3 Ways Adding Downloadable Content To Your Website Drives Revenue

When it comes to website marketing I often see organisations make the same critical mistake:

They only target the bottom of the sales funnel (those close to a purchasing decision).

The majority of businesses imagine that most web visitors are ready to be committed buyers, and therefore market to all website visitors as if they’re on the cusp of purchase.

Tending to overlook, or sideline, all other traffic. 

It’s important to know, most visitors to a website are actually still in the process of learning about the problem your product or service solves, and aren’t quite ready to make a purchase. These people are tomorrow’s (or next month’s/ next year’s) bottom of the funnel.

They need the right information to consider before they can think seriously about engaging a business like yours to help solve their problem/s, and they need to be convinced.

No matter how good your product is, pushing a sale onto someone who is still in the preliminary stages of learning and discovery (top of the sales funnel) is a great way to lose a lead and scare potential customers away.

They require a different incentive and approach to progress through the buying stages and be pulled deeper into the sales funnel.

(Image Source: https://www.business.com/articles/how-to-match-your-sales-funnel-to-your-content-strategy/)

A softer conversion strategy needs to be put in place to turn them into a ‘customer’.

If you’re left baffled and confused wondering why your site gets a lot of hits but doesn’t result in the expected number of leads, ask yourself if your website markets in a way that prioritises conversion of all website visitors – not just those ready to buy.

The answer might be ‘no’, and you might be stuck on how to fix it, but there are several things you can do to close the gaps and stop website visitors who are not quite ready to buy from leaving your website, and potentially working with other competitors who have already mastered this marketing strategy.

Unbeknownst to many, content marketing that uses downloadable content is one of the easiest, yet most effective ways to capture leads through implementing a suitable softer conversion goal for website visitors.

Downloadable content usually in the form of PDF can include anything from whitepapers, e-books, webinars, big content (tools), check-lists, reports, and tip sheets. They provide interested visitors with relevant long-form content that they can store and revisit.

Placing downloadable content behind a lead generation form increases your chance of generating revenue by optimising your website for conversion of website visitors, and nurturing visitors through the different buying stages.

Simply put, downloadable content offers a piece of content big and valuable enough that people become willing to exchange their contact details for it.

They’re aware that this might result in increased outreach from the company, but if they’re interested enough, then they think it’s worth it.

If they’re not up for that then they’re probably not a potential prospect, and in the same vein, not ready to download the content or buy.

That being said, you’re still netting a whole layer of the sales funnel that you were missing before.

Here are three ways downloadable content can help you drive revenue:

1) Increases awareness of your brand, product, or offering

Downloadable content introduces your brand softly.

It gives those not yet ready to buy an awareness of your product or offering in a gentle way that isn’t too aggressive for the early buying stage they are at, which is: trying to put a name to the problem that they are experiencing.

At this stage, it is essential to avoid promoting your product or solution, as they are not ready for this.

They are simply after information about their problem and are looking to define their problem before they proceed to the next stage, which is looking at available solutions to the problem they are experiencing.

Providing downloadable content that will help prospects in this early stage to understand their problem in greater depth, and identify how to solve it, is a great way to gently introduce your business and begin a relationship with them.

If you have done this properly then – when the prospect is further down the funnel and ready to consider a solution like yours – they will certainly include you on the short list of solutions to consider, and potentially become a customer.

Additionally, downloadable content is useful for those in the middle of the funnel who visit your website and, for whatever reason, haven’t crossed paths with your brand until now.

At this stage of the funnel, they are open to considering possible solutions to their problem, but not quite ready to talk to a sales rep or wanting a product demo.

In targeting people at this stage, your content should continue to educate but should also start the process of positioning your company as the solution to the lead's needs and challenges.

Advanced eBooks are a great form of content at this stage but case studies, white papers, quizzes, and videos will do wonders to establish your credibility.

2) Generates Leads 

As I suggested earlier, the promise of an informative e-book or useful tool is a great incentive that prompts website visitors to fill out a lead generation form. The more value you offer, the more likely website visitors will fill out lead forms in exchange.

This works best if the e-book or tool itself doesn’t reek of a sales tactic.

Rather, the downloadable content should cater to the fact that they are at the top of the marketing sales funnel, not yet ready to buy, and simply looking to gather valuable information.

Put your download behind a form and you've turned your visitor into a lead. Now you can add them to an email nurturing campaign, providing them with more information relevant to the problem they are experiencing, whilst softly promoting content relevant to the next buying stage: “consideration” – the stage in which they start to consider potential solutions to their problem.

This method allows you to establish your brand as an authority, build a relationship, and nurture them through the buying stages so you can sell to them when they are ready to buy.

Without these assets, you might permanently lose some customers. You’ll definitely, however, miss a big opportunity to speed up the sales process.

When the customer moves forward in the buying cycle, on the hunt for possible solutions to their problem and ready to buy, they may have forgotten about you and ended up with a competitor.

3) Allows you to develop an email marketing list

Getting contact details in return for your downloadable content allows you to build a valuable email list of potential customers.

Using lead contact forms, you can collect useful information beyond just their email addresses.

This will allow you to organise your email database according to the buying stage they’re at and, consequently, setup different lead nurturing campaigns for different prospects that is actually relevant to information they’re seeking.

You can now have a one on one dialogue with them, and begin nurturing them through the sales funnel.

To prevent creating any barriers that might turn the customer away from downloading, you should ensure that your lead form is as simple as possible, and doesn’t request details the customer could deem unnecessary or invasive.

Eventually, if you build a library of downloadable content, you’ll be able to scope out where people’s interests lie, which will benefit you a lot when it comes to tailored nurturing and having discussions tailored to individual needs!

At the end of the day, customers really don’t like to feel like they’re being sold to.

Also, no one likes being bored, and people aren’t likely to spend a long time researching the endless caverns of your website.

Downloadable content gives you the opportunity to strategically present information in a creative and interesting way without suffocating the prospect yet capturing them as a lead.

Integrate downloadable content and use it to your advantage – because your competitors sure are/ will soon be.

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