We’ve all heard the expression: “If your product is really good, it should sell itself.” But is that really possible? The short answer is, no — at least not in today’s digital environment. Now, even the best products may not be noticed without a strong marketing strategy. People need a reason to want your product, and they want to find it themselves. With infinite Google pages of information at their fingertips, they’re not searching for your product — they’re searching for information about their pain point that your product may solve.

How can you get customers excited about your product so they don’t disappear the moment they land on the sales page?

You know how frustrating it can be to pour energy and resources into attracting leads who just aren’t interested in your product or service. Even if you’re absolutely positive that you’re targeting the right audience and you’re getting a generous amount of traffic, leads seem to drop off the moment they arrive on your sales page. You know your product or service could help them solve a pain point or problem, but they just don’t seem interested or aware of your product. You know it’s crucial to make sure your prospects are enthusiastic about the product before asking for them commit, but you’re not sure how to get the customer interested in what you have to offer.

While you know your product actually creates value for your customers, consumers remain distrustful of promotional materials. You want to inform them about the benefits of your product, but you’re worried they’ll quickly smell a sales pitch and abandon ship. With over a decade writing content, we know how difficult it can be to create content that captures readers attention and engages them in a way that doesn’t sound overpromotional.

And this can be serious revenue drain. It’s sobering to pour energy and resources into your business and see an encouragingly high amount of traffic to your website — only to find a disappointingly low number of sales. Even if you double your spending budget and start working overtime, you still might be faced with a disappointing conversion rate and the same ratio of lukewarm leads as before. With a limited amount of time and money, you may feel defeated with your efforts and unsure where to turn. Giving up on lead generation entirely is financially self-destructive but, if your revenue is suffering, you know you need to adjust your strategy soon.

Why does it feel like getting qualified leads is harder to do than ever?

Customers Have Grown Skeptical of Sales Pitches

It may feel as though it’s more difficult than ever to hook and lock in potential buyers — that’s because it is. With buzzwords like “fake news” and “disinformation” spreading like wildfire in today’s digital environment, your message doesn’t seem to have the convincing power it used to have. It doesn’t help that consumers today are becoming increasingly cynical of brands and advertising. According to Marketing Week, almost 70% of consumers don’t trust advertising and 42% distrust brands, seeing them as self-serving. Nothing is more dynamic than consumer behavior and, right now, the best way to respond is to start targeting prospects at an earlier stage than ever before. Consumers no longer want to arrive at a product’s page and discover how the product could help them. They want to research on their own how to solve a problem they may have and be led to your product as a solution. Targeting the consumer earlier in the stage is actually much easier than ever before — and costs no money to do.

Give Your Customers Something to Get Excited About

So what’s the key to getting prospects interested in your product before they even know what you’re selling? The same strategy that serves as the ultimate lead qualification tool — pre-sales articles. A pre-sales article is a piece of content that is attractive to your particular audience and addresses a topic they would naturally search for. It teaches readers about the solution to a pain point they have and doesn’t overwhelm the reader with promotional information and sales pitches. It turns the reader into a well-informed consumer, one much more likely to buy your product once they understand how it directly benefits them. When businesses incorporate pre-sales articles into their businesses, they attract more qualified leads and build awareness as an educational and credible source about that particular topic. With more qualified leads pouring into your sales page, you’ll see a drastic improvement to conversion, meaning more revenue and more lifelong, repeat customers.

Adapt to Your Customer’s Needs and Gain Their Trust

As Harvard Business Review states, “Today’s distracted consumers, bombarded with information and options, often struggle to find the products or services that will best meet their needs… [so] businesses are starting to create highly customized offers that steer consumers to the “right” merchandise or services—at the right moment, at the right price, and in the right channel.” Today’s consumers need information to guide them to your product early on in the customer lifecycle.

This guidance works. Ecommerce expert Ezra Firestone’s revenue boosted 18.2% after he started implementing pre-sales articles into his marketing strategy. With 80% of consumers placing “authenticity of content” as the most influential factor in their decision to become a follower of the brand, there’s no question that useful, relevant information surrounding your product will help boost your business’s revenue too.

“It’s important to use blog posts or articles to pre-sell your prospects,” marketing expert Jane Tabachnick asserts. “People buy based on know, like and trust. They typically need multiple touch points [anywhere from 3-14] from you, such as emails, blog posts, social posts… before they feel comfortable enough to buy from you.”

As Hook Leads With an Engaging Pre-Sales Article states, “By hooking people in with relevant content that addresses an area of interest or a pain point they may have, you’re able to filter through prospects to attract the attention of only people that would be a good fit for your product.”

Bottom line — you’ve got to start earlier, and pre-sales article do just that.

The Benefits of Pre-Sales Articles

Pre-sales articles are the ultimate lead qualification tool, only attracting high-quality leads to your sales page. With pre-sales articles, you will:

  • Start attracting attention from high-quality leads so you can stop wasting money and time bringing in leads who don’t convert
  • Become a reputable source of information about a relevant topic, building brand awareness and credibility
  • Create more “share-worthy content” so your target audiences effectively spread the word about your product for you
  • Get a more extensive understanding of your audience so you can hone in on their pain points to discover what their purchasing habits are
  • Start targeting consumers at an earlier stage of the customer lifecycle, strengthening your lead nurturing process so you’re more likely to have lifelong, repeat customers
  • Build hype around your product so your prospect will be likely to make a purchasing decision when they arrive at your sales page

Ready to start writing content that actually gets consumers excited about buying your product? Learn how in the Hook Leads With an Engaging Pre-Sales Article worksheet.



About Camille Smith
Originally from the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, Content Marketing Strategist, Camille Smith came out to California to attend UCSB and fell in love with Santa Barbara’s perfect mountain to ocean ratio. During her time in college, Camille also worked on the growth marketing teams for several technology companies. When she’s not putting her Communication degree to use at work, she’s using her minor in French to remind everyone the correct pronunciation of her name à la française (pronounced cah-mee, not kah-meal).