Today’s buyers use a variety of digital media to research products. Their initial interest in your company or service is created by ads and other outbound marketing initiatives, and then prospects take to the Internet to do their research, before even speaking to a sales representative. Therefore, the job of marketing is to develop rich content to pave the way for prospects to engage in a conversation with sales.
You can make it easy for buyers to get relevant information for their industry by directing them to specific pages on your website with hyperlinks in your ads, emailed web links, blogs, mobile apps, and social media. Don’t just send them to your home page. According to Forrester, today’s buyers are 67-90% of the way through their buying process before they consider contacting a vendor. Many buyers defer all contact until they are ready to talk price.
By doing their own research, customers have more control over the procurement process. Marketing needs to draw prospects in with an inbound strategy that offers useful and thought-provoking content that engages buyers and attracts them to your company. Consider posting case studies of clients successfully using your products. Showcase satisfied clients in videos, rather than merely having written testimonials. Provide demonstrations of your products in use.
The richer your content, the more likely the prospect will request that a salesperson contact them.