Teach Your Customers Instead of Selling Them [VIDEO]
Did you know that our online activities today take up as much as 10-12 hours of the day?
Through social media, news sites and internet browsing, we are exposed up to 1000 advertisements every day while scrolling and clicking.
As a business owner hoping to get your message across, this means that gaining your customer’s attention is harder than ever.
Trying to sell people without first gaining trust means you lose them and waste advertising dollars.
Focus on Educational Content
Instead of selling products through features and benefits, the new approach to marketing is to help customers to buy through teaching.
According to a 2015 report by Hubspot, “content marketing costs 62% less than advertising but gains three times the results.”
You can create blogs, videos, and audio podcasts to help customers learn about your products before they buy them.
For example, a few years ago Airbnb decided to provide city guides that help travelers who are visiting each city. They also allow people to create guidebooks for their local areas with specific ideas of what to do when in town.
This addition of helpful, educational content meant that AIrbnb gained more search traffic online for those cities, and people used the service to book through.
Answer your Customers Questions
By answering the typical questions that people ask, and explaining solutions to everyday problems, you will draw a lot of organic traffic to your website.
But more importantly, you gain trust. Your potential clients see your brand as a go-to place to answer all their questions. When they are ready to buy they will choose to buy from you.
For example, Marcus Sherdian grew his pool installation business by answering every possible question that customers had about installing pools.
Take an hour and write down every common question, or concern your customers typically have before buying from you. Then write them out in blog posts or record videos.
Share Industry News
Everyone who is in the market to buy a product or service wants to know the latest news about the industry.
Become a research hub and share news that you find that people want to know. You can share statistics, new technology, do product reviews, etc.
An example is the Charles Schwab magazine ‘On Investing’ which is provided every month for all clients. It offers trends, news, and investment ideas for those who have funds with the company.
Get Started Now
The most difficult part of content marketing is getting started. You don’t have to be a professional writer or video creator. You just have to write and speak in the same way you do to your customers.
Start with the simple questions and share them with your customers in blogs, email newsletters and videos.
Focus on educating and helping your customers first, and selling them second. You will see a dramatic increase in the volume of web traffic. But more importantly, your brand trust will increase and your sales will also.
