How many times have you left a website after a few seconds because it wasn’t engaging enough? It’s a fact that if your website isn’t clear and the content isn’t interesting, visitors will head straight for that little cross in the corner and move on. That visitor may have been a potential customer and you’ve missed out on a business opportunity.
If you’re developing a website for your business, or you’re thinking about updating, keep the following content marketing tips in mind:
Updated – A customer persona or reader profile
Creating a customer persona is one of the easiest ways to ensure that your content reaches your target demographic in the most concise, engaging way possible.
At the same time as this, it allows you to cater the content that you’re creating to each persona. For example, if your target persona is female, middle aged, a Managing Director of their own company, what content are they going to be interested in? Which social media platforms are they likely to use? What are their hobbies and interests outside of the workplace?
All this information gives you a targeted marketing campaign, ideal if you’re promoting your services or have a product to sell. You can find out more about creating customer personas here.
Updated – A strong content planner
The 24-hour news cycle is a key element of your content marketing strategy. Events are happening every day, throughout the UK and around the world, so you need to keep track of what’s going on.
For example, when the Great British Bake Off is on, why not have a Bake Off in your own business? Lots of people do this anyway, and nearly all of them use the hashtag (#GBBO) to showcase their cakes.
Not only does this help you engage with other users, it also helps to increase your brand reach and brand awareness. If the GBBO social media team share your post, imagine how far this is going to reach in the digital world!
Updated – Insightful, useful, non-promotional content
When you’re posting your content, you need to remember that it’s not all about you. Your social media followers are looking at your content because they’re interested in what you have to say, but if you start to get too promotional or sales-y then they’re quickly going to be put off.
We always try to work to the 80/20 rule. This is where 80% of the content you push out on social media is from external sources, with information your followers will find useful, funny or enlightening.
The remaining 20% can be posts about your products, services, and links back to your own website. This approach means that if a follower does see one of your 20% posts, they’re more likely to respond to it. Great for you, great for your business!
Updated – A clear SEO strategy
Whether you’re optimising your web design for search engines or embracing the power of Pay-Per-Click advertising, you need to have a clear SEO strategy when you’re planning your website content.
However, there if you already have your content and design finalised, there are a few checks that you should complete. These include:
- Keyword research for your landing pages
- Optimising the content with your chosen keywords
- Optimising images to reduce page load times
- Including Alt-tags on the images
- Optimising your page titles and meta descriptions
SEO is an ever-changing minefield, but thankfully there’s plenty more SEO focussed blogs posts for you to learn from here.
Outline clear marketing goals
Your content creates credibility, personality and differentiates you from your competition. If they don’t like your online persona, they’re not going to make that important sales call, bringing you prospective business.
For each page, determine what you want to achieve, but ultimately your main goal is to bring in new leads, generate revenue and build more client relationships. Use your content marketing to achieve your goals and you’re on to a winner!
Don’t just know your audience, understand them
Great, you’ve worked out your audience you can start writing copy… Not quite.
You need to understand whom you’re marketing to, establishing what they want to know and taking into account how quickly they want to know it. Think about their user journey; making your content concise, interesting, comprehensible and relevant are the main points to keep in mind. Envision yourself as your customer and think about what you want out of a website.
Emphasize that you provide solutions
Your visitors want solutions. Yes, you offer services, but what do they do and what differs you from other companies in your industry?
When writing, outline a problem or a service and then assure them how you’re going to assist them. In doing so, you are immediately marketing yourself in a way your competitors aren’t, convincing your customers that you offer valuable services that they won’t get anywhere else. Be succinct, honest and stand out! Offer them return on their investment.
Include different content types
Everyone absorbs information in different ways and again, depending on your audience, you may like to convey your content in a way that suits them.
If your services or products are visual, exhibit through video or animation to show off what you can do, whilst engaging your customers. Integrate a variety of ways that your customers can consume the information to ensure that you have their full attention.
Give your visitors something valuable to leave with
A visitor has taken the time to find out more about you, so why not give them something valuable to take away when they leave. Produce high-quality, intriguing content that helps your customers and their business.
Being online, the competition is intense, and with more people using the Internet to find services and products, you need to do something that your competitors aren’t!
If you really want your content to attract prospects and gain more business, they need to leave feeling like they will miss out if they don’t pick up the phone and contact you.
If you’d like more information in this area, have a look at the range of marketing services we offer!
