Create amazing content for data capture and new prospects

Create amazing content for data capture and new prospects

It is important for businesses to have a constant stream of new enquiries and amazing content that captures the wants and needs of a prospect and is an ideal way to fuel the funnel.

The problem many business owners face is trying to secure sales too quickly. This may work for small value ‘impulse buy’ products but it rarely works for service businesses and high ticket items where trust and diligence is needed.  

Think value in exchange for data

Start on the right foot and offer something of value that will appeal to your customers. This can take the form of a series of informative blog articles, an educational eBook, the use of an app or a subscription service.

Your enlightening piece of content should be free to prospects and offer the opportunity for them to learn something new. But you do expect something in return – usually a name, email address, telephone number and company name (if applicable).

Some websites ask minimal questions and offer multiple-choice answers to make it quick and easy for the prospect to complete. The last thing potential customers want is to write War and Peace in exchange for a download.

Blog articles are free to read and downloads can be offered without the need to trade data. Whilst the latter may result in more downloads, you can only track visits and downloads with a remarketing campaign (implemented by Google and Facebook).

A word of warning

Try to steer away from competitions unless you are putting a highly targeted paid for advertising strategy behind the campaign. Inevitably you will gain a large percentage of entrants excited about a sweepstakes win who will never be an ideal customer.

What’s the objective for wanting new prospects?

The immediate response is more sales and whilst this is the ultimate objective there needs to be pre-sale stages that allow you to build trust and a long-term relationship with your prospect.

Plan out the anticipated prospect journey and think about what information they will need from you in order to make a final decision. How many times will they need to hear from you? Will they need to read testimonials and see social proof? Are they more likely to convert if you entice them with an offer or a trial period?

Review past customer data, the conversion period, and their lifecycle. What does the journey look like?

If you have used multiple forms of content in past marketing efforts, give consideration to which methods performed the best. In particular, what resulted in more conversions. Was it a video, case studies, personal proposal or a demonstration?

Crafting an amazing piece of content from your research findings will gain higher prospect registrations from a data capture form.

Don’t fall foul of GDPR requirements

Due to the latest personal data protection developments, businesses have General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to contend with and it’s necessary for you to request a double opt-in from all new prospects. This means that when they share personal details, such as their name and email address when they complete an online form, you need to double check they are absolutely sure they want to receive communication from you. This is usually in the form of an immediate email containing a further link to confirm. Doing so will then allow the download of the document.

It’s during this stage that you will need to share your intentions if you wish to continue communication with the prospect after the download. You can no longer assume an individual wants to hear from you by automatically ticking boxes on their behalf. You must allow them to do this by their own choice.

Granted, the GDPR measures make it more difficult for you to build new data lists from ‘cold’ prospects but you should consider the people who do connect with you to be of a more qualified nature.

Amazing content taps into the emotions

People digest information in four different ways:

  • Visual
  • Auditory
  • Reading/writing
  • Kinaesthetic – hands on

It’s difficult to provide a kinaesthetic experience with a download unless it’s an interactive app but it’s easy to attract the first three learning types.

Remember, visual people appreciate engaging graphics and video, auditory learners respond to sounds, while thought-provoking text will appeal to those who favour reading and writing.

With all learning types it’s important to write enticing copy so that recipients can see, hear, smell and touch in their mind’s eye what you’re describing.

Once you have captured the data

You have invested time and money into developing an informative piece of content that starts the nurturing journey for hopefully many new customers.

Once you have your data make sure you frequently reach out to your prospects. This can take many forms including:

  • A series of emails
  • Regular text messages
  • A Messenger campaign
  • Direct mail
  • Facebook advertising
  • Google AdWords
  • A phone call
  • A face-to-face meeting

Whatever your prospect-nurturing journey looks like, be sure to stick to the plan. Don’t let your efforts go to waste.

Help is at hand if you need it

At TukTuk Creative Marketing we’ve supported many clients in developing lucrative ways to build their own prospect attraction strategy. If you want to learn more, pick up the phone or fire an email to us today.

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