Whether it’s new products, members-only sales, or pitting your products against competitors, promotional content does exactly what it says—promotes your products and their unique selling points! Its primary focus is guiding customers through the decision-making process, employing a variety of techniques to ensure they click that all-important “buy” button. However, promotional content is more than just banners and slogans shouting “buy now” or “biggest sale ever”.
What Is Promotional Content?
At its core, promotional content is about communicating a product’s value through various media and platforms. The best ads, newsletters, and landing pages will demonstrate the benefits of a product or service in a way that guides leads further into the sales funnel and hopefully gives them the encouragement they need to convert.
Examples of promotional content include:
- Top 10 blogs
- Video reviews
- Social media posts
- Newsletters
- Website banners
- Podcasts
- Giveaways
As you can see, promotional content takes many forms, but it isn’t the only type of content you’ll publish. It’s equally important to balance sales-focused material with posts that educate and inform customers.
Promotional content drives conversions by highlighting the value and unique selling points of products or services through various formats, such as blogs, videos, and social media posts.
What Is Non-Promotional Content?
Non-promotional content is that which aims to inform or entertain your audience. Indeed, the goal of informational content is not to push readers towards a product or service, but to give them information they find interesting or relevant. Sometimes, this is related to the goods or services you offer, while other times it may be a breakdown of industry performance or even a crucial development from a competitor.
One key difference between promotional and non-promotional content is the length. Informational blog articles are typically longer, often exceeding a thousand words (depending on the topic). However, there’s a reason for that extra detail—to build trust and credibility.
For consumers to trust your product or service, they need to know you’re an expert in your field. Informational content showcases your expertise and, in turn, makes readers more willing to engage with your promotional content. In a world dominated by promotions and sales, informational content is an incredibly powerful tool that should account for at least 60% of the blogs, videos, and infographics you publish.
Non-promotional content educates and informs your audience without pushing products or services, instead focusing on showcasing your industry expertise and building trust.
How to Create Promotional Content
As we’ve already established, promotional content is the cornerstone of any effective sales funnel, so it’s crucial you know how to create the most impactful material. Not only will this ensure a healthy return on investment, but it’ll help to push those all-important sales figures to new heights.
Identify Your Target Audience
The first step in creating promotional content is identifying your target audience. Who are you speaking to? What problems do they have? What language and values do they resonate with? Answering questions like these will help to tailor your promotional material, giving it the impact and identity it needs to captivate leads.
Whether conducting market research, analysing competitors, or creating buyer personas, it’s crucial to really understand your target market. Having a detailed breakdown of your ideal customer feeds into virtually every aspect of content creation, so don’t neglect this important stage.
Use the Right Keywords
You know who your customers are; now, you need to understand their search intent. Keyword research (including long-tail keywords) will help guide your language and support search engines like Google in connecting users with your content. You’ll need to strike a balance between relevant keywords and ranking difficulty; as such, spending time devising a keyword strategy will focus your efforts on the most productive keywords and topics.
Clarify Your USPs
With USPs, the clue is in the name—unique selling points. These are the attributes or characteristics that separate your products or services from those of your competitors. As such, they should be front and centre of all promotional material, especially if it’s to highlight the launch of a new product or a company innovation.
However, the key with USPs is not to list what they are, but how they solve a specific issue. How does your product make a customer feel, and how can it potentially make daily life easier? And, importantly, how is it superior to similar products on the market?
Leverage Social Proof
When writing or designing promotional content, there is one tool that all marketers need to be aware of—social proof. Leveraging the opinions and testimonials of your most loyal customers can help convince others to complete their purchase while also driving brand loyalty and trust in the process.
Remember, it’s normal for a company to say its product is the best ever, but if numerous, like-minded customers echo that sentiment, then social proof shows us that new leads are more likely to believe the statement when it comes from friends, family, or peers.
Exploit Storytelling
Storytelling is another tool all copywriters and marketers must master if they want their promotional material to drive conversions. How you implement this will depend on the scope of your marketing campaign, your brand values, and your company’s position within the industry.
You want to explain to consumers what it is about your product or service that stands out and why it’s more than just a purchase. Much like USPs, you’ll need to highlight the problems it can solve, how your company arrived at this solution, and what the future looks like.
While it’s possible to convey most of this in a singular ad or banner, the most compelling storytelling is done via multiple media, employing digital advertising, social media posts, and even direct service marketing to take customers on a journey.
Avoid Superlatives
There’s a time and place for expressions such as “best ever”, “the most advanced”, and “the greatest”, but you’ll want to use them sparingly. The only time that copywriters should lean on these phrases is when there is data, customer reviews, or peer-reviewed proof that it’s true. Otherwise, avoid outlandish claims and instead stick to captivating customers with USPs, storytelling, and social proof.
Don’t Forget a Call to Action
A call to action (CTA) may seem like a small addition, but it’s the difference between someone committing to a purchase, and clicking on a competitor’s website instead. With so much focus on how a product performs, its price, and why it excels, we often forget to give readers clear instructions.
Always ask yourself, “What do we want the reader to do?”. And don’t forget that CTAs can be much more exciting than simply “buy now”. Try to find a call to action that not only encourages the relevant response, but also fits with the theme of your promotional material.
Proofread and Edit
It may sound obvious, but just one simple spelling mistake or grammatical error is enough to turn customers away for good. All promotional material, no matter how small, should undergo detailed proofreading and editing.
The first edit of any material is rarely the best, so don’t be afraid to keep refining until you’re happy with the result. This approach is valid at all design stages, so even when putting the finishing touches on a banner or advert, feel free to ask your team for feedback.
Re-Evaluate Your Content Periodically
Most promotional content is time-sensitive; even if it isn’t, you’ll want to review its accuracy and relevance periodically. After all, it’s no good to advertise something as the latest innovation if it’s likely to be outdated within a year. It’s also important to review marketing materials to stay consistent with natural shifts in the industry. Price, for example, is a constantly fluctuating factor, from production costs to raw materials, and what was once your cheapest product may not be in years, or even months, down the line.
To create effective promotional content, first identify your target audience and understand their needs. Use relevant keywords, highlight your unique selling points (USPs), and leverage social proof to build trust.
Create Outstanding Promotional Content
As promotional material won’t be the most shared content you create, this makes it all the more imperative that the material you do release is worthwhile. To cut through the extreme saturation of offers and sales-focused advertising, you’ll want to produce promotional content that resonates with your customers, showcases your company values, and puts the USPs of your product or service front and centre. It may sound daunting at first, but master the art of effective promotional content and watch as leads, new and old, keep coming back.
