Susan Bratton, co-founder and CEO of Digital Life Media, told SES San Francisco attendees that structured communications convert online audiences.

At SES San Francisco, keynote speaker Susan Bratton spoke to attendees about persuasion marketing and conversion triggers. Bratton said that by catering to the informational (and emotional!) needs of consumers, marketers can drive sales – and content can be the medium for generating product demand.

Structured communications are the way to turn content marketing into conversion, she suggested. According to Bratton, there are four components to effective persuasion marketing:

1. Neuromarketing

Bratton explained that it’s important to position your brand as trustworthy. Winning consumers’ trust is key to winning them over as clients. She made clear that gaining trust shouldn’t be about cheap tricks or falsities – it’s about becoming a reliable resource for online audiences.

One of the key ways to achieve this, she suggested, is planning a sustainable content outreach strategy. With this in mind, marketers might want to move beyond developing landing pages to offering prospects fresh and engaging blog posts, industry news, Tweets, Facebook posts and more.

By updating branded content and maintaining quality information, businesses offer prospects consistency. (There are also SEO benefits to regularly publishing content and drawing search bots and return visitors to a site…).

2. Copywriting

Once a strategy is set, marketers need to invest effectively executing it with good content, Bratton said. Of course, keywords and search optimization are core to any online marketing content, but businesses should be investing in doing this through good copy that is worth readers’ time.

In the post-Panda search landscape, achieving online visibility depends on producing original content, and Bratton emphasized that quality articles are also important to making a good impression on prospects. (Writing good copy is essential to her neuromarketing point about winning trust.)

3. Telling good stories

It’s not enough to simply have well-written articles; content must convey a story that will matter to prospects. Bratton advised marketers to “get in customers’ heads,” and figure out what information will impact them in their shopping decisions. Brafton has reported that just 3 percent of marketers believe they “wow” consumers by meeting their informational needs.

Bratton advised brands to take this a step further and consider the intangible benefits of products and services that can pack an emotional punch. Her sentiment was echoed by a number of SES San Francisco experts who encouraged careful content targeting to appeal to convertible consumers.

4. Structuring information for conversion

Shoppers go through a series of emotions and thought processes as they make purchase decisions, and Bratton told SES attendees that structured communications are key to engaging consumers along this journey. Marketers must ask themselves, “What will their needs be at this point in the process?” she said.

In the B2B sector, just 34 percent of marketers feel they effectively align content with the purchase funnel. By taking consumers along a narrative with careful linking, follow-up email newsletters and reassurance through consistency, businesses can create the structured info needed to convert online audiences.

Confirming Bratton’s idea that strategic content can be a conversion trigger, other SES attendees shared insight on consumer conversion rates via content marketing. As Brafton reported, Technorati Media CSO Charles Black said that 52 percent of consumers say blog content has factored into the critical moment they decided to buy.

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.