Content marketing: Do you know that roughly 27,000,000 pieces of content are shared every day?
You have been working very hard to make a great content for your audience….
You are getting your brand name out there and the traffic to your blog is growing steadily. However no one is paying for your stuff.
When you are not converting leads into sales then your contents is useless. If you can’t convert leads into sales then all the traffic in the world can’t help you either.
If you are to create a content that converts madly, you need to use some content marketing strategies.
Know your audience’s mind, genuinely engage them and they will be eager to press that button.
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Know your audience
All the successful businesses are relied upon their ability to satisfy the needs of their customers. If you can do this, you will succeed in no time. But if you can’t, it’s going to be very difficult.
Audience should be a starting point of any business strategy. Content marketing is no different. If you want to boost your conversion rate you have to know the people you are trying to convert.
Most marketers do make the mistake of creating content for their peer group. For example, as a web designer I could create content on how to design a website. But this would not earn me any new clients.
My clients may not be interested in learning how to design a website or blog. However, they would only be interested in how to have a good website or blog and how to generate traffic to it.
Create content for your audience not your peers.
How well do you think you know your audience? Their needs, demographics, hang out, values, what makes them happy and sad etc.
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Choose a relevant topic.
The secret of effective and efficiency content marketing depends in creating content which is useful and relevant to your audience or customer.
The more useful and relevant your content is, the more engaged your customer will be, the more they will like and trust you. And the more you will earn money.
To utilize your conversions you need to pick relevant and useful topics to write about. Topic that addresses your audience’s need and gives you the chance to demonstrate your expertise.
This is where your knowledge of your audience comes to play. After performing your research, you need to have a clear idea of what they want.
It’s often recommended to be highly targeted with the content. Take for example, an article about content marketing will have a broad appeal, but it is too general to really engage audience. Now an article about content marketing for solo entrepreneurs might turn off some section of readers, but those readers to whom it applies will be highly engaged.
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Write a captivating headline
The headline is a king in content marketing. No matter how great your content is, no one is going to read it if they are not captivated immediately by the headline. Headline writing s as much a science as it is as much as an art.
The attention grabbing headlines you always see on the covers of most newspaper or Magazine are based on established formulas. Remember, the purpose of your headline is to capture your reader’s attention to read your content.
So how do you get your audience hooked?
Very simple. Promise them a benefit.
“The headlines which work best are those that promise the reader a benefit.”
— David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising2
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Now let’s assume you are running a website that offers content marketing services. You can go to some of those magazine or newspaper site and re-purpose some of their headlines.
To write an attention grabbing headline that promises a benefit.
You can certainly;
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Hook them with your opening
Now, you’ve successfully captured your reader’s attention with your headline. You are not done yet.
Audience’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. According to scientists our attention span average is 8 sec. For goldfish, it’s 8 seconds.
What does that mean?
It means you have to hook your reader right from your first sentence. You have to make them interested in whatever you are saying. If you don’t hook them they will just wander off.
Below are some great ways of starting your blog content with a bang;
- Drop a shocking statistic. Don’t use the one that your reader will be familiar with. Hit them from left field. Let them go Wow!, I didn’t know that.
- Describe an issue. Go straight into the issue your content will be addressing. Don’t just define the problem. Stress out the pain from the problem. More on this later.
- Ask a question. If you can ask a question, you will get your reader thinking. This means engagement. That’s a quite good thing.
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Connection Building
Content marketing is all about building relationship. You make content in order to build a connection with your audience, which in return leads to a sale.
You must start a rapport to build a relationship. Here if you’ve already known your audience from the know your audience section. You should get some idea of the interests and values of your readers. Your content ought to be congruent with those interests and values.
Take for example if your target audience is solo entrepreneurs, they can prioritize saving money to saving time. However for an audience of marketing executives, saving time may be more prefer to saving money.
Another major factor is the language you use. Understand the words and phrases that your readers use when they are discussing topics that are related to your business. Use the same phrases and words in your content.
You may go further. If your readers demographic are interested in certain sections of popular culture, you can refer to these aspects of culture to spice up your content.
If you show your audience that you know how they think and feel, they will start trusting you. And this is an important thing in business.
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Be helpful genuinely
Establish rapport is great. However you have to display you can provide value to your audience. If you can’t provide value, why should they purchase your products and services? Reason why your content must be helpful to your audience. If an audience finds your content to be helpful, he/she will be confident that buying your products or services will be of benefit to them so much more.
Your content may be helpful in the following ways:
- Solve a problem. You provide a solution to the problem of your audience. To provide the most value, you ought to provide actionable steps which your audience may take. If they act on your advice and it works, they will be demanding for more. But, you don’t need to tell them everything they are to know. You may hold something back which will be in your paid products and services.
- Educate your audience. As an expert in your field, you are in a pole position to educate your audience about the niche topics. If you start a teacher-student relationship with your readers, you will be in a position of trust and authority. However remember to use their language. Don’t use jargons which they will not understand. And also be humble. Because no one likes arrogance.
- Provide an informed opinion. In so many niches there is abundance of advices, many of it conflicting each other. Your readers are likely confused as to which option to take. They might be spending hours online trying to figure out an answer. Clear up your reader’s confusion and demonstrate your expertise. You will win a few new fans in the process.
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Be emotional
No matter how rational your readers are their emotions still put a huge influence on their decision-making process. Analysis of data from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising shown that adverts with emotional content performed as twice as those with purely rational content.
Emotions can be divided into two categories:
- Positive emotions. Satisfaction, happiness, joy.
- Negative emotions. Anxiety, Fear, frustration.
Generally, evoking positive emotions is going to earn the greatest rewards in content marketing.
Now it’s not to say that evoking negative emotions is bad either. You just have to be strategic about it.
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Provide a compelling offer
Through using the tactics we have provided outlined, you have built a strong connection with your audience, helped them with their issue, and you also got them a little bit emotional.
You already have an audience that is highly engaged with your content. It’s now time for them to be converted into sales leads.
To execute this, provide them an offer. This could be:
- Newsletter subscription.
- E-book downloads.
- Sign up to webinar.
- Purchase products or services.
Your call to action should be displayed at one or more prominent locations on your site:
- Home page.
- Sidebar top.
- At the end of your blog posts.
- Pop-ups.
To make your offer truly compelling, you should try and include the following:
- Outline the benefits.
- Emphasize the uniqueness.
- Inspire confidence.
- Use figures.
Content marketing is a journey
Content marketing is all about taking your readers on a journey. You build a connection attract their attention, hook them up and make a compelling offer.
At every stage on the journey, you ought to be increasing your audience’s engagement with your brand.
Finally when you make your offer, how will they possibly resist?
Thanks for reading and feel free to make your comment in case any.
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Great article!
This article is amazing, full of information about content marketing.
I agree that there are lots and lots of content shared every day and if we are not making any effort in making our content useful and interesting for the audience then it is all going to be a waste.
The content marketing strategies that have shared is very informative and will definitely going to help me in making of an interesting content that will make the audience connected.
I really appreciate that you’ve shared this valuable information.
Thanks,
– Rekha
Rekha Barla recently posted…Top 10 Useful Gadgets to Buy for 2018
Great article there and it will really help those who want to learn more about content marketing. I have learnt something and hope others too can learn. Kudos
I am impressed especially with the part that says Content marketing is a journey. Which is true. It is truly a journey