The Case for Content Marketing

The only way to create content that converts on a regular basis is to develop a strong content marketing strategy for your company. How do we know content marketing works? Because brands are continually increasing their content spend, especially in the B2B space.

According to a recent study from the Content Marketing Institute, the majority of B2B content marketers (56%) increased their content creation budget for 2019. Why? Because they know that a robust content creation strategy is necessary for increased conversions.

Are you investing the time and resources necessary to nurture your own content creation strategy?

If the answer is “not really,” don’t worry. We can help you out with that.

What You’ll Learn About Content Creation and Content Marketing

In this guide to creating content that converts, you’ll learn:

• Effective content marketing tactics
• The key to writing good content
• Tips for optimizing your content
• How to build trust with readers
• And much more!

Develop A Content Marketing Strategy

Content marketing is like anything else. To be effective, you need a plan. Preferably, a good one.

The Path to Content Failure Is Paved with Good Intentions

This is pretty obvious, right? You’d be surprised, though, how many supposed “content marketers” take a laid-back approach to their web content. They post what they feel like when they feel like it. Not only is this approach downright lazy, but it’s also completely ineffective.

You may have the very best intentions as a content marketer, but unless you have a schedule that you’re committed to adhering to fairly strictly, then you’ll sabotage your efforts before they even get off the ground. It’s not a personal flaw—it’s just human nature.

Stick to A Content Creation Calendar

In order to create content marketing wins, you need a different approach. Instead of developing your content on a whim, make a content calendar and stick to it. There are many calendar creators online that will do the job, or you can simply use your Google calendar. Before you can fill in your content calendar, you’ll need to decide what types of content you want to publish and how often.

Write Reader-Centric Content

Wondering what to write about? Have an empty content calendar you need to fill pronto? Then, put yourself in your readers’ shoes. For just a moment, stop thinking about conversions and sales and think about what your readers want instead.

Yes, that’s right. If you write content that benefits your readers, your sales and conversions will follow. Content that converts is reader-centric content.

Next, we’ll address some tips for creating the kind of reader-centric content that actually converts.

Address Pain Points

Part of writing reader-centric content is empathizing with readers about their pain points and then providing them with a clear solution to their problem. The trick is to convince readers that you’re more interested in helping them than in helping yourself. This technique works best when you create a real win-win situation for both you and your prospective customers.

Create A Sense of Urgency

We live in an on-demand society that thrives on instant gratification. If it’s not happening now, it might as well not be happening at all. Your readers want their pain points addressed, and they want their problems solved –now!

Here are a few ways you can use your web content to make readers feel as if time is of the essence:

• Offer downloads for a limited time
• Give special gifts or services to the first customers to convert
• Advertise daily or weekly specials

These are just a few examples. The idea is to motivate your readers to convert by making your offers time-sensitive. That way, they’ll be less likely to procrastinate or take time to overthink the decision.

Be Authentic

Content that communicates trust is one of the most powerful weapons in your content marketing arsenal. And since it’s hard to come by these days, it’s even more valuable to readers than ever before. So many web users are used to click bait and fluff content that when they see the real stuff, their response is overwhelmingly positive.

Plus, once you establish trust with readers, they’ll keep coming back to you time and time again for more authentic content! They’ll also be more likely to share your content via social media, which will result in increased traffic and exposure for your website.

Tips for Creating Authentic Content

Exactly how do you create authentic content for your website or blog, though? Here are some tips.

• Develop a friendly, knowledgeable persona to deliver your content. This will be your voice as you write articles, blog posts, web content, and more.
• Use statistics from credible sources to back up your claims.
• Link to other authoritative sites in your niche.
• Offer advice and tips instead of sales pitches.
• Use personal anecdotes and real-life examples.
• Express yourself with emotions like disappointment, frustration, anticipation, surprise, etc. This illustrates to readers that you’re human, like them.
• Use humor. This makes you relatable.

Keep SEO in Mind

Although the content you write should be primarily about your readers, you’ll need to pay attention to content optimization as well. If you don’t write with the search engines in mind at all, then you might not have any readers to worry about!

Do Your Research—Keyword Research, That Is!

Search engine optimization is a complex topic, but at its core, it’s about optimizing your copy with keywords that users are likely to type in when they use search engines.

As you conduct keyword research, you’ll find that there are lots and lots of keywords and keyphrases to choose from. Unless you have a plan, the choices can be overwhelming. Here’s a tip: Focus on high search volume, low-competition keywords.

There are many online tools for keyword research, but the most popular is Google’s Keyword Planner. With Keyword Planner, finding relevant keywords to optimize your content with is as easy as entering a topic in the search field.

Takeaway: Write with your reader at top of mind, but don’t forget SEO.

Now that you have some solid content marketing tactics, it’s time to put them to the test. Once you’ve created a content calendar for your blog or website, come back here for more tips on increasing clicks and conversions.