content marketing

Connecting with your target audience in a meaningful way is more important than ever before. Consumers want more personalized content from brands, and a powerful content marketing strategy can make a difference.

By Michael Zhou

Before whipping out your next piece of content, whether it’s a blog article or social media post, put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Knowing what they need, value, trust, etc., will help you create compelling copy that drives them down the sales funnel faster.

Not sure where to begin? No problem. Here are 13 profitable content marketing tips that can increase traffic, engagement, and those coveted conversions.

  1. Deliver Information Rich Content

Consumers want answers to their questions. This is why voice search is changing the way SEOs and digital marketers optimize content. Give your audience the information they want and don’t be afraid to get into detail.

  1. No Spin-Doctors

Many consumers prefer recommendations from people other than brands. This is why influencer marketing has become an asset for maximizing ROI. Spinning information in the traditional sales sense simply doesn’t work anymore. Make your content marketing strategy transparent and emotional to net more profit.

  1. Focus on Site Navigation

Developing website copy that leads customers on a journey is optimal. Your website should be easy to navigate with clear CTAs that are sales funnel minded. For instance, your home page represents the awareness stage. A CTA leading a customer to a case study is the evaluation stage. Lastly, another CTA leads the customer to your order page, to complete the conversion stage.

  1. Keep Content Simple

Having very conversational content puts readers at ease. This tone puts customers at ease and helps them engage with your brand more. Using large industry-minded words may not be best. Keep it simple.

  1. Get to the Point

No one likes long-winded content. When a potential customer lands on your home page, have your value proposition showcased above the fold. This lets your audience know exactly what your business provides, including how it benefits them.

  1. Create Authoritative Pillar Pages

One page websites are very clean looking, but they should not be a stand-alone customer connection. Building out your website with authoritative pillar page content helps you answer customer questions for specific topics. This is also a good tactic for capitalizing on more keywords as well.

  1. Develop Supporting Spoke Pages

Once you have your pillar pages in place, go a little further and develop supporting spoke pages. For instance, if you have a women’s fitness pillar page, your spoke pages could cover different fitness topics. This creates a nice flow to how you deliver content to your target audience and has added SEO benefits too.

  1. Make Your Content More Visual

Consumers are craving more visual content, and brands that are meeting this demand will have more profitable content marketing campaigns. Integrate high-quality images, gifs, infographics, and videos to make your content more visual. Videos are powerful, keeping potential customers engaged and on page longer.

  1. Build Consumer Trust

Trust is an absolute must for a business to grow and be successful. To build consumer trust, integrate content that speaks to your brands history, accomplishments, philanthropy, industry events, and other trust-building copy. Case studies and unique white papers are great ways to gain consumer trust.

  1. Have Plenty of CTAs

CTAs are important when guiding your target audience throughout the sales funnel. Give potential customers plenty of opportunities to click through for more content. However, there is a delicate balance, because too many CTAs can make a page or blog feel spammy. Three to six per page is ideal, as long as they are at natural points in the content.

  1. Perfection, Perfection, Perfection

Have you ever landed on a page filled with grammar errors, odd language, and other writing mistakes? You most likely bounced out of the site pretty quickly. When developing content for your brand, be sure to proofread, edit, edit again, and let someone else have a look to ensure everything is perfect.

  1. Highlight Contact Information

The goal of any content marketing strategy is to generate a lead that can be turned into a future sale. But if potential customers can’t get in touch, you may lose them to your competitors. Make contact information visible. If you’re a local business, having contact information on page can also improve your local ranking in SERPs as well.

  1. Don’t Overcomplicate Contact Forms

A “Contact Us” page is a great way to get your target audience to connect with your brand. However, an overcomplicated contact form might cause issues. Think like a consumer. How much information do you feel comfortable filling out on a contact form? Your WordPress hosting service will have templates in place that have contact forms already set up. If not, name, email, and message boxes are more than adequate.

Is Your Content Marketing Strategy Profitable?

Crafting engaging content is vital to the success of your business. A powerful content marketing strategy builds consumer trust, leads customers down a guided sales funnel, and converts. How do you connect with your audience using content?

Michael Zhou is a Senior VP of Business Intelligence Development and has assisted the Fortune 1000 company with expertise in the web as a whole, including ground-zero marketing efforts that benefit both consumer and vendor. He is also contributor on Esprittoday.

Content marketing stock photo by ESB Professional/Shutterstock