Content is one of the most discussed strategies among marketers and sales executives. This is because, since the start of Google, customers can complete at least half the buying experience before coming into contact with a salesperson. Content can improve the buyers’ experience - but what is content?

Content is the presentation of information for a purpose to a target audience using a specific channel. Most content is made of written and visual attributes, which include blogs, emails, press releases, YouTube videos, webinars, social media posts, photographs, and thought-leadership pieces.

Great content builds awareness

If you develop great content, then your prospects will become aware of your product. If people read your content and see that you offer great advice, then they’ll come back to your site. By developing well-researched, accurate, and beautifully-designed content, you’ll develop trust with your customer.

Great content builds trust

When a brand provides an inconsistent message through various channels, any customer would become skeptical of your legitimacy. So all your messaging needs to align with your brand’s main message and needs to be consistent no matter which platform it’s on.

Great content helps customers to make decisions

Content that clearly defines your brand’s benefit and reinforces how it has helped other customers to overcome their pain points will help your customer to decide whether or not they’ll want to invest in your brand. Badly written and inaccurate content will make people believe this is a reflection of your brand and they’ll move onto a competitor.

Great content builds more leads and opportunities

When you have great content which helps your customer with the needs they have then they will be more willing to share the content in their circle of influence. This could lead to more people becoming aware of your product and they could also move on to become great customers or share your content with their inner circle.

These are the reasons for creating great content - but it’s important to know which content to create for the different stages of the customer’s buying experience.

Stage 1: Awareness

This stage is when you’re trying to attract as many clients as possible to your brand. You want your content to be about awareness and discovery - and it’s important to try and sell to your customers in this stage. The content is more about general information for the industry you work in. For this stage you’ll use the following content:

• Blogs or videos: This content will answer the top questions around topics that are relevant to your buyer’s persona.
• Templates or checklist: This document can be traded for your buyer’s contact details. It should be a piece of paper that helps your buyer to complete a task they’ve been struggling with.
• Guide or webinar: You can also create a webinar or guide which teaches your customer how to complete a task or process in the best way.

Stage 2: Sales

When you’ve managed to get the contact details of your prospective client, you can move on to creating contact and introducing your client to the products or services you have available. This content is more specific about how your service or product offering can help them to grow. The content for this stage is the following:

• Interactive product tours or demos: Show your lead how your product can satisfy the pain point which they have.
• Testimonials: Contact your best and most happy clients and get testimonials from them and about how the product has benefited them.
• Case studies: Your customers may be willing to answer some questions which you can develop into a case study.

Stage 3: Retention

When you’ve made a successful sale then it’s important to have content that can deal with any potential problems your client has. This content should also encourage your clients to remain as loyal customers or advocates. The content for this stage is:

• A knowledge base: Create a section in your blog where you answer the regular questions you receive from your customers.
• Setup or installation videos: This is a video that explains how to install or set-up the service or product that you sell.

Webinars: You can create webinars where VIP clients can share information about how they’ve had success with certain processes.