Content marketing as a way of generating leads

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is the process of developing, delivering, and promoting content that’s relevant and valuable to your target audience. The goal is to attract and retain a clearly defined audience – an engaged audience – with the ultimate goal of turning them into customers. The more engaged they are, the better chance you have at turning them into customers because they’ll be much more likely to take action on your call-to-action (CTA). Done correctly, it builds trust with your customers and leads them down the sales funnel.

Why does content work better than advertising?

Blog posts, social media content and email newsletters all work better than advertising. Social media provides opportunities for a potential customer to connect with your company on a level that has yet been tapped. E-mails provide valuable information about the company before the user needs anything from you. Plus, all of this content is providing your potential customers with something that they don’t get from other companies: personalized and relevant information about them and what they may need.

Defining the goals of your lead generation strategy

A lead is usually defined as someone who has shown interest in what you’re selling and is ready to take the next step. A lead may sign up for a free trial, purchase your product, provide their e-mail address, or fill out a form asking for more information. In short, they’ve reached out and given you permission to contact them about your product.

Content marketing is a way of generating leads through quality content. The goal is to create an emotional connection with the reader and turn them into a lead. Since it’s such a powerful tool, many companies are finding ways of incorporating this strategy into their digital marketing campaigns. Achieving that may sound easy, but there are some steps you can take to get started on the right foot.

Types of lead generation through content

Content marketing is a powerful strategy that can not only help you generate leads, but also increase customer loyalty and engagement. In addition to those benefits, content marketing has the ability to generate multiple kinds of leads including B2B prospects and customers. The key to generating these types of leads is planning a cohesive campaign that includes the following components:

• Articles;
• Guides and intrsuctions;
• Ebooks and whitepapers;
• Courses and trials;
• Contests;
• E-mails;
• Podcasts;
• Presentations and webinars;
• Events;
• Apps;
• Videos.

How to create engaging, quality content?

Creating an ideal user profile

It’s important for content marketing campaigns to target a specific audience. Even if you’re targeting a broad demographic, it’s important to understand what it is your ideal user is looking for and how they want it delivered. Each person needs a specific type of content in order for them to be engaged, find information, and feel like they have made the right decision. This content may vary depending on their age and their interests. Use Google free tools to find it out.

Defining the goal of your content

You want to create content that people are going to love, share, and remember. You want them to be so impressed with what you’ve done that they’ll go tell their friends about it. So your first step is figuring out what you want people to do after they read your post. Once the goal is defined, then your content will naturally follow suit.

Video – a modern method that allows you to get more interactions

If you’re looking for a way to build leads, this is a good place to start. Video marketing is on the rise. It allows you to connect with more people by giving them the opportunity to view your content in more than one form. People are often drawn into video because they feel as though it’s more engaging and personal and want the ability to interact with it when they feel like it rather than being told what and how often they should be viewing content.

Fully integrating video can dramatically enhance your company’s content marketing and generate higher conversion rates. With the right approach, it is possible to use video to tell a story, help with decision-making processes, build trust, and highlight values.

Creating a detailed campaign plan

Many companies choose to use content marketing as a way of generating leads because it is less expensive, allows for higher conversion rates, and has a longer lifetime value. A campaign plan will help you create and distribute your message in an efficient and focused manner. The foundation for any successful campaign should be: audience segmentation, theme identification, distribution strategy selection, content production and distribution schedule development.

Measuring results with analytics

There are many ways to measure your content marketing efforts, and some are more appropriate for certain audiences than others. The most common ones include the number of times your content has been seen, likes or shares on social media, comments on posts and traffic. Tracking these numbers can help you understand what type of content is most popular with your target audience and which platform they’re using it on. It can also show you where they’re located so you know where to focus future campaigns.

Promote your new webpages

Promotion is an integral part of any marketing plan. It takes time, but it’s worth it. After you’ve published your new webpages, promote them with the following:

• e-mail newsletters;
• social media posts;
• online advertising;
• personal connections with people in your field of business;
• offline events and tradeshows;
• referrals from current customers, employees, or suppliers.

Summary

So how can you use content marketing as a way of generating leads? Start by creating useful, engaging content for your audience and include clear calls-to-action at the end. Then make sure you’re sharing your content through social media channels, writing guest posts on other sites, and approaching bloggers with complementary audiences. Writing a blog post may seem difficult at first. However, with the right tactics and step-by-step process, you can create content that will engage potential customers and generate leads for your business.