If the Wolf of Wall Street taught us anything, it was that in order to be the best sales person, you need clients to want the product, not be sold the product. You’ll most definitely want to buy a pen when you realise you can’t write down the number of the client on the other end of the line.
Content marketing and social media fit hand in hand as they offer the opportunity for sharing, and the ‘share with Facebook/Twitter/Instagram’ link can be found nearly everywhere. However, your content is only likely to be shared if it is genuine, enlightening and helpful. Upon meeting this criterion, people will want to share it with their social networks. This, in turn, means that your business’ message is being delivered free of charge to a wider audience from their trusted peers.
This then signposts people back to your website, where there will be more of said shareable content for them to browse and interact with. With the correct management and action, this increased level of traffic and interest can generate an increase in sales revenue.
Underpinning all of this is the importance that your website is frequently updated with high quality and stimulating content.
Search engines, including Google, take signals from the social aspect of content, looking into how shareable it is and how viral it is. Put simply, the more people that share your content, the more validated it becomes in the eyes of search engines, ultimately resulting in a favourable rankings increase.
That being said, content contained within your website needs to be free of unnecessary jargon so that new readers are not alienated or deterred. This will reiterate the fact that the content is reader friendly, and will, therefore, encourage and engage the opportunity for further sharing via social media and personal blogs.
In amongst all the technicalities of SEO is the important factor that your content needs to appeal to the humans who read it and not just appease search engines. With that in mind, the BBC has a three-part ethos, which is also a good guide to stick to with content writing; inform, educate or entertain. If you are hitting at least one of these markers, then your audience are more likely to engage and share.
Coming back to the original thought of this post that to sell is to engage with the wants and needs of your clients, legitimate recommendations from peers almost always outweigh that of a cold sales email. Furthermore, this allows you to reach an audience that you may never have been able to engage with, despite extensive marketing and PR efforts.
Content marketing crossed with social media offers the unique opportunity to approach your clients through emotional engagement and without pressure tactics, ultimately resulting in a loyal relationship with positive references spanning a potentially unlimited network.
If you would like to talk any further about how i3media.net could help you reach this loyal customer base, get in touch today.