Those marketers that blog consistently generate, on average, 67% more leads than those who don’t. That’s 2/3rds more leads, people. That can be the difference between rising up and going under. And all that for sitting down and writing up some content? The message can’t be more obvious.
“Great,” some of you now shout, “I know some cheap writers. Maybe if I squeeze them some more I can get them to write me a few dozen articles for a couple of bucks.” If that’s what you’re thinking, then stop! That is not the takeaway message here. Because if you’re just generating average content you might as well not be generating any content at all.
Equally, you’re not actually going to be saving money by skimping on content creation. The reason for this is that great content will spread around on its own, through the internet’s equivalent of word of mouth (i.e. social media and backlinks). Poor content will never do that. And advertising will cost you far more money in the long run than getting good content written will. So let’s talk about that, shall we?
Okay, I’m not going to spend any more time on that, as we all know we have to write great content. Let’s move on.
How To Write Catchy Content for Lead Generating Blog Post
Here are a few things you need to know about in order to be able to write catchy content for lead pages –
1. Different content will generate a different number of leads
A lot of people spend a lot of time focused on pushing up their visitors. That’s a valuable first step. If you’re not getting visitors it doesn’t matter what percentage become leads. It is, however, only the first step. Once you’ve got a decent number of visitors coming in you have to start looking into how to push up your conversion rate.
The first step towards that is to do the marketing research. This is where you find out who your customers are, what they’re after, and which of your visitors are actually interested in buying your product.
Note that this is not optional, this is essential.
Because if you don’t know who is visiting your site and who is actually interested in buying, then you can’t figure out how to cater to them. It would be a little bit like opening a Computer shop in an Amish community. Sure, you’d get a lot of attention, but you probably won’t get many customers.
2. Find Commercial Keywords
The trick is to find commercial keywords that fit your brand. This can be easily done through adword planner. Just type in keywords that are close to your brand, check through the list of possible ideas (the ‘get ideas’ button) and find those keywords that are commercial rather than information. These might be keywords related to specific products, training, or price comparisons, rather than ones about ideas, or getting something for free.
These keywords are the very questions that people in your branch are asking. Your goal, at this point, is to sit down and create content that will answer them. In that way the people that come to your site come to see you as a source of information about the questions they have.
What is more, because you’ve targeted commercial keywords, when you answer these questions you’ll be increasing the chances that you will generate leads, seeing as these people are much more likely to have typed in these keywords because they’re actually considering purchasing a product.
Keep going and you’ll build up a reputation or a fan base
3. People come online to ask questions
In fact, don’t just look at specific keywords, but look at whole questions. Google can be a great aid in this regard. Just go to the website and start typing in questions related to your area of expertise and business. Don’t type them in completely, however. Only go as far as Google starts supplying you with auto-filled complete questions.
These are actual questions that people are typing into Google. In other words, these are questions that they want to be answered. So why now sit down and actually write up the answers for them? The more specific the question, the less competition there will be there and the more likely your content will actually float towards the top.
Optimize Your Content for Google’s Featured Snippets
Now, this won’t work for every article you write, but then content marketing is a numbers game anyway. It’s about generating enough content so that some of it will catch on and boost your online presence. And every time you manage to do that, it becomes easier for you to do so the next time.
4. Create Lead Bait
And then there is the need to retain your customers, as multiple exposures will be far more useful in converting visitors into leads than having multiple visitors. For this reason, it is vital that you get people to sign up for newsletters and social media. Newsletters are actually 20% better.
The best way to do this is to offer lead bait. This is a simple process, where you offer some kind of resource or access to something, in return for them joining your mailing list. Often this will be enough to push people to sign up. After that, you can reach out to them as often as you like and tell them about your fantastic product as well as exposure them to more of your great content.
As familiarity breeds liking that will create leads.
5. Use Case Studies
Often these can be far more effective than just writing opinion pieces, as you actually look at a concrete situation and offer solutions based on the results thereof. That means that to the readers this can be far more convincing. And that is exactly what you want.
It will not just mean that people will be more likely to buy immediately (which they will be) but it will also mean that you’ll be seen as more of an authority. What’s more, good case studies are often used by other writers to make their own case, particularly if it contains statistics and useful information. That will spread your message much further and wider, which will in turn create far more backlinks and clicks to your website.
So what should you do case studies on? Basically, any problem that you or a client has that you’ve managed to overcome. This can be an attempt to raise sales or conversions or improve click-throughs or anything like that. Explain the problem, explain how you dealt with it and why you did it that way, and then give them the results of your actions.
It’s quite straightforward but it is immensely effective.
6. Ebooks and online courses
Whether you choose to sell them or offer them for free, ebooks and online courses are definitely something that you want to think about doing, as these are the next step. They require some commitment from your audience and that, in turn, leads them to be more committed to you. And that can be turned into more leads for your actual business.
In fact, you could see both of these products as in-between steps on your way towards an actual sale of your product. It’s like a ‘yes’ ladder. If you can get them to agree to signing up for or buying this, then it will be so much easier to get them to take the next step.
This will be particularly true if you make certain that these are not just bald-faced attempts at sales, but instead that your customers feel that they’re actually coming away with something useful at the end of it – be it deeper insight into your field or new business practices that they can apply.
Last thoughts
Yes, catchy and breathtaking content help, but in no way is content, not king, it’s the kingdom. You need a lot of other pieces in place to get people to visit that kingdom and enjoy their stay, and then if you also want them to buy a cottage? Well, now you’ve got your work cut out for you!
With the above instructions hopefully, you’ll have an easier time doing exactly that.
Start setting the pieces in place to inch your users along so that they don’t just share your content once on their social media, but so that they keep coming back, keep getting more engaged and keep coming closer to actually making that purchase.
The art of creating leads is to draw people ever deeper into your net. Some will dive in willingly. Others will struggle. Neither, however, should be let go.
