Stop Trying To Sell, Start Trying To Educate

It’s easier than ever to reach an audience. You can reach them on social media, by blogging, by using display ads, with email marketing and other options. However, the challenge is to get their attention and keep it. You can have a great ad with great placement and still not get the click just because the person isn’t interested in buying something right now or they are distracted by something else.

One of the biggest mistakes small businesses make is that they focus only on sales. Yes, sales are important, but the best way to increase the conversion rates of your email marketing, social media advertising or anything else you are doing is to offer something else. People love free stuff and providing them with free advice is a great way to get started.

Let’s use the example of a fish store. You can send emails out to people who own fish tanks, letting them know you are having a sale and run the same ad on social media. You will get engagement and traffic but you may not get any sales. The reason is because the person who receives it isn’t looking to add new fish or other things to their tanks. What they are looking to do is find information on maintaining their tank, introducing new fish to the tank or something else.

Blogging, videos and other forms of content are popular because they teach someone something that they are interested in. Rather than selling them, you are educating the person on how to properly clean their tank, going over the steps, what it takes to get the best results without harming the ecosystem of the tank. This blog is going to tons of traffic if properly promoted because it provides free, useful information. The best part, the people reading it are your ideal audience so they are going to become aware of your brand, what you offer and also feel more comfortable buying from you because they use you as a resource.

This is how you can utilize blogging, videos and other content to improve your marketing efforts and eventually improve your sales. Give your audience something they can appreciate and they will be loyal to you for years.