In this episode of Actionable Marketing In Minutes we give some quick and easy tips for driving traffic with content!
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Problem
Is your website traffic anemic? Have you been struggling to discover methods to increase your website’s vitality? Content is key. And, I’m not referring only to your website page content. Content is more than that. It is an essential foundation of all your marketing efforts.
Your ultimate goal is to be found by your potential audience away from your website, and as a result of your compelling content, attract them to your website. Then, once these visitors are on your site, the content must prompt them to want to take the conversion-related actions you’ve laid out for them.
In order to accomplish these objectives, you’ll need to write authentic, inviting content and disseminate it strategically across several platforms and channels. I’ll briefly touch on a few of these in a minute.
Keep in mind: today’s purchasers want to learn something. And they want to connect. They want to know both who you are as a company, and as the individuals that comprise your company. This is even more important if you are trying to attract the Millennial and Boomlet, or New Century, generations. All of your content must be consistently valuable and relevant, and ideally, it will also connect these visitors — on some emotional level — to your brand.
As a result of your taking the time to develop relationships and meet needs, you will build great top-of-mind awareness and will be the go-to company when your target segments are ready to buy.
Solution
Before we dig deeper into this topic, let me take a second to tell you about a resource DirectiveGroup has published that you might find useful. Analytics can play a significant role in helping you to understand the needs of your existing and potential clients, and then when you create content to meet actual or latent needs, analytics can help you understand whether your content is effective or not. Our ebook, Big Data Little Data, shows you how analytics, and specifically Google Analytics, can help you to understand and act on your deeper understanding of your customer’s purchase process. Click the link in the podcast description to download this actionable guide to Google Analytics.
Now, let’s get back to how content helps drive web traffic. A well-developed content strategy helps your company create, publish and manage content as a business asset. Content that is seen as valuable to your clients and that aids in the purchase process are definitely assets you will want to acquire or develop. In the development of your content strategy, you will gain a deep understanding of your target market segment needs based on several factors, including your industry, the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, your unique value proposition, and more. From this understanding, you will create a list of content that aids in various steps of the buying cycle and then develop a plan for the ‘where and when.’
I’ll quickly run through a few types of content that could be useful to drive web traffic: Blog posts, How-to guides, Infographics, Slideshows, Videos, Photo/quote memes, Emails and newsletters, eBooks, Podcasts… and there are ton more…
Benefits
Bottom line, content is an essential foundation of your marketing efforts, with numerous and enormous benefits:
1. It can help you build your brand identity if you have a consistent approach and great execution. Excellence in this area can actually create a premium brand and establish you as a thought leader, thus enabling you to command higher prices.
2. Content marketing allows you to communicate with your target audience without selling. In fact, if you have good content, you will experience the exact opposite, in that your content will be welcomed and perhaps even sought after.
3. You have the opportunity to influence your audience, deliver powerfully helpful information to them, and perhaps even create a deeper relationship based on valuable information that deservedly earns their loyalty.
4. Most importantly, if done properly, great content will drive traffic to your site, and those visitors will subsequently convert to deliver higher revenues and profits.
We hope you’ve found this information helpful. Please connect with us on Twitter @DirectiveGroup or on LinkedIn and if you like what you hear, please share with your networks using hashtag #actionablemarketing. Join us next time for more actionable marketing in minutes.
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