Speak to any marketer out there, and they will tell you that content is king. Why? Because your conversion rates can only be as good as the quality of your content.
You could drive all the traffic on the internet to your site, but if your content is horrible, then it’s all for nothing. All you’ll have is a good number of website visitors who are not benefiting your business in any way.
That’s why you must go out of your way to create high-quality content that’s not only good in the eyes of the search engine algorithms but also of your audience.
Below are nine ways to create such content.
1. Determine Why You’re Creating Content
Before you start writing and publishing blogs, ask yourself why you want to create that post in the first place. What message do you want to get across? What do you hope to achieve from it?
These simple questions will lay the perfect foundation for your content. For starters, they’ll help you determine your approach when writing those articles.
For instance, if you’re writing to advise other businesses, you’ll have to shape your content with practical examples backing your advice. Case studies and some statistics will probably be required for such articles as well.
Meanwhile, sales copy will take a slightly different path. For example, if you’re writing a review promoting a particular product, things like expert testimonials and user reviews become a priority.
Identifying the objective of your content makes it easier to write posts that your audience will engage with.
2. Identify Your Target Audience
What does your ideal customer look like? What are their interests and needs? Do you know their demographics?
You can only create a relevant and engaging piece of content if you know who it targets. The only way to know your target is through buyer personas.
A buyer persona is a fictional character representing a real buyer. The persona shows details like age, location, interests and pain points of your ideal customer.
With these details, you can create powerful content that resonates with your audience. For instance, you can create content that shows how your product or service is the solution based on customer needs. Not only is this good for engagement, but it also boosts conversions.
Creating a buyer persona is pretty straightforward. Google Analytics and other companies provide crucial data that can help you build these fictional characters.
You can also generate the data yourself by generating surveys on your website. That’s another effective strategy, but it does require a bit of effort from you.
3. Write Catchy Headlines
Advertising legend David Ogilvy is claimed to have said, “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy.” Whether or not the actual number is true, the ability to write good headlines is just as important as writing engaging content, particularly when it comes to generating traffic to your blog.
So, how can you write a magnetic headline?
A good headline contains some data or numbers. Case studies show that readers generally prefer headlines with numbers.
Data makes titles more attractive, resulting in higher engagement. That explains why so many article headlines have numbers. Our title for this post is a great example.
Your headline must also be as specific as possible. Readers must know what they stand to benefit from your post by reading the headline alone.
Titles should also convey a sense of urgency. The urgency triggers readers to go through the content instead of putting it off. It thus allows you to convert the leads with the rest of your content.
Here are other tips to improve your headlines:
- Address your readers with words like “You” in the headline
- Consider formatting your headlines in question form
- Use power words
- Make your headlines unique
Consider this headline that ticks almost all boxes:
A good headline makes readers stay for the time being. But it’s not enough by itself. That’s where the introduction comes in.
4. Begin with a Captivating Introduction
Your introductions must build curiosity and entice readers to continue through the rest of the content. However, this must be done as briefly as possible. You want to give readers enough information to capture their interest but not too much to make the rest of the content unnecessary.
How do you write engaging introductions? There are various ways of going about it. David Campbell, Marketing Strategist at Right Inbox recommends including facts and numbers in your introductions to entice your readers to continue reading. As we’ve already pointed out, numbers have a way of stimulating interest in the human brain.
Starting your post with a story is also another great technique. Blend a cliffhanger into the story and you’ll have your readers hooked and ready to sit through the entire blog post.
Questions can also make your introduction more engaging. They’re especially effective when personalized.
Your introduction should also tell the reader why your article is essential and what it will cover.
5. Include Quotes from Industry Experts
Expert and influencer quotes serve as social proof. They help to support your argument and convince readers that you are right. The extra credibility is crucial, especially if you’re still trying to find your feet in the industry. Or if you’re exploring a topic that’s outside your area of expertise.
For instance, if you’re a new digital marketer, it’s hard to convince businesses to trust your techniques without a solid track record. However, a quote from a famous figure like Neil Patel will immediately make your posts appear more credible and legit.
Influencers and experts can also generate more engagement to your content. These people already have a huge following online. If you credit them as contributors or experts, you might just get a mention on their platform, which will drive more people to your site.
You can even partner with them for guest post opportunities.
6. Examine How Often You Publish
How regularly should one publish new content? Unfortunately, there’s no specific number to answer this question.
In some industries, you can get away with publishing new content every day, sometimes even multiple posts per day. In other niches, regular posts overwhelm readers, resulting in less engagement.
Therefore, you must find the perfect balance for your specific field.
Create a content publishing plan and keep track of its performance. Collect and analyze relevant data. Then, use the performance metrics to adjust your publishing calendar accordingly.
7. Encourage People to Share Your Content on Social Media
More than 3.7 billion people use social media, and Statista predicts the number will go even higher! It’s, therefore, clear that these platforms can increase content engagement. They’re free, so you have no excuse not to use them.
How can you use social media platforms to increase content engagement? It’s simple. Use your pages to notify customers every time a new piece of content goes live. A quick post on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter can drive traffic to your latest content before website SEO even kicks in.
Also, don’t ignore the comments. Respond to as many of them as you can.
You should also encourage content engagement through social buttons. All you need to do is install a free social share plugin and ensure it shows up on all your web pages.
Take advantage of giveaways and other contests to promote engagement. Just create an incentive like a free product or discount. Then ask your customers to share the content with their friends on social media to enter or qualify for the incentive.
It’s simple, affordable and incredibly effective.
8. Offer a Great User Experience
People want nothing but the best user experience. A slight inconvenience is all it takes for a visitor to leave your website for someone else’s. Therefore, you must deliver the best user experience if you hope to drive more traffic, increase content engagement and boost sales.
Enhance the user experience by optimizing loading speeds, creating a responsive website and making your content mobile-friendly.
9. Send Out Newsletters Regularly.
Email marketing is another great way of boosting engagements. With an ROI of £42 for every £1 spent, it’s clear that you can’t afford to ignore the power of email marketing.
So, start by building your email list. You can do this with a lead magnet like a free e-book, checklist, case study, among others. Many visitors will trade their emails for these resources without thinking twice.
Then, segment your email list into groups based on interests or demographics. Finally, curate relevant and personalized newsletters for each group and start sending them out. Sending personalized newsletters can help drive content engagement through shares, whether your subscribers forward them through email or post links to your content on their social media accounts. Adding a comment section to your articles can also increase engagement with your content.
Wrapping Up
Creating content that attracts leads and turns them into paying customers is challenging but not impossible.
You just need to know the objective of your content and understand the audience you are writing for. Then, create catchy headlines and introductions.
Once your content is published, market it through social media and newsletters. Don’t forget to provide a great user experience.
Clearly, it does require effort, time, and patience. But so does everything else in the business. Start implementing these strategies today, and you’ll see results in no time.
