Was one of your resolutions this year to attract and engage customers for the long term? If so, you've come to the right blog. Building and sustaining a customer base through selling information may seem like an impossible task. You can achieve sustainable growth by empowering your clients through an inbound methodology known as the flywheel model. The first stage, which is attraction, begins with drawing in the right people by establishing trustworthy advice, and the second stage is engaging the attracted clients and presenting practical solutions.
The first step of the flywheel method is to attract potential clients. At this stage, the people you want to draw in are strangers, and you need to grab their attention with content. What is content? - Information that educates us, answers questions, entertains us, draws us to sights, and influences our decisions. You can create different types of content, including ads, blogs, videos, and social media posts. The bottom line is that you need to create content for someone. So who is that "someone?"
The first step in your content creation journey is creating a plan. Your marketing goals should be based on your company goals and follow the SMART model. Ensure you tick off the following checklist in your content plan:
A Buyer Persona: You need to know "who" you are creating content for before you even start creating content. Construct a solid buyer persona similar to how you'd describe a friend. What do they look like? Where do they live? What are their interests? What's their social life? What are their challenges? What are their dreams, aspirations, fantasies? What are the possible future lives? Your persona needs to be thorough because you need to speak to your audience in a human and personal matter.
Content Creation: Like strangers in our lives, customers go through different stages during the attraction phase. This is known as the buyer journey, and it's important because it helps you create content for your buyer persona.
At first, they meet you and are struggling with a problem and are seeking a solution. This is called the awareness stage. At this point, the potential client is still framing their problem. They need information that helps them create a concrete problem that requires a solution. Content such as blogs, whitepapers, ebooks, infographics, and quizzes are excellent.
Once your potential clients have a better understanding of the problem, they start seeking solutions. This is known as the consideration stage, and you want to keep your client coming back to you through webinars, podcasts, and extensive blogs. Lastly, the prospect reaches the consideration stage, where they want to purchase a solution. At this point, you want them to spend on you. Examples of content at this stage include product guides, demos, free trials, and offers.
In each step of your content creation journey, you need to create content that resonates with your audience and achieves your marketing goals. Conduct SEO research to find the right keywords, create topic clusters, establish an editorial calendar, and linking externally and internally are vital.
Content Audit: Whether it's your first or second, or millionth time creating content, you always need to check if it works. If no one sees your content or resonates with it, then it's probably time to rethink the process. So how do you check if your content is achieving your content marketing ROI?
Look for key metrics such as web traffic, lead generation, onsite and social media engagement, and sales. Once you know how your content is performing, you can decide what needs to be recreated, abandoned, rewritten, or improved.
Content Promotion: What good is all your content if no one sees it? You need to promote your content because you need to get through the noise and competition. Promoting your content is more than just pushing ads. You need to know where your clients spend their time, what content they consume, and how much you want them to recognise you. Once you have answers to these questions, you can find the right channels, periods, and styles to promote your content.
The "engage" step is the second step in the flywheel model. During the engage stage, a stranger becomes a lead, which means they have potential. You want to keep them around through conversation. When a customer moves into the engage stage, they understand their problems and are seeking a solution. This stage coincides with the second stage of the content creation process, which is the consideration stage.
Engaging your client moves past inactive communication and encourages active conversation. It's the right stage to move from how you can sell yourself to how you can provide a solution. Within your content, you can engage clients through Calls-To-Action (CTAs) and forms. Other crucial tools in this stage include messaging apps, bots, and emails.
Communication at this point should be reliable and smooth. A CRM tool that streamlines communication between your potential clients and your marketing team and the customer relations team is vital. All your social media conversations, website chats, and email responses should be available on a single platform where your team can have complete control. When a customer interacts with your chatbots and needs assistance beyond what a bot can offer, you need your team on the issue instantly. Ensure your tickets are always ready for attendance from your customer relationship management team.
You can also try to create a forum. The best part about forums is being able to have direct conversations with your client. You can create forums on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Alternatively, you can organise live-chats once in a while to engage your customers and answer any questions they have. The ultimate goal is to come out on top as the solution provider.
Once in a while, hold a contest because who doesn't like winning free stuff? If you need to use influencers to organise a giveaway, this is the right stage. Games grab attention and are excellent ways to market yourself if clients can reshare your post, take photos, and tag you.
DigiKat is a HubSpot Partner dedicated to helping you grow. We are here to help you attract and engage your potential customers. Contact us to see how we can help you achieve long-term growth.