Create Content that Sells [Without Making the #1 Content Mistake]

As a content marketer, your goals may be different than for other marketing tasks.

Engagement, traffic, brand loyalty. Got it. But what about helping you sell more products?

How do you integrate content into your sales funnel without making the #1 content marketing mistake—turning blog posts into sales pages?

Let’s take a look at how to create content that sells.

Content marketing goals

For many blogs, the top goals are readership and engagement. After all, we’re supposed to think like publishers.

We’re supposed to create content that helps us sell but that isn’t salesy.

That’s exactly right. But even if you’re a publisher, you need dollars in the bank to stay in business. So you still need to drive subscriptions.

Now that I think about it, a magazine is the perfect example of great content that isn’t salesy.

Articles in a magazine never talk about the magazine. They don’t even mention subscriptions. Yet each article helps drive subscription by being as well-written, informative and entertaining as possible.

Notice how every subscription offer you see features a magazine’s most-read, most-intriguing cover?

That’s because pure content can also showcase your business. And drive traffic. And drive sales.

The trick is to integrate content into your sales funnel—without losing sight of its inherent value (information and relationship, not sales).

Content that contributes to sales

Always remember that articles aren’t sales vehicles. They are, however, part of your marketing plan, so they need to contribute.

They can increase customer loyalty. They can attract qualified traffic to your site. They can get people interested in the topic of your next book, program, or webinar. They may even get eyeballs on the on-page ads that link to your landing pages.

For service providers, especially writers and designers, a blog showcases your knowledge and skills, allowing prospects to see what you can do before contacting you. Visitors like that, because it’s a low-pressure way to evaluate a potential contractor. And you can appreciate the higher quality of leads this produces.

It’s not so easy for e-commerce sites. If you sell a product, whether digital or physical, your blog needs to coordinate with your offers. It just takes a little more finesse to do it well.

The key: non-promotional promoting

From my perspective, no one does this better than Digital Marketer. Every article they publish is useful in and of itself. It tells you how to achieve some end results, with screenshots showing you every step of the process.

But if it fits, you may also see a plug for a product or event. Take this example:

I took this from an article explaining the strategy of selling memberships. But after telling me what I need to think about and what’s working for them, I also see a few links to products they’re selling.

Why doesn’t this bother me? The mentions seem natural. Since the article is written in a conversational style, it doesn’t disrupt the flow to see a few plugs. The way it’s done, they feel like asides:

Oh, by the way, if you like what we’re talking about here, you might be interested in this too.

DigitalMarketer also avoids hard selling in the article. A mention is as far as they go—and that’s an important point to remember.

Think about the super-attentive clerk at a nice department store. While you’re in the fitting room, she brings in a shirt and a jacket that would go well with the slacks you’re trying on.

Once, I even had a clerk bring me a $500 purse. Lol

My response? I got a kick out of it, but I wasn’t bothered. I hadn’t told her how little I wanted to spend. And it felt like she wanted to help me look like a million bucks, nothing more.

That’s how you do it.

Always focus on helping your readers, answering their questions, sharing solutions, and explaining why or how things work. Then link to a few resources that could help—yours and other brands’.

Here’s another example

Noah Kagan is hiring. At least he was a few months ago.

So he wrote an article about how to hire good help. See how he did that? He wanted something from his readers, so he found the connection with what they might want in return. Then he adds value by sharing interesting ideas and tips.

He also links to a lot of useful resources (most of which he isn’t selling), so it isn’t the least bit offensive when he links to his own property.

Now look at how he concludes the article:

Even with this plug, the article never turns into a sales page. It’s an interesting discussion about how hard it is to find good help. Noah shares his insights and thoughts, and then tells people that he’s looking too.

Here, the links make perfect sense. We know he’s looking. We’d like to be able to respond.

Fitting content into your funnel

The challenge comes when your blog post or ebook is supposed to push people into your sales funnel.

Let’s say you’ve just created a $2,000 training program. You need to get the word out and drive traffic to your landing page. So of course you want to include a few blog posts, and maybe some other content as well.

That’s fine. You just have to remember the purpose of each channel you use to promote your program. Your agenda may be to push, but content is a pull strategy. Your content must be appropriate for its channel.

Think native content:

• Your landing page is for selling.
• Social media is for engagement.
• Content is for informing and building relationship.

Don’t sell in your Tweets or blog posts. Instead, prime the pump. Create an article that talks about the topic of your training. Cover it from a high-level perspective (strategy), or dive into a specific aspect of your training. Then tell readers they can learn more if they click your link.

Use your content to:

1. Help people understand the issues related to your business or product.
2. Answer questions.
3. Teach advanced strategy.
4. Share tips for doing it themselves.
5. Mention that you’ve got a resource that can help them learn more.

Here’s the bottom line…

Think like a publisher. Provide the highest-quality content possible. Use that quality to attract your ideal prospects.

Don’t sell directly. But do create interest. And do drive traffic to your offers.

Following this approach, you can create content that sells. You just won’t do it directly.

Fit your content into your sales funnel. It will continue to engage readers—and help you sell as well.