How technical copywriting can move customers down the sales funnel
13 January 2023
You have to lead your prospective customers along a path from initial awareness through to engagement and purchasing – and well-written, strategically placed content can help you every step of the way
High technology products do not just sell themselves, any more than any other type. A customer’s sales journey can stretch from being unaware of your company’s or products’ existence, to being engaged and ready to do business.
This journey is efficiently described by the AIDA sales model, where AIDA means Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. This provides the basis for many sales strategies, and is widely used in sales training.
It can equally be employed for marketing – and if it is, promotional content pieces can be used to progress every stage of the process.
Step 1 - Attention: Customers clearly need to be aware of your company and its offering before there is any chance that they will do business with you.
Promotional content such as press releases, emails, and posts on social media channels can introduce your product offering and its function, who it’s intended for, and its advantages over the competition.
Step 2 – Interest: Once your customers are aware of your brand and offering, you want them to take a more focused interest in specific products and how they could reduce their time to market, cut operational costs, or address some other pain point.
More in-depth articles, white papers, or e-books can discuss these pain points, why they arise, and how to solve them. They should not promote your own products too heavily: these can be introduced towards the end of the piece, as one possible – but excellent - solution to the problem. The point of the content is to demonstrate your expertise and prove you truly understand the problem and have a solution. Customers can satisfy themselves that they will benefit, not only from your product, but also from your ability to ensure that it works effectively for them.
Step 3 – Desire: Even if potential customers become convinced that your products can improve their own products or processes, they will only want to engage with a supplier that they accept as being reliable and trustworthy. While they are excited by your product and the opportunity that it offers them, they want to be sure that they will not be let down by future availability or quality issues.
One way of addressing this concern is to generate case studies. These describe how you have successfully supplied an existing customer, the benefits they have seen, and, ideally, their plans for ongoing business with your company. This evidence will help prospective customers to feel confident that they can enjoy the same effective and trouble-free solutions to their problems.
Step 4 – Action: When customers are excited about your products and are willing to trust you as a supplier, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to engage with you in purchasing or at least dialogue.
You may choose to create a buzz around your product, and facilitate customer engagement, through webinars, seminars or open days. And you can use blog posts, web content, social media announcements and emails to promote the event and invite people to attend – a Call to Action which presents a lower barrier to engagement than asking for an order.
If you would like to discuss your copy or content requirements or objectives, or your ideas for a content marketing strategy, please get in touch.
