Having a basic content marketing strategy is important for growing a successful business. However, if you want to attract high-quality leads, you need to take your plan a step further. Hacking your content marketing strategy to produce better results can help you attract leads who are more likely to make a purchase.
When you elevate your content marketing campaigns, you can establish better connections with your target audience. Certain hacks, such as using multi-touch marketing or adding shareable quotes within your content, can improve your outreach and help you attract better leads.
To help you take your content marketing strategy to the next level, here are two hacks you should try out!
When a customer or client is ready to make a purchase, they’re going to buy from a company they trust. In most circumstances, trust needs to be built over a period of time. This means you can’t expect most buyers to purchase right after they first become aware of your products or services. If you’re only focusing on connecting with customers one time, you’re not putting in the effort needed to grow a truly profitable relationship.
A multi-touch content marketing campaign considers the many different thought processes a customer may go through when they’re ready to make a purchase. By considering these various phases, you can create content that appeals to the individual as they learn more and more about what you offer. By also including different forms of content, you can appeal to the various needs of your target audience members.
In other words, creating a multi-touch content marketing plan means you’re considering the needs of your leads at each stage of the nurturing process. When you’re creating content that will appeal to them at the introductory phase and the purchasing phase, as well as everything in between, you’re able to grab the attention of audience members at just the right time.
When creating a multi-touch content marketing campaign, think about what decisions your target audience will need to make before they purchase from you. As your leads get closer and closer to becoming customers, your content ‘touches’ should become more in-depth or sophisticated, providing them with the additional information they need until they’re ready to buy. With more targeted content, you’ll weed out your serious buyers from those not qualified to make a purchase.
Whenever you create a new piece of content, you want it to be shared as widely as possible. When your content is easily available across the web, you can collect more viewers and improve your chances of securing high-quality leads. Having your content shared by your community can also improve your authority and trust with other potential customers. However, in order to have your content shared, you need to make it worthwhile for your readers.
If it is difficult or complicated for readers to share your content, they’re unlikely to keep trying. In order to improve your chances of getting your audience to share the pieces you create, you want to make it as easy as possible for your community to post content on their own social profiles. A great way to do this is through creating shareable quotes within your content. These snippets of information are ready to post on social media, making it a breeze for customers and clients to share your content with their own networks.
Shareable quotes, like the above example from Clickx, are small bits of text from your content that provide context to the rest of the post. These quotes can help you attract more high-quality leads, because they encourage engagement from your already existing community. When someone a potential lead trusts shares your content, they’ll be more likely to click through and engage on their own.
When selecting shareable quotes to feature, make sure they’re strong enough to stand on their own. If they don’t provide enough context, your audience will feel confused and will be unlikely to check out the original content. You should also keep in mind that your quotes need to comply with the regulations of the social media platform you’re encouraging shares on. For example, if you’re targeting Twitter, you want to keep your quotes under 140 characters.
A content upgrade is a relevant piece of content that complements an original blog post, article, or video. To receive the upgraded piece of content, readers need to opt in using their personal information, such as an email address. Unlike a traditional opt-in, a content upgrade is specific to the original piece of content the reader was engaging with.
Content upgrades can help you attract better leads in a few ways. First, the targeted material enables you to better provide exactly what your reader is looking for. If they choose to opt-in to your email list through a content upgrade rather than a generic opt-in, you’ll be able to offer them more specific material to move them through the sales process faster.
Content upgrades, like the above example from Leadpages, also help to educate leads more efficiently. After reading a piece about a certain topic, a content upgrade can bring the reader to the next level of understanding. This pushes them through the sales funnel faster and gives them more information right away. The faster you can properly educate leads on a particular topic, the more qualified they will become.
When creating a content upgrade, you want to think specifically about how it can improve the reader’s understanding of the original topic. Make sure that the ideas pair well with one another. You also want to ensure that you’re putting your content upgrade offers in the right places. A two-step opt-in process or multiple opt-in points can also improve the number of leads you collect.
Content marketing is about more than just producing great pieces that your audience will be interested in engaging with. If you want to attract high-quality leads, hacking your content strategy to make deeper connections can enable you to produce better results.
Let’s recap the three content marketing hacks you should be using within your promotion strategy:
How do you think these hacks will help you make better connections with your target audience? Let us know in the comments section below!
Image credit: Flickr.