How to Create Top of Funnel Content that Sets Your Brand Apart

In today’s buying environment, the traditional approach to marketing no longer works. Consumers want to have more information earlier on in the sales process, well before the initial contact with a sales rep. For businesses, this requires changing the way they think about and deliver content. According to CEB, 57 percent of the purchasing decision is complete before a seller is contacted. If most customers have already researched their options before they connect with you, the trick is to deliver content that engages prospects early on in the sales funnel in a way that sets you apart from the competition. Free Actionable Bonus: Get the complete guide Creating Content for All 4 Stages of The Buyer Journey Storytelling Vs. Sales Content Content that builds brand awareness is geared toward the top and middle of the sales funnel. It’s more about storytelling and establishing your brand in the minds of consumers. According to a Demand Gen Report, 47 percent of buyers view three to five pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep, so the storytelling phase is a crucial step in building consumer confidence. On the other hand, sales content is focused on driving conversions and turning prospects into customers. This is bottom-of-the-funnel content that highlights your products and services more directly, as opposed to content used to build trust. The Importance of Storytelling It’s not only consumer choice that has multiplied; online channels on which content appears seem to be in. Websites, social media platforms, blogs, microblogs, content curation platforms, and review platforms are on the rise. This relentless noise of content is making it increasingly difficult for companies to capture meaningful attention. That’s where storytelling comes in. Consumers want choice, but they also need to feel emotionally connected to a brand, and effective story telling can achieve this. This emotionally charged content does a much better job of cutting through the noise and resonating with people that relate to your brand. The Benefits of Storytelling Up until now, business storytelling typically consisted of recounting your company history and how the business evolved into what it is today. While this story is interesting, it doesn’t do a great job of motivating action. As a result, businesses today are focusing on using storytelling to communicate their values, beliefs and personality instead. Storytelling is more memorable, relatable and engaging, all of which increase the emotional impact of your content and encourage sharing. To do this, there are a number of steps you need to take: Create content topics relevant to your buyers, and answer questions they have early on in the buying process. Optimize content for search engines to drive click-throughs. Use your company’s blog as a tool for building your brand. Identify the social media channels your target audience spends time on, and schedule regular posts. Use email newsletters to drive awareness and web traffic. Create a variety of content types, from videos, quizzes, and list articles, to social media infographics and longer-form content. Great storytelling doesn’t focus on the key benefits of a product; it’s more about creating meaningful connections with people. In a nutshell, it’s not about selling your products; it’s about selling yourself. Take time to tell the complete story of why you do what you do. Why did your company start? What makes you different? What do you believe in and disagree with? Your story should show why your business is different from the rest. Developing Sales Content Once you’ve demonstrated your helpfulness, expertise, and personality – without the hard sell – prospects are going to be more comfortable with your brand. But there are still a few more steps you need to take to encourage people to buy from you. You have to convince people that buying from you is the smart choice, which means providing more information to remove any doubts that your company is the right fit. This content has to be more than just an infographic, a blog piece, or a social media post. Now’s the time to deliver long-form, focused content. Here are best types of content to move prospects down the funnel: Answers to top sales questions. Find out the most common sales-related questions from your sales team and publish answers on your site. An FAQ section is a good start. Webinars are also useful for confronting key customer issues. Evidence-based content. Reviews, testimonials, and ratings will strengthen your credibility. Around 88 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations3. Real data showing the value of your product or service is also a powerful motivator. Case studies and white papers. Addressing the concerns of potential customers just before they’re ready to buy can be enough to encourage them to take the next step. Even if it’s not enough to convert one customer, it may just be enough to warm up other potential leads. Questionnaires and self-assessments. These can be enough to convince people that you have their interests at heart, and can solve their problems. They’re also useful for qualifying leads even further, so you can contact them at a later stage to close the deal. Email newsletters. Around 77 percent of consumers prefer to receive promotional messages via email4. When a lead is close to purchasing, it’s crucial to emphasize how the customer will benefit from your solution, and how your solution differentiates you as a vendor. You can’t always close a deal on the first attempt, so it’s important to keep in touch with subscribers with regular, helpful information. The Bottom Line To develop content that supports sales, you need to reach your target audience with a range of content that builds brand awareness and sets you apart from the competition. It means using storytelling to help people identify with your brand on a more emotional level. It’s about building your reputation, before pushing bottom-of-the-funnel content to the right people at the right time. Your content strategy needs to start conversations with buyers well before they connect with you. This approach will not only drive more engagement and capture more leads, it can also transform your sales process.

How to Deal With a Lazy Coworker

How to Deal With a Lazy Coworker document.createElement('audio'); https://s3.amazonaws.com/tjn-blog-images/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/17133337/How-to-handle-a-lazy-coworker.wavWe’ve all been there- paired with the team member that just isn’t holding up their share of the tent poles. You can’t quite tattle on them because that would just reflect badly on you, but you also can’t let them get away with it all the time and just keep carrying your weight. If you’re frustrated with a lazy, extra-long-lunch-taking, slack-off of a coworker, here are a few ways you can alleviate the situation.Don’t let them knock you off your pins.If you’re spending the entire day focusing on just how lazy and useless your coworker is, chances are you’re not doing your own work as well as you could and should be doing. Try tuning them out, no matter how many times you notice them checking Facebook. Focus on your own work- or you’ll end up having as low an output as the lazy perso n. It might not be fair, but neither is life. Too much attention on fairness is just immature.Stay focused on yourself.Instead of obsessing about what a lame-o your coworker is, direct your energy instead to deciding what kind of a person and coworker you want to be. And start living up to your own ideals. Be the kind of person you admire most- not just someone who carps on the weakest link. Don’t let your good attitude get affected by someone else’s bad work.Don’t assume responsibility.Don’t tattle, but also don’t just pick up their slack. Their work should not be your work. And if your boss recognizes that some work isn’t getting done, do your best to not be assigned any of the blame.Be a leader.Take this opportunity to distinguish yourself. Stay above the gossip. Step up and show your boss and your team how well you deal with difficult situations. Be the hero of your team. Communicate with your lazy co-worker- they may not be lazy at all, but rather dealing with issues or problems you haven’t imagined. Try helping them get back in the game, rather than watching them crash and burn.Say no.Don’t agree to projects that require your coworker to work at full capacity. And don’t agree to time frames that you know to be unrealistic given the situation. Worst case scenario, in saying no, you’ll earn an opportunity to broach the subject of your coworker with your boss in a non-tattletaley way. It’s the classier way to escalate the situation.Put your reputation first.As annoying as it is to find yourself in this situation, what you have to remember is that you cannot go down with the sinking ship. You might have to put in a few more hours and do a bit more work on the edges until the situation can be resolved. If you have a high-stakes project that can’t be avoided and the deadlines can’t be changed, you just have to do the extra work and sort the situation out afterwards. Try and hold your head up high and distinguish yourself as much as possible, which will make the inevitable fall-out that much easier.