Well, stop. 

Step away from the keyboard. 

And don’t you dare sneakily update your prices on your website (not yet anyway.) 

Because there’s something we’d like you to do first. 

Something that will help you both increase sales, AND build trust and loyalty with your audience. 

We want you to create content around your price increase. 

Before we begin, this is aimed at you if you want to raise your prices for brand new customers (i.e. people who aren’t your customers already). If you need help on how to raise your prices for current customers, have a read of our article here. 

What is ‘Why I’m Raising My Prices’ content? 

This piece of content goes into detail about why you’re raising your prices. It explains what your prices are now when they’re going to increase, and what the new price will be. 

It’s an easy-peasy piece of content for you to create. But it’s also great for sales and delivers excellent customer service. 

Why is this content so effective? 

There are three main reasons why this piece of content works so well.

1. It’s sales content. It’s a piece of content that promotes the benefits of your products or services. It says ‘Hey, I’m raising my prices because I’m pretty awesome. Here’s why…’ 
2. It can act as a ‘heads-up’ to those who are on the fence about working with you, giving them an opportunity to buy from you at your lower prices. We did this with our blog post and earned 25K in a week. 
3. It’s incredibly helpful and transparent and builds trust with your audience. 

Why do I have to tell my audience why my prices are increasing? 

You’ve received one of those emails right? The ‘get in now before the price goes up tomorrow!’ type thing. You probably get one at least once a week. 

Hell, just walk past any furniture shop and there’s always a sale ending ‘soon’. 

The problem is, we’re used to this fake scarcity sales tactic. It just looks to your audience like you’re raising your prices to pressure them into buying from you. 

But the actual reasons behind you raising your prices are legitimate and justified. And when you sit down to think about it and consider why you’re raising your prices, you’ll probably come up with a whole host of great reasons. 

Think about your customer when it comes to explaining your price increase 

A lot of these reasons will relate to your customer and their experience. And when explaining a price increase, you should put your customer at the heart of it. Think about what will benefit them. 

Ultimately, take the narrative away from you and your price increase and put your customer at the heart of the message. 

For example, for web design, we explained that we were raising our prices because…

1. The projects became more time-intensive (because we spent more dedicated time with each client and took on fewer clients as a result)
2. We invested in more expensive tools and software (so the websites we created performed better and were more secure) 
3. We invested more in our own learning (and passed that onto our customers to make them more effective websites) 
4. We took on a more ‘consulting’ role during projects (so we could advise our clients on how to make their website a success, with help on content marketing to website copy)

The stuff in brackets above is what the customer cares about–the parts that actually benefit them. And that’s what led to us landing four new clients in one week from this one piece of content (earning us £25K). 

But we would not have done that if we’d simply emailed our list and told them our prices were going up without explaining why and how our customers benefit. 

Why does this content need to be public? 

We hear you. Creating public content around your price increase is scary, to say the least. What if your competitors see it? What if you put people off? What if you’re on the fence about raising your prices? 

Our favourite thing we like to say is ‘people don’t care what you say, they care what you publish.’ 

When something is published publicly it’s more trustworthy than something that is private. You can say anything privately or by email. But, public content is out there for the world to see, and when you’re talking about money, it’s instantly more trustworthy. 

Do you have to give a deadline? 

A big part of the success of when we did this was that we gave our audience the opportunity to buy from us at our current prices before they increased. 

However, you don’t have to do this. If it’s important you raise your prices and not offer your current rates that’s okay. You can still create this kind of content. It’s still incredibly helpful for your audience to understand why you’ve increased your prices and the benefits of what you offer. 

How do you promote your price increase content? 

The thing about price increase content is…people love to see it! 

Why? Because people love a good nosey that’s why. Our most popular blog post (in terms of social shares) is the one about why we’re increasing our web design prices. 

So don’t just create this content and shy away from any promotion. You have to take full advantage of your price increase and share it everywhere for it to be effective. 

Here are some ways you could promote it…

1. Send it to your email list 
2. Post on LinkedIn (company and personal page) 
3. Post on Facebook 
4. Go live on Facebook or LinkedIn 
5. Create Instagram stories or posts 

Make Sure You Promote this Time-Sensitive Content 

Remember, this is a time-sensitive piece of content because once your prices have gone up it becomes less interesting and relevant to your audience. 

So you need to give yourself time to promote it, and if you have a deadline where people can buy from you at your current prices you need to give your audience time to take up that offer. The amount of time will depend on what you sell. When we did this with our web design service, we gave a month’s notice as the investment ran into the thousands. You might not have to give that much notice with a cheaper product. 

What format should the content be in?

There’s no particular rule for what format your content should be in. Just that it’s public and shareable. We do everything via our blog. 

What if don’t want to publish your prices publically? 

Now, all of this is futile if you don’t actually publish your prices publicly. There’s no point saying your prices are going up if you don’t want to state how much they are now. 

If you don’t currently do this (or at least, give an indicator on price) then seriously consider doing so. The benefits for your business are huge, as highlighted in this blog post about why you should publish your prices on your website. 

The best question to ask yourself when it comes to publishing your prices is this, would you rather find out the price of something from a website. Or would you rather call someone and speak to them? 

Most people prefer the first option, right? Even if it’s not an exact price, just an indicator. We’d prefer to have an idea before we speak to someone in advance. 

Publishing your prices is just good customer service, as well as having a whole host of other benefits. 

Need some extra help? Try our blog post templates! 

If you’d like some extra support when it comes to writing your ‘price increase’ content, then check out our blog post template pack. This pack includes 10 blog post templates (including a raising your prices template) and saves you so much time when it comes to writing content. Check it out below. 

Martin & Lyndsay

The post Publish This Easy Piece of Content Before You Raise Your Prices (And See Amazing Results!) appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

They described this as ‘hitting different pain points or nuggets of info that seemed totally unconnected, but always magically ended up at the promo.’

And the key to this is simple. All you need to do is understand exactly what your audience needs to know in order for them to buy from you.

And then talk about it – in your blogs, on social media, in video, in email and in your sales page copy. Hit everything your audience could possibly need to know.

But Here’s The Tricky Part

You need to do this by asking yourself some important (but pretty uncomfortable) questions.

The more honest you are, the better. And then all you need to do is share your unbelievably honest answers with the world.

So in this blog post, I’m going to tell you exactly what awkward and uncomfortable questions you should ask yourself, and your answers will make great content.

What Are The Uncomfortable (But Essential) Questions You Need to Ask Yourself Before You Create Content?

Let’s get stuck into some pretty awkward questions, shall we?

1. Why wouldn’t someone buy your products or services?

Thought I’d start you with a gentle one to ease you in. Just kidding. I’m starting off mean.

I want to know why someone wouldn’t buy from you? What is it about the product or service that you sell that makes people nervous?

An Example of How We Would Answer This Question

I’m going to use an example of when we designed WordPress websites. There’s a whole bunch of stuff about WordPress that makes people nervous. Such as, is WordPress safe? I’ve heard WordPress isn’t as secure? Isn’t Squarespace or Wix much easier?

Or let’s say you’re hosting a virtual event. Some people might think that ‘virtual’ means less social. Less exciting. Less actionable. Of course, you know this isn’t true. But that doesn’t matter.

Turning Your Answer Into Sales

It’s your job to explore all the issues people may have with your product or services. Explain why people may be wrong or misinformed. Or explain why they might be right, but what they can do to combat the problem. Or what you do to help.

But most importantly, be honest. Don’t just say there isn’t an issue when there is one. Explain the issue and describe, as the expert you are, the best ways to deal with it.

2. And why wouldn’t someone buy from you?

And you thought the first question was mean.

Sorry. But it’s only going to get more and more awful.

By this question what I really mean is: what the hell is wrong with you personally?

What puts people off about you?

An Example of How We Would Answer This Question

Here’s something that put people off working with us when we did website design. (It’s a long list, bear with me).

We don’t sit at our desks 9-5. We don’t have a fancy office with bean bag chairs and whizzy coffee machines. We don’t do face-to-face meetings. We don’t have a massive team but we still charge just as much as bigger agencies. We don’t work weekends and we don’t wear suits.

Phew. That’s a big list, right?

But does it scare us? Did we try to hide these things? Or do we make ourselves miserable and not do these things just so we can make sales? Nope. We stuck with them and we were upfront about them. And I’ve explained why below.

Turning Your Answer Into Sales

In spite of all the perceived things that are wrong with you, I bet you still deliver an excellent product or service, right? I bet your customers bloody love you. We certainly still delivered great websites.

So, your job is to explain why the stuff that is ‘wrong’ with you doesn’t actually matter. In fact, it isn’t all that wrong at all. And why you still deliver a great product or service.

By speaking about this stuff you will start to build trust and loyalty amongst people on your wavelength. Amongst the people who love you for your negative points (not in spite of them).

It’s no surprise that more modern and flexible businesses came to us for a website, rather than more traditional or old-fashioned businesses.

The more modern businesses weren’t chained to their desks from 9-5 either. And they hated face-to-face meetings or wearing ties just as much as we did.

Basically, your weird will attract similar weird. And that makes for a really enjoyable working environment for you.

3. Who will not get a decent ROI from working with you?

Ahhhhhhhhh!

What are you talking about, Lyndsay! Everyone gets a good ROI with me.

Do they though? Would everyone in the entire world benefit from your products or services?

I’m going to guess the answer is no. They won’t.

I want you to start thinking about who really wouldn’t get a decent ROI from working with you.

An Example of How We Would Answer This Question

When we ran a web design agency, we wouldn’t work with new business owners.

That’s because new business owners hadn’t yet established their brand, target audience and outlined their services. And this meant that investing 10K in a website (that was likely to change 6 months later when their business changed) would not be a wise investment.

Or for our 90 Day Content Marketing Challenge, it’s those who don’t want to make time to create the content. Because if you’re not going to take the time for it then there’s no point joining the challenge, right?

Turning Your Answer Into Sales

Think about who won’t benefit from your products and services and create content out of this. Why? Because if you highlight who won’t benefit from your products and services, you strengthen the trust and loyalty with those who will see the benefit from your products and services.

They will consume your content and see that your product/service is exactly right for them, and they’ll definitely see an ROI. They’ll respect your honesty and transparency and feel confident in working with you.

4. Who are you not the right fit for?

Have you ever worked out who you’re not the right fit for and spoke about this publicly?

Now, I’ve seen people try to tackle this question with things like, ’If you don’t want to make 6-figures in less than a week, then I’m not for you!’

That’s not an answer. That’s just bullshit. Because of course, everyone would want to earn 6-figures in less than a week. So you’re not really stating who you’re not the right fit for. You’re just trying to use some weird reverse-psychology crap to make a sale.

An Example of How We Would Answer This Question

For us, in web design, it was people that wanted a ‘techie they could boss around’. People who had zero interest in our website strategy advice. There were also a bunch of other things too. You can actually read more on our blog post – reasons we’re not the right fit for you.

Turning Your Answer Into Sales

Doing this means you only attract those who are truly your ideal customers (no wasting time with the wrong-fits) And it builds trust and loyalty with your ideal customers too.

Your ideal customers understand that you’re not out to make a quick buck from anyone and everyone. You’re choosy, and you care who you work with.

5. Why do you charge what you do?

Most businesses’ pricing structure is unique. Even a tin of beans (I’m British, okay) varies in price between 25 pence and a pound. Why such a difference for the same product?

Your customers want to understand why you charge what you do. Okay, maybe not for a low-cost purchase like beans. But for most things people buy, they are interested in the cost.

You could cover things like…

• • Why you’re more expensive than other companies. Don’t cringe. Your customers are wondering this anyway, so just answer it!
  • Why are you so cheap? Yep, customers are also suspicious of stuff that’s cheap. So explain why you’re priced cheaper than others. Or why you’re product is so affordable.
  • Why do you quote different businesses at different prices
  • Why are your prices increasing?
  • Why do you not offer discounts?
  • How much money have you made? Yep, we’ve also answered this one too.

An Example of How We Would Answer This Question

We have answered many questions about our pricing structure. But a successful one was a blog post about why we charged larger companies more for web design.

We tackled a particular objection large companies may have had had, which was ‘they’re probably charging us more because they know we can afford it’. This wasn’t true, and we set out to explain why.

Turning Your Answer Into Sales

This works because it’s incredibly open and transparent. It takes a lot of trust for someone to invest in you. And if you break down why you charge what you do then you help build enough trust and understanding for someone to move forward and invest.

Why Does This All Work? Because Objection Handling Is Broken.

There you have it – five uncomfortable questions you should ask yourself that can turn into great content.

You’ll notice that all these questions are essentially about answering people’s objections about working with you.

And do you want to know my one problem with objection handling? It relies on the prospective customer voicing their objection. And this is a problem because prospects can be shy (they don’t want to offend you) or defensive (they don’t want to admit they can’t afford it).

This is why creating content around these objections works so well. Because you voice them. You say out loud what the customer is thinking in their heads.

And they, in turn, will be hugely impressed! They’ll feel understood and heard. And they will appreciate that you brought it up first so they didn’t have to.

What’s Next For You?

If you want to take your content to the next level, check out our Content Strategy Guide which will help you create a lead-generating content strategy in under 10 minutes!

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post Five Awkward Questions You Should Ask Yourself To Create Great Content appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

‘But I don’t have time to invest in x.’ 

‘But you’re more expensive than that other company.’ 

‘I’ve invested in something similar before and it didn’t work. Why should I trust you?’ 

These are the kind of thoughts running through your customers’ brains. 

So what’s the best way to deal with them? 

BY SHOUTING EVEN LOUDER ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF YOUR PRODUCTS/SERVICES! 

Because that’s pretty much what we do, right? We avoid bringing up the ‘negative stuff’. We prefer to talk about all the good stuff around who we are and what we do. 

But if you avoid your customer’s objections then you run the risk of losing sales.

Is your content a crappy salesperson or a good salesperson? 

A crappy salesperson will apply pressure to get a sale at all costs. They will lie. They will flatter. They will use trickery and psychological hacks. And they certainly won’t talk about anything negative. 

A good salesperson will encourage a prospect to voice their objection. And a good salesperson will be able to talk through this objection – presenting a different view or solution. 

A good salesperson may even agree with the prospect’s objection, and advise them not to buy the product/service (a frightening thought, right?) 

Your content should act as the ‘good salesperson’. It should explore your prospect’s objections and give honest answers to their concerns. 

Why You Need to Get a No, to Get a Yes…

In the book, Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, Chris describes the importance of getting the ‘no’ from a prospect. 

Prospects will often tell you what you want to hear, especially in face-to-face situations. People don’t want to offend you so they’ll say ‘oh that sounds good’ or ‘yes, I think we’ll go ahead!’ and then months go by and you’ve heard absolute zip from them. Despite you chasing multiple times. What fun. 

But once you get the ‘no’ you’re actually one step closer to getting a yes. When you get a no, you get to understand your prospects’ objections, for example, ‘it’s too expensive”, ‘I don’t have the time’ or ‘that guy over there is cheaper’. That’s then your opportunity to be the ‘good salesperson’ and counter those objections. 

Getting an objection (or a no) from a prospect can also give you a clue as to what others are probably thinking about your product or service. And this can be hugely powerful. Because this gives you the opportunity to tackle that objection before it comes up in conversation. 

Why You Need to Tackle the objection before your prospect mentions it 

There’s a phrase I see bandied around a lot. It’s… 

‘I see you.’ 

It’s important in relationships. If I’ve spent the day running around after our toddler, cleaning the house and working it’s nice when Martin says, ‘You’ve done so much today, thank you!’ 

It’s nice to feel appreciated. It’s nice to be ‘seen’.

It’s similar to what happens with objection handling. 

If you get in there first by voicing your prospects’ objections it will make them feel seen. It will make them realise that you understand them and that you respect them enough to bring up this objection yourself. It also validates their feelings and takes the awkwardness out of the situation (for example, I get that I’m more expensive). This automatically builds a huge amount of trust and loyalty with your prospect. 

So do not wait for your prospect to bring up their objection, tackle it head-on beforehand. 

Not sure what your prospect’s objections are? Ask yourself this question…

I get it. 

Getting to the heart of your customers’ objections is tricky. People are nice and often won’t tell us the ‘real’ reason they don’t invest. 

So if you’re struggling, ask yourself this one key question…

Why would someone not buy from you? 

It’s one of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself in your business. 

You’ll need to examine it fully. Think about things like…

• How your product or service compares to your competitors
• How expensive/cheap your product is 
• How much time investment is required by your prospect
• Is there something about you that perhaps could put people off 

List all these things and you’ll have a good idea of your prospects’ objections. 

How do you tackle objections before your prospect mentions them? Through Objection-Led Content! 

Now for the fun part. Because once you have an idea why people won’t buy from you, you can then tackle this head-on. 

And the best way to do this is by using content. 

Why should you tackle objections through content?

Typically, when we talk about objection-handling we think about it in terms of a sales call. Of speaking to our prospects directly.

And you might think to yourself, well, why shouldn’t I wait until I’m speaking to my client directly to talk through the objections? 

You could, but the point is they may not get to the sales call in the first place. 

People expect answers to their questions without having to speak to someone face-to-face. 

We value self-service (just look at the number of self-service tills in use at the supermarket). It’s easier and it gives the consumer more control. And we’re becoming more accustomed to it. 

Essentially, people don’t want to talk to you to find out the answer to their question. And if your website and content fail to answer that question they’re not going to pick up the phone and call you. They’ll move on to someone else. 

How to create objection-led content that actually sells

So how do you create objection-led content that actually sells what you do? Below are three great examples of objection-led content that will transform doubt-ridden prospects into paying customers. 

1. The Common Misconceptions/Concerns Content

I love this kind of content. This content essentially lists your prospects’ objections loud and clear, and then goes into detail about why your prospect might be incorrect in their objection. 

A fantastic example of this is from one of our 90-day challenge members, Fit Roots Martial Arts School, based in Slough. Jasmin published an article called, Kids Kickboxing: 6 Common Misconceptions Parents Have. 

It’s a fantastic article that tackles the potential customer’s objections head-on. 

Jasmin lists each point, such as ‘Misconception 1: Kickboxing is dangerous’ – she then goes into more detail about why this thinking is incorrect and backs up her point using a quote from a British taekwondo fighter. 

But my personal favourite is: ‘Misconception 5: Kickboxing is too aggressive’

This is where Jasmin states, ‘So, you’re trying to get your child to STOP fighting with their siblings, not learn how to get better at it.’ This made me laugh. Because it’s clear Jasmin knows her audience well and she’s voiced the exact concern some parents might have with their child learning kickboxing.   

And I love how she counteracts this objection with, ‘Kickboxing, just like many other Martial Arts can teach your child to channel their energy in a positive way. All you need to do is find the right school or instructor.’ 

This introduces the idea that Fitroots Martial Arts School is, of course, the perfect school to teach children how to channel this energy positively. 

This is exactly why this content works so well, you take the objection, empathise with it, state why it’s wrong and how your product or service can solve their problem. 

2. The ‘Why’ Content 

Prospects are like toddlers, they ask ‘why’ a lot. 

Why are you more expensive than that other company? 

Why do you take so long? 

Why do you expect so much of me? 

Why are you charging me more than that person? 

Why is your product made from x material and not y material? 

Unfortunately, they tend to ask these questions to themselves (unlike toddlers who ask them out loud every four seconds). But this does mean prospects fill in their own answers. So when a prospect says to themselves, ‘hmmm why are you more expensive than other companies?’ they’ll fill in their own answer. Which is generally not so positive, like  ‘they’re probably ripping me off.’ 

This is where ‘why content’ comes in. 

Why content explains why you do something. 

We did this with our blog post – Why we charge large businesses & public sector organisations more for website redesign.

On our web design pricing page, we stated that our website packages started from £5000+. But when we spoke to larger companies or public sector organisations we’d usually charge £15,000+. 

On a sales call, a prospect hinted around this, and we explained why we charged large companies much more. 

But we realised, this could be a potential objection for larger companies, who might think, ‘are they charging me more just because we’re a bigger company and can afford it?’ 

So we wrote a blog post tackling that issue head-on, and we sent this blog post to larger companies when they got in touch about hiring us. We had a few compliments thanking us for our transparency! 

For you, this could be completely different. But try to think about those ‘why’ questions your prospects or customers ask you. 

Another great example of this is from Tutti Frutti clothing, with their blog post ‘Why Tutti Frutti Clothing is not a certified organic brand‘

This is an excellent blog post that tackles a potential customer objection head-on. Rather than hide it, Ali goes into detail about why she’s not a certified organic brand, but how ‘the majority of my clothing is made using GOTS certified fabric…’ 

So the potential customer understands why Ali isn’t yet certified, but they also feel confident that Ali really does care for the environment and uses organic materials. 

3. The Proven Case Study Content  

Another great way to overcome your audience’s objections is by using ‘case study’ content. This is great content that acts as proof that your prospects’ objections might be incorrect. 

For example, Jo Francis created an excellent blog post all about how to grow an email list using Facebook ads for just £110.00. 

For anyone who thought Facebook advertising didn’t work or was too expensive for their business has suddenly been proven wrong. 

A lot of business owners only add case studies to their website, but once you turn them into content they become share-worthy. You’ll notice that Jo doesn’t call it a case study. And it isn’t formatted as a case study. Instead, it’s an incredibly helpful blog post that has elements of a case study in there. 

It sells Jo but is incredibly helpful at the same time. 

This kind of content can work brilliantly if you also bring in objections to the content. For example, you could say ‘Before working with us, client x believed y.’ This will allow your prospective client to identify with the person featured within your content – building even more trust and smashing those objections! 

What Are Your Next Steps For Creating Objection-Led Content?

So there you have it. How to increase sales using objection-led content. Now it’s time to get cracking with your first piece of objection-led content! Remember, your first step is to ask yourself…

Why wouldn’t someone work with you? 

If you loved this and want more sales-generating content ideas and guidance, check out our course, Content Fortress. This in-depth course will help you use content to attract your dream clients that love who you are and are eager to work with you.

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post How to increase your sales using objection-led content appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

That karma would shine down on me and clients would fall from the skies eager to work with me.

Did this happen?

No.

Because when you do this you’re playing a waiting game.

Your audience laps up all that free content, and you sit there waiting for the sale.

Your audience is in control.

But at some point, you’ve got to bite the bullet and ask for the sale. And you have to do it directly! Not at the end of a really helpful blog post where you scurry out like a mouse and say ‘oh, by the way, you might find my services helpful go check them out’ and then scurry back into your hole in the wall.

No. You have to directly and confidently tell people what it is you do, who you help and how you help.

Yes, you cover this on your product or service pages on your website. But people have to naturally find their way to these pages.

I’m talking about getting this information directly in front of your audience.

I’m talking about creating sales content.

What is Sales Content?

Sales content is exactly like it sounds, it’s content that is designed to get you sales. It includes everything you might talk about on a sales call. It answers all those questions you get from your potential customers. And it relates directly to YOUR products and services (not your industry as a whole).

We talk a lot about sales content in our book, Content Fortress. Sales content makes up one of the key pillars of content marketing.

The Huge Problem With Content Marketing…

Ever heard of the buyer’s journey?

The buyer’s journey is a process that your customers will go through before they buy your product. It consists of three stages: awareness, consideration and decision.

At the awareness stage, the buyer realises they have a problem.

At the consideration stage, they begin to research all the potential solutions to that problem.

And finally, at the decision stage, they’ve decided on a solution strategy and are looking at suppliers or companies to buy from.

An Example of The Buyer’s Journey

Awareness Stage Example

Let’s say you’re at a networking event and someone says to you, ‘oh, you sound great, do you have a website?’ and you realise that you don’t and this may be a turnoff for potential customers. You’ve become aware of the problem.

Consideration Stage Example

So you go home and begin to research all the available solutions to that problem. Building your website yourself on Wix. Building it using page builders such as Elementor. Hiring a freelance web designer. Hiring an agency. Lots and lots of lovely research. You download some checklists or guides from these websites to help you.

Now you’re at the consideration stage, where you’re researching all the potential solutions to your problem.

Decision Stage Example

You do your research and then you decide you decide on hiring a freelance web designer. And then you go about comparing different people.

You’ve found the solution strategy. 

Most companies produce content that covers the first two stages. They produce helpful content that teaches people how they do what they do (how to build a website, for example). Or they help people get to the ‘decision stage’ by creating content that helps them choose the right solution strategy. For example, like our blog post ‘should you hire a cheap web designer or design your website yourself?’

But they fail to produce content that hits people at the decision stage. That sells themselves (over their competitors).  

The Buyer’s Journey Can Be A Slow One: Speed It Up With Sales Content

The buyer’s journey process can be quite slow – particularly for service-based businesses or high-cost products. It could take someone weeks, months or even years to go through this process.

When we create helpful content we imagine our audience reading it then thinking ‘oh that was helpful. I am now going to read their entire service page and then get in touch with them if I think they’re right for me.’

The reality is a bit messier.

The reality is they go away. Other stuff takes priority. You’re still in the back of their minds but they need more time.

In 2019, we looked at our previous 10 clients. 7 out of 10 of those clients were on our email list for at least 3 months. One person was on it for two years, consistently consuming our content until they made the decision to buy. Proof that this is much messier than we think!

This is why you need sales content because it hits your audience right between the eyes! They’re not just continuously reading your helpful content. You suddenly present your audience with sales content, and they then are encouraged to make a decision as to whether they should work with you.

How Sales Content Earned us £25,000+ From One Blog Post

In 2019, we produced a piece of sales content called ‘Why we’re raising our web design prices.’ In it was a clear call to action that said: if you buy before x date, you can still get our prices at the current rate. We emailed it to our list and made $25,000+ from that one blog post (that we can trackback directly).

Sales content was the content we’d been missing all along. People kept consuming our free helpful content but they needed that nudge help them decide if they actually wanted to work with us or not.

Get Your Web Visitors’ Email Address

That’s why it’s a good idea to get your readers email address. So you can continuously bring them back to your content. You can find out more about how to get someone’s email address in our blog post, how to create a lead generating website.

If you have an email list, you can simply send your sales content to them.

How often should you use sales content?

It’s worth pointing out that you shouldn’t use sales content all the time. People will get a little tired of it. Sales content should be used as a seasoning, not the main meal. Usually, one out of every five pieces of our content is classed as sales content.

More Examples of Great Sales Content…

We encourage our members in our 90 Day Content Marketing Challenge to create sales content. Here are some examples to inspire you!

The ‘Everything You Need to Know’ Blog Post: Debbie Ekins

We love ‘Everything You Need to Know’ Posts. They are blog posts that tell you…well, everything you need to know about a particular product or service.

They work well because it helps summarise what your product or service is all about and it answers all your audience’s questions or potential objections.

What we love about Debbie’s ‘Everything you need to know about my blog writing services‘ post is that she doesn’t shy away from the kinds of questions many businesses don’t like to answer (but our customers really want to know!) – things like ‘how much do you charge’ or ‘when do I need to pay’.

The ‘Case Study’ Blog Post: Jo Francis

I personally love case study blog posts. Most people put their case studies on a dedicated page on their website. Which means someone has to actively find the case study.

If you have a ‘case study’ blog post you can get in front of more people. You just have to reframe it slightly. A traditional case study is more about how you helped your client. A case study blog post looks at the steps you took to help your client achieve a particular result. It’s half helpful blog post/half highlighting your services.

Jo, a Facebook ads specialist, does a great job with this in her blog post: How to grow your email list by 1000 contacts for £110 ($150).

Jo explains how she worked with her client to grow their email list using Facebook ads. I particularly like how useful this blog post is to the reader. She breaks it down step-by-step. But Jo also doesn’t shy away from promoting herself too – and why shouldn’t she! Jo clearly gets great results for her clients.

The ‘Reasons to Buy’ Blog Post: Adanna Bankole

A ‘reasons to buy’ post generally focuses on the benefits of your products or services rather than the nitty-gritty details.

These posts work well because they highlight exactly what your customers will get out of your products.

I love how Adanna approached this blog post because it’s actually a pretty scary one to write! In her blog post, ‘4 Reasons to Buy My Business Plan Templates‘, Adanna talks about why you should invest in this product. She lists her reasons clearly like ‘it will save you time’ or ‘it’s more convenient. She also features a testimonial from someone who has bought the templates – a really nice touch!

The ‘My Services Explained’ Blog Post: Sara Bussandri

This is typically where you explain how your products and services work and why they work so well.

Even though it may seem obvious to you, a lot of people might not understand how your products or services actually work, and they may have a lot of questions about it.

Sara does a great job with her blog post: My blog writing service and packages explained. She explains why she doesn’t just write individual blog posts, why she doesn’t offer a ‘trial’ and she tackles the issue of how someone can actually write for another business (without being in it).

The ‘I’m Raising My Prices’ Blog Post: Janine Coombes

This is my ultimate favourite blog post! Is it scary? Yes! But it’s so much fun to write and it’s the one we’ve found delivers really good results.

We all should raise our prices at some point during our business careers. Normally, we do this ‘under the radar. We don’t tell anyone about it, we just simply change our websites to reflect our new prices.

With existing clients, it’s trickier, because we have to email them to let them know that there will be a price increase.

This is why we love the ‘why am I raising my prices’ blog post. Because it’s your opportunity to tell people how flipping brilliant you are and how much value you deliver. And therefore why (justifiably so) you’re raising your prices.

This is also a great thing to send to existing clients. As we always say, people don’t care what you say, they care what you publish. And if you state publicly that you’re raising your prices,  your client will believe and trust that this is a decision you’ve made for all your clients. Not just for them.

We love how Janine, a marketing coach, tackles this in her blog post: The 5 reasons I’m putting my prices up. Janine is super confident. She states that she’s raising her prices because ‘I’m seriously good at what I do.’ And then she goes on to explain what she’s done for her clients.

She breaks down exactly why she’s raising her prices in a transparent and frank way. And it works incredibly well for building trust and authority.

What Are Your Next Steps When It Comes to Creating Sales Content?

So there you have it. Some great examples of businesses using sales content. And there’s absolutely no reason why you can’t do this too!

If you want help, support and some accountability when creating sales content (and lots of other content too), why not join our 90 Day Content Marketing Challenge? This THE challenge that will help you create content that delivers you rankings, traffic, leads and sales.

The doors are next opening on the 22 April. Join the waitlist now.

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post What is Sales Content and How Can It Get You Sales? (With Examples) appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.