Content First Sales Funnel
By content-first what I mean is that your sales strategy must turn on content. In other words qualify with quality content so that they’re more likely to become buying customers. This is crucial because a lot of marketers on INSTAGRAM use it as a traffic pump. Their viewers just click, if they don’t convert, no big deal, I just get more of them and this is a bad attitude to have.
The problem with this is that you burn through a tremendous amount of traffic before you can get a sale. But what if I was to tell you, you can pull less traffic, but get more money. This is not a theory, but how?
Well, with content to qualify your traffic. Make no mistake, INSTAGRAM and successful social media marketing turn on content marketing. The traffic must trust you and know you and get to like you. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to happen instantly, they have to go through a content funnel.
Make no mistake, raw traffic doesn’t convert a high enough return on investment. If it did, then we just run out and buy raw traffic and not bother with all the work that comes in when you start putting content out there. But this isn’t the case. Marketers on Facebook, etcetera uses content based strategy all the time otherwise known as content marketing.
This is mainly because this particular method is more compatible with social traffic. It just works better.
The K L T process
Let me ask you, when was the last time you bought something from a complete and total stranger? I’m willing to guess this happens once in a blue moon and if you’re like most people then maybe never. The thing is you’re absolutely normal if that’s your mind-set. This is how most people see things.
Most people only want to buy from people they know and trust. That’s just basic sales. It doesn’t matter if it’s done online or offline. With content marketing, I wish I could tell you that you just need a couple of pages to pull this off, but that really isn’t the case. They need to go through some decent content before they know, like and trust; ‘KLT.’ It doesn’t matter if you’re on your own, a small company or a big company. It’s all the same when it comes down to trust. And by putting content out there you build trust.
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it can happen with just a couple of pages of content, but you can’t rely on this. You mustn’t make this is the only thing. The best way to do is to drop them on to somewhere that helps them out. If they’re looking for content they’re probably looking for answers and they read information that you put out there and they click through. When you do this you’re building credibility and authority. You can then feed them content that open their mind to their needs and get them excited about the solutions you’re offering and the things you’re selling.
They might read some information, want some more information on one point and then you click through and they’re on another page that goes into that in more detail. Then they may even sign up to your mailing list or they might click through to buy something, but they’ve gone down this content funnel and they trust you, they like you and they’ve got to know you. You’re controlling the conversation and you could offer a freebie that’s got the actual answer to get them on your mailing list because this is where the selling really begins.
It’s a very simple math, the more you sell the more you make. So the best part of getting them on the mailing list is that this asset grows in value over time. You may not convert them with the first, but you might with the next or the one after that. Your list grows and so does your trust factor with them and none of this is possible without the KLT process.
Working On Multi-Page Strategy
The way this works is that if people are just looking for basic information, the first page they land unless they know so an option out there. At this point you could recruit them to your squeeze page and let your mailing list do the selling. But you could also have more options on that page; they read through, they see another option, they click and they go through to another piece of content. They read this; this may go to somewhere else. It might recommend the tool.
As you can see, you’re sending them and you’re controlling the flow of this traffic and you’re controlling the pace. As I’ve said, eventually what I would do is recruit them into your squeeze page, maybe by offering them a top 10 of something or some other freebie. Once they’re on that mailing list you control the messaging and the pace of messaging and therefore you control the conversion as well.