What Makes Content Sell Your Product

The content marketer is in a state of constant dilemma. Should the company's next web page aim for brand recognition, or can he go for the sale on this one? How does he get the user interested in the product when he is just looking for information? How does he explain your company and what it offers without coming off as too salesy?

One way or another, every piece of content must sell something. The worst mistake a marketer makes is feeling that simply because there is something new up, he did his job. The second worst mistake is that traffic and social media engagement are the metrics that matter. For every blog article, web page, or social media update, the most important metrics are conversion: did the user give his email, has he started using a free trial, or is he buying your product?

Secondary metrics like time on site, pages per visit, even impressions, click through rate, Facebook likes, and total sessions provide support towards answering the big question: How are successful are you getting traffic from "out there" to inside your sales funnel?

It is very tempting to write a book report, or an analysis on a subject and then pass it off as content. Most of the pages on the internet today are a shell of what they could be. In order to really enjoy constantly improving results, your content team must know how to design and develop content that sells.

Here are a lot of great ways to turn your content pages into mini sales presentations.

Your Reputation is Built on Words

Content is that point where the routers, wires, ones and zeros lead to an in the flesh person with feelings and desires that need to be engaged. No technology can do that, only quality copy. To transform your pages into sales assets, your content people must know their vocabulary. Sometimes a page needs complicated words to convey the most accurate ideas you wish to communicate. Most of the time you will need to use simple, but clever words to make your point quick.

When it comes to content, words are everything. Describing the trip to your office on a bright sunny day, walking through the company grounds, surrounded by hundreds of bright red and pink flowers that greet you at the entrance this spring morning is an effective way to get your reader into a positive frame of mind as you take them inside your business to show them your newest development.

How you word your call to action is where the page proves its value. Choosing the right power verb, or action word is what will determine whether the user clicks the button, or his bookmarks section. 

The way you put together your sentences is a lot like decorating your office. An office with a recent paint job and stylish furniture tells a prospective customer that you are the real deal, and not a boiler room. Quality copy tells everyone who comes in contact with your business that you are legitimate, intelligent, and at the top of your industry. It is something that gains you instant credibility with your future customers.  

Master the Metaphor

Every business has the same challenge, "How can I explain my product, my industry, my features in simple terms that all of my customers can understand?"

Even if the people who need your product are those most familiar with the industry language, the people who make the final purchase decisions are executives who aren't. Their knowledge is limited to how well the costs and benefits of this possible investment are explained to them.

This is especially important for hi-tech products. India is a powerhouse in hi-tech services, designing and developing anything a company needs to operate in the 21st century. The Systems Integration industry, which they lead, is over $250 billion. As a result, it will likely be that among your prospects will be a programmer in Bangalore who needs to convince his client in America who knows nothing about information technology to make this investment. The client will probably go to your website and check out your content to see if your product is worth it. It is up to you to explain to someone like an owner of a retail clothing chain in Idaho how his programming team ten thousand miles away will benefit his business with the use of your tool.

Instead of explaining it to him, you will have to convey the message that the difference between what the programmers are doing now and what they could be doing with your tool is like the difference between tying a shoe with laces and using Velcro. 

The content salesman must be a master of metaphor. He needs to know them like the apps on his smartphone. A metaphor enables the reader to visualize a concept, and make it as clear as his reflection on a lake. He needs to engage multiple senses, so his message will reach his users with the impact of a bull horn.

Most industries have complicated products, and an even more sophisticated industry jargon. A metaphor brings all of this down to earth, enabling the prospect to rapidly digest what you are telling him.

Based on a study conducted by Microsoft, the average internet reader has less of an attention span than a goldfish. It is up to the content team to hold their attention by presenting information that is interesting, entertaining, and can be consumed quickly.

How can you explain to a potential customer that your mobile application tool will maximize bandwidth, reduce latency, and optimize the path from the application server to the mobile device? Say something like:

With our performance tool, your app will be running faster than Usain Bolt!

As an added bonus, when you make metaphor comparisons to popular terms, you can enjoy a boost in SEO rankings and traffic.

SEO or No?

Ever since the dawn of Google, the big question has stood over every content team: Do we focus on keyword optimization or quality of content? If you focus on keyword optimization, you have a better chance at reaching the number one spot in the search engine rankings. If you go for quality, you may not reach number one, but you can enjoy higher click through rates and improved on site metrics, especially CTA and sales conversions. But is a 3% sales ratio for a page generating 1,000 visitors per day better or worse than an SEO optimized site converting 1% sales on 3,000 daily visitors?

The debate rages on.

The key is to balance both. Make sure you have your keywords in your meta title and description, as well as your URL and h1 title, but remember that your meta title and description are advertisements for your page as much as they are SEO tools. Even if you list #1, your title and description are competing with 9 other options listed on that page. Good meta content gets your potential users to click through with enthusiasm and enjoy your pages.

SEO is also a great way to prospect for the right clients and qualify them as potential leads. If you are selling smartphone equipment and you rank high for the term "I need smartphone equipment," you can be pretty confident the people coming to you are the right prospects. You even have a little bit of discovery – they told you what they need. Your landing page can move them straight to your presentation with a call to action aimed at closing the deal. 

A Subtitle Safari

Champion sales trainer Tom Hopkins said it best, "A salesperson is a problem solver. He solves the problems of his clients with the benefits of his products."

What problems do your product solve? The SEO keywords are a nice hint. What are the most popular keywords people are using to get to your site? What are the most popular keywords people are using to get to your competitor's sites? For the keyword terms that aren't worded as questions, can you reword them as questions as if they were answers you would see on the game show Jeopardy?

The series of questions you come up with are their primary problems that you can solve with the benefits of your product.

You aren't selling, you are serving. Your user isn't being convinced to take an action he hadn't originally planned, he is being encouraged to do something he sees is in his best interest.

Subtitles serve as the outline of your content. They connect the dots from the problem, to the solution, to the benefits. They are the signposts to the journey we are taking our new friends on.

Here is a basic model of a successful subtitle sequence:

• The Benefits of solving the problem (whet their appetite with what they can have!)
• The problem
• What can happen to those who don't try to solve it
• What needs to be done to solve the problem
• How the specific features of your product solve the problem, and directly enable the user to enjoy the benefits of the solution mentioned at the beginning

Writing your subtitles according to this formula is a recipe for getting your reader worried about the problem, interested in the solution you offer, and really excited about owning the features so he can enjoy the inevitable benefits.

Arm Your Copy With Bullets, Videos, and Graphics

How do you present long content to an audience with a short attention span? Use diversion.

Graphics are a great way to give your users' attention span a chance to inhale. After 90 seconds of reading, or about 225 words, you can insert a graphic to divert their attention. It can be a simple picture, or a graph, or some pictorial representation of statistics or facts. It can be a famous quote, or even a simple infographic. Anything that moves the eyes from black and white text to a multicolored illustration changes things up enough to maintain the stamina of the user.

How else can we explain for the fact that despite our "shorter than a goldfish" attention span, the pages that rank highest on Google, and are most popular on LinkedIN are the ones with over 2,000 words?

As Tom Hopkins says, when you are in a live sales presentation and you offer visuals like a pamphlet or a brochure, it must be pristine. Even your purchase order form should look like it's in mint condition. There can be no creases, folds, or stains anywhere. Anything less says that you either haven't made a sale in a long time, or you are a second-class organization.

The same applies for your pictures. Top quality photos from places like 123rf.com, or Shutterstock say that you are a five-star outfit.

Videos can be in many forms. They can be in house, or you can just grab something off of YouTube and embed it into your site. Even the short, looping 6 second videos can provide a small comic relief to back up a point you just made. A small laugh can go a long way in keeping your user engaged and entertained.

Bullet points are an effective way to communicate a lot of information quickly. They are great for summing up everything you discussed in your content, and for presenting the full range of product features, solutions, and everything else a user owns with your product. People typically scan the internet rather than read it, so it is likely that a lot of your users will gloss over the subtitles, pictures, and bullet points. If you can communicate everything you wanted within this "page within a page," the user can engage you as if he read everything word for word.

Bottom Line

Whether asking your user to like you on social media, accept a free trial, or to own your product, your content page is a sales presentation. By applying basic sales strategies, you can:

• Rank high on Google's search pages
• Encourage those who see you on those search pages pick you out of the 10 options
• Provide them with the benefits of solving a significant problem of theirs
• Demonstrate how they can solve their problem using the features of your product
• Make everything easy to understand with effective metaphors
• Use quality subtitles, graphics, and videos to keep their attention
• Find the most powerful action words to label your call to action
• Increase the conversion rate of your pages and enjoy more traffic and revenue!

If you are planning on expanding the conversion rates, leads, and sales on your content:

David Ben Horin is a content consultant. He specializes in communicating the best of what you offer in clear, and powerful language to get the people in your marketplace excited about your business. You can see his writing portfolio at: www.spreadyourenthusiasm.com.