Are you looking to extend customer relationships? If so, provide content marketing targeted at the different phases of the purchase process and customer lifecycle to meet prospect and customer needs. This is effective at achieving these goals.
Here are five occasions when marketers can effectively tailor content to support the sales process and build customer relationships. (Here are 42 ways to attract shoppers with relevant content.)
- Welcome message. Use this content when prospects register on your site, sign up for emailings, or download an ebook, whitepaper or mobile app. Since the message is delivered after they’ve expressed interest in your offering, this communication can be used to jump-start the buying process in addition to greeting the customer. Tailor the content to set the stage for building a deeper relationship. The goal is to get prospects engaged while they’re still excited about your offering and/or firm. This content can be delivered as a message on a webpage, emailing or social media post.
- Purchase-related information. Offer prospects and customers useful information at every step of the purchase process to persuade them to buy from your firm. Since customers’ questions must be answered before they buy, this helps to overcome objections. Content can be provided via product descriptions, photographs or videos on your website. Alternatively, it can be social media interactions in the form of Facebook or Twitter engagement as well as bulletin boards where consumers respond to other customers. To maximize effectiveness, this information should be integrated with your customer facing functions such as customer service and sales teams to provide the information needed. Unlike welcome notices, it’s not always be easy to determine what content customers need or when.
- Post-purchase content. After-sale content supports the purchase process by showing customers how to utilize your products better. Offer practical advice such as showing customers how to put products together, giving them recipes or patterns or showing them how to use your products better. While you can incorporate suggestions for related products or to fulfill replacement needs such as printer ink cartridges, don’t make this content about promotions. Deliver after sale information on your website, blog, third party social media network or email.
- Reminders/calendar-related communications. Create content from a customer perspective by taking into account personal events, such as birthdays, anniversaries, and vacations, or business events, like conferences and budget season. Help customers plan ahead and provide them with useful, relevant information at these points.
- Purchase-behavior-related messages. Take a cue from direct marketers who segment customers based on past buying behavior.
- High-value buyers. Communication with your core customers must reinforce their decision to purchase from you. Use past purchases and content consumption to determine their information needs. This information can be delivered via email as well as your website, blog or social media platforms.
- Low purchasers. These customers and prospects may no longer be interested in your offering or your firm. Find ways to either reengage them or eliminate them from your e-mail list, because at some point they’ll consider your communications spam.
- Gift buyers. These buyers may only be interested in your offering during gift-giving events. To this end, provide information that enables recipients to create wish lists. Additionally, make it easy for buyers to purchase the product and get notified that it’s been delivered. If you can determine this, provide a reminder; but don’t clutter their inboxes with ongoing, irrelevant e-mail.
- Gift recipients. These non-buyers are your target market and probably like your product. Consider ways to engage them directly with targeted communications.
When it comes to delivering targeted content marketing, leverage customer engagement and activities to enhance your relationships and keep them purchasing from your firm.
Are there any other opportunities that enable you to create targeted content marketing?
Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen
Here are some related articles you may find useful.
- 5 ways content marketing communicates
- 7 ways to show your thanks with content marketing
- 56 Ways to extend your content marketing
- Content Marketing ABCs
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tasselflower/5610741585/
