how content leads to customers

Leads to CustomersContent

Scott MacFarland

How

March | 2015.com

Photo credit: David Marcu

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Topics Customers are changing Content & Customers Personas The Customer Path - Sales Funnel Persona Data & Content Customer Stages & Media Type Social Media Sample Customer Path Sample Data Form 5 Questions to get started

Photo credit: David Marcu

Strategy ENC Website Admissions Adult & Graduate Studies Development What’s Next?

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Each of your prospective customers are unique.

Do you know how to identify

them in a crowd?

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Watch Download

Listen Blog View

Tweet Post

Produce Talk

Interact Type

# @

App Buy

C

usto

mer

s… 4

5

They Communicate !!What Content They Consume? !!How They Share !!Do They Want !!!What Are Their Expectations?

U

nder

stan

d H

ow…

Immediacy?

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Und

erst

and

How

… They Interact

With Apps !They Buy !They Use !!They Gather Information !They Interact With Mobile !They Interact Personally & Professionally ! !!

Social Media

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Tech

nolo

gy

M

akes

Thi

s Po

ssib

le

What’s Missing? !

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!

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!

content & customers

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!

content & customers

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The content and customer cycle must keep moving and stay fresh. Once a brand stops creating content for their customers, the brand will not be as visible and customers will not find them on the web when they search.

“Customers never stop searching, so brands should never stop creating content to attract them.”

- YourBrandExposed.com

Pers onasPersonas

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What are 12

A descriptive representation of your ideal customer.

!

Personas?

Why are they14

The more you know about the prospective customer,

the easier it will be to create targeted marketing content.

important?

1. Demographic info: Age, Gender, HHI, Ethnicity, Professional / personal status, basic Info.

!

!

!

Persona Profile

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* Problem Most marketing teams stop here and do not go further to describe personas

Checklist

2. Common questions 3. Describe their problems and pain points 4. Motivations for buying 5. Communication preferences / information search 6. Why would they NOT consider or NOT like your brand? 7. What other competing brands are they considering? !

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Persona ProfileChecklist

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!

!

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CREATE content specific to persona profile EXPOSE your brand so prospects can find you CONNECT with prospects using relevant content ATTRACT them into and through the funnel CONVERT them successfully

!!

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Persona ProfileSummary

customerpath

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persona

content

the

data &

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Determine critical customer touch points from the first touch all the way through to conversion. Lead the prospective customer down a pre-planned path. Build in content logic that serves relevant content based on actions of the customer. !As the brand, you must understand where the prospective customer is in the sales funnel in order to create logic-oriented content that is effective in continuing to lead the customer deeper into the funnel toward a purchase. !

customerpaththe

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Capturing persona data can be accomplished using content, offers, CTAs and forms in the sales funnel. !

It’s important to know each stage of the sales funnel and the buyer’s mindset in that stage.

!! persona data

& content

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Sales FunnelThe following slides are describing the sales funnel attributes, stages of the prospective customer, media that can be used

in each stage as well as where to gather data. !!

Cust

omer

pat

h

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The customer path sometimes starts with a first touch point in the awareness stage located at the top of the sales funnel.

!!

[Awareness Stage]

Customer Path

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The customer path sometimes starts with a first touch point in the awareness stage located at the top of the sales funnel.

!!

[Awareness Stage]

[Consideration Stage]

If a brand’s content marketing is working well and designed to drive the protective customer deeper into the funnel, the

prospect will end up here in the consideration stage. !!

Customer Path

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The customer path sometimes starts with a first touch point in the awareness stage located at the top of the sales funnel.

!!

[Awareness Stage]

[Consideration Stage]

[Decision Stage]

If a brand’s content marketing is working well and designed to drive the protective customer deeper into the funnel, the

prospect will end up here in the consideration stage. !!

Ultimately a prospective customer who decides to buy ends up here in the decision stage.

Customer Path

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Customer StagesFunnel: Awareness - Consideration - Decision

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Customers do not know your brand in this stage

[Content tip: tease, educate, big picture]

[Awareness Stage]

[Consideration Stage]

[Decision Stage]

Customer Stages

26Customer StagesCustomers do not know your brand in this stage

[Content tip: tease, educate, big picture]

Customers have heard about your brand and

are comparing it to other competing brands

[Awareness Stage]

[Consideration Stage]

[Decision Stage]

[Content tip: motivate, compel, deeper relevancy]

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Customers do not know your brand in this stage

[Content tip: tease, educate, big picture]

Customers have heard about your brand and

are comparing it to other competing brands

Customers are informed and ready to make

a purchase

[Awareness Stage]

[Consideration Stage]

[Decision Stage]

[Content tip: motivate, compel, deeper relevancy]

[Content tip: welcoming]

Customer Stages

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[Awareness Stage]Social Media EmailSearchDisplay /

Retargeting PRSponsorships & Events

Blogs Articles Videos

EDU WebsiteAdvertising

Examples of Media Used Per Stage

[Consideration Stage]

[Decision Stage]

29Examples of Media Used Per Stage

Social Media EmailSearchDisplay /

Retargeting PRSponsorships & Events

Blogs Articles Videos

EDU WebsiteAdvertising

Persona Info & data captured here

[Awareness Stage]

[Consideration Stage]

[Decision Stage]

!Splash Landing Thank you eBooks Videos Fact Sheets Email Social Page Page Page Media

!

30Examples of Media Used Per Stage

Social Media EmailSearchDisplay /

Retargeting PRSponsorships & Events

Blogs Articles Videos

EDU WebsiteAdvertising

!Splash Landing Thank you eBooks Videos Fact Sheets Email Social Page Page Page Media

!

Persona Info & data captured here

[Awareness Stage]

[Consideration Stage]

[Decision Stage]

Persona data captured is used for follow-up

Social Media

Photo Credit: UnSplash - Timothy Muza

How to use social media in the sales funnel

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Social Media

What persona are you posting for? What is the key message of the post? What keywords are important to include? Add a link to your website Determine a CTA Attach a photo or video Do you use a brand # ?

What to think about before you post

Photo Credit: UnSplash - Timothy Muza

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Social Media

Social content is probably best suited for Awareness or Consideration stages because the brand has the opportunity to engage with the prospective customer in real time. The goal - drive the customer to a deeper level funnel conversion. !

Content

Photo Credit: UnSplash - Timothy Muza

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Social Media

Social media is a great place to gather behavioral data on prospective customers. Use your social channels to monitor activity: keywords, phrases, conversations, tone, readiness to buy, competition, engagement and brand loyalty. !

Monitoring = Data

Photo Credit: UnSplash - Timothy Muza

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Don’t ignore the sales funnel - it helps define what media to use and how to produce your content that reaches the customer effectively.

!

Define the customer data do you want to capture in the funnel and what types of media your team use. !

Takeaways

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1 4

2 3

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

Wireframe

Email hand-off

to Sales team

Email Nice to meet you!

The Customer PathAs we mentioned earlier, you must pre-determine customer touch points within your customer path. In the following pages you will see what a sample path looks like. !The content logic that you build in to your digital ecosystem is critical. A cause-effect principle occurs. Your content causes the customer to take action, (watch a video, download a .pdf, go to a landing page, etc… this means your pre-determined path is being followed and you are capturing data along the way because the customer is completing a short form to continue getting the great content they want. !Keep in mind, forms are not always the silver bullet solution to capture data, nor will customers always want to continue filling out forms. You will have to determine how many pieces of necessary customer data you need to ask for in a form and do not go further - your customer may get frustrated and exit the funnel. !!

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1 4

2 3

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

Wireframe

Email hand-off

to Sales team

Email Nice to meet you!

This example has 4 customer paths (numbers 1-4). Each number has a different content topic representing a product. Each customer path serves content based on the topic of that path. Here you may want to use a form that asks questions. The logic of the form submission drives them deeper and serves them related content. !Example: GAP Retail Store Path 1: Women’s Casual Summer Attire Path 2: Women’s Summer footwear Path 3: Men’s Business Casual Attire Path 4: Men’s Casual Summer Attire

Awareness Stage is above the orange dotted-line

Sample Wireframe

of Customer Path

1 4

2 3

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

Wireframe

Email hand-off

to Sales team

Email Nice to meet you!

If your content did its job, the customer will go deeper in the funnel to the Consideration stage. Here, customers will get even more content which meets their needs. The goal is to continue to stay relevant and top of mind with great content and calls-to-action. Remember, you want to drive them to “purchase,” — make it easy for them to do this. !

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1 4

2 3

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

Wireframe

Email hand-off

to Sales team

Email Nice to meet you!

The Consideration stage is as deep as you make it. In this diagram we are showing follow-up emails, landing pages and thank you pages - all of which have the goal of nurturing the prospective customer. When they meet the pre-determined criteria in the customer path, the customer profile is automatically sent to the sales team. !Benefit: Marketing content nurtures the customer and pre-qualifies them. This allows the sales team to only spend time with prospects that want to buy. Content is timely, fresh and is relevant to what the customer wants. !!

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1 4

2 3

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

Wireframe

Email hand-off

to Sales team

Email Nice to meet you!

Sample Wireframe

of Customer Path

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1 4

2 3

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

Wireframe

Email hand-off

to Sales team

Email Nice to meet you!

Customer Data

What Type of clothing best fits you?

How frequent do you go shopping for clothing?

Data / Forms: Forms on landing pages are great ways to capture data from your prospective customers. Ask just a few questions to make it easy for them. This gives you insight and information about your customer. !Think about what data you want to capture and in what stage you want to present the form. !This form is in the Awareness stage and is designed to get the customer to watch the video. It will give the customer more information about what they want regarding about the brand, product or service. !

This is the Call-to-action (CTA) button. It is easy to find on the page and is clearly the only action on the landing page you want the customer to take.

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First & last name Email

Buying habits Type of Product

—— blogs, videos, eBooks,

Downloads, Landing pages, Website pages Time / duration Search engine Social insights Emails opened

!

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Data Gathered

Tactics and media used

Photo Credit: Titan!Jocelyn Gabriel

Photo credit: UnSplash - Chelsea Francis

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Get Started

Ask these 5 Questions First

Do you know precisely who your prospective customers are? 1

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Photo credit: Paul Bica

What methods are you using to target those customers? 2 45

What types of content are you using to lead the customer

deep into the funnel? 3Photo credit: Paul Bica

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What persona data do you want to capture? 4

Photo credit: Paul Bica

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What path do you want the customer to follow? 5

Photo credit: Paul Bica

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Leads to CustomersContent

Scott MacFarland

How49

.comMarch | 2015

Leads to CustomersContent

Scott MacFarland

How

March | 2015.com

www.linkedin.com/in/scmacfarland

@scmacfarland

yourbrandexposed@yahoo.com

Photo Credits: !Scott MacFarland !

UnSplash - David Marcu ! UnSplash - Timothy Muza !

Titan - Jocelyn Gabriel !UnSplash - Chelsea Francis !

Paul Bica https://www.flickr.com/photos/dexxus/6747019289/