Attraction, authority, affinity and action. These are the four pillars of a well-rounded content strategy that not only connects with your audience but also drives them to connect with you in turn. Each one should be used as a step further down your sales funnel. However, these content types aren’t simply focused on the next immediate sale.
The ‘four As’ are designed to help drive long-term customer connections. With the right content sitting in the right groups, your business can attract repeat customers from your target audience, looping them through your sales funnel to convert again and again. The keys to an enthralled audience have been here the whole time – you simply need to know how to use the tools you already have!
Below, review the four As of high-quality content, including what each category aims to do, where it sits in your conversion funnel, and what kind of content belongs to each group.
Attraction content is top-of-the-funnel content, and it sings siren songs to your audience, calling them in from the depths of the Google SERP. to find your website. This type of content should be free, easy for your audience to access directly, via your website or social media, and tailored for easy sharing.
The goal with attraction content is two-fold: to get new audience members to know your name, and to get them to share your content to those in their social circle. This is a technique as old as time itself; word of mouth, human interest, and the six degrees of separation, to reach as many like-minded people as possible.
The key with attraction content is to make it as tantalising and interesting as possible. Aim for quick, easy bites of high-value information, delivered in a fun and engaging way. Luckily, there are several mainstays of this category that offer ample inspiration.
Infographics are graphic representations of information or data. Short, easily shareable, colourful, and bursting at the seams with high-value information, they are the content equivalent of a piece of chocolate to your target audience. As infographics are so visual, they’re ideally suited to social sharing.
Articles structured in a list format are often looked down on, but when executed well, they can provide your consumers with a lot of information. This type of content is directly targeted to suit to the consumers’ immediate needs. Listicles are another form of highly-shareable content.
If you think of attraction content as throwing out a wide net, authority content is choosing the best of the catch. Attraction content will do its job and attract all kinds of people to your site, whether they fall directly into your target audience or not. From there, it’s your job to provide tailored, authoritative content that helps your target audience feel that they can trust you.
Humans establish a powerful sense of loyalty, early on, whether it’s to people, ideals or even brands. Once it’s there, that loyalty runs deep.
When creating or seeking a company to create content for your business, your goal with authority content should be to provided useful information to your target audience and build a foundation of trust. Not only does this drive them further down the conversion funnel but it also nets you a repeat customer for life – trust is a powerful sales motivator.
Authority content isn’t about telling, it’s all about showing. You’re no doubt an expert in your field, so use that expertise out to play. Select a topic with a narrow focus, one that you have a lot of natural knowledge and experience in and write a series of around four or five articles that break the topic into its component pieces. Then drip-feed these articles to your audience one at a time, making sure that you incorporate elements of attraction content (such as infographics or downloadable assets) into the articles. Once they’re all posted, pull them together to create a PDF with its own promotable cornerstone page and let your audience know that it’s available for them to download.
High-value pieces of content such as this let your consumers know that they can trust you to deliver well-researched, experienced, and knowledgeable information in your area of expertise. It also means that they can trust you to share this knowledge with them when they need it most.
Attraction content is about calling people to you; authority content is about letting them know that you’re knowledgeable; and affinity content is about getting the right people from your massive pool of followers to stick around, like you, and even idolise you. When we harbour an affinity for a brand, it often means that we share similar values or beliefs with the business. It’s a community-based feeling that fosters a sense of belonging, and it’s a powerful way to connect your sales efforts with the right people.
Affinity content is an opportunity to share your unique voice. Your personality should sing from the page, and you might even have to occasionally speak out for things you believe in. Ask yourself the big questions. What is important to me? What do I value? What is our responsibility to others?
There’s an element of inherent risk in leaning on this kind of content because it won’t resonate with certain people. However, those who do will stick with your brand through thick and thin. Trying to attact everyone will net you no one, but going after your target audience means that you’ll have a dedicated following for life.
Action content drives those who are fans of your business into paying customers – transforming those who are invested in your content into a tangible revenue for your business. This is where all the work of the previous three categories pays off, and fortunately, it’s also some of the easiest content to understand and produce.
When most people think of copywriting, examples of action content are what spring to mind. It’s content that is designed to make your audience do something. An action can be anything from a comment to a purchase.
The essential ingredient when crafting this kind of content is to know what action you want from your consumer. This sends them in a clear direction, laying the runway and guiding them to take-off, rather than in a million other possible directions. Promotional, sales-based content is key here.
Action content isn’t just salesy – it’s ultimately useful to your target audience. It motivates them to take a stand with you. Rapport is the key to delivering salesy messaging without driving away customers, which is why it is important to lay the groundwork with affinity content.
Action content might include a cornerstone landing page with a downloadable asset, a promotional article that drives sales in a specific category, or an ultimate guide that encourages users to sign up to your weekly newsletter.
This is your opportunity to define the action you want your target audience to take, and reverse engineer from there. By doing the early work, the right customers will come pouring through your door.