Even though content marketing is touted as an über effective tactic that generates three times as many leads as traditional outbound marketing, only 6% of marketers consider their efforts “very effective.” How can we refocus our content marketing efforts to make sure they’re really impacting the bottom line? Try these tips that will help you improve your content funnel from creation to conversion.
(Skip to the bottom to check out the infographic! Big thanks to Clearvoice for the beautiful design and expertise.)
Create
1. Look at the Whole Marketing Funnel
When most marketers think of great content marketing they point to companies like Hubspot that constantly attract new leads with value-packed blog posts. This causes many businesses to hyper-focus on top-of-the funnel pieces and overlook content that should support the rest of their buying cycle.
One reason for this could be that a whopping 68% of B2B organizations have not identified their funnel (MarketingSherpa). Make sure your company has clarity and define a marketing pipeline.
2. Incorporate Testimonials
Once you do start generating content that’s aimed at leads in the “Consideration” phase of the funnel, don’t be afraid to use testimonials from your existing customers. In a survey by PowerReviews, two-thirds of consumers said they read between one and 10 before making a purchase.
3. Create Lead Lures
If you’ve been creating content, you probably have some blog posts that are more popular than others. These are they type of pieces you should expand on and develop into a lead lure. Lead lures are just the informational offers that hook your website visitors and help you capture their information. Ebooks, infographics and other robust, value-packed assets are great options and will be perfect for the tactic in #7!
Promote
4. Experiment with Native Ads
Most businesses focus all their advertising efforts on platforms like Google and Facebook, but selecting media buys on targeted sites can often result in better leads and a lower CPA overall. Pure Chat, a live chat software, secured an ad on a partner website and that ad is one of their top referrers because the audience is so targeted.
5. Partner on Interactive Content
One of the great things about the content marketing boom is thate every company is looking for high quality content. If you know how to write thoughtful, well-researched articles, you have something to offer companies that serve your audience. Content exchanges can attract new customers for both businesses and open the door for interactive content, like apps, assessments… and quizzes, which generate conversions moderately or very well 70% of the time (Ion Interactive).
6. Syndicate Your Work
Building relationships with industry influencers can help raise brand awareness, but it’s not as easy as shooting off a tweet asking experts to promote your content. It means providing value before you go in for the ask (Jab, Jab, Right Hook anyone?).
Pure Chat, a live chat software provider, invites influencers to be featured on their small business podcast. This kind of free publicity often opens the door for further conversations and partnership opportunities!
Convert
7. Design Clear CTAs
By now we’ve all been pestered by flying website popups that invade the screen on most blogs. Although these tools can increase lead capture targeted, informational offers at the end of a blog post achieve the same result without sacrificing user experience. Just make sure you link the images – 42% of offer-related graphics on landing pages are not clickable (MarketingSherpa) and that can put a dent in conversion rates!
8. Add Live Chat Software
Don’t let valuable leads bounce off your website! Engage website visitors with live chat to answer customer questions and drive more sales by making an instant connection. Live chat tools like Pure Chat can help increase leads and conversions by as much as 200%.
9. Remarket Leads
Aside from the slight creepiness, website visitors who see remarketing ads are 70% more likely to convert than those who don’t. This stat isn’t surprising since leads often need five or more engagements with your brand before they’re ready to buy. With this in mind, give yourself the opportunity to recapture a website visitor’s attention and create a retargeting strategy.
Close
10. Get Serious About Follow Up
Research by InsideSales.com shows that 35-50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first, but that doesn’t mean you can just shoot over a quick email and hope for the best. The sale will go to the vendor who starts a dialogue first. And that’s unlikely if your sales team reaches out with messages that essentially say, “Are you ready to buy yet?” Show up to genuinely make the customer’s life better, establish trust, then go for the sale.
11. Nurture Leads with Content
Sadly, 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales and lack of lead nurturing is the common cause of this poor performance. After putting in the time and money to attract a potential buyer, don’t just let their information go to waste! Create long-term nurture campaigns that continue adding value for leads that didn’t convert the first time around.
Drive Sales with Content Marketing Infographic
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