Remember when you were nine years old, and there was that one toy you absolutely HAD to go to the store and get? You might have had your own allowance to pay for it, but there was no way you could get there by yourself. So, of course, you ask your parents.
But you don’t just do it out of the blue — that would be foolish. You have to wait, evaluate their mood, factor in for variables like whether or not it's dinner time or the game is on. Time it just right and maybe, just maybe, you’ll catch your parents at the perfect moment, and they’ll take you where you want to go.
Potential Customers, They’re Just Like Your Parents
Flash forward several years, and not much has really changed. Just replace needing a ride to the toy store with needing to drive revenue, and replace waiting after dinner with a perfectly timed email, and your childhood dilemma has turned into your new marketing headache.
The problems might be different, but the solution is the same. It’s called cadence.
Not to be confused with frequency, cadence refers to the timing and patterns behind your messaging. You need to optimize your cadence based on things like awareness levels, business cycles, and buyer journey in order to convert more effectively.
Proper Cadence and Successful Content Marketing
Marketers commonly divide the buyer’s journey into three distinct stages:
· Awareness: The prospect is aware of their need, but not of your product.
· Consideration: The prospect is aware of your product, but still researching their options.
· Decision: The prospect is now a lead leaning towards your product, but possibly in need of one last push.
Guiding the buyer from awareness to decision requires developing the right assets, and distributing them with the right cadence.
When you were trying to get your parents to do what you needed them to do, you didn’t just go right for the big question. Maybe you did the dishes first or paid your mom a compliment. The same theory applies to your cadence in content marketing.
It doesn’t make sense to send a blog comparing your service to that of a competitor to someone who’s barely even aware that they need your service in the first place. You’re aiming for a large decision that outweighs your lead’s knowledge level. This will disrupt your lead nurturing altogether.
The Right Message at the Right Time: Defining Your Cadence
Defining a proper cadence starts with understanding your potential customers, identifying where they are in the buyer’s journey, and developing content for each specific phase.
Imagine you’re trying to market a new line of nutritional supplements featuring a unique, proprietary formula. You don’t just want to come right out and say “Buy our product!” That’s discordant, confusing, and easy to ignore. But above all, it fails to answer the customer’s most important question: “Why should I?”
Instead, you might start with a blog post (either through your own channels or those of an influencer), about the new formula and its benefits. In order to get these potential customers to see your content, you might focus on a paid and highly-targeted social campaign, encouraging people to sign up for emails as they engage with your content.
Maybe you follow up with email content about the shortcomings of competing products and offer a coupon in exchange for their subscription. It’s all about using timing and the customer’s own interests to your brand’s advantage.
With a steady rhythm of information and an ever-widening audience for your content, you can start making your initial content investments work for you as they guide customers through the funnel and towards the final purchase.