At Hammock, we create content that helps our clients accomplish business objectives. Sounds great, but what objectives are we helping them achieve?
The following five objectives are what you can expect to influence and measure with a well-developed and executed content marketing strategy:
1. Lead generation
2. Direct sales
3. Customer retention
4. Branding support
5. Thought leadership
For today’s post, let’s focus on lead generation.
For lead generation, it’s pretty basic, and it’s at the core of what many organizations expect out of their marketing media: I spend money on marketing and as a result I want customers knocking on the door. I want to see the direct payoff.
Sometimes (and by that, I mean usually and always) clients expect their current media to generate the kind of leads they are expecting.
So how can content drive leads? There are other very effective strategies, like co-registration for less complex sales. Co-registration is a way companies can strike agreements with one another and enable customers to opt-in to each other’s lists when they register with one. Content is well suited to generate leads if your product or service requires complex explanation.
We’ve had success for clients using everything from print magazines, to Webinars, to community sites to generate leads. In each instance, content was developed and tailored to meet the needs of a prospect audience. Delivering high quality content that addresses underlying needs and doesn’t merely focus on communicating the features of your product or service, is critical.
Usually when we ask clients how well their media is working for them, they don’t always know. Understanding the cost of your leads is the first step. Knowing your conversion rate for leads is fundamental. It’s the only way to measure how well, and how cost effectively, content strategies are addressing your bottom line objective: sales.
Some organizations see benefit in shifting dollars from paid search and advertising into content-based strategies, once they can see how well content is working for them at generating leads.
Check back in a few weeks for the second post in this series about how content marketing can influence direct sales.
