If you’re ramping up your social media and content marketing efforts, you’re on your way to better brand presence online! But does a large following and high website traffic translate into higher sales and more conversions?
Not necessarily.
Content Marketing Institute reports that 76% of B2C marketers report using content marketing, yet only 37% say their strategy is effective. There are several techniques you can use to effectively leverage your content to turn prospects into customers. Here are six ways to craft your content for conversions.
Example of a Customer Profile
Create Customer Profiles. If you don’t know who your potential customer is, how will you know what they want in order to convert them? It’s essential to understand exactly who your target market is through factors such as age, profession, interests, income, gender and problems they need solved. What are their pain points and what are your solutions to help them solve the problem? Start creating content based on solving these problems.
Blog. Does your brand have a blog that lives on your website? If not, what are you waiting for? A blog is a great way to get potential customers onto your website, which in turn increases the chances of those people converting into customers. Make your website a user destination where consumers can come for information, tips, advice and more, as well as adding in links that take them directly to a point of purchase. Make sure your blog isn’t purely promotional or else users won’t return, and always end with a call to action.
Offer Exclusive Promotions. Everyone wants to be in some sort of secret group or club, and everyone loves feeling special. Offer certain products or discounts that customers can’t get anywhere else other than through your social media marketing. Let your followers know that they can be the first to get insider information if they sign up for your email list or that you’re running limited time offers only to your social media followers. Have a sense of urgency in these deals by letting customers know it’s available for a limited time or perhaps there is only a limited quantity.
Gated Content. Gated content is a great way to build your email list, but it has to be done correctly. Gated content is anything from eBooks to white papers that contain valuable content in which a user needs to complete a form to access. You’ve most likely come across gated content before; maybe you’ve tried to download a social media strategy guide, but you had to submit your name and email address to get the download link.
Gated content has to be attractive to your readers and also contain valuable information, or else your followers won’t give their email address in exchange for a download. You might be giving away some valuable information, but you also gain valuable information in return. You get some insight on your previously anonymous consumers that you can use in the future to market directly towards them.
Turn a Negative Experience into a Positive One. What are common questions and complaints you get about your services or products? Create content that revolves around how you turned angry customers into raving fans. Maybe there is a common problem that customers find when using your product but it has a simple solution. Maybe the problem was simply a customer error but chances are that more than one person will come across the same dilemma. Turn these complaints and concerns into blogs in case you have followers that might not be customers yet due to these same questions.
Testimonials. Use storytelling to provide testimonials to your potential customers. You don’t want to post a simple 3 sentence paragraph of a current customer praising your brand, you want more in-depth testimonials that tell an actual story and show results. Don’t box all of your testimonials into a dedicated page, instead showcase them throughout your website as sidebars so that potential customers will organically see them while browsing.
