Content Marketing is a hot topic. However, most brands struggle to utilize it effectively. While many brands know that Content Marketing is one of the best promotional strategies available, majority of them struggle when it comes to executing it properly. The unfortunate truth is that brands that don’t employ the right Content Marketing strategies end up receiving lower conversion rates. Often, this stems from the perpetual issue that it’s easy to say something is important but harder to put it into practice.
So, what differentiates the highly effective strategies from the mediocre and subpar ones? Essentially, it boils down to brands' ability to do something different, rise above the fray, and provide exceptional value. To do that, brands must shy away from the same game plan as every other brand. Instead, brands should focus on finding their own system to enjoy better results.
Understanding The Role of Content Marketing
Brands that leverage Content Marketing witness higher conversions than brands that do not. However, far too few brands understand the role Content Marketing can play in their campaigns. A piece of content is great and has sharable value when it's relevant to its target audience, is engaging and compelling, and helps trigger a response or action.
Further, there are several factors that brands need to consider while creating content to ensure that it supports their conversion goals:
- The content must provide exceptional value to its followers
- It must be consistent with brand goals
- It must communicate a clear, concise message
A brand's Content Marketing services will miss the mark if brands don’t understand its role in the campaign, which is why they need to create a refined strategy to realize their conversion goals. Content Marketing is a very effective way to promote a brand, but marketers need to differentiate themselves to make it happen. It can’t be done by following the same principles as everyone else.
Common Content Marketing Misconceptions
Conversion rates suffer when brands fall prey to common Content Marketing myths and misconceptions. Brands should be aware of the following mistakes and avoid them at all costs in order to convert their visitors into loyal customers.
#1. "Boosting production should be the top priority"
It used to be that the best approach to Content Marketing services was to scale production. Google rewarded publishers that posted content every day, which led many brands to follow suit. Unfortunately, this resulted in a lot of weak content being put up that provided very little value to readers. Since this content wasn’t all that professional in nature, brands had trouble building trust with readers — inevitably causing their conversion rates to suffer.
Quality always trumps quantity when it comes to Content Marketing, but that’s not the only reason to make it a priority. There's SEO value too. While Google still considers the volume of content on a website, the value of that content is more important than ever. Creating strong content will enable brands to boost their organic rankings, which will lead to higher conversion rates, as organic search traffic is more highly targeted. Building trust is extremely important for boosting conversions. Fortunately for brands, it will be easier to earn trust if they put out content that provides clear value.
#2. "Social Media isn't important"
For brands that want to get the most out of their content and build the trust needed to earn conversions, they must be active on social media. Brands need to actively promote their content to create visibility for it. While organic search and paid traffic are valuable ways to draw attention to a brand's content, they aren’t the best ways to engage with customers.
Too many brands neglect their online social presence for a variety of reasons. Many believe that their customers aren’t using social media, thinking that only younger or tech-savvy customers are active on these sites. The truth, of course, is that almost everyone is using social media these days and brands that aren't active will have a hard time finding success in the digital space.
At the end of the day, social media is a very important element of Content Marketing and brands should make sure to leverage its fullest potential.
#3. "Every content should center around the brand"
One of the biggest peeves consumers have is that brands that market to them on social media are too promotional. The problem can be even more common with content marketers that come from an old school advertising background who are used to putting out messages in the form of copywriting.
The purpose of a brand's Content Marketing strategy should be to engage its target audience. To do it effectively, brands should spend less time talking about their business and start providing value to their customers instead. Furthermore, they should explore the challenges customers are facing and offer sound tips to help them overcome those challenges.
#4. "Content marketing can be 100% automated.”
Content Marketing takes a lot of time and effort. Fortunately, there are a number of ways brands can streamline the process using automation. While automation can help improve the effectiveness of a Content Marketing campaign without requiring excessive amounts of time, there is a point where automation can be taken too far.
The one aspect of this process that should never be entirely automated is content creation. Brands must accept that even the most efficient Content Marketing strategy is going to require time and resources.
#5. "There should be super long pieces of content"
Creating long-form content isn’t always necessary and may actually be counterproductive. While longer content does tend to rank higher on Google, shorter content can still rank very well.
When it comes to conversions, brands must realize that long-form sales content doesn’t always convert better than shorter content. Longer content writing may work better when trying to sell big-ticket items, but they can also overwhelm readers and drive them away from a website. Rather than assuming that longer content always works better, brands must extensively test different styles to optimize their conversions.
The Need For a Refined Strategy
A good strategy is crucial for success. Like any other form of marketing, there must be a well-thought-out Content Marketing strategy for it to be successful.
A successful Content Marketing strategy should start off by defining a brand's KPIs. Brands should identify what numbers are important to them (e.g., views, shares, traffic, CTRs, conversions, etc.), and track them. The strategy should change over time when brands realize that what they're doing is not as effective as it could be.
Content Marketing comes with a steep curve but it's worth the effort in the long run. Brands that are serious about succeeding must have a clear vision and a detailed Content Marketing strategy laid out before launching a campaign.
Brands that are aware of the misconceptions presented above stand a much better chance of developing the kind of lucrative Content Marketing game plan that will lead to higher conversions.
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