As a marketer, you probably spend a lot of time crafting great content. In fact, it may feel like you eat, breathe and sleep content creation! And while content is certainly an effective tool for growing your audience and generating brand awareness, it’s ultimately most critical for content to be a tool for driving conversions. If people are reading your emails, but nobody is actually converting from a passive reader to an active customer, it’s time to reevaluate your email marketing strategy!
Converting a potential client into a paying customer hinges on your ability to strategically use content (especially emails) as a stepping stone to move a prospective customer to the next action step in your sales funnel.
If you aren’t seeing prospective clients convert to paying customers, the problem may be that the content you’re sharing in your emails isn’t creating a sense of urgency that moves people to take action (ie: take the next step in making a purchase decision!)
Your readers (along with the rest of us!) have a lot on their plates, so decisions and topics that seem most urgent are what will get the most attention. That’s why you have to create a sense of urgency if you want your emails move readers to action. If you find that your emails aren’t driving sales conversions, here are a few key questions to ask yourself:
1. What are my reader’s (target client’s) “pain points?”
In other words, what are the areas where my prospective clients are facing a problem that my product or service can help solve? Good email marketers share relevant content that addresses a problem or need their target audience faces. More specifically, your emails should address the “pain points” that are really urgent in your target client’s mind. Simply make a list of these specific “paint points” for your target client and brainstorm some topics for emails that specifically address these areas.
2. What events will affect target client’s buying patterns?
Depending on whether you serve consumers or other businesses, your target audience may have certain times of year that impact their likelihood to purchase from you. For some businesses, it’s important to keep in mind trade show cycles or even the school year calendar.
If you have a product or service that your target audience will only buy when they have a problem (ie: if you sell a repair service), are there certain times of year this issue is more likely to come up? If you serve small businesses, do they have certain times of year that are slower, and therefore won’t be as likely to make a purchase? The wedding business, for example, is seasonal in many parts of the country!
Keeping in mind the events and times of year that could impact your client will help you determine the most strategic times to share particular information in your emails.
3. Am I giving my target clients an actionable next step?
Creating a sense of urgency and compelling readers to take a next step requires that your content is clear in directing them to where they can go next. This doesn’t mean being overly pushy or “salesy,” but your content needs to be straightforward and tell readers where to go for more information or how to contact you.
Do you want readers to visit a particular page on your website? Do you want to drive them to your company’s contact form? Or do you want them to call you for more information? Whatever next step you want readers to take, you’ve got to direct them there by clearly stating that next step and illustrating the benefit of of taking it.
Even better than that? Heighten your reader’s sense of urgency by giving them an incentive to take that next step within a certain short period of time. An actionable next step, along with a concrete deadline, will help create a tangible sense of urgency.
How about you? What ways have you successfully created urgency in your content marketing?
Rachel LaCour Niesen is a storyteller at heart. As a marketing strategist, she helps clients build blogs, create editorial calendars, design infographics and write whitepapers. She enjoys every opportunity to collaborate with small businesses to create valuable content that resonates with their audiences – and makes everyone’s lives a little more fun in the process! You can connect with her or tweet your questions to her here @rachellacour