There’s a reason why they say content is king — it’s more than just words on a page; it’s a powerful marketing tactic. The right content marketing strategy can do amazing things for your business. It develops brand awareness, builds traffic to your website, generates leads and ultimately drives more revenue.
If you’re not using content to generate leads, you could be missing out on a huge business opportunity. If you’re new to content marketing, here are seven tips to keep in mind when getting started.
Tip #1: Identify Which Topics You Are a Thought Leader In
No matter how much content you produce, if you aren’t writing about what you know best, you’ll never see results. To have a strong content marketing strategy that produces revenue, you must first think about your Zone of Genius. Why should people choose to work with you? What knowledge do you have that they might not be able to find elsewhere? This is where your subject matter expertise comes into play; and you can showcase that knowledge through thought leadership content.
Thought leadership is any form of expression that demonstrates your knowledge in a particular area. Businesses should strive to become thought leaders in their respective industries because it positions them as trustworthy, knowledgeable professionals. Also, the more authority you have as a thought leader, the more business you can win against competitors. Today, businesses are using a variety of strategies — from content marketing to social media marketing — to demonstrate thought leadership.
Tip #2: Find Subject Matter Experts and Perform Keyword Research
Being considered a thought leader for anything is impressive, so figuring those details out is a great first step. But don’t start creating materials just yet. First, you’ll want to find other subject matter experts and study their content. Figure out what they’re having success with and what areas you can mimic. You still want your content to be original, but competitive research can give you great ideas.
Search engine optimization (SEO) should also be top of mind as you begin using content for lead generation. One of the top ways to use content to generate leads is via the web — users can find you organically and come to you looking for your services. It’s an easy sell! Therefore, before you jump into a full-on content strategy, you should take time to learn about SEO and perform keyword research. Keyword research helps you find keywords with a high search volume on the web. You can then incorporate these keywords into your content to get better rankings and more website traffic.
Tip #3: Create a Content Marketing Strategy
Once you’ve done your due diligence as far as research goes, it’s time to start developing a content strategy. This can be quite the task, but it’s essential if you want to see results. The following are a few important things to include as a part of your content marketing strategy.
Clearly Defined Goals
First, you should know your goals. Why are you creating this content, and what do you hope to achieve by doing so? What do you want potential customers to learn by reading your content? If you are pursuing content marketing for lead generation purposes, also think about the following:
- How many leads you’d like to produce per week, per month, per year, etc.
- How you track leads for different types of content.
- How much revenue you’d like to generate from content efforts.
Having goals helps you create content purposefully, not just for the sake of it. When you stay focused, you can see what’s working, make the proper adjustments and reach your goals.
Pro Tip: Remember that content goals change depending on a lead’s placement in the funnel. The goal of top-of-funnel content is to inform with thought leadership and generate leads. Once you have a user’s contact information via a form fill, they become middle-of-the-funnel leads, where content serves to build brand awareness. Bottom-of-funnel content is written with the intent to produce sales.
A Content Calendar
A content calendar or some type of organizational tool is crucial when putting together a content strategy. To see it performing successfully and generating leads, you must consistently put out fresh, new content. A content calendar helps you stay on track and maintain a regular schedule.
Figure out what makes the most sense for your business. Are there certain types of content you want to publish each week? Each month? Does every month look different? If so, you’ll need to set aside time each month to plan out your strategy.
A Blog Strategy
Creating and executing a successful blog strategy is an essential part of an overall content strategy. Did you know that by prioritizing blogging, you are 13 times more likely to see positive ROI? Every successful content strategy must include a blog strategy, as it is one of the top lead-producing, inbound marketing activities for B2B marketers. A great blog strategy has topics with purpose, a frequent posting schedule, lots of CTAs to generate leads and a process for tracking and analyzing success.
In addition to these important components of a content strategy, you can also perform a content audit, brainstorm ideas for content and research different content marketing tools. It might take time, but the more effort you put into your content strategy, the better — and more consistent — results you’ll see.
Tip #4: Consider Various Types of Content
When building your content strategy, it’s also important to consider all the different types of content you can use. There are so many ways to demonstrate thought leadership, generate leads and sell your products or services. You shouldn’t limit yourself to just one type of content to achieve your goals.
Website Content
Website content should be a top priority when considering different types of copy for your strategy. This includes optimized service pages on your website and a blog that is frequently updated with new content. Additionally, consider the structure of your website and how easy it is for users to navigate. This can play a huge part in how many leads you generate.
Marketing Assets
Marketing assets, such as brochures, one-pagers, infographics and case studies, can be extremely effective in selling your products or services. You can then turn these marketing assets into gated content on your website. The information you acquire from users trying to access this content can be used later to contact them as a part of a campaign. They then become leads in your pipeline and, ideally, convert into a customer. Marketing assets can also be used as a basic selling tool to guide a conversation when speaking to a prospect in situations like sales pitches or conferences. They are visually appealing and great for summarizing the story you want to tell.
Social Media
Be active on social media and use it to drive more visitors to your website. Whether you’re posting about trending topics in your industry or promoting your website’s latest blogs, social media platforms are great to utilize when using content for lead generation. That’s because they’re highly trafficked and easily searchable, making you more visible to potential leads when they begin their search for a product or service.
And the list doesn’t have to stop there! In addition to these revenue-generating types of content, you can also enhance your content strategy with email campaigns, videos, podcasts and more.
Tip #5: Optimize All the Content on Your Website
An optimized website with great content is a crucial component of a successful content strategy. Your website is the hub for all things about your business — it shows what you can offer and what you’re an expert in. Plus, most other forms of content (social media, email campaigns, etc.) drive users back to your website — which is one more reason why your website should be pristine.
A great website encompasses a lot of different things, including the following:
- A great site structure that is easy for users to navigate and easy for bots to crawl.
- A blog with relevant, regularly scheduled content that showcases thought leadership.
- Plenty of calls to action (CTAs) and forms to encourage users to contact you.
- Service pages that are optimized for search engines (headers should include top-ranking keywords, page structure should be crawlable, etc.).
The more work you put into your website, the more results you’ll see from it. It can be a huge undertaking, but it’s worth it in the end.
Tip #6: Analyze Data and Statistics To Constantly Help Improve Performance
Once you’re on a cadence of producing new content regularly and you’re seeing success from it, you’ll feel unstoppable. It can be difficult to hold yourself back from wanting to go full speed ahead with more great content. While you should always be producing content, don’t get so caught up in creating it that you forget to analyze metrics from existing content. Analyzing existing content can give you direction and influence future content strategy.
Many of the metrics you’ll be looking for can be found in Google Analytics, but there are many other content marketing tools that can help you learn about your audience and the success of your content. Some metrics you should consider include traffic (total users, page views, unique page views, etc.), conversions, engagement and SEO performance (how well keywords are ranking, authority, etc.).
Tip #7: Create Content for Leads at Different Stages in the Funnel
Think about the way a salesperson talks to a cold lead versus a lead that’s almost ready to buy. The messaging is completely different. A B2B marketer should think the same way when creating content. The messaging should differ depending on what stage in the funnel a lead is at when they see that piece of content. This is an essential part of lead management and if executed correctly, it can help you generate more new business.
For example, a high-level blog is likely to be seen by a user who is in the awareness stage. These users come to your website to find information but are likely just learning about your products or services. This is why blogs often have a thought leadership tone rather than a promotional tone. You don’t want to be in the user’s face trying to sell to them right away. An automated piece of content that is sent to leads who have had a conversation with a salesperson might be different. These leads might be in the nurture phases and therefore need more tailored content that can help them make a buying decision.
Once you start focusing on content creation for lead generation and seeing success, you won’t believe what it can do for your business. But it takes time, effort and above all — patience. Don’t rush your content strategy; aim to perfect it. It can take time to see results, but once you do, the content should be doing the heavy lifting for you. So, get to writing!
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