Okay, by now you’re probably sick of everyone telling you content is king. I know you know that it’s the best way to attract and connect with customers. So let’s look at content from a different perspective: as a generator and qualifier for sales leads.

By simply producing the right content, you can attract more (and better) prospects, and then proceed to qualify those leads that are likely to be most profitable.

KNOW WHAT THEY’RE LOOKING FOR
The first step is to attract those leads to your site. And to do that, you must plan your content out carefully. That means forgetting about any message you might WANT to put out there. Instead, do a little digging and find out what your best customers go online for. What are they looking for?

If you put out the kind of information they are looking for, then you are likely to attract more people like them.

SURPRISE YOUR BEST CUSTOMER
In the process of delivering what it is they want… seek to over-deliver in a way that will blow your best customer’s mind. Your best customer already likes you and has certain expectations. If you surpass those expectations, then people who have no such expectations should be truly stunned.

OFFEND YOUR WORST CUSTOMER
This is part of the qualifying process that most people miss out on, but discouraging bad customers is every bit as important as encouraging the good. You may not like to talk about it, but everyone has had customers who were more trouble than they were worth.

If you can get a feel for the things that differentiate those customers from your good customers, draw a line in the sand between them and announce to the world where you stand. You don’t want to insult them, of course, but don’t worry about upsetting them. Simply talk in positive terms about things they don’t like or disagree with in order to turn them off.

BLATANT CALL TO ACTION
All of this effort is for naught unless you actually capture the leads. My top technique for this has been the same for the last five years, because I simply haven’t found anything better yet: the free report as an email capture.

Identify the top 3 problems your clients face, and then— for each problem— write a report that details a workable solution to that problem. It doesn’t have to be long… between 5 and 20 pages (depending on the problem) should be fine.

Then, using a list service like Aweber, offer the report for free in return for an email address… and only an email address.

Now, based on which report they downloaded, you know what their main concern is… their hot-button issue. And they’ve opted into a list that gives you access to follow-up and further qualify them as leads. In fact, if your report was solid and useful, they’ll actually look forward to your follow-up messages.

That is trust, and it’s a direct product of delivering content designed to generate qualified leads.

Maybe content is still king, after all?

If business were a race, most people focus on getting their customers to the finish line. The seller that gets the buyer to the finish line first, gets the sale. There is a lot of competition for that last hundredth of a second, where the buyer finally parts with his or her money.

What if, while they were focused on the finish line, you moved the starting line?

Instead of starting your marketing plan with “so, you want to buy a widget? Here’s why OUR widget is the right one for you,” you went with “You have problem x? You know, a widget could solve that problem for you.” Or better yet “So, you bought a sprocket? Did you know you can get better performance out of your sprocket with the right widget?”

Lots of businesses try hard to be the first option found when the buyer wants your widget. But if you can get to them before they even know they need a widget, then suddenly you are in a completely different race… while your competitor is still waiting for the starter pistol to fire.

Which puts you in the lead.

Imagine if you had to pay your customers, and the going rate was $2 for the first dollar spent, and 10 cents for each dollar he spent after that.

Would you focus on closing each and every individual sale with anyone who walked through the front door? Or would you focus on building a relationship to ensure that each buyer was likely to keep buying more over time?

Is your marketing free? If not, are you focusing on making the sale with each ad, spot or click? Or are you focusing on nurturing relationships that will produce loyal, long-term customers over time?

How?

There is a lot of talk about the recovery. It’s a jobless recovery. It is progressing with sputters and hiccups. That unemployment is shrinking, but slowly… or it’s increasing, but in a good way, since people who have given up are now optimistic and out looking for work again.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that isn’t how this stuff works. There will not be a “Recovery” the way that most Americans hope there will be… the way politicians and talking heads are leading them to believe.

The word recovery implies that an outside influence has unduly influenced the markets, artificially suppressing them. Therefore, if we wait long enough, the economy will recover and get back to it’s former glory and all will be right with the world again.

That is not the case.

What we had a few years ago was outside influences (over-eager lenders, overzealous fund managers, etc) unduly influencing the markets, artificially inflating them through creative accounting. The world had a heyday with a sudden influx of money that never actually existed that raised the standard of living for millions of Americans.

What we are experiencing is not a recession, but a correction. What we have now is an economy based (arguably) on the actual amount of extant money, now that all of that non-existent money is off the books. And since it never existed, there is nothing to recover. Republicans know this. Democrats know this. Many reporters know this.

But as long as there is a promise of a recovery hanging out there on the distant horizon… we will patiently wait for things to “Get back to normal.” We will watch and vote and shake out fists and hang on their every word.

 

Things ARE back to normal. Corporate profits are largely up to “pre-recession” levels… but comparatively, job creation is still stagnant. Welcome to the new reality. We need to quit talking about a recovery and start talking about rebuilding. Building takes a lot more effort than waiting, but at the end of the day you have something to show for it.

Are you waiting, or are you building?