Viewing Yourself Through the Eyes of your Prospects

One of the most important fundamentals of content marketing is to be able to think like your customers. You’ve got to get inside their heads and figure out how they operate and then create content that appeals to their feelings and needs. Remember that your website is created for them, not for you.

Your web content needs to be clear and concise. If you’re going to be viewed as a local expert in your industry, you don’t want to leave people guessing and figuring things out for themselves. Remember when you used to draw pictures for your parents as a child and they would praise you as the next Picasso while they stuck it on the fridge? Well unfortunately it doesn’t work quite the same way with your customers. If they can’t figure out what you’re about quickly, they’re out.

This is Evan’s latest work titled: ‘Family stroll with Pygmies and visit from the Angel of Death.’

So how do we start thinking like our prospects? How do we stop finger painting and start creating helpful quality content that is going to help attract new visitors, convert them into qualified leads and close more sales? You can start by putting on your prospect lenses and ask yourself these 3 questions:

1. Who Are You and What is your Story?

Your phone number and a link to your Facebook page is not enough for your prospects to put together an identity for your company. Your company needs to tell a story. It needs to have a background and expertise that helps grab and hold attention.
Storytelling also involves more than just your story. It encompasses the entire online experience. This includes everything from imagery to testimonials to site speed – all the things that make your company unique, authentic and engaging.

2. How Can you Help Them?

A great story without an engaging proposition is a great read, but then what? In order for people to see the value of your company first hand, you’re going to need to offer them something that is useful or helpful. This is where you’ll need to have a promise of value that clearly defines the reasons why your company is valuable to the prospect and why they should trust you.

These offers should define things like how your company can solve the prospect’s pain points, the value of your company versus competitors and a list of your own unique benefits. The goal for your content should be to funnel everyone down to these offers via engaging calls to action that serve as the next step to interacting with your business. These offers and actions could include things like ‘Let’s Get Started’ or ‘Download our Free Guide’.

3. Why Should they Buy from You?

You need to give your prospects some credit. People are smart. They aren’t a bunch of zombies droning around the internet looking for sustenance. As consumers, we’ve accustomed ourselves to researching the products we use before we make our purchasing decision.

Excuse me, are those low carb brains? We may be zombies but we ARE watching our figures.

So make sure that your content has enough supporting facts and case studies to properly inform the visitor. Your goal should be to create easy to read case studies that are packed with factoids, benefits and reassuring, valuable commentary. Any added social proof is a huge bonus, since we’re programmed to compare ourselves to others. We can process value much easier if we put ourselves in someone elses shoes. If you’ve done great work for someone else, it’s much easier to believe that you can do it for them as well.

Knowing what your visitors and customers are looking for gives you a huge advantage when it comes to converting leads and closing sales. Now that you know how to look at your website through the eyes of your visitors, we’ve got more great must haves for helping you generate more leads and sales: