Content Sells? Absolutely Yes, It Does!

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When I began writing online in 1998 I had two clear goals.

1. To document what I was learning coaching my clients.
2. The content itself would add upfront value to the business owners, entrepreneurs, and CEO’s visiting my site that they would want to learn more about my services.

Without question, I can testify that creating content (articles, podcasts, and videos) has been the absolute best investment I ever made in marketing. Second only to networking and direct referrals.

Personally, I find it affirming to hear thought leaders like Chris Brogan and Brian Clark from Teaching Sells embrace this concept and in the case of Teaching Sells created a entirely new business based upon the concept that content sells.

Content Sells the Business and It’s Products

Chris cites the sale of Daily Candy that sold for $125 Million and how Whole Foods uses content as customer retention, community support, and also lead generation strategies.

I have excerpted a portion of Chris’ post with his suggested step-by-step process to develop content to sell your goods and services.

For you to consider doing this, I’d recommend the following steps:

1. Decide on your content marketing strategy. Is this lead generation, customer retention, thought leadership, or related to product marketing?
2. Determine if you have content creators on staff right now, and whether this is something they should be doing for your business. If no, start thinking of whether you want to hire or source this kind of work.
3. Determine the type of content to create, the frequency of your new materials, the form it will take, and whether you have a platform in place to deliver this without much effort.
4. Build appropriate measurement and listening tools around the platform so that you know who is doing what with the content you’re creating, and so that you can see the impact it has outside of your website as well.
5. Wrap this all into a process with ties back to your standard lines of business, including marketing, sales, and possibly even R&D. Ensure that this isn’t an island, but rather a strong part of how you intend to deliver value for your organization.

This kind of project can be done in a pilot flavor, and/or can be done in lots of different iterations. I’ve been looking at it very closely for the last several months as part of my work with my colleagues at CrossTech Partners. As businesses are seeking to acquire more quality leads, to retain their existing customers, and to deliver relevant sales, this is where I think the most impact can be had. Via Chris Brogan

Great content when combined with Social Media tools makes for a killer online marketing strategy. As Chris points out, it does take time, is relatively slow, and yet does create results.

We are seeing more and more CEO’s and business owners embrace content development as strategic differentiators.

What has been your experience with online content? What have been the challenges? What would you like to know more about making your own web content do a better job of selling your products and services?