Generate Leads and Sales By Sharing Your Expertise
Consumers are harder to reach. The Internet has given prospects a greater ability to investigate your products and services. Web-enabled consumers not only impose barriers against your marketing, they use search engines to find, evaluate and cold call you, instead of the other way around!
At the same time, BtoB sellers face new challenges. Traditional selling models are less effective as internal decision-makers are harder to locate voicemail functions as the new gatekeeper and nobody returns your phone calls. This makes it difficult—if not impossible—to reach the very people within companies who are critical to begin the selling process.
Fortunately, content marketing breaks through these barriers. By providing useful, honest information that your prospects actively seek and consume, you connect with hard-to-reach prospects and earn their trust by helping them make informed buying decisions.
Client Results: Smiling Albino (Asian Adventure Travel Company)
Smiling Albino (www.smilingalbino.com) is a travel company specializing in Southeast Asian adventure trips. Established in 1999, the company faced growing competition, due in part to the Internet’s growing role in shaping consumer travel decisions. When the company noticed a decline in website visits in 2009, it decided to pursue a new marketing strategy.
Get The Word Out helped Smiling Albino pursue three goals: reach ideal target markets, boost overall web presence, and create a multi-channel content marketing program that would boost credibility and improve search engine optimization, findability and rankings.
Planet Asia Travel Channel became Smiling Albino’s multimedia thought leadership platform, a content marketing program driven by targeted blog postings, podcasts and travel videos.
Content Opens the Door
Internet-age buyers now call the shots. Whether you sell to consumers or large companies, prospects possess virtually unlimited access to information. They (not you) decide when they will engage, turning first to trusted websites for education about your products and services, often contacting you at the final stage of their research and evaluation process.
As buyers use online research and avoid sales meetings, marketing must focus on getting ‘found.’ You must deliver useful information prospects can trust to support their decision-making process. Your content functions as a surrogate advisor, providing consultative advice, without sales pressure, to high-level prospects who are then moved to contact you.
In an age where your prospects want to be educated, not sold, content marketing is becoming the only effective way of getting prospects’ attention. According to the 2011 CMO Consumer Attitude Study, consumers welcome educational content from companies, underscoring the role content marketing now plays as an effective marketing strategy that encourages prospects to find you, engage you and take action:
- 78% believe that organizations that provide custom content are interested in building good relationships with customers
- 73% of consumers prefer to get information in the form of articles rather than advertisements
- 69% of consumers like the targeted nature of content marketing
- 67% feel that custom content from a company is valuable
- 61% feel more positive about a company that delivers custom content and, in turn, are more likely to buy from that company
Content addresses this shift in the buyer/seller relationship. By centering on developing and distributing educational content – such as articles, white papers, podcasts and videos – your marketing attracts and nurtures prospects. Moreover, content marketing can dramatically expand your web presence and search engine findability thereby providing greater access to your marketplace.
Nothing builds credibility like demonstrated expertise. When done in a genuine spirit of helping others, content marketing positions you as a trusted resource, rather than a self-serving salesperson. By publishing authoritative content, prospects recognize your business as a thought leader. When your content obtains endorsements from trusted resources, trade magazines, and blogs prospects will say, ’I see your name everywhere!’
Our Approach
Get The Word Out has a decade of experience developing content marketing campaigns. As experienced journalists, authors, business writers and multi-media content creators, we bring a range of traditional and new media experience to your content marketing project.
As content strategists, we develop content marketing programs that achieve specific business goals. We gain an inside understanding of your business, marketplace and prospects, developing a results-oriented content marketing program designed to:
- Establish industry expertise and thought leadership
- Attract inbound sales leads through traditional and online channels
- Boost search engine findability and optimization
- Provide support and materials to aid your sales process
As content creators, we take a journalistic approach in helping you articulate your expertise. Your content marketing program will educate your potential buyers through credible stories supported with facts, case studies and industry research, ensuring that your company earns a credible halo of authority within your industry.
Content marketing tools we’ve created for clients include:
- Articles (for print and online media)
- Books/eBooks
- White Papers
- Case Studies
- Information Guides
- Informational websites/blogs
- Online Courses
- Podcasts/Online Video
Client Results: BizXchange Reaches New Markets with Content
BizXchange is a barter exchange that enables members to trade goods and services via a private currency. Get The Word Out helped BizX develop several content marketing projects to complement its marketing and sales efforts and boost search engine optimization.
White Papers. A dozen industry-specific white papers were developed to reach key markets, including hotels, restaurants, printers and construction. White papers explained the benefits of bartering and tailored to each particular industry with BizX client case studies.
Video Case Studies. Get The Word Out showcased BizX’s San Francisco Bay Area membership, including a video case study of the Montclaire Bistro, in Oakland, California, which illustrated how the restaurant used barter to expand its facilities without spending cash.
Trade Media Placements. Several barter-focused articles were published in top trade publications. Articles were designed to boost BizX’s visibility in key industries while serving as sales tools (reprints) for the BizX sales team in account entry campaigns.
Our Process
Content Strategy. We help you determine the best types of content based on your business and particular target market.
Project Management. Get The Word Out handles the details of the entire content marketing process. Each content marketing project is handled by a content strategist, managing editor and experienced writers (most with journalistic backgrounds).
Content production. We develop content marketing pieces related to your business based on the messages you want to communicate to your target audience. We help you devise and implement strategies that encourage prospects to contact you.