This guest is by Isaac Atia. If you want to submit a guest post, read my guest post guidelines.
Want to improve sales? 
Content marketing is undeniably one of the best ways to improve your website’s placement in the search engines.
Marketing your content means that you will write appealing material that should engage the reader to act on your offer.
Whether it is a service or product, the way you market your brand should be in a manner that will result in a profitable action.
The better your sales efforts are, the better lined up you’ll be to improving your sales.
Profit doesn’t always mean money; it could be a blog subscriber or a simple download of your ebook.
In this post, I’ll share with you three simple but effective ways to improve your sales with content marketing:
Cover All Content Bases: The Buying Cycle
Taking you back to Business 101 in college – what did we learn? The buying cycle states that the first phase is the customer’s awareness of need.
When you write your content, you MUST stress to the reader that he needs the service or product which you are offering.
If the reader reached your content, there’s a strong possibility that your offer is somewhat interesting to them. Make it your job to explain the reasons why your offer is necessary.
After you’ve satisfied the element of necessity, move on to research, which is our next phase in the buying cycle.
People often don’t trust just one source, unless it’s highly credible, so you have to present the consumer with the research on the very page he found you.
This way, the reader won’t navigate away to a different page on the Internet and you’ll possibly lose the sale. You can either use quotes from gurus in your market or you can establish confidence of research based on solid facts.
Last but not least, the element of risk must be satisfied. Individuals always question; is this safe? Should I spend my money on this?
Well, make the consumer feel comfortable by closing your sales pitch with literature that’ll make them feel safe. A high converting sales organization should invest in a service like TRUSTe to protect their money making machine.
Establish Your Tone: Get Personal
There’s no better way to engage your reader but to put your own sweet touch on the tone of the content. Every writer is different, and every writer has their own manner in which they articulate their writing. Your tone is your brand; it’s like a business card or a post card.
Getting personal makes people feel comfortable. It’s like they can imagine the way you’d speak out loud, even if they never heard your voice before. The trust that you can get with some personal attention is better than any authority or knowledge you may possess.
But be careful, do not be pushy. It’s OK to promote yourself, as that is the ultimate goal, but always keep your readers in mind and make sure that their needs are served first.
Test Your Page & Enhance Your Content
Pretend you are on the other end. If you were the consumer, how would you feel about the page you’ve just created?
Would you be convinced to purchase the product or service? Ask yourself all these questions.
If the answer is no to any one question, you’ve got to do some tweaking to your content.
There’s always something to improve when it comes to content; a better title, a more coherent description, more targeted keywords.
You basically want to make sure that you covered every possible fault and that the consumer simply gets to the decision making process. It’s important to keep your pitch detailed but not too long, as it may turn the consumer away.
Above all, you want to choose your wording carefully. Instead of writing long sentences that don’t get the point across, nail down your subtopics.
Remember, the best influencers in sales always tell you to keep it short and to the point. There’s a reason this is said often, because it gets results.
In summary, remember to be persuasive but not pushy. Cast your opinion with a personal touch. Teach the reader about the benefits of your product or service and why they should pick you.
Present them with a new idea that’ll boggle their mind. Make them think you are an expert in your field.
Use credible sources in your explanation if necessary, and ultimately, provide them comfort with a worthy service. The power of content marketing is there to serve you. Make it your best tool to capture market share in your niche.
About the Author – Isaac Atia, an SEO specialist and founder of HIT SEO, a NJ SEO Company that focuses on search engine optimization and Internet Marketing New Jersey.
Photo Credit: gc-house