You frequently read “Content is King” as you surf the net. Bill Gates is credited with the first utterance of the term in 1996. If you would like to read a detailed history and explanation, take a look at this SilkStream.net blog.
New entrepreneurs may ask, “Why should content marketing be a major player in my marketing?” Here are a few ways it plays into your plans:
- You will use content to drive traffic
- You use content to engage your audience and to learn about their wants, needs, and goals.
- Content is used to build a brand and to establish authority.
One of the primary goals for your content is to convert. You convert prospects to leads and leads to customers. One method to accomplish this is to use emotions to sell.
Emotions Sell
The next time you go shopping at your local Walmart, think about why you’re buying what is in your cart. The big box stores pay researchers and skilled marketers to know why you’re buying it. They know that we buy for emotional reasons. We buy because we want to feel something or stop feeling something. For example, if you buy mints you might want to feel confident that your breath is fresh. Or, you may buy the latest energy drink because it makes you feel like you can get tasks done.
As an entrepreneur, you can leverage the emotions of your target audience, prospects and leads to grow your list and sell products or services. You know your audience and customers better than anyone. You are attuned to problems they’re facing and the solutions that your products, service and information provide.
For example, a business coach might understand that one of the primary emotions their audience faces is frustration from not being able to reach goals or dissatisfaction from an unfulfilling role in the company they are employed by. Conversely, those very same prospects may be seeking to feel happy, content, or fulfilled. There are both positive and negative emotions to consider. It’s not only your job to identify those emotions but to integrate them into your content.
In fact, emotions can and should be integrated into content throughout your sales funnel – from lead generation and list building to converting those leads to paying customers and then increasing sales and repeat purchases.
How You Can Identify Your Audience’s Emotions
Take a look at your audience at every level of interaction with your company. For example, why do they contact you? What challenge are they facing or dealing with when they start searching for information or solutions online? A business owner might start researching for a virtual assistant or online business manager when they begin to feel overwhelmed by the time it’s taking to run their business or they are ready to take their business to the next level.
A virtual assistant can tap into that emotion by providing an opt-in report that shows overwhelmed business owners how to get more done with a virtual assistant or shows motivated business owners how a virtual assistant can help them take their business to the next level. The opt-in offer taps into the emotions the prospect is feeling and provides a solution. Overwhelm is replaced by hope with one simple opt-in report.
Once your prospect is on your list and they’re a lead, you can then focus on the other emotions they’re experiencing. What’s their problem or challenge now? Email content can then focus on tapping into those emotions and converting the lead to a customer. Take a look at your sales funnel and identify the positive and negative emotions that your prospects and leads may be experiencing. Start integrating those emotions into your content and watch your conversion rate increase.
