Content marketing is a well-established way to market products, particularly in the world of online commerce. While direct sales advertising and long-term content marketing have been a mainstay of business for decades — remember those article-style advertisements? — online content marketing is on the up-and-up, and is quickly becoming one of the most effective and efficient ways to bring in buyers, move products, and turn the wheels of the online economy.
However, for all the content successes, there are thousands of failures. From writers that simply do not know how to sell, to businesses that are oblivious to the potential marketing opportunities that are out there, a severe shortage of real winners seem to be appearing in content marketing. One reason for the success drought is the lack of any real advice for improving marketing content’s ability to sell.
These five tips are designed to bridge that gap and provide you with a way to make your content more sales-driven. From beginner marketers to experienced online entrepreneurs, these five tips will help you minimize lost sales, boost your conversion rate, and dramatically increase your per-article ROI.
1) Write back-to-front.
Your introduction tells your audience about a problem. Your body content confirms their suspicions and helps them relate to you. Finally, your conclusion closes the sale. One part of that equation is, from a financial perspective, much more important than the others. Prioritize your conclusion, craft it with dedicated effort, and then let the rest of your article follow suit.
2) Save adjectives for product descriptions, people, and actions.
Adjectives are annoying, and overused when it comes to sales copy. Why do the Mini Cooper and Hummer continue to sell more than other cars? Because they are different. Make your sales copy different from everyone else’s, and minimize the amount of adjectives that enter your content articles and sales pitches.
3) Plan your article before you let pen hit paper.
Improvisation can yield some amazing results, but most of the time it fails to deliver. Planning, however, can occasionally deliver terrible results. The difference is that most of the time, planning does not. Whenever you get the chance to sit down and plan your sales routine before you write, take it. A well performed sales pitch will always pale next to a powerful long-term sales routine.
4) Break grammatical rules (if it’s worth it).
The laws of grammar and sentence structure can bend for marketers. If your product or service can only be described outside of the laws of English, do not be afraid to go out there. It is short-sighted move to describe and sell your product in the ways that other people demand, so do not feel held to their standards. Use the descriptive terms and sales tactics that you value, and get your product out there on your own terms.
5) Write about an experience, not a product.
People do not shop at Walmart because they have the best products in the world – people shop at Walmart because they value the experience of saving money on their shopping. Ducati are able to sell motorcycles at a higher price than their rivals because their customers love the experience of riding a Ducati. Apple do not sell their products on technical specs, they sell them on the experience that they offer.
Whenever possible, do not just sell a product, sell an experience. Customers that buy products on their physical or component-based value alone are quick to run to the next manufacturer when a new model comes out. Customers that value experience stay with you long-term and do not run away.
