Content marketing is a great way to reach and connect with different audiences. However, it’s not always effective for converting prospects into customers. Reasons for this ineffectiveness var8y depending on many factors. The good news is that you can still change your fortunes and get more leads.
Some content marketing techniques for lead generation are pretty straightforward while others need more creativity. Using these techniques will help you start converting more prospects into customers. Check out these five ways to get more content marketing leads.
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The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing for Business
1. Use multiple distribution channels
First and foremost, you need to utilize multiple distribution channels to truly harness the power of content marketing. The Internet is constantly changing and new channels for content distribution are appearing every year (sometimes multiple times a year). That’s why you might be missing out on some powerful channels for lead generation simply because you are not up to date with the latest news and thus unaware of these channels.
For example, TikTok has been massive in the past few years. With the pandemic setting in, more and more people started joining the platform which made it a great social media platform to use for content marketing. Besides, short-form videos are faster and easier to make than YouTube videos which can significantly reduce content production time and costs. TikTok can help you go viral and easily promote your products by demonstrating how they work in short informational videos made for the platform.
2. Incentivize customers to collect
Did you know that people love to collect things? Businesses have been taking advantage of this tendency for decades now by incentivizing customers to collect. You can see this in the way collectibles are so popular among different demographics, especially if these collectibles belong to a particular brand. However, you don’t necessarily need to have a specific defining feature of the collection to make it work.
Certain types of content can help you incentivize customers to collect your products. Wishlists or checklists are the primary examples of this. You don’t need to have a specific line of products dedicated to a unifying theme – just making a more-or-less logical checklist can be enough to prompt customers to buy more products from you. You can present wishlists and checklists as separate pieces of content or you can integrate them into your store and let people create their own lists in customer accounts.
3. Truly listen to your audience
One thing many businesses seem to forget is the importance of their audience. Truly listening to your audience is crucial for understanding who your customers are and what they want. By understanding what your customers are looking for, you can create exactly the type of content they will enjoy that will make them convert into customers and start purchasing from you instead of only consuming your content.
It’s a good idea to use multiple techniques for analyzing and getting to know your audience. Of course, you need to turn to user-generated content and reviews posted online, but you should also conduct surveys among your current customers or even passive content consumers.
4. Get interactive with quizzes and surveys
Interactivity has been used by most if not all major brands and is already being adopted by many businesses both big and small. The reason why interactivity has taken front stage is that it allows businesses to truly connect with their audiences while also gamifying experiences and incentivizing customers to make purchases.
Two types of content commonly associated with interactivity are quizzes and surveys:
- Quizzes: The best way to use quizzes is to either allow customers to test their knowledge about a subject or to let them find out who they are. In the first case, you can then recommend other content of yours to help your audience get more educated on the subject related to the quiz. In the second case, you can recommend certain products your customers can buy related to the quiz (e.g. “Which kitchen décor do you need based on your lifestyle preferences?”)
- Surveys: As mentioned earlier, surveys can be used to collect feedback. However, you can also use them to create more content such as white papers, case studies, reports, and so on. This content can be especially powerful for persuading those members of your audience who rely on statistics and facts to be persuaded. In other words, you can use surveys to interact with your audience while also using their results to further market to your audience.
5. Start webinars (with other brands)
Last but not least, it’s a good idea to start offering webinars either on your own or in partnerships with other brands. Free webinars can help you educate your audience and connect with it before gradually leading it up to purchase from you.
If you know another business that has a similar audience to yours, offering a webinar from both of your companies in collaboration can expose you to the audience of that other business. Interestingly, if you sell webinars already, you can use free webinars to attract new customers by giving them somewhat of a trial or demo to persuade them to purchase one of the paid options.
Final takeaway
All in all, your content marketing can definitely be taken to a new level to generate more leads and start converting prospects into paying customers. Use the techniques in this article to help you get started and begin improving your content marketing strategy.
Guest author: Ruby Leong has experience as a blogger and writer. Now, she works as a freelance writer. She provides essay writing services at the professional platform Best Essays Education. Basically, Ruby cares about topics that relate to business and education. She devotes her free time to music and singing.