Fostering a trusting relationship with your prospects and building on the trust gained during the purchasing journey may be one of the most important aspects of your revenue generation plan.
Although it may sound a bit vague and perhaps even unattainable, gaining and keeping customer trust is a multi-dimensional nurturing approach that, when done well, delivers untold benefits. What does this really mean and how do you achieve it?
This article will show you how to build brand trust with content marketing.
First, you need to keep in mind that some potential buyers are entering the purchasing journey already skeptical.
They may have had a bad experience with a vendor that left guarantees unfulfilled, resulting in costly solutions that didn’t perform as promised or inaccurate and inappropriate content was shared, causing misinformation and distrust.
Knowing your prospects, their pain points, and having a methodical content management strategy that answers their questions are the first steps to establishing yourself as a trusted advisor and an industry thought leader.
How much importance do buyers put on trust when making purchasing decisions?
According to The State of Sales 2017 report, 39% of respondents ranked trust as the single most important aspect of closing a deal.
This ranking surpassed financial considerations, with return on investment (ROI) at 33% and price just 13%. Building the credibility that inspires trust and ultimately revenue generation starts with the content you share.
The Cornerstone of Trust − Content
Buyers need to make the most informed purchasing decisions possible. Your part in the equation is to educate.
This is more about sharing material that shows you understand their concerns and challenges, rather than providing content that focuses on promoting your business or the newest widget you are selling.
The content you share needs to position your company as a valuable and trustworthy resource. A resource that is truly invested in helping them resolve their pain points.
“Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.”
Andrew Davis, Author, and Keynote Speaker
If you’re like the majority of B2B businesses, you most likely have an abundance of content. Care needs to be taken that you don’t overwhelm prospects or customers with an ongoing bombardment of material.
This approach has the opposite effect of what you’re trying to achieve. It will negatively reflect on your ability to accurately resolve their issue, make you appear to be the opposite of an industry thought leader, and position you as less than trustworthy.
When making purchasing decisions, do you know the value that content plays in choosing a vendor?
According to The State of Sales 2017 study, over 90% of respondents revealed that they are more likely to consider a brand’s products or services when content shared is relevant to their role in the decision-making process.
This report also highlights the importance placed (nearly 100% of those surveyed) on the vendor having a clear understanding of their business needs.
Putting the most appropriate content into the hands of the right buyer persona at the right time will not only help you convert more prospects but will enable you to retain the customers you already have − a win-win scenario for you and your customers.
From the customer’s perspective, they avoid the time-intensive task of searching for a new vendor. You retain hard-earned customers, where investments in time and money were already made.
It’s a well-documented fact that it costs at least five times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain a current one. The content you share with customers is just as important as the material provided during the buying journey.
Throughout the customer lifecycle, your content can play a vital role in helping you boost retention rates, turn customers into brand advocates and increase profitability.
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Bring your content management strategy to life
Enablix delivers hyper-targeted and contextualized recommendations, ensuring sales and marketing are sharing the right content, at the right time, with the right buyer personas. Take for example the following three use cases:
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Winning content: Based on previous successful outcomes of a variety of material shared, Enablix pushes hyper-targeted content such as case studies, analyst reports and customer references to sales reps, helping to position them as trusted advisors and accelerate deal closures.
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Re-engage cold prospects: When a prospect goes cold, Enablix turns up the heat. Its recommendation engine identifies stalled deals and suggests relevant content, including analyst or press mentions, white papers and product launch announcements to move the prospect to the next phase in the buying journey.
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Competitive stories: Whether competing with a rival vendor or an internal decision-maker that prefers one of your competitor’s products, Enablix takes the guesswork out of how to overcome competitive challenges. Enablix helps companies, like yours, establish a competitive intelligence framework and execute it for positive pipeline outcomes. Relevant story content that can help your reps overcome objections include winning against an incumbent competitor, how to respond when competing with a prospect’s internal IT department, and taking the sting out of price negotiations.
With easy integration to your existing tools and apps, sales and marketing have quick access to the material they need. This single source of trusted content helps you rise above the competition.
It positions you as an industry thought leader and builds trust in your brand, enabling sales to close more deals faster.