Did you know that 74% of organizations say that content marketing is proven to boost lead generation? The proof that content marketing drives leads is clear, however, building a content strategy that packs a lead generation punch requires much more than just creating good content. Your content strategy must consider strategic marketing components that will make content stand out compared to competitors. Below are five things you need to know to develop a well-rounded content strategy that utilizes content marketing for lead generation.
1. Evaluate Your Content Marketing Resources
The key to writing good content is knowing what resources are available. To develop a content strategy that is demonstrative of your team’s abilities, you must start by evaluating what you have. Who are the team members that develop content? What other responsibilities do they have that take their time away from writing? Is there access to subject matter experts to drive thought leadership content? How many design resources are available for content with design elements? There are many questions to consider and as a marketing leader, you must think of them all. From content ideation to development and execution and beyond, these elements are the core components of a successful content strategy.
Aside from content resources, it is important to know what content is already published. Conducting a content audit can be helpful in this evaluation process as it provides an idea of what content is out there and where your strategy can go from there. To optimize your content marketing for lead generation, it is critical to have a range of assets, including ungated and gated assets. We will dive into this later but take note of the diversity in asset types and asset topics. Another audit step to complete is to analyze content performance. By doing this, you can discover what is the most visited blog, the most downloaded eBook and so on. Having these insights can guide your strategy development and adjustments.
2. Focus on Quality First, Quantity If Can
The popular phrase “quality over quantity,” rings particularly true for content marketing for lead generation efforts. Focusing on optimizing fewer, quality posts instead of churning out overly search engine-optimized content will provide you better traction on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Being higher up on the search engine results pages can increase the chance of users visiting your website and becoming a lead.
Not only does it improve search engine results, but it also demonstrates your teams’ ability to create high-quality content, furthering your organization’s role as a thought leader in the industry. This can draw additional attention, increasing both brand awareness and lead generation. If your team can produce quality content at scale, do so. But focus on quality first and quantity if you can.
3. Optimize Your Content Strategy for the Buyer’s Journey
The buyer’s journey is what sets up your prospects for conversion. Crafting your content strategy with the buyer’s journey in mind will ensure your content keeps prospects moving through the funnel to a conversion. Each stage of the buyer’s journey is different, and different content assets are appropriate to deliver at each stage to drive action from prospects. Here are a few things to consider when building your content strategy catered to the buyer’s journey.
- Awareness Stage. The awareness stage of the buyer’s journey brings awareness to a prospect that they have a challenge or obstacle in the way of achieving their goals. When forming your content strategy and thinking about your awareness stage, ensure ungated assets are involved. Ungated assets such as blogs, articles and infographics are easy ways for prospects to view content and learn more about a certain topic. Your content strategy should include a steady cadence of ungated blogs to continue building awareness in your space.
- Consideration Stage. The consideration stage of the buyer’s journey is critical. A prospect has accepted they have a challenge that they need assistance with and are now considering their solution options. In the consideration stage, it is essential to take information a step further than you would in a blog or article. Gated content assets such as eBooks, white papers, guides and videos are long-form content that contain in-depth information about a challenge and go as far as providing potential solutions. In your content strategy, include gated assets. While gated content does not have to be created as frequently as ungated content, when it is created and distributed, it will make an impact and give you another opportunity to generate a lead.
- Decision Stage. The decision stage of your buyer’s journey is the last step in bringing your prospect to convert. Assets such as product comparisons, demo videos, webinars and case studies are ideal to deliver to prospects at this stage. They give the prospect a deeper understanding of what it would be like to become your customer. With case studies, a prospect can grasp how beneficial it can be to become a customer upon reading about other customer results. In your content strategy, strive to include case studies that represent your ideal customer. Including assets such as case studies, product comparisons and demo webinars also helps you stand out from competitors, which is becoming increasingly important.
4. Consider Paid Campaigns for Specific Assets
Promoting content on social media organically can yield some impressive results, but it can only get you so far. To take your content marketing for lead generation to the next level and uncover maximum opportunities for lead acquisition, consider paid advertising campaigns. Putting together a paid campaign for specific assets, especially those that are high-value, or even targeted to a certain industry, can help increase lead generation. While these paid campaigns don’t have to have thousands of dollars invested in them, starting with a small budget per day can generate considerable results.
Paid campaigns can uncover an entirely new audience or subset of people that might have been missed organically. Paid efforts can look different and present themselves in a variety of formats. When marketers think of paid campaigns, often the first that comes to mind is paid social media campaigns, such as those on LinkedIn or Facebook. While these are the most common, other opportunities such as a sponsored emails, a banner on a publications website and publishing a report in a quarterly journal can yield just as many results. When considering what paid approach to take, think of your audience. What channel would be best to reach your ideal customers? What channel will they most engage with? Choose where you can reach your audience and drive the most results.
5. Outsource Efforts to Drive or Support Your Lead Gen Efforts
It is not easy to develop a content strategy optimized for lead generation, especially when resources are limited. Outsourcing your marketing planning and execution is often the best option to keep your marketing and business moving forward. The benefits of outsourcing marketing can go beyond what you might expect. Here are just a few.
- Delivers Expertise in All Aspects of Marketing. Not only does outsourcing to a marketing firm help optimize content marketing for lead generation, but a marketing firm holds expertise in all areas of marketing. Whether it is to support lead generation and grow your business or help align sales and marketing, a marketing firm’s expertise covers every marketing facet.
- Helps Grow Your Business. Organizations are constantly looking to grow their business and bring in more customers. One way to do that is through marketing. With marketing efforts outsourced to a firm, their full attention is on your business and how to grow it with effective marketing.
- Allows Organizations to Focus on Other Business Activities. With specific components of marketing off your team’s plate and into the hands of experts, your team can now focus on other business activities. Often marketing is the last thing that is on the to-do list and the first to be cut. When this happens, business growth and lead generation fall flat. With marketing covered by an outsourced marketing firm, this can ensure your team is equipped with more time for business activities and even allow them to take on new projects.
Elevate your content marketing for boosted lead generation. Request a free marketing consultation or contact us today to get started and learn more about our marketing services in Austin.
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