Most of the people think that content matters only till people have reached your website. Once they are there, they are simply going to stay or go away if they don’t want to buy from you. This is like telling people to visit your brick and mortar store and then not attending to them once they have entered your store. How much care and attention you give to people who have come to your shop or office? You show them everything you have got. You employ best people (according to your capacity) who guide your prospective customers and clients through your various offerings and make sure people don’t miss out on anything important.

The same sort of attention is needed once people are on your website. Whether they are on your homepage, your landing page or one of the in-between pages in your sales and marketing funnel (by the way, do you have a logically arranged funnel on your website?) It’s very crucial that they stay focused and don’t lose track, because it is very easy to lose track on the Internet. People may suddenly move away without even realising. There are so many distractions on an average computer or mobile device that even in the midst of making a purchase people can get distracted and end up going through an endless stream of Facebook updates, realising after a couple of hours that they were trying to purchase something from a website they can no longer recall.

What exactly is marketing funnel and how your content keeps it closely focused

Or even sales funnel?

This is how a marketing funnel looks:

In terms of content marketing, it means making people aware of your presence, or the presence of your product or service, through continuously writing, publishing and broadcasting highly relevant and quality content. The more content people get from you the more aware they become of you, your product, or your service. In the context of my own business, the more you read my content, the easier it will be for you to decide whether you want to do business with me or not in case your business needs quality content.

Provided that they are aware of your existence they may consider doing business with you and while they are considering it, they may visit your website multiple times to explore various options and read more about your offer. This is the place where you need to keep them hooked. It’s no use creating great content trying to create awareness and then losing your customers and clients once they start exploring your website.

In the “intent” stage they intend to purchase from you and now it depends on your flow. What is the purchase experience? Is it straightforward or is it replete with distractions? Is your copy engaging or totally indifferent (you have already assumed that they are going to buy). Does your content keep talking to them till the checkout form?

Eventually they purchase. Remember that even before filling up their credit card details they can get distracted or develop a doubt. Hold their hand through your content. Be with them. Keep them hooked.

Is your job done after someone has done business with you? For most of the businesses, around 40% is repeat business, that is, those who have already done business with you and have had a good experience, preferably do business with you rather than with someone else. This also holds true for my own content writing business: unless I truly screw things up, people for whom I have already written content keep on hiring me even if they contact me once or twice a year.

After they have purchased your product or service you need to keep the channels of communication running. Customer loyalty depends on 2 factors: the sort of experience they have with your product or service, and the way you keep on communicating with them and providing them all the information they need, promptly. Actually, after they have already bought from you it’s more important to pay close attention to the sort of content you’re providing them through blogging, helpful tutorials, social networking updates and more importantly, email newsletter.

Provided they are totally happy with your product and they are thrilled with your content, they become your advocates. The more advocates you have, the easier it becomes for your marketing funnel to attract new customers and leads. That’s why it’s very important to take your content seriously at every layer of your marketing funnel.