Content is quickly becoming the weapon of choice for landing sales for both B2B and B2C customers. According to an article from the Huffington Post, consumers have moved past the phase of reaching out to specific businesses via phone to find the right solutions to their problems.

In fact, potential customers now take that initiative on their own by seeking out the solutions they need without seeking a vendor for assistance. More and more, consumers are doing their own research and are only approaching a vendor after reviewing all of the potential solutions.

Businesses Can’t Ignore Increasingly Educated Consumers

This growing change in consumer behavior should be of concern to businesses. It is a dramatic shift that they can no longer afford not to address. The brands that will perform best as a result of this shifting change are those that utilize content effectively to connect with potential customers.

Here are a few ways in which an effective content marketing plan can help your business to thrive as consumer behaviors change.

Demonstrate Value With Content

When consumers seek out information regarding a potential solution to a problem, they tend to seek out the companies that have established reputations. When it comes to making a decision between two companies of equal caliber, customers tend to do business with the company that provides the best value. One of the most effective ways to demonstrate value is by educating your customers through content.

Content marketing enables businesses  to demonstrate value and achieve industry authority. The best practices for content marketing can help you achieve such results faster by committing to:

• regular content publishing
• a clear brand identity
• a multi-channel approach
• efficient content creation

With a dedicated approach, companies have the ability to outpace competitors in terms of demonstrating value. This cohesive effort can help to build trust with your customers faster, making successful sales outcomes that much easier.

Lead Nurturing

As in the case of B2B brands, a longer sales cycle means that lead nurturing with educational content can really sway a potential customer in the sales decision making process.

To be effective, the content creation process must become a major priority for your business. Content that provides real value and educates potential customers begins with a plan and includes several key components. Your brand must create content that:

• offers a writing style that resonates with the targeted buyer persona
• provides solutions to the customer’s problem
• includes a clear call-to-action

By influencing the customer with a continuous stream of valuable content, the likelihood that your customer will have a Zero Moment of Truth (the moment when a customer forms an opinion on your brand) that establishes your business as a trusted brand is substantially increased.

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation must also become a part of your content strategy. It has been proven to be effective for increasing conversion rates. Automation is especially helpful at increasing sales conversion rates because it ensures that your customer receives the right marketing message at the right time.

By focusing on your content strategy as a means of improving sales, you can effectively reach every potential customer in your sales funnel with content that is relevant and effective. Attracting future customers and increasing sales is now simply a matter of having a better content strategy than your competitors.

Do you believe this changing shift means that consumers now have more or less power? Discuss it below in the comments section.

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