads to attract more response to your posts and articles.

 

 

 

Analyze your campaign results

Most marketing software and platforms have analytics features that allow you to see how your campaigns are performing.

this lets you know where your marketing is doing well, and where it needs improvements.

 

 

 

Keep your marketing simple

Connecting your website to a few marketing applications (form builder, email software, CRM tools) makes it easy and affordable to continuously run your marketing campaigns, only making changes or updates when needed.

 

In the long run, your inbound marketing funnel will attract and convert a lot more qualified customers than using cold calling and other untargeted methods

 

 Avoid These Common Marketing Mistakes!

Please visit WritingConversions.com and get your free report, 26 Marketing Mistakes & Simple Ways to Avoid Them: How to Attract Loyal Clients on a Small Budget.

Discover 26 of the most serious mistakes that entrepreneurs, small business owners, consultants, and other self-employed individuals routinely make when trying to promote their products and services.

You will also get:

1. Weekly emails that will help you build a profitable marketing funnel
2. Tips to help you find competent and reliable freelance copywriters and consultants
3. Learn how to use direct marketing methods within your inbound funnel for more effective results
4. Bonus downloads that discuss best practices for building your own marketing funnel

 

 

 

Learn why setting up your marketing content as a sequence (marketing funnel) is the most effective way to promote a small business affordably.

 

 

Please visit WritingConversions.com/contact if you need immediate help improving your marketing system.

 

Learn more about inbound marketing funnels

For a more detailed introduction to marketing funnels, visit these sites:

https://www.fool.com/the-blueprint/marketing-funnel/

and

Magnetic marketing principles:

https://magneticmarketing.com/where-should-i-start/

Content Marketing is Useless Without an Inbound Strategy

 

While content marketing is an important part of your marketing funnel, as far as building trust in your business, it may not accomplish much if it’s not focused on providing educational content that matters to your potential customers.

 

Creating entertaining blogs posts or videos that attract a lot of attention and engagement doesn’t necessarily lead to more customers and sales.

 

Content marketing / inbound marketing needs to be carefully planned to ensure it aligns with the needs and profiles of your target customers:

• Challenges, problems, desires
• Which topics actually matter to their careers and lives?
• Where do they get information (books, videos, courses)?

 

A Strategic Content Marketing Plan is Your Inbound Roadmap

Your content marketing plan needs to consider the entire buying journey(funnel), from initial awareness to purchase.

This means that each segment of your marketing funnel, such as blog posts, free downloads (lead magnet), and email sequences, should contain information that is appropriate for that stage of your purchase path.

 

A potential customer who has just discovered your business needs more informational content than someone who has already interacted with your articles and email messages a few times.

 

If a first-time website visitor doesn’t find the information they’re  looking for from your blog posts or home page,  they will  be less willing to provide their contact information to continue interacting with you. Many people will simply leave your website and never come back.

 

 How does a Content Strategy Help?

  A well-planned content marketing strategy will allow you to create educational content and materials that attract a lot of quality website traffic.

Adding a free offer within your blogs and articles will encourage potential customers to provide their email addresses in exchange for your downloadable materials.

 

Building an email list in this manner makes it much easier to continuously promote your products and services to people who have shown an interest in what your have to offer.

 

 

 

What is Included in a Content? Marketing Plan?

• Challenges, problems, desires of your typical customer
• Which topics actually matter to their careers and lives?
• Where do they get information related to your product (books, videos, courses)?

Creating a content marketing plan will give you a clear sense of direction that ensures your free, educational content and materials are actually helping you to attract more customers and clients, instead of just giving away free advice.

 

Specifically, You Will Discover:

1 Your target audience
The topics you write about or talk about need to be relevant to your most important customer segments.

This means staying   focused on topics that are directly related to the problems your products and services solve.

Your potential customers will be more receptive to your sales offers if your free content has done its job of building up your authority and trust factor within your industry.

  

2 What is unique about your business?

The internet has made it easier for competitors to offer the same features, discounts, and guarantees as everyone else.

That’s why it’s important to position yourself as a trustworthy consultant who actually wants to help his /her customers succeed.

Your articles, blog posts, or videos should give potential customers a glimpse of your business methods, your personality, and opinions.

 

3 Which Content formats do your customers prefer?

Depending on the age and education levels of your typical customers, it may be preferable to create mostly written content, instead of videos or podcasts.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t offer content in other formats. The idea is to spend most of your marketing budget on educational materials that will actually be consumed by your target audience.

 

4 Which channels /media to focus on

Today, there is a variety of places where you can publish your educational marketing content:

• Websites
• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Traditional brochures
• Email messages

 

Just like the formats you focus on, the choice of publishing channels depends on the characteristics of your target customers.

You may decide to focus on one main marketing channel, and share one piece of content (blog post, article) on different platforms in order to attract a larger number of readers or viewers.

 

5 The best way to schedule and manage your content marketing pieces

Your content marketing plan should also include a calendar detailing:

• Content marketing topics
• Where the content will be posted
• The date and time when it will be posted online

 

A simple Excel or Google spreadsheet will help you to create simple content calendar.

 

6 The most effective ways to link educational content to the other segments of your marketing funnel (pipeline / sequence)

A well-planned content strategy should be designed to ultimately convince website / blog visitors to enter the sales component of your marketing funnel by providing their contact information.

In order to persuade content readers to enter your sales funnel, you need to continually ask them to sign up for a free download, free consultation, or other valuable offer.

An easy way to promote email sign-ups is to include links at the bottom of every article, blog post, or social media post.

These links ask people to provide their email addresses in exchange for your free offer.

Your free offers and email marketing messages should be related to the topics of your blog posts and other content, in order to stay aligned with your overall inbound strategy.

 

A Content Plan Simplifies Your Marketing

A marketing funnel, combining both educational content and promotional messages, offers many advantages over using  disconnected platforms and messages:

• Create free content that is relevant to your potential customers
• Easily discover new content marketing topics to write about
• Continuously repeat your most important messages and brand positioning to potential customers
• Automate the process of converting prospects into customers
• Focus your marketing budget on proven techniques, formats, and channels

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Avoid These Common Marketing Mistakes!

Please visit WritingConversions.com and get your free report, 26 Marketing Mistakes & Simple Ways to Avoid Them: How to Attract Loyal Clients on a Small Budget.

Discover 26 of the most serious mistakes that entrepreneurs, small business owners, consultants, and other self-employed individuals routinely make when trying to promote their products and services.

You will also receive:

1. Weekly emails that will help you build a profitable marketing funnel
2. Tips to help you find competent and reliable freelance copywriters and consultants
3. Learn how to use direct marketing methods within your inbound funnel for more effective results
4. Bonus downloads that discuss best practices for building your own marketing funnel

 

 

Create Your Own Content Marketing Plan!

If you would like to create online content that attracts more qualified website visitors, please contact us today

 

 

 

 

 

A simple email newsletter is one of the cheapest, easiest ways to stay in touch with your customers and ensure that they continue doing business with you for years to come.

 

Newsletters are really effective because they allow you to educate and inform your customers while also promoting your products and services.

 

Offer Practical Advice

The topics you cover in your newsletter can be practical, useful advice that will help your customers or clients improve their careers or their businesses:

 

• Tips for hiring good employees
• Improving customer service
• Advice for enhancing soft skills

 

You may also choose to share other people’s articles if you don’t have the time to create enough content for each newsletter issue.

 

The idea is to talk about topics that matter to your customers and  keep your name in their minds, when it comes to offering solutions to their problems.

 

Newsletters Increase Customer Loyalty

As you probably know, it’s much cheaper and easier to sell to your current customers than to chase after new ones.

 

People are overloaded with offers and distractions, and will forget about your brand if you don’t occasionally get in touch with them.

 

A basic digital newsletter allows you to interact with customers and, at the same time, remind them that you offer other products and services. Doing this is much cheaper than paying for online advertising.

 

An email newsletter can be sent automatically through email marketing software on a weekly or monthly basis, without any extra work on your part.

Newsletters can also be reused for many years, with only minor updates.

 

 

 Avoid These Common Marketing Mistakes!

Please visit WritingConversions.com and get your free report, 26 Marketing Mistakes & Simple Ways to Avoid Them: How to Attract Loyal Clients on a Small Budget.

Discover 26 of the most serious mistakes that entrepreneurs, small business owners, consultants, and other self-employed individuals routinely make when trying to promote their products and services.

You will also receive:

1. Weekly emails that will help you build a profitable marketing funnel
2. Tips to help you find competent and reliable freelance copywriters and consultants
3. Learn how to use direct marketing methods within your inbound funnel for more effective results
4. Bonus downloads that discuss best practices for building your own marketing funnel