How to Create Content for Every Phase of the Customer Journey

Blogging is a type of content that sparks interest almost immediately, especially when done right.

Over time, search engines like Google will index your blog posts driving more web traffic via organic search, which leads to brand awareness and more business for you.

Here are a few tips you can follow:

• Your blog posts should be about things that are relevant to the services or products you offer that will be beneficial for your ideal prospects. 
• Adding value to your audience should be your top objective.
• Be consistent with how often you create blog articles to stay relevant.

If you're not publishing content on social media platforms to spread brand awareness, then you are missing out on business opportunities BIG TIME!

Did you know that 53% of Americans who follow brands in social are more loyal to those brands?

Check out our article about social media marketing to identify the best social media networks for your business.

Webinars or web-based seminars are interactive content that is great for real-time communication.

In a recent study, B2B marketers ranked webinars as the second-most effective content marketing tactic.

Here are simple steps on how to create a webinar:

• Step 1: Choose a topic.
• Step 2: Choose your team - facilitator, presenter(s), and assistant(s).
• Step 3: Pick a format - Single speaker, interview format, moderated panel discussion, or Q&A session.
• Step 4: Plan your audio and visual materials, date and time, location, and equipment.
• Step 5: Select a webinar platform.
• Step 6: Promote your webinar.

Whitepapers have so many definitions, but for the sake of this article, I will be using Textbroker's :

"Whitepapers are documents that are mainly given out by companies to describe technical information and data, study results, performance or process operations."

Consider the following when creating a whitepaper:

• Length: An excellent whitepaper has a minimum of six up to fifty pages. The pages should include illustrations, charts, references, etc.
• Structure: Your whitepaper must have a title page, table of contents, introduction, several pages about the problem, several pages about a solution, several pages of a real-life success story of a company, and a conclusion.
  
• Style: Create a whitepaper that is professional, serious, well written, and well edited.

eNewsletters are a type of news release sent via email that publicizes relevant news, articles, and content for your prospects and customers. It usually is connected with special offers or benefits.

Check out this article to learn How to Create an Email Newsletter that Will Impress Your Boss to impress your audience.

Reviews play a vital role in a customer's decision-making process.

Here are a few tips for you:

• Create a section on your website, blog, or in-store dedicated for reviews. This way, visitors can easily see them.
• Show both positive and negative reviews. It's a great way to tell people that you aren't perfect or that you're not a scam or a robot.

I think our articles about Online Reputation Management and Online Reviews could also help you with this task.

Testimonials are very similar to reviews. In a lot of cases, you may be able to convert your reviews to testimonials.

The big difference is that testimonials are gathered and managed by your business, where reviews are collected by a third party, like Google, Yelp, or Facebook.

When you reach out to customers for testimonials, it's usually a good idea to coach them on the type of information you are looking for. Ideally, you want a testimonial to describe the problem a customer had, how you solved it for them, and the benefits they have realized in working with you.

An eBook is a book but electronic. They are downloadable files that consumers can read whenever and wherever they want on their devices!

Your eBook must have a purpose - lead generation, SEO ranking, brand awareness, etc.!

Here are steps on how to create an eBook:

• Step 1: Choose a topic that matches your audience's needs.
• Step 2: Write content that shows solutions to their needs.
• Step 3: Carefully choose design elements like colors, font, visuals, etc.
• Step 4: Add a strong call-to-action.
• Step 5: Convert it into a PDF.
• Step 6: Assign a landing page.
• Step 7: Promote and measure success.

A video demo explains how something works. It's great for urging people to TRY a product or service by showing how to solve a problem.

You can use a video demo to:

• Replicate the user experience.
• Appeal to both visual and text-based learners.
• Show how to overcome a common challenge.
• Make viewers feel empowered.
• Tell a story.

Learn how to create a video demo that drives results in this article.

A lot of subscription type services offer free trials as a way to "try before you buy." This is a great way to let potential customers use a product or service to see how they like it.

Businesses selling products often offer product samples as a way to experience the product.

Both of these are great examples of try content.

A new customer kit is a great way to welcome your customer aboard your ship. It gives your new client the information they need and want about your product, service, or company.

Here are other uses of a new customer kit:

• It serves as a "Thank you!" pack.
• An orientation kit.
• A success roadmap.

Check out this article from Duct Tape Marketing about how to create the ultimate new customer experience.

A quick start guide is a short, getting-started document that usually comes with a product or software.

In writing a quick start guide, you must include the following:

• Introduction
  A single line description or a few paragraphs that state the purpose of your offer.
• Requirements
  It could be a required physical product, an additional software, or a server and storage requirement.
• Installation
  Step-by-step instructions.
• Usage
  A very basic instruction about how to get started with the product.
• Referential information
  Pointers to the detailed user guides and installation guides.

User manuals are the good-old lengthy handbooks that come with a product. They have every single product information, down to the nitty-gritty ones, to help a customer use a product or service.

It's like having a customer support line in a booklet!

Honestly, you have to spend a considerable amount of time and effort to create a user manual, but it'll be so worth it in the end if it's appropriate for what you sell.

A great way to keep your existing customers engaged is by writing effective email autoresponder sequences.

What is an email autoresponder sequence? It's a series of emails you write and send out at pre-set intervals to customers.

Do you send it to everyone? Not really! You only send them to the customers at a certain phase in your after sales process.

Here’s a quick guide to getting your email autoresponder sequence done:

• Decide the number of autoresponder emails you want in your series.
• Plan the interval of sending out each email.
• Spend time to writing the whole series.
• Queue them up in your email autoresponder.
• Test your email autoresponder sequence to make sure everything works fine.

Customers love it when you make them feel special. When they feel important, they come back for more.

A simple way to show customers that they're important is by writing them handwritten notes, even for no apparent reason.

The benefits of handwritten notes are:

• It shows customers that you appreciate them.
• It involves many of the human senses because letters have to be opened, touched, seen, and sometimes smelled.
• It offers a more personal touch to all your efforts. Something that digital marketing lacks these days.
• It boosts branding because customers will consider your business as a thoughtful, caring one.

Another type of content that boosts repeat business is a customer-only newsletter.

Customers love to see "For Your Eyes Only!" or "VIP Access!" in their emails or direct mailers. Do you agree? I know you love it too!

Refer to the eNewsletter section of this article to learn how to write a newsletter for your customers.

Happy customers mean repeat business and great word of mouth!

The REPEAT phase is about creating content that makes it easy for your loyal customers to refer your business.

Remember that 92 percent of consumers say they trust word of mouth from friends and family more than other forms of advertising, so make sure to create the best content that will generate referrals.

Word of mouth is an effective referral marketing strategy that your business can and should use.

Some examples of content that your current customers can redistribute to generate referral buzz are:

• eBooks
• videos
• photos
• gift certificates
• social media contests or hashtag campaigns
• basically, everything that I mentioned above!

Featuring your customers in your marketing materials is another way to encourage them to share their experience with others.

Here are a few ways to do it:

• You can include them on your Facebook and Instagram stories.
• Ask them to appear in a promotional Youtube video or other TV advertisements.
• Write a real-life success story of a customer and include it in your print ads.