February 17, 2015 Jeremy Taylor
Content marketing is often compared to dating. You wouldn’t say “will you marry me” after just one date, so you probably shouldn’t say “buy my stuff” as soon as someone lands on your website or follows you on Twitter.
The question is how can you convert your prospects into fully fledged relationships with a determinable ROI? This new infographic from Constant Contact looks at what content marketers can learn from dating in order to attract, charm, convert and retain new customers.
Attraction
The first step is to get yourself noticed. For content marketers that could mean light-touch content (such as blog posts and infographics) that’s designed to build brand awareness and drive web traffic.
However, your prospective customer will need to get to know you a little better before taking things further. After all, only 24% of people actually trust someone they’re on a first date with.
Tip: One infographic is tweeted every 4.6 seconds, so they’re great for reaching a large audience with good-looking, easily digestible information.
Charm
So what can content marketers do to build trust? You need to show off your expertise and make it clear that you’re the real deal and white papers and webinars are really well suited for this (and are being used by 43% and 42% of marketers respectively).
Convert
You know each other, there’s definite attraction and now there’s also trust – perhaps it’s time to pop the question. From a content perspective, that means sales content such as testimonials, case studies and product videos.
Retain
Once you’ve sealed the deal, don’t let the romance fizzle out. Keep in touch with your clients with regular social media updates and email newsletters. After all, 49% of companies say that pound for pound, they achieve better ROI by investing in relationship marketing over acquisition marketing.
If your business is looking to attract, charm, convert and retain customers, don’t ask them to buy your stuff after the first date. Instead, think about the different types of content you need to build trust and, eventually, convert leads into long-term customers.
Content marketing infographic