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How the Fishing Method gets print customers to call you

Sometime it’s hard to resist

It’s a perfect day.  The sun is glittering off the river. The fly is drifting lazily on the water.

And the fish is drawn to the bait.

Selling print with content marketing is very like fly fishing

Content-marketing-for-printing-companies

Getting new prospects for a printing company can be a bit like fishing.

The printing company puts bait, in the form of useful information, into the prospect’s environment.  The prospect is drawn to this information.

Then, just as the fisherman has a chance to land the fish, the printing company has a chance to land the sale.

Content marketing is a great way to get the customer to come to you.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is all about publishing information of interest to your prospects. This may be in the form of articles, blogs, infographics, videos or similar.

Because this information is specifically designed to appeal to your prospects, they will become engaged with you and your company. They will recognise that your company is one that understands them and their market sector. Therefore, the prospect is much more likely to contact you if they have suitable work.

Content marketing is not about publishing blatant sales messages. The information may contain some illustrations of how your company can help a prospect. However, the main purpose of the content should be to help the prospect.

Why should you use content marketing?

Printing companies that use content marketing will be able to easily create good relationships with potential customers. They will be able to do this efficiently. As a result, they should be in control of a worthwhile sales pipeline. They have a better chance of achieving their sales targets and their personal targets.

Printing companies that choose not to use content marketing may struggle to achieve their sales targets. They won’t be in control of the same pipeline of warm leads. They won’t be able to form good relationships with prospects so efficiently.

Here are three advantages of using a content marketing strategy.

Content marketing is an efficient way to reach lots of prospects

Traditional sales relies on one to one communication. You can only reach out to as many people as you can phone or email in a day.

In contrast, content marketing allows you to reach many prospects from one piece of content. When I place an article on LinkedIn, it has the potential to reach thousands of readers. I frequently have more than 1,000 people reading an article from LinkedIn alone.

Another important issue is that prospects can spend time reading my article when it suits them. A cold call relies on someone being available and willing to take your call when you pick up phone. With content marketing a prospect can choose when it suits them to read your information.

This demonstrates the second advantage of content marketing.

Content marketing is pull communication, not push communication

The prospect is choosing to read or watch your information. They have decided that they are actively interested in what you have to say. Therefore, they are approaching your marketing in a positive frame of mind.

Compare this to a cold call: here the salesperson is relying on the prospect wanting to talk to them. Some prospects may feel that they have to accept the call. However, that does not mean that they want to accept the call. Therefore they may be less than enthusiastic about what you have to say.

One of the reasons for this may be that they are tired of receiving sales calls. They don’t want to hear about yet another printing company. This shows the third advantage of content marketing.

With content marketing, you are in the client’s world

If you are going to be successful content marketing, you must produce information that the prospect is interested in.

Typically, you will be writing about the challenges that they may face in their jobs or lives. You will be talking about how they can overcome these challenges. These are subjects that prospects can relate to.

Often, this does not apply to cold calling. A typical cold call will involve the salesperson talking about their features and benefits. Those features and benefits are often only of interest to a prospect if they solve the prospect’s challenges.

However, the idea that content marketing is all about the customer and not the company does not always sit well with all salespeople.

Why should a prospect engage with a company as a result of content marketing?

Good content marketing will have a call to action. At the end of this article, you will be invited to sign up to my newsletter list. If you choose to do so, you will have taken the first step in my sales cycle. It doesn’t automatically follow that you will buy something from me, but you have started engaging with me.

If you are already on my newsletter list, this article will have a much more specific call to action. You will be invited to purchase one of my books, to enquire about details of one of my training courses or to come and see me speak at a conference.

At each stage, you are being invited to engage in further with me. As a result of this engagement, many prospects have contacted me ready to purchase books, training and consultancy services.

So how can you get similar results?

Here’s an action point to start you on your content marketing journey

Sign up to my newsletter list below to make sure you receive the other articles in this series. They will contain practical strategies for successful content marketing. Naturally, you will also get to see my content marketing in action. You’ll also receive a free copy of my e-book “Ten Common Print Selling Errors and What To Do About Them” (worth £19/$29)

I’ve laid out my useful information.  Now I’m waiting for my prospects to be drawn to my bait 🙂
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