As discussed in a previous article, content marketing is an effective yet sophisticated system for revitalizing a brand and boosting sales. But content marketing is a powerful tool for attracting prospects and growing loyal buyers for the long term, too. And when combined with targeted copy and your sales team, a customer-focused content strategy can deliver an increase in overall restaurant supply sales.
It’s not enough to just plant an ecommerce website with hopes that sales will naturally spring up. Because so many competitors offer similar foodservice equipment and supplies at similar prices with the same dozen vendors topping nearly every google search. Without good content, your site might collect rust and dust on the forgotten shelves of the internet.
To see ideal profits, you must attract ideal buyers to your website and prove you are their best choice. To maintain those profits, you need to remain their top choice. Content marketing gets the job done.
And, not limited to blogs, content marketing adds value to your core products and differentiates your brand by publishing helpful and rewarding information through mediums like newsletters, videos and podcasts, crafted specifically for your ideal buyers. As their satisfaction grows, so does your client base.
Do you want to gain a loyal clientele and rise above the competition? Then, let’s explore:
Nine ways content marketing grows your foodservice customer base to produce lush profits.
1 Content Marketing Identifies and Proclaims Your UVP
Markets have climates and they change in response to countless factors. Success means keeping tuned to your prospects and nurturing them as they evolve.
But the foodservice equipment and supply market is too vast and resources are too scarce to communicate with every potential buyer. So, multiply your efficiency by minimizing your outreach.
A rewarding marketing strategy defines the assets that make your company unique and the added value you can offer. Then you identify the ideal buyers to help achieve your profit and growth goals.
To do this, study your potential buyers, identify the segment most likely to want your product and pay your price, learn their wants and needs, develop personas that represent them and craft solutions based on your company’s unique skill set. It’s more complicated than that, but you get the idea.
The same applies to content marketing. Publishing blogs, newsletters, videos and other messaging offers added value to your customers while expanding your reach across the internet.
By refining your content marketing strategy to match-fit your unique value proposition (UVP) to the ideal buyer, you differentiate your foodservice supply brand and website from a sea of generics. As a result, when your targeted buyers seek help on the internet, they’ll find your message and your website. That is, assuming you truly understood them.
So, we best move on to creating targeted content that will win their attention.
2 Content Marketing Helps You Create Targeted Messaging
Publishing generalized content is like spreading generic … fertilizer. It doesn’t take into account the specific needs of the readers most likely to buy your product. Simply churning it out with disregard for the audience can burn your other marketing efforts.
Worse: It can harm your brand and reputation if readers perceive you as insincere and tone deaf.
So what do you say and how do you say it?
Ideal content is shaped by your ideal buyer. In simple terms, apply knowledge, empathy, and solutions combined with the ability to create compelling articles, reviews, guides, podcasts and videos that answer the specific needs of specific readers. For this reason, effective results mean studying your customers.
Buyer personas are assembled from customer research studies and, as a result, tell you what your potential customers want and how they prefer to consume. By understanding where they presently are, pinpointing their goals and the hurdles in between, you then create desired content in their preferred medium that agrees with their sensibilities and speaks to their worldview.
That skillfully crafted content emerged from tuning your UVP to the ideal buyer persona and makes you a particularly valuable resource. That is, if they ever experience it.
So, how will they find your message?
3 Content Marketing Helps Expose You to Ideal Buyers
Imagine one farmer slinging a mix of seeds over the ground. Meanwhile, his neighbor sorts them by type, carefully placing the right amount at the right space and proper depth. Not only will the neighbor’s crop be easier to tend, but it will be easier to predict the yield, to find what is needed and to judge the quality at a glance.
Content marketing strategy answers where to post, when to post and how to format it to be easily found. Remember, buyer personas tell you their habits, hangouts and schedules. Using that information, you then plant the right message on the right channels at the right times.
Keep in mind, you’re publishing content to win new readers AND to retain current followers. That’s how it grows and maintains your client base.
Research and tests might reveal that your audience prefers medium length to long-form blog posts and papers on Sundays and typically search Google from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. On Tuesdays and Thursdays they prefer short blog posts and news aggregates from 8 a.m to 11 a.m. So, you publish that type of content and promote it on those particular days at the top of those periods in order to keep in sight of regular readers.
And you optimize your content so that Google’s algorithm can suggest it as a useful answer to users’ queries. As a result, new readers see you on the search engine results page (SERP) and current readers know when to expect your latest content gold.
But even if you pop up on page one, will they click your link to consume it?
4 Content Marketing Helps You get Clicks and Traffic
Let’s face it, ugly and dull gets ignored and dies. Yes, those are subjective value judgements. Which, you will become aware of and understand as a result of the customer research and buyer personas.
Content marketing success depends on how you present it. A customer focused strategy will naturally appeal to target readers because research tells you what they value, what they trust and what they find appealing.
Simply structure the content to get found and craft the message to trigger the positive vibes.
Okay, that doesn’t sound simple at all. But the first half is — when you are a true authority.
You know your industry and you’ve got combined decades of experience on staff. When you apply that expertise to create content with a customer focus, speaking to the reader in their terms, then it will show authority, credibility and be naturally search engine optimized (SEO) to get found and clicked.
Now, that second half takes time, personality and creative talent.
A skilled content creator will express the right voice, tone and style to boost the wow factor of your blog or video series. Of course, that will reflect the voice of your business brand, which should answer the voice of your target audience. When this is authentic, appeal occurs naturally but it benefits you to know how to format and polish the finished product in a way that makes it impossible to ignore.
So, the carefully selected keywords, images, tags, language, tone, theme and (especially) solutions to real pains earn more clicks. Collaborating with a professional content creator will achieve this for you while saving time and human resources.
Now, once they click, how do you get them to like your website and stay?
5 Content Marketing Helps Win Approval
Time is a scarce commodity for everyone — though it seems especially so for owners and operators in the restaurant and hospitality trade. You are one of thousands competing for that time.
Web content, any content, that truly understands and addresses issues that are important to target buyers wins all the attention. Moreso, in addition to providing value, content must prove it’s worth quickly because if visitors think you’re wasting their time, they’ll bounce fast and write you off as a hindrance rather than a help.
And that delivered value includes readability and a sense of urgency.
Again, chefs and owners don’t have time to spare on fluff that’s difficult to follow. Know what they need and give it to them clearly, succinctly and with a bit of flair to keep it fun.
That last bit means presenting actionable advice to professionals versus boring facts with stuffy language and numbing figures. Such attempts to appear authoritative kill traffic.
Too often, stakeholders are afraid to publish the style of content proven to work best for the web. Consequently, for fear of being taken for fools they wind up being ignored. Because restaurateurs know value and expertise when they see it. They didn’t get where they are by ignoring wisdom from casual sources but they also didn’t get there by wasting time.
Readers bounce from blocks of technical jargon and dry writing. Instead, keep your audience riveted: be easy on the eyes and easy on the mind while delivering factual and actionable content. Get them closer to their goals with a little entertainment and they’ll not only read it, they’ll appreciate you for elevating their mood as much as their business.
Of course, the customer research will help determine the level of levity they are likely to accept.
Your efforts will win approval and perceived value will grow when you deliver the promised solution with concise and actionable content that satisfies their expectations and fulfills their desires. Repeatedly.
I mean, they liked that one article — but will they return to your website for more?
6 Content Marketing Helps Earn the Return
Still, you won’t be the only source for handy info. A loyal client base grows on a steady supply of enriched content.
The fact is, content marketing is nothing new and as it evolves and technology becomes more accessible, more and more businesses dig in to reap the rewards. The internet seems bursting with news and advice for restaurant and foodservice operators. But that’s where individuality benefits you through differentiation.
Remember, your UVP paired with buyer personas and a content strategy to guide you keeps you fresh and facilitates your readers’ success. While this helps you stand out from the competition initially, you must publish quality pieces regularly because it is the consistent, frequent, original and innovative content that earns repeat traffic.
The solution is a content calendar, used to plot the conceptualization, creation and publishing according to a strategy and time frame that best suits your goals.
Professional content creators use content calendars to maintain a flow of consistent and valuable messages, feeding the minds of ideal buyers. And, if you keep your buyer personas up to date as buyers evolve, your messaging will stay relevant to their needs, turning repeat readers into loyal fans.
That enriched content will keep them coming for your free goodies but will they make the big buy?
7 Content Marketing Helps Win the Sale
Harvesting a sale from your field of prospects doesn’t have to be bold and aggressive but you still have to pitch the benefits and ask for the sale. And they’ll be more inclined to accept your offer if they trust you.
Yes, you’re giving away golden information. Sure, they love you for that. How, then, do you convert them from enjoying freebies to spending money on your core product?
Content marketing proves your worth and reliability before the sales pitch. If your posts and videos deliver actionable solutions with achievable results, over and over again, the audience learns to trust your brand. Now, they are ready to receive the offer delivered by your sales team, web copy, or both.
Of course, it takes less trust and loyalty to sell Melmac and mop heads. But even then, when those loyal readers reach the point in their journey where they need to have your products, you’ll hardly have to do more than ask. And by the time they are ready to purchase a range, replace all their seating, or outfit an entire operation, you will be the top source in mind because your content had been nurturing them for this moment all along.
The ideal buyer knew they’d make the purchase from day one. But you still have to say please.
A bit of artful copy on a landing page or a personalized email from your sales department that presents the benefits and asks them to buy can be all that is needed. They already know. They like and trust you as a beloved brand — of course you will deliver.
Sold.
Okay, you delivered. Congratulations! But is that all? “Wham, bam, thank you, Sam’s Charcuterie and Craft Bottle Shop for purchasing our products. Au Revoir.”
How will you create repeat customers?
8 Content Marketing Helps Deliver All the Goods
Unsatisfying post-sale experiences can starve customer relationships and kill repeat sales. The buyer needs nurturing to stay happy and keep you in mind for the next sale.
To retain customers, you must also provide value after the sale. Because the relationship hasn’t ended, it merely advances to the next stage: after sale service and customer relations management. Of course you’re continually publishing valuable, helpful content but the sale opens new responsibilities and opportunities.
A focus on the customer’s experience using your products not only maintains the relationship but helps assure long-term satisfaction in the purchase. Additionally, the communication lines are kept open to receive feedback that is valuable for you to improve.
From picking and shipping to the end of the product life cycle, you can provide content to express gratitude, demonstrate installation, use, maintenance and, eventually, assist with replacement. By helping the buyer to achieve maximum benefit from the products they purchased, you add enormous value over your competitors.
Look at you — constantly adding value.
More value leads to greater satisfaction, tighter loyalty and more sales that get easier and easier and for less strain on the marketing budget. How?
9 Content Marketing Helps Maintain the Sales Cycle
It’s the circle of life. For business.
In a nutshell, the sales cycle is a counter to the traditional sales funnel. While the funnel is a one way trip that ends with the sale, the cycle is a perpetual system to cultivate recurring sales and it accounts for prospects who fall back in their buyer’s journey.
Content is how you keep the buyers buying and the prospects multiplying by meeting newcomers and loyal fans at every step, forward or backward.
You can maintain dialog with sincere and helpful interactions in the form of emails, surveys, newsletters, interactive videos and even direct mail. Ask what customers need and listen to what they say.
The bonus you get from this mutual communication, in addition to ideas for new content, is real-time information that helps you improve operations and innovate your products and services to meet the evolving needs.
And the great thing is, you never have to come across as salesy. By simply providing value and reward for interaction, they will buy when the time is ripe. Because they know you, trust you and have benefited from your content.
What’s more, they tell their friends and colleagues. Through word of mouth, the tales of satisfaction spread, the cycle expands and business grows.
But how to get the sales cycle spinning?
Get Growing with Content Marketing
A powerful sales cycle needs a powerful start and that means skillfully created content targeted to the ideal buyers for your brand.
- Build well-researched buyer personas to establish their needs and expectations.
- Define and refine your UVP to meet those needs.
- Plan your content strategy to reach and attract your ideal buyers.
- Create and publish your targeted content.
I’ll be adding more articles that will discuss the types and methods of web content to drive sales, as well as ways to promote it for greater results.
If you’re ready to begin cultivating your bumper crop of buyers and need great content to fill your publishing calendar, well, that’s what I do best. Click here to schedule a chat to discuss your goals and needs and how I can help.
Thanks for reading, friends!
And please, if you have any questions or comments, let me know in the comments, below.