Content Marketing Today

Key Counterintuitive Concept: The Internet Has Lengthened the Buying Process

That is either terrific news or horrendous news for your company.

It really depends on your approach to online marketing.  I was alerted to this somewhat counterintuitive idea by a great eNewsletter from Stephanie Miller.  While she writes about e-mail marketing, the implications apply across the board in terms of how you connect with your customers online.

She quotes a study from Sirius Decisions: “Selling now takes more time and resources than ever before.  The sales cycle has become 22% longer as buyers are taking longer to consider their decisions.  Plus, buying is being managed more professionally.”

This is horrendous news for you if:

• You have no web presence.
• Your website does not make it easy for visitors to find exactly the solution they are seeking.
• Your website does not contain intrinsically valuable content that will put you at the top of the list of potential suppliers.
• Your only e-mail communications with your buyers are self-promoting and irrelevant to their information needs.

This is terrific news for you if:

• You have a strong web presence that provides comprehensive, valuable, and relevant information for the visitors that you want to target as prospective buyers.
• You make it easy for your visitors to understand immediately how you can help them.
• You provide decision tools that help simplify complex purchase decisions.
• Enable prospects to compare solution choices–including those of your competitors as appropriate.  As long as you provide objective advice, you make their research much easier–and faster.
• You communicate regularly and meaningfully with both current and prospective customers so that you build and maintain a trusted relationship.

Although Stephanie focuses on e-mail marketing, one of her key points applies to any variation of effective content marketing.  As she says,

Prospects are researching — that is what is lengthening the sales cycle. Use a series of email “conversations” to help them compare competitive sets (the more honest you are, the longer they stay on your site!), find testimonials and bloggers, and make a strong business case. Give them confidence they can find the best gear, gadget or appliance, or let them download tools that help them forecast productivity, revenue or cost savings as a result of your product.

Content marketing to the rescue

When you think about it, it is easy enough to see why buyers are taking longer to make well-informed decisions, thanks to the resources available on the Internet.  On the other hand, if your online contact marketing does its job, you can shorten that buying process and wind up at the top of the short list.  Yes, buyers today have plenty of choices.  But, all things being equal, they will gravitate toward vendors who make their lives easier by simplifying that very purchase process.