Content marketing is a very powerful promotional tactic that can do wonders for your bottom line. It can help you to reach more of your ideal customers, earn their trust, promote your products or services without a hard sell, and ultimately make more sales.
It involves creating high-quality content, such as blog posts, video tutorials, and ultimate guides for your own website. These will help to prove you understand your industry, drive traffic to your website from search engines like Google, and inform your audience so they always make purchases that suit their needs perfectly.
In this article, we’re going to outline how you can ensure that the content you create improves your website’s conversion rate so you can make a lot more sales.
Targeting the right keywords will attract the right people
Creating and publishing content can do wonders for your SEO, meaning that you’ll benefit from more high-quality traffic being sent your way from search engines like Google. But great search engine rankings don’t just happen on their own — you need to ensure every piece of content on your website is properly optimized to give it the best chance of showing up on relevant search engine results pages (SERPs). This is where keyword research comes in.
Keyword research involves using a specialist tool like the Ahrefs Keywords Explorer to determine what your ideal audience is typing into search engines. You can then use these words and phrases to inform your content marketing strategy and how you write each piece of content you decide to create.
Just make sure you build your content marketing strategy around informational and question keywords — any commercial words or phrases that indicate someone is looking to make a purchase should be reserved for your product or service pages, instead.
Every time you come to write a new piece of content, ensure you have a list of relevant keywords and phrases that you plan to incorporate. Those with the highest search volumes should be your primary keywords, and you’ll want to incorporate these into your page title, headline, and the first 150 words of your article. Then, you can sprinkle your other keywords throughout, wherever they read most naturally. As a general rule, your readers shouldn’t be able to tell that you’ve included keywords on purpose, so only include them where it makes complete sense to do so.
Targeting relevant keywords is great for SEO and will help you to reach your ideal customers on the SERPs. This will then send high-quality traffic your way, which will be much easier to turn into sales.
You can use content to help customers understand your products
People will only be interested in paying for your products or services if they’re confident about what to expect. So, another way you can use content to make more sales is by creating guides that outline exactly what your products or services are, who they’re for, and what people need to keep in mind when shopping with you.
There are a variety of different content types that can help you to give your target customers a better idea of what you offer and how they can decide whether your products or services are right for them. For instance, buying guides are perfect for this, as they will allow you to outline all of the different things someone will need to keep in mind when choosing between your products or services, or even deciding whether your company is going to be right for them. With this type of content, you need to write impartially and refrain from promoting your offerings too heavily, as your main focus should be on helping your customers to make the best decision to suit their needs. While a prospective customer may decide not to spend money with you after reading a buying guide, this is better than someone investing in what you offer and being unhappy. And, overall, educating your website visitors about what you sell will typically lead to more sales in the long run.
Comparison pieces can also have a similar effect. These should directly compare and contrast different options that your customers have. If you offer a lot of similar products or services, you could list all of these with their pros and cons, as well as who they’re best suited to. Or, if you have well-known competitors, you could create a listicle that outlines how your offerings compare to theirs and help your audience choose the best solution to their problems.
It can also be a good idea to create product demonstrations that show exactly how different items work, or put together an ultimate guide about your services to help people understand exactly what they’re going to be investing in. You could even publish detailed case studies explaining what you’ve done for clients in the past and the results you were about to get for them to help prospective customers come to a decision about whether they need similar support.
To give you some inspiration, let’s take a look at a couple of companies that have done a great job of publishing content to help their customers understand what they offer. These articles are bound to have secured more sales for these businesses.
Cisco Umbrella is a company that specializes in helping individuals and businesses to protect themselves with cloud-delivered cybersecurity protection. And, they primarily do this using DNS security, which is a concept a lot of their target customers may be new to.
Therefore, to educate their audience and make more sales, they’ve created an in-depth guide to DNS security, which explains exactly what it is, why the company is so invested in using this type of security, and why their ideal clients should put their trust in it, too.
Cybersecurity is a huge concern for anyone who regularly uses the internet, but it is something that the average consumer won’t fully understand, So, by creating content like this, Cisco Umbrella is able to put their customers’ worries to rest, help them to feel in control, and prove that they have their clients’ interests at heart.
If your products or services are quite complicated or involve concepts that your audience may not fully understand yet, this is a tactic you can also use. Consider breaking down different aspects of your offerings into ultimate guides that explain everything a prospective buyer might need to know. This will help them to feel more confident in your company and increase the chances of your audience investing in your products or services. It’s a great way to strengthen your online presence and secure more sales.
On the other hand, SocialPilot is a company that offers social media analytics and scheduling tools. Of course, they aren’t the only business out there offering such a service, but they do believe that they’re the best. So, they regularly publish comparison guides outlining what helps their platform to stand out from the competition. This informs the brand’s readers and will help them to invest in the best tool for them.
For instance, take a look at their round-up of 12 Facebook analytics tools their audience might be considering investing in. In this piece of content, they mention their own tool along with 11 of their competitors who offer a similar service. They explain the pros and cons of their own platform, what features it has that others don’t, and why someone might want to invest in SocialPilot over another company’s solution.
While you might be wary about even mentioning your competitors on your website, it can actually be a fantastic tactic that will win you more sales. For a start, people will realize that you truly believe in your own product if you’re willing to directly compare it to your competitors’ options. It will also give a very clear picture of what you offer and whether you’re going to be the right choice for a particular customer. If your product isn’t going to be ideal for someone, you’ll want them to realize this before they make a purchase, as it will help to improve your reviews and reduce complaints and refunds. So, even if a guide like this does lead some people to opt for your competitors’ products instead, it will ensure the most suitable people stick with you.
This is a great approach to take if you have some well-known competitors that your audience may already have in mind when deciding which products or services to invest in. It will give you a chance to prove why you’re the best, securing you more sales.
Publishing expert content will help people to trust you
Before someone buys from you, they’ll want to feel confident that you’re going to do a great job. So, you’ll need to use your website to earn their trust and show that you understand your industry and customers’ needs inside and out. Fortunately, content can be great for this.
If you consistently publish high-quality content that shows you know your stuff and can be trusted to provide great products or services, prospective customers will find it much easier to put their confidence in you. So, when putting your content strategy together, it’s worth factoring this into the topics you come up with.
Publishing expert content can also be great for your SEO. This is because Google looks at the E-A-T of websites, which stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, before deciding how to rank them. Regularly showing off your skills and expertise will show search engines that you’re a reliable source of knowledge and great at what you do, which will earn their trust and lead to better rankings as a result.
To give you some inspiration, let’s take a look at some businesses that are already doing a great job of publishing expert content on their websites, which will boost their SEO and ultimately lead to more conversions.
My Canada Payday is a financial lender that specializes in helping people out of difficulties. So, they regularly publish money advice guides on their blog. Their guide to identifying holes in your existing budget is a great example.
This piece of content shows that the company understands that maintaining a budget comes with a lot of challenges, which their audience is sure to appreciate. Money can be quite a taboo subject, and it’s easy to feel embarrassed about getting into trouble, but My Canada Payday shows that they’re there for their prospective clients and want to genuinely help them get back on top of their budgets. They provide advice for setting money goals, stress the importance of giving yourself some money to enjoy yourself, and outline how to make your money go further. By giving relatable and actionable money advice, they show they’re an expert in this field and that their customers can lean on them for support. This is likely to secure more business for the company.
This is a tactic most companies will be able to replicate. Try to identify some common pain points that your audience base has, then strive to address them with content. Not only will this help to show that you’re an expert in your field, but it will also provide a lot of value for your target customers. This will then help you to earn their trust and secure more business for your brand.
On the other hand, Babcock Injury Lawyers is a law firm that helps people with the likes of car accident, property damage, and workers’ compensation cases. And, as anyone who needs legal assistance will want to hire a company that they trust implicitly, it’s vital that the firm shows they know these areas of the law like the back of their hand. Babcock Injury Lawyers does this by regularly publishing expert content on their blog.
For instance, they have a guide to making a home insurance claim after a storm. They provide advice on taking photos of the damage to support your claim, contacting your insurance agent as soon as possible, and seeking legal support if you run into trouble in the process.
Some of Babcock Injury Lawyers’ ideal clients will be conducting research when it comes to what to do under these circumstances, and their Google searches around this could well bring them to the firm’s website. And, because this guide shows that the company completely understands these cases and how to support people through them, if a reader does then need legal support, they’ll already trust the firm and be much more likely to hire them.
This is an approach you could also take with your content. What information may people need before they get to the point of actually needing your services? If you can create content that gives them the advice they need, they’ll be far more likely to think of your company when they do need help. So, publishing expert content like this can help you to secure a lot more sales.
Ensure every piece of content features a call to action
A common mistake a lot of businesses make is that they don’t add effective calls to action to their content. A call to action is an instruction that tells your audience what you want them to do next. Perhaps you want them to sign up to your mailing list, read more of your blog posts or, most likely, take a look at your products or services and make a purchase.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to grab your audience while they’re already impressed by your knowledge and skills. At the end of each piece of content, or even throughout your blog posts, tell them to check out your offerings or get in touch to speak to a member of your team. You could even provide them with a helpful link or clickable button that will take them right to the web page that you want them to see.
While it might seem too simple, sometimes customers just need to be told what to do next. And you can capitalize on this while improving your conversion rate by giving clear instructions with all of the content you publish.
Express your values with your content
Finally, a lot of people prefer to shop with companies that have values that align with theirs. So, it’s well worth expressing your values through your website’s content. This will help to show that your company has a lot of heart and that you care about more than just making money.
There are a lot of different values you can showcase through your content. For instance, perhaps you have a charity you like to support by donating a percentage of your proceeds each month. If so, you could create regular blog posts outlining what is being done with your donations, or explaining why that particular charity is so special to you. As environmentally-friendly policies are becoming more attractive to consumers, you could also highlight ways you’re trying to make your business greener. For instance, if you make your workplace more energy-efficient, improve the sustainability of your packaging, or introduce a cycle to work scheme for your staff, you could publish a blog post announcing the changes and why you’re making them.
Finally, if there’s something that’s particularly important to your business, you could showcase this on your blog, too. For instance, you might support the body positivity movement, could be campaigning for changes to the law, or may want your products to make your customers feel a certain way. Again, you can express all of these points through your content.
Let’s take a look at a business that consistently expresses its values on its blog to give you some inspiration.
Dainty Jewells is a women’s and girls’ clothing retailer that wants to empower women to live full lives enriched with confidence, love, and faith. And, this is something that comes across very strongly in the content they publish on their blog.
For instance, above, you can see that they have a post about the importance of setting the tone for your own life. It explains that, if you aren’t happy, this can affect those around you. So, while a lot of women are used to putting everyone’s needs ahead of their own, putting yourself first can actually benefit everyone.
It’s clear from this company’s content that they really want women to live authentic lives that fill them with joy, and they’re always providing their customers with advice to help with this. It’s likely this will appeal to their target audience, which will generate more sales for the company in the long run.
Consider whether you could do something similar to express your values through your website content. Empowering your audience or giving them advice that will help them to build a life they love is bound to resonate with a lot of people and help you to inspire them. So, it can do wonders for your website’s conversion rate.
Summary
Content marketing can take a lot of time and energy, but it’s always worth it if you get it right. In this article, we’ve outlined how you can ensure your content creation efforts lead to more sales for your business and, if you take these tips on board, it won’t be long before you start to see more customers investing in your products or services.
Would you like more advice for growing your brand? Check out more of WebKu’s business articles, which explain more about promoting your company and attracting your ideal customers to make more sales.
Author bio & headshot:
Alex Ratynski is a Content Strategist at Loganix, an SEO fulfillment partner that works with agencies and marketers. The company focuses on helping businesses to improve their online visibility, so they can grow and reach their goals. If you enjoyed this article, visit the Loganix blog for more expert advice.
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