This is the turnaround story of an independent small business in the home improvement industry. Nine years ago it was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Today it’s one of the largest firms in the country in its category.
Sales rose from about $4 million in 2007 to about $5.5 million in 2014, while annual advertising and marketing costs dropped from $250,000 to $20,000. What saved it? Content marketing or, stated more simply, deploying the company’s website and other digital marketing tools to teach consumers everything they need to know before making an average $50,000 purchase for their home. The firm now has the most visited website in the world in its sector.
The company is River Pools and Spas in Warsaw, VA, owned in part by Marcus Sheridan, who now shares what he learned in his book They Ask. You Answer. He has since become a consultant at the Sales Lion (www.thesaleslion.com), where he has engineered similar successes at all types of firms including Boston’s Yale Appliance, a regional retail store.
At this point you may be thinking, “I’m not in the swimming pool business, I’m in the kitchen and bath design business. And that’s different.” But the author cautions, “Everyone thinks their business is different. My business and sales success were ultimately built on one thing, consumer trust. That’s the business we’re all in.”
Content marketing, which Sheridan defines as the act of teaching and problem solving to earn buyer trust, is essential now because consumer buying has changed radically.
On average today, 70% of the buying decision is made before a prospect even talks to your company. Wow! That’s as compared to an estimated 20 to 30% a decade ago.
Sheridan warns, “Anything that you or I think must be sold face-to-face will eventually be sold online. In 2015, my swimming pool company sold multiple swimming pools that were more than $100,000 before we ever set foot in the customer’s home. Had you told me this was possible five years ago I would have laughed.”
The benefits of content marketing go beyond attracting potential customers. It also:
- Qualifies prospects
- Helps salespeople understand buyers
- Improves sales presentations
- Shortens sales cycles
- Increases closing ratios
All of which boost sales.
“In 2007, in order to sell 75 swimming pools I had to go on roughly 250 sales appointments, a 30% closing ratio,” Sheridan recalls. “In 2013, we sold 95 swimming pools and…went on 120 sales calls for a closing rate of 79%.”
On average, those 95 customers had read an astounding 105 pages of content on the River Pools and Spa’s website!
And with the right measuring tools, such as HubSpot, for example, content marketing provides a measurable ROI.
Steve Sheinkopf, CEO of Yale Appliance in Boston, drank the content marketing Kool-Aid in 2011 with the help of Sheridan and now does no advertising at all. He says content marketing has been worth $10 million a year in sales to his firm. Bottom line: Profitability has improved 300%.
A poster child for blockbuster content, its website features a Learning Center that offers 22 Buyer’s Guides. More than 4.5 million people read the Yale Blog last year. Its top article has been read over 800,000 times. Website traffic averaged more than 600,000 monthly visitors in 2016.
The “content” in content marketing includes articles, blog posts, e-books, buying guides and, increasingly important today, videos. The average internet user spends 88% more time on a site with video, Sheridan says. “Every company must integrate video into every element of their business. In the eyes of the consumer, if they can’t see it, it doesn’t exist.”
To create worthwhile content in any format you must be obsessed, Sheridan insists, with knowing, “What is my customer thinking? Feeling? Searching for? Asking about? Afraid of? Worried or concerned about?”
Conduct a brainstorming session with everyone in your organization to document every question you’ve ever been asked by a prospect or customer. State them on paper exactly as the consumer would ask or search for them. Include questions you might feel should not be addressed on your website. When the author did this exercise at his swimming pool company, he came up with more than 100 questions.
Also brainstorm every reason why someone would not buy from your company. What are the fears that are holding them back? You should come up with 10 to 20 reasons.
Answering those questions is the basis of your content. Remember, you are a teacher seeking to educate prospects. Content is not boasting about your business.
Sheridan discovered the top five subjects potential buyers are interested in:
- Pricing and costs
- Problems
- Versus and comparisons
- Reviews
- Best in class
The paradox is that most businesses are afraid to address many of these on their websites. But doing so cements trust.
PRICING AND COSTS
Sheridan acknowledges that this is the “most painful” disconnect between what buyers want and companies are afraid to share.
“The number one frustration for consumers is not being able to find information on pricing on websites. It violates trust. They feel like you’re hiding something.”
You may be thinking, “I do kitchens and baths, so there’s no way I can talk about pricing on my website. Every project is different.” True, but you can offer good information about why every project is different.
You might take one kitchen and/or bath and price it out three ways on your website and explain why the price differs, i.e., cabinet styles, finishes, interior accessories, countertop materials, appliance and fixture choices, etc. This builds trust and educates prospects. Explain to customers what drives the price of the kitchen or bath.
You may be thinking if you talk about pricing, you’re revealing too much to your competitors. But they already have a very good idea of your pricing. “Until the day your competition is paying your mortgage, I urge you to consider focusing on the only group that matters, prospective customers,” Sheridan says.
If you address pricing, won’t you scare people away? Actually educating them will only scare away unqualified prospects, Sheridan believes.
“If your products and services start at $50,000 and a prospect has a true budget of $20,000, do you think he is magically going to come up with the next $30,000? In most cases the answer is no,” Sheridan points out.
He took the plunge and posted an article: How Much Does a Fiberglass Pool Cost? None of his competitors had anything like that on their websites. Tracking leads from that article proved that it generated $3 million in additional sales.
“Without exaggeration, this single article saved my business. It saved my home. It saved the homes of my two business partners. It also saved the jobs of all of our employees,” Sheridan confesses. “The funny thing is, we never specifically stated how much a fiberglass pool costs. We simply answered the question as best we could. We were honest. Remember, it doesn’t necessarily matter what you say in terms of numbers. What matters is that you’re willing to teach your prospective customers what would drive the cost up or down and help them get a feel for the market.”
PROBLEMS
It may seem crazy, but honestly addressing problems that can occur with your products builds trust. Say you’re doing an article on countertops. People may have heard that marble is hard to maintain or granite needs to be sealed. Address the issues, explain the pros and cons, and encourage people to decide for themselves whether they make sense for their lifestyle.
River Pools and Spas had the guts to post an article: Top Five Fiberglass Pool Problems and Solutions. Over six years, more than 260,000 people visited its website because they were researching problems with fiberglass pools. The article has generated well over $500,000 in additional sales since the day it was published, because it demonstrates honesty and transparency.
Yale Appliances has a candid article on its site: Why You Will Have Appliance Problems and How to Avoid Them.
VERSUS AND COMPARISONS
Consumers are fascinated with comparisons. Run flat versus regular tires? Coconut versus olive oil?
Although they only sell fiberglass pools, River Pools and Spas posted an article Which is Best: Fiberglass, Concrete or Vinyl Liner? It has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue and reduced the number of prospects who were not a good fit for a fiberglass pool.
Yale Appliances offers helpful comparisons such as Induction versus Gas: Which Sears a Steak Better? Gas versus Duel Fuel Pro Ranges.
What comparisons would your customers like to see? It’s important to know how to write an article like this. Say you’re a stone fabricator and you offer granite, marble, limestone and quartz. First, admit this is all you sell and that there are other countertop options that might be better for the prospect. This way you’re reassuring the reader upfront that the information you’re about to share is trustworthy. Then give the honest pros and cons of various countertop choices such as solid surface, wood, tile, etc., as well as stone.
Other comparisons prospects might like: Granite versus quartz. Custom versus semi-custom cabinets. Framed versus frameless construction. Stains versus painted finishes. Chrome versus stainless steel faucets.
REVIEWS
Who hasn’t bought a car without first checking reviews on Consumer Reports or Car and Driver? Prospects can do the same on Yale Appliance with posts such as Bosch Dishwasher Review. Miele Dishwashers: Features and Review. They describe and explain features, compare them to other brands and models in their class and honestly make recommendations.
BEST IN CLASS
From Forbes’ richest billionaire (Jeff Bezos) to People magazine’s most beautiful woman (Julia Roberts), consumers all crave information on what’s “best in class.” This is especially true when making a major purchase.
Here’s where Yale Appliance CEO Sheinkopf really sticks his neck out. Based on his company’s service data, he penned an article The Five Most Serviced/Least Reliable Appliance Brands. Yep, he did. Did manufacturers complain? Yep, they did.
But clearly he would agree with Sheridan. “Content, assuming it is honest and transparent, is the greatest sales tool in the world today.” ▪