Content To Profits: 4 Tips to Turn Content Into Sales In YOUR Business

Create content for every stage of the conversion process

You’ve started the process of creating content. But how do you turn that content into sales? It can be confusing, and you’re not sure that the time and energy you invest in content will work for your business.

Start by thinking about your business, and your customers. Then think about the goals you have for your business. Next, create some goals for your content marketing as a whole, as well as for each piece of content you create.

Let’s imagine that you own a beauty salon in a small city.

You’re in competition with several other salons. Your overall goal is to build your customer base. You know that on average, a customer will visit your salon eight to 12 times over a year, and will contribute $1,000 per year to your bottom line. You create a content marketing goal to bring you five new customers a month. That’s an extra $60,000 for your bottom line per year, and makes content marketing an excellent investment for your business.

Let’s look at four tips which will help you to turn your content into sales.

1. Attract Your Audience: Be Informative and Entertaining

Currently, you have zero content. What do you want your customers to know? Think about the customers you had yesterday. You spent a lot of time advising them. You can offer advice using content. Not only will your customers be better informed, they may well spend more money with you on each visit because they will know what they want.

Make a list of the types of customers you have. Your beauty salon has very young customers just starting out in their working life. Some of your customers are mothers who need to look good, but don’t have much time. You also have customers who are older. This group has time and money to spend on looking good. Each group has different needs.

Create a persona — a fictional representation of each group. Your goal is to attract customers from each group, with content which is not only informative, but entertaining too.

2. Do More Than Guide Your Audience on Their Path to Conversion

Yes, you want to guide your audience to conversion: you want customers. However, in content marketing, although you focus on creating content for your personas, you can cast a wider net too.

Create content for those people who interact with your customers. This group can include your customers’ friends, families and work colleagues. When you create content for this wider group, you’ll sell more gift cards, and more special-occasion products, like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and birthday gifts.

3. Create Content for Every Stage of the Conversion Process

You’ve created your personas, and you’re creating content for them. Now think about the stages these personas go through on their path to conversion. You can create content for every stage of that path.

Keep an eye on the news, and pay attention to celebrity gossip. Your customers are influenced by the gossip culture. Create content referencing celebrity gossip. You’ll attract more search engine traffic, and you’ll sell more.

4. Build Your Community: Contribute, Learn and Convert

As you build your content inventory, you’re building community. If you have a blog, your customers can add their experiences and stories. User-created content is valuable as social proof, and it develops your brand.

You’ll learn from your customers. As you improve your knowledge of what your customers and wider audience needs, you’ll increase your conversions.

Content can create profits. When you set goals for your content, you can achieve those goals. If you haven’t created a content plan for your business, do it today.

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