We love to buy things, but we loathe to be sold to. Enter in the era of content marketing and buyer personas for inbound marketing. 

Although creating attraction marketing for your prospective buyers takes a bit more patience to close the sale, you will create a raving fan who will refer you time and time again, plus will be loyal to you and trust you to guide them through evolution's in trends. 

1. Lots of leads to nurture with a 20% increase in sales opportunities
2. Strong relationships with your customers, reducing attrition
3. Lower acquisition costs attributed to higher conversions and referrals

The first step is creating your brand. Separate yourself by niching yourself within your industry. You should work at creating a memorable presence that is relatable and unique. Lululemon is a great example of great branding. Yes, they have great items, but they have created a brand loyalty that is almost irrational. They built something that is beyond the clothes. It’s how the store is lit, it is how the staff is trained, and it’s in the cute bags you get at checkout. It all cements the brand into your brain and more importantly your heart. 

The next important key to success is creating a strong buyer’s persona. 

Could you sell to anyone? Of course, but you can’t market to EVERYONE. So, let’s create your PERFECT buyer…Who is your ideal customer? 

Create an imaginary character. Get specific. Name them. Do your most promising customers have a particular job title, or work within a certain type of organization or industry? Where do they seek information? Where do they live? What do they do? What are their goals? What are their challenges? What motivates them? What do they complain about? When you understand THEM, you can speak to THEM. Content becomes easy to create when we know whom we are speaking to. You can create a few personas if you see a few strong patterns emerge from your market research.

The easiest way to fill out these details is survey your current clients. Pay attention to the similarities. Look at your competitors. Social media, surveys, back-end reports, and keyword planning will all help fill in the pieces of your perfect buyer. 

Now it’s all about proving VALUE! 

Adding value to the marketplace makes you an expert in your field. It creates a trust bond that becomes very hard to break. Show value by creating content and solutions that solve the problems experienced by your buyers. Show them how you have EXACTLY what they need and how you are what they have been wishing for. Once you’ve effectively refined your personas to focus on the target buyers most likely to grow your company, you’ll be more prepared to create content that speaks to their needs at each stage of the buyer’s journey. Inbound marketing is a proven method for companies seeking to get better results and more from their marketing budgets. 

The buyer’s journey is complex, and content helps move them through the sales funnel from awareness (what is my problem), to consideration (how can I solve my problem), to decision (which solution to buy).  Forrester Research reports that companies who excel at pinpointing their buyer personas with automated lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost. 

The point with this is: lead with targeted content and create a buyer journey experience that is personal and meaningful. Make sure there is also a nurturing system in place for your clients after they buy to ensure they are happy.

Harvard Business School suggests that a 5% increase in retention rate helps increase profits by 25% to 95%. There is so much value in keeping your existing clients nurtured as well. They will send you people. Those people will likely be easier to close because they are primed to buy from you. So, be precise in targeting your audience and keep your messaging consistent and clear.

Creating a plan and staying consistent are the most important tasks after you have established your buyer persona. Get value in front of them as much as possible. Keep it digestible and timely. 

Once you get your systems in place, it should start to come naturally to you and your business processes and it should actually be pretty fun. The result? Your sales team will spend far more time on sales-ready leads, boosting your sales cycle and increasing your chances to close the sale.

Are You Ready to Build a Strategy That Works?