More people are searching for things they want online and in order to stand out, you need content that converts. No matter what type of content you want to publish, you need a good content marketing strategy. Today, just having random content across your network is not enough! The truth is, creating content with no clear goal or added value in mind could seriously harm your business reputation.

You need content that encourages your audience to take action and, at the same time, adds value. The difference between good and great copy is a clearly defined content marketing strategy that takes into account your needs, wants and abilities. This will make your content easier, quicker and cheaper to create.

It’s important to have clear goals and measures in place for content marketing. Avoid simply producing content because you think you should. All content should have a purpose whether it’s lead generation, driving referrals to your website, brand awareness or data capturing.

Content Marketing In Today’s Modern Society

When it comes to content marketing, the aim of the game is engagement and conversions. Today we will share a few quick-fire tips on how you can write quality content to increase conversions.

1. Know Your Industry

Coming up with good copy is challenging enough, imagine creating content for a niche market if you don’t have the necessary knowledge.

There are several ways to do content research but few are as good as BuzzSumo. For those who don’t know, BuzzSumo is a research and monitoring tool that helps create better, more engaging content. Users can input certain search criteria, analyse content and find out what is already trending in your area. Enter your own, or another domain to see what has been shared socially. This enables you to easily identify what sort of content is popular, either ranked by topic or on any website.

The main functionalities include:

• Finding content that has been shared the most across social media channels
• Finding influencers related to specific topics
• Receiving alerts based on keywords, brand name, links, author name or domain
• Tracking competitors and performing a content analysis

BuzzSumo has the ability to go back 12 months to see what topics were trending on social media, who was sharing them and also show how competitors’ content is performing. You can get the insights you need to ensure that your content stands out and encourages people to take action. In addition, BuzzSumo also dives deep into your backlinks (and those of your competitors) to boost your site authority.

To maximise your efforts even further, set up Google Alerts for your brand name, product, service and industry. It is absolutely essential for brand and reputation management as you will be the first to know about any breaking news within your industry.

2. Identify Your Target Audience And What They Want

Before you start writing anything, you need to know who you are writing for. Using buyer personas is a great way to identify your ideal customers, their needs, problems and challenges.

To best way to write copy for your customers is to think about them. What motivates them? What problems do they face every day? How can you help them? How do they speak and search for information? Where do they consume most of their Media?

Experienced marketers often start off using very broad areas, such as age and gender. In addition, you’ll likely need to know their location, spending habits and industries as well. Creating content according to personas will speak directly to the challenges of your potential customers, helping them solve it.

But how do you get started? Using Google Search Console, you can identify the top performing keywords or phrases on your website and optimise your content accordingly. This is incredibly effective at helping you understand your visitor’s search patterns which means you can create relevant content. When using Google Search Console effectively, it can help with the following:

• Monitor, test, and track your Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) pages with Search Console tools and reports
• Test and improve the mobile usability of your website using customised reports
• Your structured data can appear as rich results on Google Search
• Get email alerts when Google identifies an issue on your site
• Submit sitemaps and individual URLs for crawling to get your content on Google
• Check your index coverage and make sure that Google sees the latest version of your site

3. Keep Content Short, Simple and Powerful

When it comes to content marketing, quality always outweighs quantity. After all, it’s the quality that will determine how many people look, share and comment on it. All of these factors also have a massive impact on where your site ranks in search engine results. Offer something valuable and get the audience to engage while making it easy for them to share your content.

Something many marketers forget is to keep content short but with a strong message and call to action. Remember, most people skim-read your content and if nothing truly stands out, they will simply move on. While you might feel passionate about your industry and brand, few people would want to read an essay about it.

Fortunately, there are several handy tips on how to shorten your content without losing any readership.

• Don’t underestimate the power of bullet points
• Use listicles such as this one you are reading today
• Check your content for redundant adjectives and remove anything else that is unnecessary
• Shorten it even further and remove words like “very”, “that” and “really” as they are often not required

4. Use Visual Design And Graphics For Added Impact

We all know the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words” and it certainly rings true in terms of visual impact. In addition to creating content that converts, you need to think about the graphic element that will accompany your text.

First impressions last and in the digital world, that means 50 milliseconds or half a second. That’s right, you have half a second to grab a visitor’s attention so make sure your images are eye-catching. According to eye-tracking research, studies have shown that internet readers pay close attention to images with information. When images are relevant, readers spend more time looking at the images rather than reading the text.

Creating attractive visual content for your audience will increase engagement and conversion. This doesn’t mean you can post anything though as it must remain relevant and contextual. Use pictures, photographs and videos of your staff, products, services and events with a strong call to action.

Combining graphics with quality content is the secret to success. Some of the strongest words in marketing include the following:

• ‘You’ – Remember, marketing is all about the customer
• ‘Free’ – Who doesn’t like a freebie?
• ‘Because’ – Customers need to know WHY they need your product/service
• ‘Risk-free’ – Visitors feel safer buying from you
• ‘Don’t Miss Out’ – Ever hear of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)?
• ‘Limited Offer’ – Generate a sense of urgency so everyone wants a piece of the action before it’s too late
• ‘Easy’ – Who wants to go through a difficult process? Make it as hassle-free as possible

5. Connect With Your Audience And Build Relationships

This links back to knowing why you are creating each piece of content. The aim of content marketing is to educate the customer and get them to stay with you and ultimately make a purchase. That means your content must always focus on your customers. Buyer Personas that are set up correctly and with as much detail as possible will help you target your content. Use your market research to find out what content works best with each Persona.

While engagement differs between industries, companies and service offering, knowing your customers is vital. When you start writing, you must target their way of thinking. This includes focusing on their pain points and why your product/service will deliver satisfaction. Emphasise how your offering will add value to their lives and remember to speak as if you are one of them. Don’t treat every customer as one entity, personalise your communications and speak to them as individuals.

6. Product Reviews And Customer Testimonials

With online shopping as easy and accessible as it is today, more people look at product reviews before buying anything. It’s a known fact that positive reviews on a website can dramatically improve conversions.

While reviews aren’t always available, the next logical step is to obtain testimonials from satisfied customers. This doesn’t have to be directly related to every item an e-commerce store sells but at the very least, a positive customer review about the company and the products they purchased.

In conclusion, implementing these tips will certainly help increase your sales but it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes commitment, patience, effective planning and implementation to truly succeed in today’s digital world.

If you need any assistance with your content marketing strategy, SEO efforts or PPC campaigns, give us a call on 01453 542761. Alternatively, get in touch on our website for a free consultation. We specialise in digital marketing, social media management and Marketing Automation among others.