tips to balance ‘push and pull’ in content marketing

Your marketing strategy is vital to the health of your company. Your marketing strategy’s success is dependent on the quality and substance of your content.

Content is the most important factor in a customer’s purchasing decision. In a survey, the majority of people preferred content to social media, reviews and contact with a representative.

How can you make sure your content marketing has the desired impact?

Discover the benefits of writing content that promotes engagement rather than pushing sales. Learn how to successfully combine both strategies.

Takeaways from

• Content marketing that encourages customer engagement can be a more effective strategy over the long term, but it requires patience and consistency.
• Sales pushes can bring quick results, but have a lower ROI.
• Content marketing strategies that are effective at encouraging engagement while also generating sales often require good data and an external perspective.

1. Content marketing is similar to diet and exercise.

Maintaining a healthy business is very similar to maintaining a good physical health. We all know that getting fit (whether it’s losing weight, building muscle or anything else) takes patience and a long-term commitment to achieve lasting success.

Your marketing will be similar. It is easy to push sales, but it rarely works long-term (like a crash dieting).

Pushing is effective when you want to get quick results or a boost. If you are looking for long-term success, “pull marketing”, or engagement is the best way to go.

To attract and convert your audience into loyal followers, you must consistently provide long form content. This will educate, inform and entertain them. You also need SEO tactics to keep your website visible in search engines.

Content marketing that encourages engagement can be viewed as a healthy lifestyle for your business. You need a program of valuable content for your business to attract customers who are engaged with your brand.

Dig deep: How to lead readers without forcing CTAs

2. What is consumer engagement?

In the modern market, customers have more power. Inbound marketing is a way to create a relationship that benefits both parties.

Content that is compelling and provides actionable information will build trust and loyalty. True engagement goes beyond a customer voting with their dollars. The client will become a brand advocate and increase their lifetime customer value.

It is far more important to boost engagement than to get a temporary increase in sales. Don’t simply congratulate your company on a successful sales increase.

It’s important to take the time to understand what worked and why, as well as how to continue to provide content that highlights your brand value for your audience. Track how your audience engages with you via comments, likes or clicks.

Learn how to align your branding strategy and your customer’s goals. Content marketing and SEO can help you position yourself as a thought leader and expert who helps your clients succeed.

3. When you push sales too hard, you need to recognize it.

It’s amazing to me as a marketing professional how many business professionals think that they are providing value by creating content, when in reality they are still trying to push sales. It’s easy to get lost in the weeds and lose sight of customer relationships.

By promoting only products, you can avoid having “sales breathe” in your content. Good leads are pushed away by self-interest and desperation. Helping people is more important than focusing on whether or not they will use your services.

It’s difficult to find the right balance between engagement and sales. It often takes an outside perspective in order to identify where you are missing the mark. This can be done through surveys, or by using the services of an agency or consultant with experience.

4. Learn how to properly push sales

It will always be important to make sales at the right moment. You need to find ways to reach customers that are ready to purchase your product or service.

Just like your engagement strategy, the trick to not waste your advertising budget is constant measurement and effective tactics. Monitor your campaigns and see who is coming to your door in response (physically or virtually).

Study your ideal clients to discover what they enjoy. You can then provide them with excellent written content they will respond to, and keep them coming back for.

5. Use proven strategies for building engagement

Content marketing strategies that have been tried and tested continue to produce results. Your main concerns are consistency and quality. It’s difficult to stay in touch with your audience.

Ask yourself and your team these questions as you create content:

• Are these articles written in a relevant and honest tone?
• Is the subject important to our readers?
• Are we bringing a unique perspective?
• Do we have good data to support our information?
• Do we give readers specific information they can use?

For engagement, end your content with an actionable call to act that shows your readers how they can apply what they have learned or maximize their results with your assistance. You will see clients take advantage of your offer as you gain credibility and deliver value.

Content marketing is important.

Just like improving your health, it takes time and a smart strategy to find the perfect blend of engagement with sales.

Write content that will lead to loyal customers. Create a marketing plan that is based on customer needs and refine it constantly.

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