How Jewelers Can Attract New Customers With Content (Inbound Part 5)
July 04, 2018 (0 comments)
In the last part of the series, we reviewed the Inbound Methodology - a step by step system for bringing new customers to your site, and guiding them all the way through the buying process. Today we'll cover the Attract phase, specifically, to bring new visitors to our site.
This is part 5 in a series.
Read part 1
here. (Content Is King)
Read part 2
here. (Why Does Content Matter So Much?)
Read part 3
here. (Using The Inbound Methodology To Plan Content)
Read part 4
here. (Beginning To Plan Our Content)
The ATTRACT phase can really change your bottom line. The goal is to provide great information that can be easily found - turning Strangers into Visitors. Providing great information and solving problems for your visitors is what makes content work so well. It positions you as a trusted authority that the reader can turn to when ready to purchase their jewelry. It also helps boost your SEO rankings on it's own.
Your website needs to become the place people go to learn about jewelry.
"Marketing" and "Sales" used to really be two different things. Over the last ten years, however, we've seen that marketing really
is sales. It used to be that the sales person would handle revenue, and the marketing person would go to trade shows, handle brochures, PR, etc. Now we know that the DECISION MAKING PROCESS IS MOSTLY INFLUENCED BY MARKETING, not a sales rep. If your marketing consists of great inbound content, the buyer will feel empowered and informed. Most of the buyer's decision is based on the marketing content you're providing them. Marketing is no longer about designing flyers and spamming them out to your email list. Its about creating incredible content. Think about it - your website is where people decide to buy your product or not. Who handles your website? Not your salespeople, but your marketing team. They handle the content, the SEO, etc. For jewelry stores, your marketing team now "owns" Sales more than your sales team does.
Because of this, marketing teams must learn new skills, tactics, and tools to attract new business.
So what type of content can we create to pull the right people in to solve problems for?
CONTENT + CONTEXT
Its not enough to simply blog. Your content needs to be relevant as well. Every single piece of content you have is a new opportunity for customers to find you. You're a jeweler. You know customers are looking for tips on how to choose the right ring, etc. SO WRITE ABOUT IT and put it on your blog!
The internet has a long memory. In a given month, 70% of the website traffic that you'll get will come from content you published NOT in that month. People may be finding your articles from 2 months ago, maybe 2 years ago. This is why its so important to keep putting new content on your site. Become a library for jewelry buying information.
Key Concept: The content you create should be EDUCATIONAL, and NOT self-promoting!
I know how hard this may be for some companies to grasp and believe in. But the purpose of content is to help the customer. Your brand gets promoted as a byproduct of great content.
Let's use JewelryEcomm.com as an example. We have numerous experts on our site writing articles and sharing their expertise. These articles, on their own, will help you decide if you'd like to work with these agencies or not. You'll judge for yourself how knowledgeable our writers are simply by reading the articles. Our writers are not spamming advertisements in our articles. They're simply trying to teach you new things. This, on it's own, promotes their business and expertise MUCH more than if they were to keep putting solicitations and offers to work with their agency in the articles. Does that make sense?
Stop talking about yourself. Just be helpful and solve problems for your readers. Solving problems is what cements your brand in their head, not spammy solicitations throughout the content.
Educating your potential customers is the most powerful thing you can do to influence their buying decision. You need to add value before you ask for a dime from them. Add value before trying to extract value.
Using content as an educational tool is a fundamental concept for succeeding online. Here are some types of content you can create that visitors typically find useful.
How-tos, case studies, charts/graphs, e-books, email, cartoons, tool reviews, giveaways, webinars, guides, "day in the life of" posts, infographics, interviews, quizzes, podcasts, etc.
You'll find a niche for the type of stuff you like to produce. Personally, for me, I don't do podcasts because I hate my voice and often have diagrams or pictures I need to show my audience. Just find something you feel you're good at keep pumping that content out through as many platforms as you can - social, email newsletter, and blog.
A note on video: Video is one of the strongest things you can do. Undeniably across the board, video has proven to get the most attention and is also typically the most memorable. Video takes a bit more work but its definitely worth it. It doesn't have to be fancy - do it from your cell or computer camera. That's totally fine![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
