By Sandra Collins

This blog is about providing core content.

 

When people are considering making a significant purchase, they often start with research to better understand their options. They look for information online and/or offline; they may also solicit input from others, opinions available on social media, and customer reviews.

Much of their research will be done prior to or in addition to conversations that prospects have directly with you or your company’s sales representative(s). (Read more about that here.)

Providing information in the places that potential buyers will be looking for it increases the possibilities that they will consider you as a supplier. Increased consideration is one of the factors in getting more business.

I believe marketing information falls into three categories:

• Messaging – the primary description of what you do (you need this!)
• Core Content – the information that helps prospects to know you and determine whether your products/services will meet their needs. This type of marketing content is generally the most productive for small businesses
• Content Marketing – additional information that helps prospects to like you and trust you

Let’s talk about Core Content. That’s the information prospects want to know as they progress through the buying process. You’ll want to ensure they have this essential information, whether they get it from your website, a brochure, a video, or any other method of distribution.

It’s best to develop some “short form” content such as a summary paragraph that you can put in various locations, like at the end of a guest blog. Then you should also have more in-depth core content about what you offer and how it meets customers’ needs or solves their pain points (their problems).

Don’t assume people will hunt for the information they wish to know, or that they will call you if they have questions. Convey important information about what you do, especially if it narrows their options; it can be frustrating for prospects to spend a lot of time looking at your information and then find out you don’t serve their geography or don’t provide products/services compatible with their needs. Listen to the questions you get from prospects and customers and try to integrate the answers into your core content.

Also, if you make it easy for your prospects to know what you do, you won’t lose out on opportunities. You can avoid getting into the “Why didn’t you call me?” situation, which has a scenario like this: You own a landscaping company and you’re talking to the facilities manager at one of your client companies and she says to you, “I had a tough time finding someone to take care of my yard,” and you find yourself replying, “What? Why didn’t you call me?” In this case, you would want to be sure your communications promoted the fact that your company does both residential and commercial work.

If prospects like to know fairly in-depth information before buying, it’s helpful to have one location where you can steer them. For many businesses, that’s their website. Websites have the advantage of being able to hold a lot of information that can be consumed in small bites, as quickly or as thoroughly as the prospect wishes. (This is also helpful in the case of a broad selection of products or complex products.) However, in this day of expanded communication channels, if the information isn’t lengthy, your core container of information could be somewhere completely different.

Once you address the core content about what you do and why you’re a great supplier, additional content helps prospects to know you better, and moves them toward liking you and trusting you:

• Your “about us” information and your “story”
• Your mission, primary objectives, what’s important to you
• White papers with in-depth explanations of your products/services (only if they are technical or complicated)
• Customer perspectives, contained in stories, interviews, or case studies
• Customer testimonials
• Information that helps others, including “how-to” information and insightful articles

Read more about aligning your content to a buyer’s location in the sales funnel.