In 1996 Bill Gates confidently declared that ‘content is king’. By and large that statement was, and remains, true despite frequent claims to the contrary by over-eager marketers and peddlers of click-bait. Content is, as Bill adroitly put it, “where... much of the real money” is made on the internet.
Sounds simple? Well, hold your horses. Though we’d like it to be the case, content does not necessarily equal money. The internet is vastly more mature than it was 23 years ago and these days bad content is arguably worse than no content at all.
The Different Types of Content
Any good content marketing strategy will seek to optimise to drive conversions or achieve a wider business objective. In digital marketing, we distinguish different types of content based on their place in the path to conversion:
Awareness Content - this is the first contact between the company and the targeted audience. It can be presented as articles or blog posts, for example.
Interest Content - exhibits the product/service or the company and explains how it would benefit the customer. It can be displayed as infographics, video tutorials and blog posts.
Desire Content - provides reasons and tries to convince the customers that they need to buy this service/product, such as trial offer, live demos or proposals.
Action Content - happens when the customer is ending the buying process. It can be a confirmation email, guidelines etc...
5 Ways to Optimise Content for Conversion
Once you’ve got each of these steps in the path to conversion covered, it’s time to optimise and make sure you’re producing the best content possible and sharing it as effectively as you can.
Here are our 5 top tips for optimising your content marketing and driving conversions:
1. Produce More Social Media Visuals
Nowadays, social media is essential to developing your business. Used correctly, the different platforms can help you attract new customers and generate new leads. Not all platforms will suit everyone, so choose a few that enable you to engage your existing audience and turn those new to your brand into valuable customers.
However, simply throwing your content on social media without much thought isn’t going to cut the mustard. Instead, think about what your visuals say about your product and brand - they will help you target and resonate with the right audience.
The right visuals will help you succeed in both raising awareness and stirring up interest in your target customers. And don’t overlook content loading speed - consider how quickly you swipe through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. If you allow them to blink, they’ll miss it.
2. Enhance Landing Page Content
Your landing pages are a fundamental building block of your conversion funnel. They are likely the first thing visitors to your site will see after clicking on and ad or social media post. As such, the content must be compelling to illicit a response and drive the users further along the path.
Make sure the headline is relevant and attracts the attention of users.
The subheading needs to introduce a value proposition for your product or service. This is going to generate interest and desire. Consider presenting them as bullet points to have a better impact.
A prominent and clear call to action is essential to encourage users to take the desired action. Make sure it stands out on the page and provides a compelling reason to interact.
3. Create Relevant and Useful Content
The content you produce for your website should be written with your target audience in mind. Think carefully about the problems they may need solving, or topics they may be keenly interested in. You could even ask them directly what they’d like to read more about on your website.
Examples of this could be case studies, articles about the latest trends and best practices, and troubleshooting blog posts or videos. Use this platform to mention how your product or service could be useful for your customers – how does it meet their needs?
4. Encourage Customer Participation
Reassurance is a key element of any landing page and the value of review, testimonials and even interviews or quotations shouldn’t be overlooked. Make to involve your users in the creation of content by asking them provide reviews or product feedback - customers tend to trust content in which they or others have participated.
5. Optimise Landing Page Presentation
The hierarchy in the way you display content on your landing pages is incredibly important. The most valuable elements in the path to conversion are the headline and CTA and these should be immediately visible.
After that, ensure your landing pages aren’t cluttered and that each element stands out. If possible, get qualitative feedback from your users and make sure that path to conversion is clear and easy to understand. And it goes without saying that you should adapt website navigation and design across devices.
Conclusion
Providing relevant, informative content in a coherent flow that users can understand and engage with is key to enhancing your conversion rate and gathering more of those quality leads.
Informing your users about the product itself is important, but also think about the different stages in the user journey – what information might they want to help with their research? Are they looking for inspiration as well as a solution? What other content will help provide value and build brand loyalty?
Questioning whether your content engages your audience at all stages of interaction will help determine areas you could improve to optimise their user journey.
