Using marketing activities like content for online lead generation
Are you starting your content marketing journey or considering it? Want to know the secret of whether it’s going to be worth the time, resources, and money to get you leads? The key is when your blogs will generate you leads that you need to focus on. The real reason is because if you are not providing material for your target audience to engage with, your competitor will.
Inbound marketing is the initial culprit behind content marketing. Inbound marketing is the process that blends content production and promotion to attract and engage your target personas. Yet in reality, it’s no wonder that some companies still have not caught on. Creating content has only been stressed as the best way to promote your company online for less than 5 years, really. Yet the fact remains, that if you haven’t set up a website with content in mind you might be missing a part of the market that is highly valuable for your company.
There are 3 reasons why you would want to consider this market:
Brand reach – When do you remember the last time you spoke to someone from a company that you were considering purchasing from? 78% of Internet users conduct product research online. That means your website stands a good chance of being a prospect’s “first impression.” That also means your new business card isn’t a business card—it’s Google.
Transparency – Customers know when they are being sold to. It doesn’t take much. People who are online scan through hundreds of articles and titles. When your content is written with clear transparency from your personal interests it will show in your wording. Do this and your prospect will connect with you and your message.
Loyalty – Producing your own content means you have a captured audience. It also means you need to follow-through with your promise as a solution. Develop your message and send it communication how you intend to continue to delight your customers long after the sale.
How to generate leads online and increase traffic to your site using a blog:
1. Increase your organic traffic
Look at your traffic results today. Where are you getting your traffic from? Is it direct traffic, organic, referral, PPC (pay per click), off-line activities? Statistics show that more lead to customer conversions happen coming from organic traffic. How does this happen? Blogs and content marketing that is informative and educates your potential customer.
2. Establish expertise
Google is smarter than we give credit for. If you decide to start blogging you will need to conduct a keyword search of terms that make your content found on page 1 of the search engines. This is achievable by ranking and doing some SEO best practices but essentially you must have established credibility in the search engines as an expert in your content. This takes time and plenty of content but it is achievable withing a relatively short time.
3. Answer your customers questions
You have to answer your customers reason for their search. When a prospect has a problem they go to their search engine and ask for anyone to help. Your content must start with your customers question and not on what you can offer. Many businesses still make the mistake to highlight what they can do without answering the customers questions. When in fact your customer will come back to your site if you are providing valuable and informative content, therefore increasing and qualifying your site traffic. Questions such as:
“What is glass repair?”
“How much does pool installation cost?”
“When should I replace my refrigerator?”
“Why does my electric bill go up in the summer?”
“Where can I find a chiropractor?”
4. Provide education
How many times have you heard the same question over and over in your industry by prospects and customers about your product or service? How many stories have you heard from your sales department describing the countless times they have had to explain what your business provides and how it can solve their problems. Producing your own content is not only great for your site but your sales department can use articles as follow-up links in emails or to warm up a lead they came across.
5. Measure your content
How many times have your found yourself looking at your marketing spend for the past year and wondering how effective was your dollars spent? Many times you can purchase a newspaper ad and find that you have no idea who was able to read it and if it impacted their purchasing behavior at all. With developing your own content you can track and measure with much more accuracy how people engage with what you have published. It is far more effective and statistically the costs per customer conversion is far lower than traditional marketing.
LUXA Enterprises offers outsourced inbound marketing services for small and mid-size businesses in the Tulsa and surrounding areas. If you’re considering a short or long-term approach for your growth needs, give us a call for more information at 918-928-7288.
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