The way professional services are acquired and marketed is being transformed by content marketing.
Our personal and work lives are so intertwined these days thanks to the Internet, it’s revolutionized the way companies identify and pick service providers. We’ve become used to searching the internet for new accountants, lawyers, architects, and consultants as time has passed.
However, the internet is much more than just a digital marketplace for the purchase of business services. As an added bonus, it’s a fantastic instructional tool. Furthermore, instructional material has emerged as the new currency in the professional services industry. When you use content marketing, you’re turning your material into cash.
For a clearer understanding of what’s happening, let’s first look at some classic methods to sell and buy service.
Traditional Marketing 101
When it comes to conventional service marketing, a company will go out into the world and create visibility and trust over time via networking, public speaking, and word-of-mouth recommendations. After some time, someone who has heard of the company and wants its services arranges a meeting to find out more information about the firm. Before a choice is made, the relationship must evolve over a period of time.
Or maybe a firm need a certain service. A request for proposals (RFP) is sent to a wide range of potential service suppliers. A deluge of responses pours in. The buyer then spends a few weeks going through the bids before setting up interviews with the most promising companies. It takes many weeks until a decision is reached and construction begins.
It’s inefficient in both cases to try to connect a company with a buyer. Due to the fact that the businesses are not evaluated until late in the process, a significant amount of time is spent speaking with companies or potential customers that are not a suitable fit.
Content Marketing—A Better Way
A company’s knowledge may now be communicated in a more direct and compelling manner. It also has the potential to reach a far broader audience as a result. Before making an enquiry, buyers get to know a company and its approach to issue resolution on a much more personal level.
It’s all about content marketing to attract new customers and nurture current ones by regularly publishing free, quality, instructional information online and then utilizing that content to do things like attract new leads, nurture existing ones, and increase customer preference for the company.
There are three benefits for a company when it writes on themes that are important to its target audience:
- Demonstrates a deep understanding of issues its prospects care about
- Engages its audience
- Builds trust.
In the long run, the more regularly a company publishes engaging content, the more trusted it gets. Converted leads are those that change their attitude or way of thinking after being cultivated via content marketing. They’ll even employ a business they’ve been tracking without seeking out competing bids on the job..
Finally, a company that cultivates a devoted following of customers has an easier time completing deals.
What is Content?
When it comes to content marketing, we’ve found that offering a ton of free resources is the most successful strategy. The majority of this content will be in the form of blog posts or articles, both of which are brief in length.
So, what’s the first step? Do you have the ability to develop different types of content?
Blogging is the quickest and most cost-effective method to get started for most companies. Blog postings may be written and published rapidly since they are less polished than, say, a magazine piece. Commenting on blog articles is an excellent method to engage with your readers.
However, blogs are only the tip of the iceberg. As you rework your marketing strategy, keep these alternative content marketing vehicles in mind:
- Webinars. To display your company’s knowledge, educate your audience, and develop interested leads, webinars are an excellent choice. If you record your webinars, you can make them available to your website users at any time by adding them to your library of material.
- Articles and white papers. These medium-length works, although well-known, are nonetheless helpful in thought leadership. They have a bad rap for being astringent. As a result, do your best to make them as simple to understand as possible.
- Social media. As a way to connect directly to your audience, answer queries, and spread the word about your instructional content through social media (particularly LinkedIn and Twitter),
- E-newsletters. Email inboxes are popular places to get instructional material. In exchange, you get their email address and the opportunity to provide them with further information about your expertise.
- Ebooks. Publish a comprehensive research on a subject for maximum credibility. Normally, you’d want to hide anything of this importance behind a simple registration form to avoid spam complaints.
- Kits and guides. You may use these medium-length articles on your website, in PPC advertisements, and email marketing to great effect. If you want to gather leads, place them behind a registration form.
Other forms exist, but these are the most common and effective for packaging information.
Our research studies, which are likely the most useful material we generate at SagaReach, are available for free to everyone. The goal of this strategy is to produce high-quality inbound and outbound connections. Longer articles, in our opinion, should need registration. As a result, the reader is willing to part up only their name and email address in exchange for the article. The reader gains useful knowledge, while you increase the size of your list of potential customers. It’s a good deal.
What to Write
What topics do you cover in your writing? Will you be disclosing your personal information? You’ll have to exercise your best judgment in this situation. Consider keeping an unique method or technique a closely guarded secret if it provides your company a distinct edge over its rivals. Most businesses, on the other hand, do not enjoy this perk.
Whatever your position, you’ll virtually always be able to find something to write about that won’t put you at a disadvantage when it comes to your business. To be honest, most industry leaders aren’t successful because of their exclusive formula. They’re successful because customers and potential customers think of them as the best option. Perceptions may be shaped best by demonstrating knowledge of the subject matter.
A well-stocked mind makes writing much more manageable. To help you come up with new ideas, consider the difficulties you tackle on a daily basis for your customers. Even if you don’t try, you can probably come up with a list of 10-20 problems. If you’re stuck, though, consider collaborating with your coworkers to come up with new ideas. There’s no need to ponder very complex philosophical issues. Answering a frequent question in a practical way may be worth its weight in gold.
The Importance of SEO
The articles you publish must be discoverable if you want to use content marketing effectively. To be discovered on Google, that’s what it implies. Keep this in mind while you compose your content. Get to know how search engines function and which search phrases could help you rank.
Don’t Drop Everything
Your marketing strategy should include a significant amount of content marketing. It’s the way professional services marketing will go in the future, and it’s already shown to be successful. Nevertheless, does this indicate that you should stop using the strategies that have proven successful in the past? That is not the case. Not yet, at any rate.
The individuals who provide professional services are what set them apart. As a result, having a face-to-face conversation is always beneficial. When people encounter you in person, they will have a greater appreciation for your online reputation because of the high quality of your material.
According to our findings, companies that generate between 40% and 59 percent of their leads online grow the quickest. For the time being, your best chance is to take a well-rounded strategy to marketing.