While sales cycles can vary greatly in length, they typically consist of the same seven stages, no matter the complexity of what you’re selling. Here are those seven stages and the content you can use to engage users at each stage of the sales cycle.
- Search: social media advertising, search engine advertising, SEO, guest blogging, webinars.
- Establishing contact: email romania business email list marketing, phone calls
- Qualify a potential buyer: call, demonstration, survey, download a lead magnet with clarifying questions.
- Nurture your prospect: email marketing, lead magnets, social media, blogging
- Present your offer: email marketing, sales call, demo, follow-up
- Overcoming Objections: Email make your work for you Marketing, Lead Magnets, Social Media, Blogs
- Closing the sale: email marketing, sales hong kong phone number call, website transaction
You’ll notice that many of the stages share tactics. That’s because you don’t just stop sharing your blogs with a prospect once you’ve passed the prospecting stage. Or you don’t stop sending emails once you’ve pitched your offer.
Your content marketing strategies should span the entire sales cycle to help close the deal and delight the customer. Here’s how to identify what content your customers might need at each stage of the long sales cycle.
Content Selection for Phases of Your Long Sales Cycle
To tailor your content marketing to the phases of the long sales cycle, you need to have a deep understanding of your customers.
Know what they are looking for, what problems are driving them to seek out your product or service, and what obstacles they will face in overcoming objections to making a purchase.