No matter how much websites have changed over the years or the leaps in technology that now allow us to create sophisticated online platforms that work like software programmes, one thing has remained as true as ever.
The primary reason for creating a website is conversion
You can define conversion in many ways, depending on your business goals and strategic aims. It can be as simple as getting visitors to sign up for your weekly newsletter, send a contact request or make a direct purchase if you’re running an e-commerce site.
The point is that without a conversion goal – and engaging content that leads your visitors to make the decision – your website is nothing more than an expensive online brochure. While this kind of brochure might create brand awareness, it effectively means that your site will remain a marketing cost centre rather than becoming a revenue-generating platform.
Enter content marketing services
In a bygone Internet era, ranking highly in search engine results was all about focusing the core content of your website on desirable keywords. This core content is the typical information most websites carry: a home page, services or product pages, information about the company and so forth.
Around the early 2010s, Google rolled out new methods of evaluating content quality and started placing greater emphasis on website authority. Sites that could demonstrate the most industry expertise and knowledge began to be rewarded over those with more superficial content. The more useful content a site could provide for visitors, the higher it would rank. Thus began the era of content marketing, which continues to this day.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing at its most basic is the regular creation and publication of useful, engaging content. It requires continually adding website content relating to your field that shows your market knowledge and expertise.
This can take a number of forms, such as a knowledge centre or blog section on your website. As Google and the other search engines index more and more of the content you’ve published, they build up a profile of your authority in your industry. In turn, the higher your authority score, the higher Google will rank your website.
This content must be fresh and regular, and the more of it you can produce, the better for your rankings. However, this all comes with a very important caveat: Google and others don’t only judge your content on its objective value. A crucial requirement is that it must also be useful for readers. In other words, not only do you need to produce the right content – you also need to create content engagement.
Creating content engagement
Bluntly put, no matter how highly the search engines rank your website or how much traffic you receive through their results pages, none of it is worth anything if your content doesn’t engage your visitors and convert them in whatever way your strategy requires. A million visitors a month won’t help you at all if not one of them converts.
To create content that converts, you need a smart content marketing strategy. This phase takes into account the strategic and tactical aims of your website, so that you can create a content marketing plan to realise these goals. At this stage, it’s important to take the time to document this strategy in detail, as studies have shown companies that do this are more effective than those who don’t.
Learn more about why investing in premium editorial content is crucial, even in the age of ChatGPT.
Steps to conversion rate optimisation
From identifying your potential customers to performing keyword research, and writing engaging content, your conversion rate optimisation can be done in a few simple steps.
1. Identify your potential customers’ needs and pain points
Almost everyone visiting a website has a need to be fulfilled. You need to research your market to discover the most pressing needs of your potential customers and create content that directly addresses these needs.
2. Create topics of high value to your visitors
To publish high-converting content, you need to develop a content plan based on your understanding of customers’ needs. Generate a list of content topics that will be useful to your readers and demonstrate through the content how well you can provide solutions.
3. Perform keyword research and SEO
Keyword research can also help identify popular topics and will give you a good idea of what your potential customers are searching for. You can then seed your content with these phrases for higher search engine rankings.
However, always make sure you write for a human audience. While this aspect focuses on search engines, don’t ever sacrifice human engagement or writing quality for the sake of rankings. You might make the first page of Google, but your actual conversion rates will be low if your article isn’t appealing to your audience.
4. Write engaging content that directly addresses users’ needs
Now that you have your content plan, outsource the writing to a professional writer if you don’t have any in-house. The aim is to capture the reader’s attention with a catchy headline, without descending into click-bait, and then immediately show in the introduction that you understand what they need and can provide a solution. Readers will quickly abandon your content if they’re not instantly engaged. Focus on the benefits to them, rather than merely touting your wares.
5. Make your content easy to read
Most people skim-read on the Internet, so to create content marketing that converts, you need to incorporate as many different ways of presenting your information as possible. Use short paragraphs and avoid overly complex sentence structures. Bullet points are also good ways of breaking up blocks of text, as are highlight boxes.
Supplement your well-written, engaging content with infographics, graphs and other visuals to draw the reader’s eye to the most important points you want to make. Also, make use of subheadings to create a superficial structure that allows the reader to get the gist of your article without having to read everything on the page.
6. Use “conversational copywriting” for content engagement
Every company wants to develop its own brand voice, but always remember that when you’re publishing content, at the heart of it, your main aim is to communicate successfully. Your brand tone may be important to you, but it’s less valuable to your readers than getting the information, products or services they want. So always engage on a human level in a conversational way with your content – as you would if you were talking to someone in real life.
Outsourcing for content marketing conversion
Constantly creating high-quality engaging content can be a challenge for any company, especially if it isn’t related to your core business. You’ll have a much higher chance of success by engaging external content marketing services, like Key Content. We have decades of experience and top-class writers across a wide variety of industries.
Contact us to create engaging content that converts and optimises your website as a revenue generator.
