As a business owner, you want to make money. To make money, your business needs to makes sales. To make sales, your business needs to promote its products or services. It’s simple, right? You can just tell people how great your business is and how amazing your products or how spectacular your services are. You can even try to entice your target audience more with special offers.
The problem with this, however, is that you’re not really helping your target audience. In fact, you probably won’t really interest anyone in your products or services unless they are already specifically searching for what you offer in the first place. Should your content be all about you, or should you be thinking about putting the customer first? It is important to note, however, that this is just one of many issues that may hinder your content from effectively helping to generate leads.
It Doesn’t Matter How Amazing You Say You Are
Your business may provide the best products or services in your industry, that doesn’t mean showing it off will make your target audience care. It’s like a proud parent showing off to everyone that their child is a successful solicitor, for example. Despite how amazing they may be, a lot of people just won’t care that much. People don’t want to know about how good your products are, especially from you, believe it or not. Unless they know exactly what they want and find your business first, they aren’t likely to come straight to you based on how great you say you are.
Furthermore, a customer wouldn’t be shocked if all your online content talked about you and how amazing you are. They would be more shocked to see any negative content posted by your business. Imagine buying a new coat online, for example. You might find one you like the look of and skim through the product description, but you would often check out the customer reviews on that product. How trustworthy the retailer is will be brought into question if your customers are only giving it 2 stars out of 5 for example.
Getting Customers to Come to You (By Helping Them)
Going back to the proud parent analogy, you may not care much that your friend’s child is a fantastic solicitor, until you need legal advice. You tell your friend you need legal advice on a certain subject and they tell you their child, who just so happens to be a solicitor, can help you. It’s the same with a business’ online content. A person who wants to know how they can remove scratches from their car, for example, will search how to remove scratches from their car online. This is their problem that they need a solution to. A garage can provide the solution with online content such as:
- Blog posts
- Infographics
- PDFs
- Videos
The online content will tell the consumer what they need, which may be a product or service offered by the business itself. This will not only increase the likelihood of your business being found in search engines, you will also improve the engagement with the customer. This can help you generate more leads, which could lead to more sales.
While you may offer the solutions to someone’s problems, if they think the products or services offered by your competitors might be better, they may still go to them. You want to show your customers that you know what you’re talking about and can solve their problems with your online content, but you also want to tell them why you’re the right choice for them - you need to be perceived as an expert.
Me, Me, Me, Me Vs You, You, You, Me
When producing your online content, the customer should be the first thing you think about. What do they want and what do they need? Your content should be based on helping them, while still promoting your business, to build leads. Check out this article to find out more about how to effectively use content marketing for lead generation - How To Effectively Use Content Marketing For Lead Generation. How well do you understand your target audience? Here at the JDR Group, we have years of experience in creating accurate and compelling content that provides solutions for a business’ target audience. Feel free to get in touch for more information.
