Driving conversions is the overarching goal of almost all digital marketing efforts. Thankfully, content marketing, when applied correctly, can be a powerful tool to move toward this end goal. Your website should be more than just a pretty face...it should be able to generate ROI. Below, we will explore nine purposeful strategies that will help you successfully drive conversions through content marketing.
Understand your target audience’s needs and preferences to create content that resonates with them. Conduct surveys and analyze user data to gain deeper insights. In essence, this means creating a target persona. A target persona is basically a fictitious model customer that represents most of your audience. It could include several personas or an overall audience. Either way, knowing your target audience will help you better suit content to the people that matter most: your customers.
Create valuable, engaging content in various formats. Incorporate storytelling and visuals to captivate your audience and make your content memorable. High-quality content is more likely to get shared by site visitors, and it also ranks higher by search engines. In other words, value the quality of content over quantity. While creating content regularly is essential, it’s not more important than ensuring that each piece of content you provide has value.
Use SEO techniques to make your content discoverable. Conduct thorough keyword research, optimize meta tags, and ensure mobile-friendliness for better search visibility. While keywords are obviously essential to incorporate into your content, you also want to use various mediums to boost and promote your content. This includes blog posts, videos, eBooks, infographics, podcasts, and more.
Develop a content calendar for consistent publishing. Set clear publication schedules and adhere to them to maintain your audience’s interest. It is tempting to skip this step and just set an internal goal of regular posting. However, sadly, even your best efforts will not yield the results you want if you don’t have a plan to stick to in the form of a content calendar. This will allow you to stay on top of your posting and ensure you don’t slack off and create a gap in your content.
Share content on social platforms to boost engagement. Tailor your content for each platform, and actively engage with your audience through comments and messages. A social media presence is a powerful tool for today’s modern businesses. In fact, some 91% of all small businesses effectively use social media as a marketing tool.
Use email campaigns to nurture leads and guide them to conversion. Segment your email list and provide personalized content recommendations to subscribers. While you might assume email is a lost art or something that consumers no longer value, in reality, email marketing is still a valuable part of a comprehensive marketing strategy. In fact, 98% of all consumers check their emails daily and prefer it as the avenue in which they receive updates from the brands they love. Therefore, email marketing should not be ignored as an effective way to enhance your content marketing strategy.
Include clear and persuasive calls to action in your content. Experiment with different CTAs to find the ones that resonate best with your audience, and use action-oriented languages. CTAs tell your audience exactly the next step they should make, taking them further into the purchasing process. It is the last word, so to speak, between your brand and your customer. So, make sure to leave a lasting impression with a well-constructed CTA. A good CTA will feature some elements of time sensitivity and be clear and concise in its messaging.
Monitor key metrics and adjust your strategy accordingly. Track conversion rates, traffic sources, and user behavior to identify areas for improvement. This information will let you know what kind of content is getting the right kind of results and what isn’t exactly working. It tells you what your audience likes most content-wise and what they are interacting with and sharing. This information is key to knowing what areas to focus on when it comes to future content creation. It also tells you what isn’t appealing to your customers so you can stop wasting time on ineffective content.
Last but certainly not least, optimize conversions by experimenting with different elements. Test variations of headlines, visuals, and CTAs to determine what resonates most effectively with your audience through A/B testing. In fact, honing in on the right combination of visuals, headlines, content, and CTAs, in general, is a bit of trial and error, simply seeing what gets results. A/B testing is an easier way to find out this information and is a low-risk, high-reward prospect. It allows you to test out two different versions of something and get results quickly, showing what option works best for your target audience.
By following the nine steps listed above and incorporating all the strategies mentioned, you can harness the power of content marketing to drive conversions more effectively. At fuze32, we are a full-service advertising agency. We understand the power of content marketing when it comes to driving conversions. Contact us to learn more and begin the process of creating the right kind of content to promote even more conversions.