By Gillian Arthur, Consultant and Strategic Writer, Mainstay
Over the course of our Content Fit for Purpose series, we’ve looked what it takes to attract buyers at each stage by aligning your content strategy to your customer’s buyer journey—specifically by delivering content that targets buyers at the top of the funnel and middle of the funnel.
In part one of this series, “Tailoring Your Top of Funnel Content to Increase Brand Awareness,” we covered how the top of the funnel is best used to create awareness, drive traffic and establish credibility through content including search optimized blog articles, social media posts, infographics, and videos. This phase is like the bait on a fishhook. It’s what will draw interest and creating awareness into your brand, so long as you cast it. Once you’ve caught the attention of B2B buyers in the top of the funnel, you can focus on part two.
In part two, “Using Middle of Funnel Content to Nurture Leads,” we discussed how the middle of the funnel is where you want to nurture your potential customers deeper into the buyer journey, fostering leads and consideration through content like digital advertising campaigns, webinars, eBooks, and white papers.
But how do you convert those leads once they are pulled deeper into the buyer journey?
The bottom of the funnel is the final stage of the buyer journey. After gaining awareness at the top of the funnel and fostering consideration in the middle of the funnel, the bottom of the funnel is about driving action and conversions. In other words, it’s where you ‘set the hook’ so the fish can be reeled in (and your buyers make a decision).
According to Demand Gen Report’s 2022 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey, 38% of marketing practitioners say their top demand gen priority is improving conversion rates. To do this, you must show your buyers why your product is worth the purchase. How? By creating content that showcases results. Content like case studies, customer testimonials, and ROI business cases are optimal for converting current prospects into customers.
- Case studies
Case studies can be a compelling way to explain how your product or service helped a customer solve a particular problem, and help prospects understand how your product could do the same for them. Not only are case studies real-world examples of what your company has to offer, they can provide detailed, quantifiable results of the successes your product or service has enabled for clients. Ultimately, case studies are the social proof buyers need to see to know they are making the right decision and that they will benefit from working with you.
According to Content Marketing Institute’s B2B Content Marketing 2022 Report, 61% of respondents said they used case studies for content marketing purposes in the last 12 months and 33% of marketing practitioners said that case studies were the second most successful tactic in helping convert and accelerate leads in Demand Gen Report’s 2022 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey.
- Customer Testimonials
Like case studies, customer testimonials offer social proof that helps buyers see how effective your technology or service is for another customer. Testimonials are first hand accounts from existing customers describing the value your company has created for them. It’s the customer telling the story in their own words that proves so effective for influencing prospective buyers. In fact, according to Wyzowl, 9 out of 10 people say they trust what a customer says about a business more than what that business says about itself and 95% of people say that reviews – whether positive or negative – influence their purchasing decisions
Statistically speaking, client reviews can also powerful in swaying public opinion—often these are tracked by a third party, such as G2. In the last stage of the buyer journey, reviews shouldn’t be overlooked, especially when you’re trying to drive conversions.
- ROI business cases
Perhaps the most compelling example of late buyer stage content is an ROI business case. As the ultimate purchase decision is typically led by a cadre of decision makers – and usually includes a financial leader, return on investment serves as a critical decision factor. If a decision maker can learn the value of the technology investment, they can make an informed decision more quickly.
An effective ROI case study involves pulling together specific metrics, including all costs, resources, etc., to calculate the value delivered over time when this unique prospect uses your product or service. According to Forrester, ROI business cases even help differentiate you from competitors during times of economic uncertainty.
As you look to convert more prospects into buyers, make sure your content is aligned with your goals. The tactics listed above are a great way to achieve this but often require specialized skills. Mainstay has decades of experience working with leading organizations like Oracle, AWS, Cisco, Salesforce, to convert leads with the right content. Reach out to Sales@mainstaycompany.com to learn how we can help convert more leads into customers for you!
