When effectively planned these same processes mentioned above will result in the attraction, stimulation and conversion of targetsinto consumers or clients—indicating interest in your products or services. One of the most efficient ways to generate leads for your website is through content marketing. Eager to learn how leads can be generated via content marketing? Let's get started with the following proceeds that unfolds how it all works out.
Lead Generation Through Content Marketing: How Does it Work?
In this guide, I'll explain you the 9 most important points hwo to generate leads through content marketing.
1. Make a decision on the type of content to be created
Content can be presented in different formats, however depending on your goal, and the needs of your ideal audience since there are literally hundreds of content types available to choose from. If the wrong content type is chosen, it will most likely lead to failed results and an ineffective content marketing campaign.
There are mainly two motives behind setting up a content marketing campaign—one is to create content to bring in traffic, and the other to generate leads. Either way, they still possess a correlation together; leads can't be generated without traffic. White papers, testimonials and case studies are content to be kept into consideration, if the main aim of your website is to generate leads as these content [lead magnets] will help nurture your prospects.
Blog posts, Video content, Infographics, Podcasts and Social media posts can be utilized for generating traffic. Other content types to have regard to: Content upgrades, Free reports, Webinars, etc. Any format of content choosen, and created should be capable of passing across value to the viewers.
2. Constitute a buyer persona [know your audience]
Before any content is created, you first have to discover and understand your ideal audience by constituting a buyer persona for them. When you attempt to create a content that interests the internet as a whole, then you end up arousing interest from no one. Value can only be delivered when the needs of your customers or clients are identified.
A buyer persona is a research-based or fictional document that portrays the details of an ideal individual that would use a specific brand, product or service. It's a representation of your ideal client/customer that provides an insight of who a prospective customer is, and the results to what end they will choose either your brand or that of your competitors; making your content single-minded on attracting these sorta individuals.
A buyer persona should include the following details:
- Name, Gender, Location, Age, Occupation, Income
- Problems your target audience need solutions to
- Target audience having any objection towards your product or services, and reason for objection
- What they're struggling with and questions they need answered.
Getting responses to the following will provide an opportunity to curate content that suits them. Content created for an unfit audience has a limited chance of generating any leads or possibly the wrong lead, which is just as bad. The goal of a buyer persona should be to help locate with great accuracy the type, tone, style and probably delivery channels of content created to improve conversions or sales.
This is one of the essential factors that needs to be considered and taken seriously when developing a lead magnet. When the wrong leads are acquired, the result means no lead generated; signifying a waste of traffic, time, effort, resources and probably money. So generating leads points at obtaining the right leads, and this can only be gotten when your target leads are being identified. A CRM [Customer Relationship Management] tool can be used to collect lead information about your prospects which makes it more easier and efficient to turn leads to patronizing clients or consumers; promoting better communication.
A buyer persona can be more than one conditioned to the products sold or services offered [a buyer persona can be created for each product or service when different targeted customers are involved, to help create content that appeals to each one greatly thereby attracting leads]. It's however advisable to stick to one at a time, if you're new to content marketing as it gets intense at times handling multiple personas all at once.
Before constituting a buyer persona, you should be aware that any buyer persona created should have the ability to bring about easier, faster and more efficient decision-making, thereby containing as much information as is made possible.
When a Market Research is put into operation, the ideal customer can be identified via surveys and interviews; customer service crew shouldn't be taken for granted in this aspect since they have to interact with the prospects and perhaps customers.
Another way to get a buyer persona is by developing it, and this can be approached by getting the following details from prospects as listed earlier [Name, Age...]. Do you need help creating your buyer persona? The following tools can prove useful for your research.
- Facebook Audience Insights Lead Generation Through Content Marketing
This tool is situated inside the Facebook Ad manager. It contains a ton of data on your prospects and interests can be added to gain more information on different aspects if need be. When utilized adequately you discover and gain more insights regarding your ideal and targeted audience.
- The Marketer’s Almanac
This tool is owned by Google and provides insights on consumer behavior and trends.
- Quant cast
This tool helps understand your target audience better by specifically utilizing artificial intelligence to provide aid tracking and measuring your audience.
- My Best Segments
This tool uncovers their media propensities and what they do in their available time and additionally gives a partial view into the brands that individuals in your target market are already patronizing.
- Survey Gizmo
This tool can be used to perform surveys on your audience, and it can prove to be more useful when you have an email list by collecting and analyzing data on existing subscribers.
Now you’ve completed your research and constituted a buyer persona, giving you the perfect idea[s] for content curation that will appeal greatly to your target audience and generate the required leads. Remember, Lead Generation Begins With Identifying Your Audience!
3. Map your Customer Journey
A customer's journey map permits fully understanding the procedures prospects or customers undergo before they attempt patronizing your products or services. Each customer has a different journey from the other—all prospects will not follow the same process as indicated in your map. Creating a buyer persona is only a part of the process, while the other involves mapping your customer's journey.
4. Choose your content distribution channels
In content marketing, after content is created the next action that needs to be carried out is its distribution. A decision has to be made on how to execute distributing these content, and the marketing channels that will be utilized. Lead Generation Through Content Marketing
The distribution of content can be performed via two channels either organic or paid. Organic distribution requires time and effort to build up online presence and authority, since money isn't involved, consistency and determination is required before positive results are noticeable. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Search Engines, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest are examples of platforms under this distribution channel. Just so you know, all these channels don't have to be utilized collectively for content distribution before this can prove to be effective. With your buyer persona you can discover the platform that will be the perfect fit for your website and audience.
Paid distribution on the other hand requires money and not too much of time and efforts since the money paid will be the factor generating the fastest of results needed. Proper optimization equates to faster results—a thoughtfully constructed PPC campaign works extremely well when aimed at gaining new website visitors and quality leads. PPC campaign is known as Pay-Pay-Click, meaning payment is made only when your ads are clicked. Search ads [Google Adwords], Social media ads, Banner ads, Display ads, Content Discovery Networks, Native ads are examples of PPC campaigns that can be used under this channel.
Instead of deliberating on what channel to make use of, why don't you utilize both to achieve double the results—if your budget allows it. It's either time or money, or both—it's all up to you.
5. Formation of an Effective Content Marketing Strategy
An effective and well documented content marketing strategy is required for a successful lead generation. Documentation of this strategy allows for measure, research, and evaluation of the impact of the lead generation campaign, and allows corrections or changes where necessary to increase the probability of generating higher leads.
6. Content Promoting Strategy
Promotion helps keep things interesting and lively, as different content types can be promoted in numerous ways without having to feel stuck to just one platform. Promotion allows content to remain active and reach out to new prospects who can then be converted to leads.
Content promotion is the final phase of content marketing, after creating and publishing of content. In order to effectively promote your website's content you can utilize Content Upgrades, Guest Blogging, Content Syndication, Social Media Marketing or Ego Baits—a web marketing tactic that involves mentioning a famous person in a positive way in a blog post or other content, and linking to their blogs with the intention of having that person promote the post, typically by sharing it through social media, and generating the right leads and traffic to your site.
7. Distributing and Promoting Content via Social Media
In the online world, Social media platforms exist to widen the reach of content. Content marketing and social media marketing both play a crucial role in lead generation, but they can't by any means be simultaneously exchanged for one another. Lead Generation Through Content Marketing
According to DataReportal as at Januaray 2024 data showed 5.08 billion people across the planet are using social media, which equates to about 62.3 percent of the total global population. You now see the reason why you need to take full hold of this opportunity to leverage your content, sharing it on social media to attract engagement, promotion through utilizing the power of targeted social media ads.
High-quality content can be distributed or published on a platform like LinkedIn, which provides the benefit of content ranking higher. Social ads is a recommended means of promotion; Facebook ads can be used to offer lead magnets to prospects. Social media builds trust and enhances communication, giving your brand a more personal feeling.
Social proof promotes credibility and engagement, and what better way to exploit this opportunity than showcasing validated reviews and testimonials—it's bound to increase conversions and leads especially when such reviews come from social media influencers, automatically promoting your brand without you having to pay a premium. Lead generation is easier on social media as getting a good review from a satisfied client or customer makes recommendations of your products or services more efficient. In spite of that, take precautions to avoid bad reviews as they hurt credibility and will give any affected brand a bad reputation and image.
Social platforms should also be utilized to give adequate answers to questions or problems customers or potential leads may have. A poorly managed social profile could hurt more than help, so when you make that decision to start with this—give it your all.
8. Map out Your Content Plan
When the choice has been made on the type of content to create including the means of distribution and promotion, the final touch should be mapping out the content plan to help bring all this processes together; enhancing effectiveness.
A solid content plan inholds the topic of content that'll be published, the frequency of publication [how many times in a day, week or month], and when to promote already published content. Your content plan has to be constantly updated to keep it effective.
A content calender like Trello can be an effective tool to achieve this and can also be used to promote communicate between editorial members with use of inbuilt comments section—keeping track of work flow.
9. Curating High-converting Blog content Lead Generation Through Content Marketing
Lead generation likewise content marketing have their roots built deep into the strong foundation of high-converting and quality contents. Curating the perfect content which is also high-converting requires understanding and identifying the needs of your prospects. Irrelevant content has no way of generating leads no matter the ton of traffic received.
Finding out what your audience need from your site is quite easy—access your Google Analytics and lookout for previously published content with high page views [some pages might have been subject to promotion in order to increase popularity, but it's still a factor that needs to be considered], outstanding amount of social shares, moderate bounce rate and interaction with the content.
Directly requesting for feedback from your audience and the content they would love to see more on your website is another option to carefully deliberate on; communicating with prospects will enable the creation of better content that generates more qualified leads. Platforms like Quora can serve as an opportunity to gain insight into what your customers want—research on various topics in your niche and find problems or questions your potential customers may have, give a well detailed answer and then place at your prospects disposal the link to your site to gain additional information on the answer just provided. If you are quite familiar with Quora, you will notice this method been utilized by other webmasters or digital marketers. Don't place a yes or no answer, and then link your site at the end and expect to see results; the only thing you will get is your answer getting a low ranking since it provides value to no one.
Headlines are also an important part of content creation, serving as the Frontline. At first view, they are what differentiate your website content from other related websites on SERPs, and are the first thing people see before going ahead to view the content, meaning it has to be taken significantly, since it determines whether or not your content will get clicked on or viewed. Composing eye-catching and powerful headlines is a must-to-have skill, and if you need to perfect this skill reading headlines from well-known websites whose contents generate lots of traffic, studying top-ranking headlines on SERPs or just you attempting to improve during your free time should be the job perfectly.
Formulation of your data, research, and statistics should be carried out before attempt is made composing content, because this puts the content in a clear and definite form as data-driven content are bond to generate more qualified leads than a randomly created content.
When the time finally comes to gather all of these process together, and begin composing your content, make sure it's in depth, contains a clear outline you can follow during composition and comprises of about 1500 words or more [if it's a blog article], since search engines like Google tend to rank long-form content higher because it's believed to have a lot of value attached to it. Nevertheless, at the end what's required is the value passed and your audience being able to relate and understand your content whether long-form or short.
I can't place enough emphasis on just how important your keywords are, and to rank for them on SERPs they should be applied with regard to specific search queries. Linking out to related and high-quality content can be practiced which gets your content ranked and indexed faster.
After composing high-converting blog content, they can then be used as lead generation tools. To whatever extent, consistency still needs to be associated with content publication to allow your audience trust and count on you whenever seeking for help, a particular content or looking for answers to problems/questions, thereby building a consistent line of traffic for your site. Each and every important content created should be optimized by having a lead magnet attached.
Wrapping Up
Almost every website on the internet can generate leads with a solid content marketing strategy involved. Lead generation isn't a process you've to constantly worry about when you have, and utilize a lead generating strategy like the one referenced to in this article. This should serve as a guide you can constantly follow-up on your website, all that's needed is believing in the process. Lead Generation Through Content Marketing
