Content Marketing Tips: It doesn’t matter if your goal is to build an email list or generate sales — the more traffic you can convert, the higher your overall success (and revenue) will be. And one of the best ways to increase your organic traffic is by launching several content marketing campaigns.
Content marketing has been a marketing buzz word for the past five years, and rightfully so, as it works. In terms of website traffic, visits that originate from content marketing effort are higher quality because they are inbound.
Any time someone visits your website because they want to learn more about your business or in some instances buy something from you, they are going to convert at a much higher rate that traffic that has no prior knowledge of your business or what/who you are.
Even though content marketing has been around for a while now, many businesses still don’t fully understand how to do it correctly and effectively. You can’t just publish some random blog posts and expect the traffic to flow in.
If you are blogging, for instance, then you need to first optimize your content so it will show up in Google’s organic search results, but then you also have to optimize it to convert the readers into leads or sales.
Also, content marketing doesn’t have to be complex and overwhelming like many agencies and consultants make it out to me. It’s rather cut and dry when you really dive into it — it’s essentially common sense action items.
So, whether you are just getting started marketing your business online and content marketing is a foreign topic to you, or you are just looking for a few simple suggestions you might not have considered in the past, this list of ten tips is sure to help greatly improve your results.
These Content Marketing tips will help..
1. Gate Long-Form Posts with Email Submit Requirements
If you are trying to attract more email subscribers for either a newsletter or a funnel, then you might want to consider gating some of your more popular long-form blog posts that requires the visitor to submit his or her email address in order to read the content.
You will see that a lot of big blogs are doing this now. If you read other SEO blogs then you have probably seen it on Backlinko. You will see that he only gates a select few pieces of content.
If you lock them all you will push people away, but if you let them read about 70 percent freely, then gate your top 30 percent you are going to see a very high conversion rate. Why? They have already “tasted” the good so to say. Deliver value and they will be craving for more and be so curious as to what you have gated that they will gladly hand over their email. Again, don’t gate it all — be selective.
2. If Publishing Daily Monitor Trending News
For those that are publishing content daily, there is a big opportunity to pull in more organic traffic simply by creating topics and titles based on what is trending. From industry and niche news to global news, there are ways to manipulate the most popular topics for any industry whatsoever.
This can help you land more organic traffic, but it can also help you to draw back previous visitors or those that are subscribed to your updates or follow you on social media, so they see your new blog topics each day.
For example, there is nothing more newsworthy than the Coronavirus right now, and there are ways to leverage this interest and hype for any niche.
“But I have an online pet store — that won’t work for me.”
Wrong.
Create a blog post titled, “The Coronavirus and Your Pets: What You NEED to Know” and watch your CTR go through the roof. That will perform better than any standard (and boring) pet topic.
3. Create Content Optimized for Brand Names (Competitors, Software, etc.)
Have you ever Googled a product or a piece of software only to see the first page results filled with comparison reviews and articles that feature the competitors or similar products of whatever it is that you just searched for?
These types of posts tend to rank very highly in Google currently, and that is because they are typically packed with information, from specs and info on the actual product, to pricing information and feedback or in-depth reviews.
You will often see marketing blogs write these types of posts. The more that click-through and land on their blog, the more subscribers they can add to their newsletter. The more newsletter subscribers, the more clients they will eventually convert.
Something as simple as writing content based on topics that have high search volume related to your industry will naturally result in more traffic, which then results in more converted traffic — across all stages of your funnel and buying cycle. Some businesses can also write content based on the products or services they are competing against.
4. Write Long Titles with Multiple KW Variants
Years ago there was a big focus on all things related to on-site search engine optimization, including titles and meta descriptions, and how many characters is ideal. Now, you want to keep your title short in the sense that you want Google to understand it, while also having it show up in the search results.
There are only so many character spaces, but that doesn’t mean you can’t go over that character count, and some case studies and data I have looked into shows that longer titles with several keyword variants will perform better, even if some of it is clipped off and not shown in the results.
When it comes down to it, Google is still “reading” the entire title. While it may not all be displayed in the SERPs, it reads and understands it, which helps it to associate the page content with the related search queries.
I suggest trying this, and know that you can always revert back to your old titles. Test a few at a time and see if adding some keyword variants helps to increase your organic traffic. If not, go back to the old titles. It’s that simple. Remember, no risk, no reward.
5. Create Pro/Con & Comparison Content
Now, if you are a broad niche website, or if you sell multiple lines of products or services, then you can create an endless amount of content that people will love, and that is “pros and cons” style posts.
These can be single posts dedicated to reviewing the pros and cons of a single product or service, or a post that puts several different products or services against each other. If your content tends to rank well in organic search, these posts will do well for you.
Click-through rates any time “pros and cons” are in the title will always do better. Why? Consumers are curious by nature and they want to read opinions and see what people think of the items or services they are considering buying.
When you focus on 10Xing your traffic, your conversion rates are going to multiply as a byproduct.
6. Make Post Titles Trigger Emotional Responses
One thing that I have noticed lately, and more so over the past year, is that most websites have a content budget now. Before, not every website had a blogger or had the budget to buy content to post. Now, it’s a necessity and after so much talk about how you have to publish content now, most have made it a priority.
This is great, but it’s also flooded every niche with content, and now you almost have to completely ignore writing it for Google and just write it with the goal of having it perform naturally, and let the click-through rates, time on page and low bounce rate signal to Google that it’s something it should look into more.
With so many posts available in Google search results, Google Recommended, and other various platforms, you have to put a lot of thought into the post title in order to attract that click, over the other available options.
The easiest way? Write a title that upon glance triggers emotions and pushes buttons. If you wrote a long-form post on how to lose 5 lbs a week for a month, that has an affiliate product worked into it, you want to get emotions involved.
Something like,” Are You Sick of Feeling Fat and Disgusting? Lose 20 Pounds in 30 Days,” is going to get people to click-through rather than, “Fat Loss Tips to Lose 20 Pounds” because it’s aggressive and triggers an emotional response.
7. Spy on Your Competitor’s PPC KW Bids
Are you struggling to come up with blog content topics or not sure what keywords you should target for your organic search engine optimization campaign? The answer can be found in your competitors’ PPC campaigns.
If a business is bidding high for certain keywords don’t you think that it’s because they convert high? They attract the kind of buyer that is ready to make a purchase or that converts into a lead, enters the sales funnel and then eventually turns into a sale?
There are a lot of PPC spy tools out there that will show you what they are bidding on, but all you really need to do is see their ads, which a tool like SEMrush does. The target keyword for each ad is typically going to be in the beginning of the ad title as well as copy.
Once identified, plan your content around these terms and scale your organic traffic, even if you are only increasing it slightly over time. The quality of the traffic will be high, so you’re going to see your conversion numbers increase.
8. Be the “Expert” by Starting a Podcast
I feel that podcasts are one of the easiest ways to get more website traffic these days, because you can simply drive people to go to your website directly or search your business on Google and then land on it that way.
There is such a big opportunity now to get a piece of the action. You don’t even have to build links. But you know what? If you create a great podcast you are going to accumulate some very strong Domain Authority links (that are also do-follow) because the big podcast distribution platforms are going to want your feed available to their listeners.
There is such a low barrier of entry when it comes to starting a podcast. You can set up a studio for under a couple hundred dollars, and you can even get started publishing episodes right from your mobile device and a popular podcast app.
9. Amplify Blog Content Across Outbrain’s Network
I’ve mentioned it before, but the more people that read your content and come in contact with your blog, the more conversions you are going to accumulate. This is common sense. Even without doing a single thing in terms of optimization, if you drive more traffic to your blog, you are going to generate more conversions.
So, you need to think of ways to get more eyes on your blog posts aside from just Google. One of the easiest ways is through a content distribution and discovery platform like Outbrain. You can easily leverage targeting options to put your content in front of people that have a high likelihood of being interested in your offer.
Outbrain is a PPC model, and you set maximum bids for each click, or visitor they send to your content. You can amplify all of your posts or select which ones you want to be discoverable on their platform.
10. Build in Several CTAs in Each Post
I can’t tell you how many clients will say, “We just aren’t converting our traffic” and then I will look at their blog and there are no built-in calls-to-action. You have to put your CTAs in front of the visitor where they cannot miss it. They are not going to seek them out on their own.
If you are trying to collect emails, then build in a CTA mid-post and one at the very end, along with a slide-out or an exit-pop. The more CTAs you have, the higher the chance of that reader biting and converting.
The same applies for a blog designed to generate a product sale. Link out to the offer multiple times throughout the post. If you only have a CTA at the very end not everyone will even come in contact with it. Some may just skim, so have a CTA above the fold that cannot be missed.
Final Thoughts
I’m hoping that after reading through this list you see that a truly effective content marketing campaign involves a lot more than just blogging. Yes, blogs are very important and it’s almost like the foundational structure for your effort, but in order to really scale your traffic you need to make sure you focus on all of the action items in the list above.
What are you doing right now in terms of content marketing? Are you experiencing strong results in terms of converting your organic traffic that stems from your content marketing campaigns?
I’d love to hear about it, so drop a comment below and tell me all about it. Also, if you have any content marketing related questions you can leave those in the comments also, and I will do my best to answer them for you.
