What is content marketing?
Content marketing is the strategic process of providing your target audience with useful & educational resources to help them identify and overcome their challenges.
The primary goal is to generate interest in your product or service by demonstrating expertise, authority and trustworthiness around topics related to your business.
As a creative marketing agency, content marketing is at the very heart of what we do.
Not to be confused with content production, content marketing is all about attracting potential customers to an experience that you create to influence their buying decision; like a pillar page which houses all of the resources for a particular topic.
There are many ways to use content to generate and qualify leads. Considering most B2B organisations struggle with digital lead generation with increasing competition, it’s no wonder that businesses are doubling down on content marketing to reach their audience.
Here are 10 proven ways to generate and convert leads using content marketing.
1. Personalisation
Personalisation isn’t just using someone’s first name in a mass email.
By generating content that you know your audience is interested in, you are demonstrating your expertise and a unique understanding of their business challenges. You’ll develop a richer experience for your audience and build trust; after all, marketing is about getting the best information to the right people at the right time and in an engaging way.
To do this you need to understand where your prospects are in their buyer journey and what content would be most useful for them at that stage.
Creating buyer personas is the best place to start when trying to personalise your buyer's online experience with your business. Read more about buyer personas and download our free template here.
2. Publish a branded video
YouTube is the second-largest search engine behind Google but many people still view it as an entertainment platform first.
You must remember that people, especially young people, go to YouTube to search for answers to their questions, so create stunning and engaging videos, add a few links to a landing page on your site and start picking up those leads.
With the meteoric rise of video and the benefit of over 3 billion searches per month on YouTube alone, creating a ‘How to’ video could generate leads for years to come.
Get in touch today and see how we can help you plan and execute your video marketing strategy.
3. Lead generation forms
A really common way of generating leads is adding some well-placed forms to pages on your site. By customising the form you can pre-qualify whether this lead is worth someone from sales reaching out, or needs to be dealt with in a different way.
Most companies who do content marketing well create a few pieces of premium content throughout the year, market that content with some gentle advertising, and then place it behind a form on a landing page. But more on this further down the page.
4. Develop an app
Apps are most widely used to nurture leads and customers of B2C firms. To create a successful B2B app that works for your business you will need to think outside the box. Apps are great for driving new leads and nurturing your existing audience.
“Marketing is about getting the best information to the right people at the right time and in an engaging way.”
5. Host a webinar
Are your leads looking but not converting? Do you sense some hesitation? Ready to turn them into people who want to buy from you?
Host a webinar and invite all of your leads. Turn your FAQs and common sales objections into a structured presentation and provide relevant information to deliver a valuable and interactive experience.
Webinars are a great way to pre-qualify leads, but also help generate interest in your service, set expectations, define next steps etc. To make sure you have the highest chance of converting leads to customers, make sure you run a lead nurturing campaign afterwards.
6. Gated & ungated content
Gated content is a high-quality resource like a white paper which typically offers valuable insight so is put behind a content ‘gate’. This means asking for a few bits of information before you hand it over.
Gated content is usually free, so it’s a mutual exchange of interest. Leads get quality resources and businesses get the opportunity to start nurturing a relationship with the lead. It also helps you to understand your audience better.
CRMs like HubSpot allow you to track how each lead behaves on your site which enables you to understand their issues on an individual basis. Ungated content is any content which is completely free to view.
If you want to position yourself as a market leader/educator/guru, like Neil Patel, consider ungating all of your content. What do people love more than great free stuff?
Moreover, most people are looking for a go-to resource hub, although this approach takes some considerable effort on your part.
Most companies, especially those with limited budgets, opt for gating some of their content to capture leads.
7. Start a podcast
Podcasts are evergreen marketing tools and can be played over and over again, just like a video. They will also position you as a thought leader if you do them well and carefully weave your topical expertise into the conversation.
If you host them on your site, Google can index and list them in search results.
Some social promotion will also benefit. Social media promotion will also benefit, as will listing them on platforms like; SoundCloud, iTunes, Spotify, Libsyn, etc.
8. Write an eBook or white paper
eBooks, guides and white papers are the go-to tool for marketers to generate and understand leads. They can help position your business as an expert in the field and can be used as a reference point throughout the sales process.
This sort of content is usually much longer than a typical blog post, can be gated, distributed in an email campaign, or shared across social media.
They’re interesting, educational, interesting and they help solve real problems. You may need the help of a graphic designer to polish off the look and feel of the content. After all, this is your chance to really impress whoever downloads it. Therefore you need to communicate your brand values, services, etc in a subtle and intelligent way.
Get in touch to find out how we can help you generate beautiful content.
9. Create infographics
Infographics are great. You can turn existing articles into cleverly designed visual pieces of educational content.
Infographics are also highly shareable so if you have a sizable social media following or lots of traffic, you should focus on creating visually engaging content like this to reach new audiences.
They help translate complex or boring information into digestible, engaging pieces of content.
For this, you definitely need a good graphic designer.
10. Add live chat
Engaging with leads in real-time is a fantastic way of increasing conversions. People want to find answers to their queries super quickly these days.
The quicker you can answer a question, the more likely a lead is to stay on your site and do some more digging.
It’ll improve their experience with you and encourage them to come back. You can use programs like LiveChat, Drift, or HubSpot.
#ContentMarketing #DigitalMarketing #InboundMarketing
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