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You’ve done the hard work of creating a product or service. Now it’s time to get the word out about your business. Content marketing is a great way to market on the cheap, but only if the content gets results. Use these eight steps to create content that converts for your microbusiness.
1: Understand your audience
Go ahead and call me Captain Obvious, but if you want your marketing content to convert, you’ve got to know who it is for. And I don’t mean the old, generic it’s for “women of all ages who want {whatever your offering provides}.” That isn’t going to cut it! You’ve got to be crystal clear on your buyer persona.
The heart of content marketing is providing value and being of service to someone, and you can’t do either if you are speaking to e’rrrrybody.
Forget speaking to the masses. Content that converts feels like an intimate conversation that was created JUST for the person consuming it.
Do you feel like I’m in your head and wrote this just for you? Keep reading.
#2: Understand the pain point
Once you know precisely who the content is for, clearly identify their pain points.
Every conversion starts with a desire for something. Whether it’s a purchase, a click, or an opt-in, the conversion happens because the person taking action desires something; to improve something, receive something, or eliminate something. And that desire is driven by a pain point.
What pain points does your buyer persona have? Use those as launch pads for every piece of content you create or share.
#3. Focus on quality over quantity
This is the biggest mistake I see new marketers make. They get overwhelmed by all the opportunities to share content, so they focus on creating A LOT of content just to have something.
And too much of it is garbage and fluff.
Your content marketing goal is to showcase that you are an expert who can be trusted. Crap content does not position you as an expert or make you more trustworthy. In fact, it does the opposite.
Whether it’s short-form like social media posts or email campaigns, or long-form content like blog posts, videos/webinars, the content needs to have a point, and it needs to be of value.
#4. Focus on one aspect at a time
Listen, I know your amazeballs offering has 487 benefits, but don’t word vomit all over somebody, m’kay.
When it comes to content that converts, you’re talking to one person about one pain point and highlighting one aspect of your solution.
Instead of focusing on every benefit, every use, and every reason your offering is bomb diggity, focuses on one key point per piece of content.
#5. Include an offer that is relevant to your customer where she is
You wouldn’t ask someone to marry you on the first date, and you wouldn’t ask someone you met five minutes ago at the dog park to help you move. Those are big asks. So is asking someone to pay you for something.
Your content should include an offer that makes sense for where the prospect is in your funnel.
If the content is designed to support the Awareness phase, the offer likely isn’t your mack-daddy, ultra-premium offering. You may not even want her to whip out her credit card yet, but you want to draw her deeper in your funnel, so she can see how a-freakin-mazing you are.
If the content is designed to support the Consideration phase, the offer should be to purchase the offering related to the content. It would be super weird if, at the end of this blog post, I invited you to buy a Facebook Ads template, no? Super weird.
#6. Write compelling copy that is easy to consume, understand, and act on
Content that is not clear, concise, or compelling will never convert. If the person consuming the content is scratching her head asking, “WTF is this?” she ain’t buying, no matter how cute you are. {And I’m guessing you are exceptionally cute!}
I’ve packed a lot into this one, so let’s break it down.
COMPELLING
Even though your content is available for free, you are asking your prospect to give up something more valuable than her dolla dolla bills, her time. And she’s not sticking around unless the content is interesting and relevant to her.
EASY TO CONSUME & UNDERSTAND
Your content needs to be easy to consume. No War and Peace style blog posts, or four-hour videos or podcasts on the importance of X. If you’ve got a lot to say, go back to rule #4 and break that content down.
EASY TO ACT ON
You know the type of content that never converts? The one without a call to action. 100% of the time, people won’t take the next step you haven’t told them to take.
Forgetting to include a CTA is bad, but even worse is including multiple calls to action. Choices may be good at the ice cream shop {mint chocolate chip, please}, but they suck for calls to action. Offer just one next step.
#7: No Wall of Words
A picture’s worth 1,000 words. Your content should include visually appealing graphics that support the text. Your graphics should help convey the message of the content in an interesting way.
Not a graphic designer? I feel ya. Canva is my go-to tool for quickly making great graphics, even with the art skills of a toddler.
#8: Publish in the right place, at the right time
Everything has its time and place {so said my mother, when I wanted to wear my Madonna “Like a Virgin” outfit to my grandma’s house for Sunday dinner}. And it’s as accurate today with your content as it was in the late ’80s with my 400 neon jelly bracelets.
Where you are posting the content determines when you should post it, especially for seasonal content. Your blog content, Pinterest pins, and YouTube videos take time to get indexed and show up in searches, so you want to plan accordingly. Social media feeds go fast, so while you want to publish that Thanksgiving content to your blog and Pinterest over the summer, you don’t want to share it on Facebook until early October.
For short-form content like social media content, the right time is the day/time of day when the content-consumer is most likely to interact with the content. Creating content for business owners? Share it on LinkedIn during the workday. Creating content for a female homeowner who has outgrown her starter home? Share it on Facebook or Instagram in the evening.
Keep these steps in mind when you are planning your content marketing strategy to create content that converts.
You’ve got what it takes to be a marketing rockstar, and you deserve to be treated like one. In the concert world, the green room is where artists go to hang out before and after the show. My Green Room is your backstage pass to all the best marketing training to grow your microbusiness. It’s the place where I share all my best tips and tricks on how to market your business in today’s world. And it’s completely free! Join me there now.