How to Create a Successful Content Marketing Campaign that Drives Sales and Boosts Your Business
One thing is clear when it comes to sales: if you don’t tell people about your products or services, they aren’t going to make a purchase with your business.
Content marketing and sales must go hand in hand if you truly want to garner meaningful profits. Content marketing is what helps marketers reach a target audience with their brand’s message, products, or services. It drives traffic, increases engagement with brand assets, builds brand awareness, builds trust with your target audience, and of course, generates leads and increases sales.
But to bolster your sales team, you need to create a content marketing campaign that achieves those very goals. While there is no one-size-fits-all strategy, there are some actionable tips you can use to achieve better results.
Here are our 4 tips for creating effective content marketing campaigns that drive sales and boost your business.
1 | Create an Evergreen Foundation
Evergreen content is material that always has relevance to your target audience. While it may not allow you to jump on a trendy meme bandwagon, what evergreen content does is continually work in the background to reach your content marketing goals. For example, a well written blog on how consumers can use one of your most popular products is always relevant. When well written and engaging, evergreen content can drive traffic to your website where people can shop for your services or products.
Top Tips for Creating and Sharing Evergreen Content:
- If it’s a blog, write a compelling heading and subtitle
- Provide something of value to your audience
- Make it engaging
- Include a persuasive intro and a forceful conclusion with a call to action (CTA)
- Sprinkle in keywords or phrases to show up in the right online searches
- Be sure to share and reshare your evergreen content every once in a while on your social platforms
2 | Word of Mouth with UGC
User generated content (UGC) is one of the most effective forms of word of mouth marketing. Consumers trust family, friends, and other consumers for recommendations, so when your loyal customers share your products or how your services have helped them, your target audience will pay attention to this credible social proof. Not only does it help elevate your product or services to potential leads, it can also help you better understand your buyer persona, and thus help you create a more effective sales pipeline.
Top Tips for Effective UGC Campaigns:
- Don’t just wait for your loyal customers to share your products or services; promote a brand-specific hashtag that allows customers to share how they use your products or services
- Create a UGC contest and select a winner to receive a prize package; this can really drive engagement even more
- Spotlight UGC content by resharing it to your own social profiles
3 | Cultivate a Community
Today’s consumers are savvy and don’t just want to be sold to. Rather, they want to feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves; that is why creating a community around your brand is key to creating loyal customers. Think of it this way, you could put out constant sales pitches that get annoying and eventually get ignored, or you could cultivate a community where you engage your target audience on an individual basis that makes them feel like they are a part of your brand. Which would you choose? We’d choose the latter, which is far more engaging and makes your target audience feel special and like they aren’t just a number in a sea of consumers.
Top Tips for Cultivating Community Around Your Brand:
- Engage your audience with questions and encourage them to drop their answer in the comments section
- Respond to as many comments on your social posts as you possibly can; even if all you do is like a comment, it can make the consumer feel heard and loved!
- Respond personally to as many direct messages as you can; you can start out with autoresponders, but when the need arises, switch to human interactions
- UGC campaigns can help build community around your brand, so be sure to utilize that tool as well
- Work with small influencers who have built their own community around their brand; they’ll be able to bring their followers into the fold of your community by recommending your brand
4 | Run Ad Campaigns
Finally, don’t forget to have your marketing team run ad campaigns that directly promote products or services. Once you have built a community around your brand and have come to a better understanding of the buyer personas, you’ll be able to run more effective digital ad campaigns!
Top Tips for Running Product or Service Ad Campaigns:
- While straightforward ads might seem ideal, you actually want to get a little creative with your ad campaigns, so write compelling copy that hooks your target audience. Include how your product or service solves a problem they have and include a CTA that gets them to click
- Use professional looking graphics or photos that are eye catching
- Keep in mind the demographic that you are advertising to and market to specific groups with highly targeted audience groups
- Use A/B testing to find out what elements of your campaign work best; remember to only change a single element between your versions so you know which element actually gives your campaign an edge
- Routinely check in with your ad campaign’s progress and adjust when needed
Final Thoughts
Your sales department has quite a bit on their plate when it comes to closing a sale, but it’s your marketing team’s job to entice those leads to head over and check out your products or services. When these two aspects of your business work in concert with one another, you’ll find that you generate more leads and boost your revenue!
Need assistance with your content marketing? Tintero Creative would love to help you achieve your sales goals! Learn more about our services and how we can help your brand improve your online presence and tell your story to your target audience.