How can you design content that converts visitors to customers?

Pro tip: Interview your existing customers and learn about their challenges & goals. What keeps them up? Note it all to plan your content.

The sad reality is still today over 60% of content is unseen, and unread and delivers no demonstrable value. The primary reason for this having tracked billions of data points is irrelevance. Content is all too often crafted based on what a company wants to say rather than what a customer wants and needs. Spending time understanding the topics, themes, questions, pain points etc. is critical to ensure your content is wanted and needed. Finding the balance between what you want to say commercially and what your audience needs is vital or you could be wasting your budget and turning customers away.

Customers look out two things when they read content. 1. Answers to their problem. 2. Be excited with a perspective, idea or concept that they never thought off. Weaving both in is an art. And requires proper customer research and the grit to think out of box. In reality, this is difficult even for an accomplished writer to do it alone. AI tools can help, but needs curation and editing. But not impossible. If content is a key engagement strategy and not an afterthought, you need a team with different experts to constantly deliver content that excites, informs and helps the readers to dream with the brand. It's a mid to long term investment that needs forethought and strong support.

The best way to motivate conversions is to give your audience a lot of what they need and a little of what they want. Here’s how: 1. Offer Value. Answer pertinent questions with simple language, minimize “filler,” and don’t just rehash what everyone else is saying. 2. Design Your Content to be Skimmed. Time is valuable, and most of your readers are skimming anyways. Use headings to make your points clearly, then follow those headings with bullet points. Only then should you include paragraphs, but make those small and break them up with imagery. 3. “Why Waste Time Say Lot Word When Few Word Do Trick?” (The Office). Use one strong, actionable verb whenever possible. Be concise and clear — particularly when crafting your call-to-action.

Firstly, identify who your target audience is and then go about understanding your audience. The latter comprises research, data analysis, empathy-building techniques etc. A better understanding of your target audience enhances the efficacy of the content that you'll create. The end result of the process would be the content that: 1. Caters to the specific needs of your target audience. 2. Resonates with their area of interests 3. Converts them into loyal customers. The deal with content creation is that it's an ongoing process. Once the content has been generated, you ought to revisit and update it as your business evolves and your target audience's preferences change.

Be clear in understanding your goals - not all goals can be accomplished in a month or quarter, it may take a year or more (Government, Healthcare, etc.). Build your goals (and then your messages) with the timeframe expectations - it's not a sprint in some cases but a journey, build out goals and messaging to reflect that.

If you're setting quantifiable goals, it's also important to set up systems that help you measure those goals. And also note that not every goal can be measured (especially when it comes to content).

A large number of companies are so complex that it's very hard to measure the commercial impact of content. Multiple legacy systems, owners, outdated tools etc make it very hard to track all the information needed to meet commercial goals. It's worth having a call with your IT team and seeing if the following are possible when tracking content against commercial goals (sign up, buy now, book demo etc): - UTM codes - Google Analytics Goals - URL Parameters and Custom Scripts There are other benefits of great content you may not be able to track, but the above methods can help paint the best picture.

The most successful content marketers I have seen ensure that they get as close to being able to show ROI as possible and focus on content that delivers over just getting more and more out the door. Ideally, nothing would be published before knowing you can track its impact against company goals.

Goal-setting is crucial for measuring your content's effectiveness. But you can only reach your goals after a thorough analysis of your results.

Make sure your users feel right at home and genuinely connect with your brand, by writing in their own words. A hot (and simple!) tip is to scan customer service logs and reviews as inspiration when creating text. This increases the chances of conversion by ensuring they get answers to their most important questions. It’s also a great approach that builds a stronger bond and trust between your brand and its audience.

Absolutely. One tip - If you are writing for a SaaS brand, educate the reader about how they can use your software to solve their problems (by also adding screenshots).

When creating content, always have in mind: - What are you communicating? - For who? - What is your desired outcome of the message?

When crafting your message try to keep it clear simple enough for your audience to quickly understand your point, we all know on todays market we are lucky if we get their attention for a few seconds so making the experience of that interaction as simple as possible will go along way.

Choose a suitable format and enhance readability and usability. Always think about the social platform on which you wish to publish your content. Each platform and each format can be used to reach different goals and results.

In my experience as a B2B marketer in architecture and interior design sectors, it’s essential to leverage video as a primary format. Video content not only captures attention more effectively than text but also conveys complex messages succinctly. In the B2B sector, where products or services might be intricate, a well-produced video can clarify value propositions and demonstrate use-cases in a relatable manner especially when it comes to project showcases, design process and client testimonials. This aids in decision-making and fosters trust, ultimately driving conversions. It’s also key to ensure that the video content is tailored to address the specific pain points and needs of the B2B audience for maximum impact.

Very true. When unsure about the format, think "where will a potential customer look for a solution to the problem we're solving?"

Underrated tip: A CTA can be placed anywhere in the content and not just towards the end. For example: Where you're presenting your product as the solution to their problem, you can ask them to sign up.

Adding to the other perspective here, absolutely CTAs don’t have to just be at the beginning or end of the content - if possible A/B test where it is most effective. Also be sure to be clear on your CTA keep it consistent don’t put multiple different CTAs in your content as it can confuse and misdirect them away from your main intent.

As mentioned in the previous comments from fellow creators, you can add CTA anywhere on your content. And the best tip! You can even add more than one CTA! Just try to play with your content and add relevant CTA for your goals without annoying your audience too much.

A few tips to increase your CTA click rate: Be Clear: Keep your CTA simple, so readers know exactly what to do and what they might get. Use Action Words: Make your CTA action-packed, like "Start now" "Join today" or "See demo." Rich & Relevant: Make sure your CTA fits the content and clearly gives something of value. Make It Pop: Ideally, use a unique colour that stands out to ensure your CTA grabs attention. Try Things Out: Test different CTAs to see what works best. Split or A/B test if you can. Show the Perks: Explain why taking action is worth it as close as possible to the CTA button. Keep It Simple: Don't overload with too many CTAs; focus on one important thing.

If you're running static ads, the CTA can either be on the image and make it even more obvious in the ad copy or you can get the image with pertinent text overlay and leave the CTA for the copy text It all depends on your goals and creative testing

Content cost money. To maximize ROI, think about derivative and waterfall content. For example, when creating content planning is done, keep in mind that several blog posts can be a whitepaper, or a podcast. The same for a video. It can be a blog post with a summary and the transcript below. Well you get the idea. Amplifying your efforts using waterfall and derivative content, in addition to top-notch content distribution should reward you with great results.

As Yamini Rangan recently pointed out at the ongoing Inbound event 2023 - “People don’t want to convert on your website, they want to converse” I concur. If we can realize the importance of the above, there would surely be more conversions without a lot of complicated thinking. 1. Don’t always make it about “your” product/service, clearly state what pain points it solves. 2. Allow people to interact with your content and leave feedback. 3. Focus on storytelling and leverage it in your content.

Content conversion isn’t about pushing sales. It’s about fostering relationships. It's an art, as much as it's a science. Listen, relate, offer, and always be authentic. Remember, at the heart of every click, share, or purchase, there's a human being. Connect with them.

In sectors like architecture and construction, there’s a pitfall of showcasing work to impress peers rather than addressing client needs. While flaunting projects is great, it’s crucial to communicate the benefits such studios offer clients. Video content should shift from just highlighting projects to illustrating the ease and efficiency of working with us, addressing client concerns. This resonates more with our target audience, leading to genuine engagement and conversions.

Personalization is becoming almost essential to succeed with content marketing. There is so much content out there vying for the attention of your audience so you have to be helpful and relevant instantly to not only gain but keep attention. As McKinsey & Co said: "Personalization will be the prime driver of marketing success within five years."