Whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or an early stage startup with limited resources, the fundamental strategies of digital content marketing remain largely the same. From capturing leads to driving conversions, companies of all sizes and stages are often working toward similar goals and can benefit from using the same guiding tactics when it comes to creating a content marketing strategy.
On Thursday, May 18 LearnLaunch welcomed Walker Sands Digital Communications for a webinar on driving leads through content marketing. Missed the session? Check out these seven tips for using content to drive business value or, for more in-depth details purchase the recording.
- Create content that addresses customer pain points
Your customers and potential customers all have at least one common factor: they share certain pain points that have lead them to the place where they’re interested in purchasing a solution- i.e. your product. Therefore it’s important to create content that speaks to these pain points and delivers your company as a solution.
- Know where your audience is in their buyer journey
It’s especially helpful to track audience interaction points. For example: What links are they clicking on? What content do they find interesting? What demos are they requesting? What are they watching? What particular item are they signing up for? Once you start to see what content is reaching them, you can better understand where they are on their buying journey, and further tailor your content to them.
- Above all, make sure your content provides value
Creating content for the sake of having content is both time consuming and ineffective. Good content will provide value to your audience value in a meaningful way. So, before you make posts on social media or draft a blog post, ask yourself whether or not your content is addressing client needs or contributing to a trending dialogue in your space. If you’re struggling to come up with answers to these basic questions, consider re-working your piece into something that more clearly connects with your desired audience.
- If you don’t have the capacity for a research report or white paper, try a tip sheet or infographic
Research reports and white papers are a great way to demonstrate thought leadership on a particular subject related to your product or company. However, it’s not the only way to establish yourself as a thought leader. Tip sheets and infographics can be an equally effective to present data and other in-depth information. Plus, they have the added bonus of being easily digestible by readers.
- Use content to capture leads, put it behind a form
An easy way to ensure that you’re capturing a high percentage of potential leads that come through your website is to put your content behind a form. This strategy works best with long-form content. By having individuals enter their contact information, you’ll be able to learn more about where they are on the buyer journey and you’ll be able to better tailor their experience with your content (i.e. newsletter subscriptions, pop-up boxes, etc.).
- Always include a call to action
Never miss out on the opportunity to drive traffic to other parts of your website with a strategically placed call to action button. A call to action button can also be helpful when you’ve created a piece of short content, like a blog post, that is based on a larger project, like a research report, video, or even something like the release of a new feature in your product. Remember, good content is like a hook and your goal is always to keep visitors to your site engaged for as long as possible and visiting multiple pages.
- Demonstrate thought leadership via newsjacking- this allows for a “why change” voice, versus the typical “why us” perspective of content
Another way to demonstrate thought leadership is to chime in on relevant hot topics in your field. Sharing news stories via social media and providing short responses or even connecting with media outlets to offer quotes can be a great way to add your voice to the discussion without directly creating content for media outlets.
Want to learn more about driving leads through thought leadership and content marketing? Purchase this webinar here and join us for future LearnLaunch Institute events!
