An eBook by 212 Media Studios

Inbound Marketing 102CONTENT GENERATION

Convert your website visitors into leads.

Inbound marketing caters to the buying habits of today’s consumer. Attract potential buyers by establishing yourself as a subject-matter expert. Then, convert them into leads by providing industry information they find valuable. Close the deal by continuing to offer them personalized content using drip-marketing tactics. Finally, delight your customers and turn them into promoters of your company by cross-selling, up-selling, and reminding them how great you are with quality service and follow-up.

BRIEF GUIDEYour overall goal in content creation should be to create something that will genuinely interest your readers while educating them about your business. Who are your readers? How do you target the audience that is relevant to your business?

If you don’t completely understand your buyer persona, you won’t be able to generate effective content. Your first step is identifying your buyer persona by answering these questions: Which demographics want what you have? Consider age, gender, income bracket, location, goals, etc.

What does your target audience spend time pondering? What do they desire most? What do they struggle with frequently? How can your business or products solve their problems? How can you make it easy for them to find answers?

Once you have identified your buyer persona, writing content to specifically attract them will be far easier than merely posting random content that you hope magically attracts customers. Inbound marketing contentfocuses on fulfilling the eeds of customers instead of simply promoting your company’s products or service.

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Why is CONTENT Integral to INBOUND MARKETING?According to The Huffington Post, one of the best ways to promote your business is to create an effective content strategy for your website. Written content shows who you are and what you care about, demonstrates your expertise, and proves your ability to offer quality information. Your voice and messages have the potential to attract people to your company and brand—or to repel them. Because of the nature of the internet, the content you produce may be the only picture others will ever see of your company. If you want them to come back, it’d better be good.

How to GENERATE LEADSBy promoting it on relevant channels like blogs, websites, social media, and search engines, your content will become more clickable or shareable. If you publish high-quality content that can be easily found by your target audience, potential leads are more likely to click through to your website, landing them at the top of your inbound marketing funnel. If your content is both valuable and intriguing, readers will continue through the conversion path.

Content is typically generated to advance individuals along one or more of the four stages of the inbound marketing lead lifecycle: visitor, lead, customer, and advocate. Blogs, for instance, are primarily used to gain visitors and display calls-to-action, although they can also play a part in turning your customers into loyal brand advocates. On the other hand, eBooks exist to turn visitors into leads.

Content should be written

• Carefully • Intentionally • Consistently

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CALLS-TO-ACTIONOnce your potential leads have clicked through to your content and entered the marketing funnel, use a call-to-action (CTA) to guide them to the next step. Examples of CTAs include: “act now,” “subscribe here,” and “learn more.”

A CTA should stand out among your other content. Bright colors, bold fonts, and strategic placement will help draw your target audience in toward the conversion process. A CTA should tell leads exactly what they are clicking. Describe the next step within the CTA itself—for example, “Download your free eBook now.”

Once leads click on a CTA, they will be transferred into the next stage in the marketing funnel: the landing page.

LANDING PAGESFor every CTA you create, a unique landing page should cater to the individual offer, designed to reflect the needs of the buyer persona. Once on the landing page, viewers should be prompted to complete a simple form to give you their contact information.

To ensure that contact is received, continue to prompt viewers. Remind them why they initially clicked on the CTA. Highlight a few of the key takeaways they will receive upon downloading the free eBook or infographic. This assures them that they’ve come to the right place.

By providing contact information, each viewer becomes a new lead for your business. It is up to you to deliver the content requested, encouraging them to continue through the inbound marketing funnel.

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Convert your website visitors into leads.

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DISTRIBUTED CONTENTYou’ll likely distribute two basic types of content: public content (such as blogs) and downloadable content (such as eBooks, which may require a form submission for access).

Public content is easily shared via social media or on your website. Links to blog posts, videos, or articles can be included in status updates, tweets, and even within photo captions. Additional CTAs can be woven into this type of public content.

EMAILOnce a lead has submitted his contact information via the landing page, a thank-you email should be sent introducing him to your website, blog, and social media platforms. This will inform the lead of other areas to search for content and further investigate your services or products. It’s also an opportunity to create a more personal connection.

After sending the introductory email, further contact should be made several days later, including a CTA for more content. Be sure the CTA is relevant and complements the lead’s initial interests.

By this time, you have given your new lead ample opportunities to explore your website, content offerings, products, and services. In a few weeks, send another email offering further education about your business, including special promotions, new products, or current happenings within your industry.

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Choose your words carefully.

Social media plays a critical role in lead conversion. Sharing your content on social platforms will increase its reach, allowing your website, blog, etc. to be seen by your target audience and their social networks.

By readily updating and monitoring your social media, the content you produce and share will be seen by more people. Remember to use some variety, highlighting both your business and other related content or sources. Show your personality, expertise, and astute awareness of your audience’s preferences. Stay up to date with the social networks that your specific target market uses and maintain a consistent presence on them.

Encourage your leads to share what they have viewed and found helpful. Incorporate “share” buttons throughout your content, within your emails, and on landing pages. This will contribute to a greater reach.

How to PRODUCE EXCELLENT CONTENTHere are some tips to help you avoid common pitfalls while writing content for your organization:

1. Put the reader first. Provide a “take-away value.” This is something readers can tangibly apply to their lives. When you answer their questions, they are more likely to return and share your content. Information could consist of practical tips, encouragement, FAQs, entertainment, news, personal stories, and other data.

2. Choose interesting language. Pick your words wisely. This may be difficult at first; it takes practice. Use a thesaurus to make your content stronger. But keep it simple and skimmable for busy online readers.

3. Use an active voice. For example, instead of writing “our deals are going to be posted on Friday,” say “we will post our deals on Friday.”

4. Avoid redundant words and phrases. Instead of writing “she nodded her head,” just write, “she nodded.” (What else would she nod?) Read your content out loud to catch if you are using the same words or concepts too often.

5. Give the reader credit. Remember who you’re writing to, and don’t use language that talks down to them. But be mindful of overusing industry jargon and details.

6. Destroy errors. Before you post, make sure your content is free of typos, misspellings, poor grammar, and incorrect punctuation. These will distract from your message. Take pride in everything you write. It represents the quality of your business.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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ANALYZING RESULTSInbound marketing is an evolving tool. Although we can understand its overall best practices, your own metrics and benchmarks are the driving force behind your campaign. What should guide your content strategy?

• CTA views can indicate the quality of your CTA distribution methods. Typically, this metric is tied to blog views or email open rates. If you’re receiving a low number of CTA views, you may need to revisit your distribution strategy. Make sure you are posting valuable blog posts regularly, sharing them on relevant social networks, and improving your website’s SEO (search engine optimization).

• Click-through rates show how often CTA viewers end up following the link. They’re applied to several areas of inbound marketing. While email open rates are important, click-through rates are actually more indicative of content quality (i.e. if your content is compelling). Some uncontrollable factors can skew open rates, such as previews that automatically open emails.

• Landing page conversion rates tell you the percentage of landing page visitors who ultimately submit the form and enter your lead database. Although industry averages are less than 10 percent, the best benchmark is set by your own experience. If you notice a particular landing page underachieving, it might be due to a bad offer title, page layout, or copywriting.

Internally, these three metrics are vital to improving your marketing. But what’s the most important metric in all of inbound marketing?

The only metric that definitively proves whether your efforts are paying off is sales. If you don’t get sales immediately after launching your inbound campaign, don’t worry—it’s normal for your lead-nurturing engine to take a few weeks to get humming. But within a month or two, you should see those customers start to roll in. If they don’t, you may have a big-picture problem; revisit strategies such as your buyer persona and the types of content you’re offering.

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CONCLUSIONProviding consistent, valuable, and relevant content can attract, delight, and retain loyal customers. But it can also take lots of practice to effectively reach your buyer persona through careful word choice and content placement.

This is why many companies seek assistance from a marketing agency like 212 Media Studios. Businesses can focus on what they do best, while still reaping the benefits of inbound marketing and engaging with leads and clients. Whether you choose to forge ahead on your own or partner with an expect, welcome to the adventure! We look forward to hearing how it benefits your company.

For more information about inbound marketing, check out Inbound Marketing 101. Look for other titles in this series, including: Inbound Marketing 103: Email and Inbound Marketing 104: Social Media.

For tips on inbound marketing, content marketing, and more, follow the 212 Media Studios blog, check out our additional eBooks, or get in touch. For all this and more, go to www.212mediastudios.com.

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Inbound MarketingCONTENT GENERATION