Content Marketing Beyond The Sale

What happens once a prospect becomes a customer? Do they walk off into the proverbial sunset with your business for a “happily ever after” future?

If only it were so simple.

Your competitors keep reaching out to your customers. Customers may question their decisions. If customers are subscribers, they have the opportunity to abandon you with every renewal cycle.

Content marketing is one way to continue investing in the customer relationship after the sale. By providing customers with valuable content, you keep them engaged with your business while adding value beyond the product or service that they have purchased.

When most marketers hear the term “content marketing,” they think about generating leads or driving conversions. In practice, content marketing can serve many purposes – including nurturing customers after the sale. Here are a few strategies for using content to keep customers happy.

Turn Customer into Content Subscribers

Create useful content regularly and invite customers to subscribe. The subscription could use content you’re already creating for prospects, but it might also contain exclusive, gated assets for customers. The content subscription becomes an added benefit of being a customer.

Print magazines represent an old-school approach to this strategy. AAA publishes travel magazine Via for its customers, while Charles Schwab sends customers the On Investing magazine.

You may find it easier to create an online magazine or website. Online magazines can reach both current and prospective customers easily. Great examples abound:

• Subscription box company Birchbox offers beauty and health tips in its online magazine.
• Adobe’s CMO.com is a rich source of marketing insight.

Speak to Customers Through Podcasts and Videos

As an alternative to writing, consider podcasts or videos. Create a series by interviewing people your customers find interesting. Podcasting and video have the added benefit of putting a human voice to the brand.

Business brands like Oracle and IBM use podcasting, as do consumer brands and media companies. In the marketing world, Content Marketing Institute runs a terrific podcast series, This Old Marketing, in which Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose discuss recent marketing topics.

Add Community to Your Content

What happens when you invite your customers to participate, either in creating content or as subjects of podcast or video interviews? You start to build community – another powerful strategy.

By inviting customers to become part of a community, you extend the value of your solution to include your customer base. You do customers the service of helping them connect with other people.

American Express Open Forum combines terrific content with a community forum, built around the American Express membership. The content and community adds value to the credit card for small business customers.

Easiest of All: Share the Customer Stories

If the strategies above sound like they take a lot of effort, start small with existing content.

For example, if when you develop customer success stories for prospects, make sure to share them with current customers. The stories illustrate how other customers are realizing value from your solution. They may inspire customers to find new ways to work with your products or services, or simply reinforce what a great decision they made by becoming a customer.

Image credit: RachelH, stocksnap.io