How to Use Content to Generate Leads
Published on February 6, 2023
Even the most advanced demand-generation strategy can falter if you don’t have compelling content that addresses your customer’s pain points throughout your sales funnel.
And if you’re a new entrepreneur or just learning about the benefits of content marketing, you may not realize how effective it can be, especially for a small business without a massive marketing budget.
While a growing number of B2B and direct-to-customer brands are now dedicating more resources toward developing engaging content, these moves won’t truly reveal their ROI without a cohesive approach, consistent delivery, and a reliable system for tracking content performance.
Why waste effort on pay-per-display or pay-per-click ads or unhelpful messaging when you can create a plan to leverage your content and generate qualified leads? Let’s dig deeper.
Find Relevance
Reaching potential customers via curated, useful content isn’t exactly a new idea.
Did you know that the concept of content marketing can be traced back to the 19th Century? John Deere launched a printed magazine, The Furrow, in 1895 to educate his target audience (farmers) on the latest in agriculture technology and new methodologies.
Today it’s the most circulated farming publication in the world and Deere & Company is a hugely successful multi-national, proving that this strategy really works.
Today’s consumers want a personalized shopping experience, whether online or in-person, with companies that align with their personal beliefs and values, as well as 24-7 accessibility on any channel they want to use. They want to be treated less like faceless stats and more like individuals. And they definitely don’t want the disruption of old-fashioned advertising.
Fresh, useful content that has a personal feel is far superior to cookie-cutter paid ads or spammy emails, and it draws customers to your brand organically.
It all starts with market research. You have to know your target audience, what they need, and how you can solve their problems. A good way to find out what your prospects are searching for is to use the Google Ads Keyword Planner.
Once you know what your potential customers need, you can create specific content for your website, blog, or social media channels that answers those questions and brings attention to your special niche. This builds trust and positions your brand as a reliable source of information, which generates demand.
Pillars of Strength
Now that you’ve identified the keywords most relevant to your potential customers and you’ve got some ideas of the kind of content you would like to share, it’s time to build a strong foundation for your marketing strategy and establish your content pillars.
A pillar is an essential support structure in both construction and content marketing. In this milieu, your pillars are simply 3 to 5 consistent topics that resonate with your brand which will help you stand out from the crowd and boost your audience reach.
Positioning your brand as an expert resource and arranging your content in pillars will make it far easier to craft a long-range strategy that’s sure to show results. But how do you choose which topics to focus on?
Again, it’s all about research. Create an ideal customer profile or buyer persona, determine their pain points and interests, and start crafting content that offers relevant knowledge and solutions attuned to the needs of your demographic.
Facebook offers a useful Audience Insights tool that can help you gain valuable information about your potential customers, their purchasing habits, and much more.
Build Your Content Bank
If you’re struggling with how to come up with and develop good content ideas, kickstart your strategy with some evergreen search-optimized blog posts that will form the base of your pillars:
- Your background and/ or the history of your brand
- Exploring your core values and mission statement
- Testimonials from satisfied customers and case studies
- All about your product or service and pricing
- In-depth explainers of concepts related to your business
- Comprehensive answers to customer FAQs
Then you can move on to the next level which will nurture and grow your online community:
- Infographics
- Social media videos
- Memes
- Contests
- Surveys
- Quizzes
- Behind-the-scenes sneak peeks at your process or services
You should also include lead magnets, which are posts that offer clients something with perceived value in exchange for their contact info — ebooks, life hacks, highly interesting white papers, online courses or webinars, promotional products, samples, or newsletters that offer discounts and other perks to subscribers.
Know Your KPIs
Building a content marketing strategy from scratch is not that difficult if you approach it one step at a time, but how do you know if it’s working?
Many platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, and Google, have native analytics tools that are easy to use and effective at helping you see how many people you’re reaching and which posts are the most popular.
Obviously, if you see more business, something’s working, but it’s vital to dive into the mountains of juicy data generated by your campaigns so you can concentrate on what’s actually leading to conversions.
Here are some of the most important key performance indicators for social media and content marketing that you should be tracking:
- Meeting your scheduling goals
- Organic website traffic
- Audience engagement
- Social media followers
- Post reach
- Keywords ranking
- Customer acquisition costs
- Opt-ins and conversions
These metrics will be able to show you where your strengths and weaknesses are and where you can focus your efforts to really drive sales. The more you regularly publish quality content, the more search engines will recognize your business as an authority, which leads to higher search engine rankings and more business.
Grow Your Audience
If you’d love to develop a vibrant content marketing strategy to generate more leads but you’re not sure where to start or simply don’t have the bandwidth, consider partnering with an expert team that will capture your brand’s flavor perfectly and really get results.
One of the most crucial elements of a successful content strategy is consistent messaging that attracts customers to your beautifully designed, user-friendly website and into your sales funnel.
Don’t let this opportunity for affordable, efficient, and effective marketing pass you by — connect with us today to drive more traffic to your landing page and establish your brand as a beacon of reliability and trust.