“What do you need to hear from us, in order to get you over the line?”
I was sitting in a business lounge last week, quietly typing away, when the employee of another company sat down and started making phone calls.
Michael’s a recruiter, and – not that I was eavesdropping or anything, it’s a tiny room! — pretty soon it became clear that he was trying to persuade an executive to take up a job offer.
He tried all manner of arguments: The pay’s better, you have no prospects at your current company, the move is low-risk.
And when all that didn’t work, Michael asked him outright what he needed to say in order to convince him:
“What do you need to hear from us, in order to get you over the line?”
It was pretty weird. Because there I was, planning to write about the one question you need to ask yourself when you plan the content your company is going to publish online. And right in front of me, Michael came straight out with it.
As I wrote here, lots of companies have taken on board that they need to publish online in order to raise their visibility, attract new leads and build relationships with them. That’s why there is such a welcome proliferation of blogs, emails, eBooks and webinars.
But it doesn’t matter how knowledgeable and informative your tips, thoughts and insights are, if they don’t actually make your readers want your product or service more, and make them more inclined to buy from you.
That’s not marketing. That’s just publishing for the sake of it.
And if that’s the case with your company, you are probably enormously frustrated that all your efforts are not producing tangible results. You may even wonder whether online marketing is a waste of time.
So how do you create strategic content?
It’s simple.
Before sitting down and writing anything, you need ask yourself Michael’s question (ever so slightly amended):
“What do our prospects need to hear from us, in order to get them over the line – and make them want to buy?”
This does not mean sending them a load of boring information about your product or service. It’s much more complex than that. It’s about understanding exactly where they’re coming from and what they’re thinking and feeling, and building your content around their deepest concerns, desires and needs.
- What do our prospects need to understand about their own situation, so that they start looking for help? Do they understand how deep their problem is, what the personal and professional implications are, and that they need external help solving it?
- What do they need to know about the solution we’ve offering, to convince them it’s right for them? Do they understand what the benefits are, why it’s better than the alternatives?
- What do they need to know about us, to convince them we’re the right supplier? Do they have a relationship with us, see us as authorities, have they seen proof we know what we’re talking about?
- What objections might they have, that I need to address? What beliefs and emotions are stopping them taking that step of working with you?
- What kind of future are they looking for? How can we help them visualise what life will be like once they’ve bought from us, and implemented our solution?
Which takes us back to Michael. He was trying to hit on all these points in the space of 10 minutes. Imagine how much more receptive the prospect would have been, had he been fed these points over a matter of weeks or months, leading up to his decision?
You can take care of that when you plan your content. Design each email and blog post so that it addresses one of these concerns, and gradually build up the case for working with you.
By the time you get your prospects on the phone, they’ll be begging to work with you – rather than the other way round.
