Do you know why Seth Godin says that “Content marketing is all the marketing that’s left”? That’s because pushing your products into people’s faces doesn’t work anymore, to get a sale. Customers today are smarter than ever before and they know exactly what they want and why. And that is where the importance of content marketing lies. That’s because good content educates your potential buyers about your products, offers them value, and helps them to solve problems, without hard selling. Gradually, you end up establishing a bond of trust with your target audience through your content, which “makes” them buy from you. However, content marketing needs to be done the right way if you want it to actually work. And if someone tells you that churning out a couple of blog posts every week or just creating posts for your social media channels without a proper strategy will do the trick, take it with a pinch of salt. Moreover, content marketing takes time to show results. So, if you hear someone express doubts like “Does content marketing really pay off?” or “Content marketing doesn’t work unless you are ready to spend a lot”, remember that this form of marketing takes constant effort to reap profits. But those profits are exceptional. Don’t believe us? Read on to find out why the smartest brands and marketers swear by content marketing, why it works so well, and what you can do for the best results. So, you now have a fair idea of how content marketing works, right? Remember that it is nothing like a one-night stand (the analogy is too perfect to ignore)! Rather, content marketing is your best bet to forge a long term relationship with your target customers, convince them to buy from you, and stay loyal. When you follow the right strategy, it can give you amazing results, be it in terms of more awareness, better leads, or higher conversions. All you have to do is invest in it for the lifetime of your brand.
Month: September 2020
Want Conversions? Learn the 7 Most Effective Principles of Blog Design
There is a reason why most humans judge a book by their cover. According to research, most humans are hired wired to like things that are aesthetically pleasing. In short, we do give importance to how a person looks. How is this related to blogs? Read this. In 2011, researchers at Melbourne University found that people tend to trust websites that have an appealing design and look good. Also, here is an interesting finding by Dr Brent Coker, a researcher and author who has spent years studying marketing. “As aesthetically oriented humans, we’re psychologically hardwired to trust beautiful people, and the same goes for websites. Our offline behaviour and inclinations translate to our online existence.” To cut it short, people are attracted to clean, well-designed blogs. A well-designed blog can get you higher conversions. And by conversions I don’t just mean visitors turning to loyal customers, I also mean more email subscriptions, more shares, more comments. Those are all the things you want from your blog. Changing our blog design and layout Ever since we relaunched our website in 2019, our blog design has always bothered me. This was for two reasons. Even though we got a really neat-looking and cool website design, our blog, which was an important source of our inbound traffic (as it should be for anyone else), ended up getting a second-hand treatment. Let us just say, we did not work enough on the layout or the readability part (font and design wise) of the blog. We can now admit that it was a grievous mistake. Design of the blog, especially its readability, is super important to make your readers stick around and read your content. Otherwise, all you will be left with is a high bounce rate. Also Read: 8 Proven Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Blog in 2020 Secondly, and more importantly, no matter how much you optimize your blog, if you cannot get your reader to read what you write, you will end up with a very low traffic-to-lead conversion. This simply means, you will not be getting conversions from your blog even though you might be getting traffic to it. So, we got thinking – how do we improve our conversions so we can get more customers with the traffic we already have? For starters, we started jotting down what we liked about some of the very popular blogs with high footfall. What could we learn from them? So, for our own sake, we decided to look for inspiration in popular blogs like Mashable, Huffington Post and more. Their clean layouts, good font size and style, attractive post headings, easy social share buttons and smart placement of CTAs (call to action) got us thinking. We knew that we had to tweak our blog as well to keep visitors hooked. Plus, we came across some interesting statistics. Like, Neil Patel had been able to reduce his site’s bounce rate by 29% with a new layout, better font size, all-device compatibility and faster loading speed. When QuickSprout included scrolling social share buttons in its blog posts, it witnessed a 27% rise in social traffic. So, we started to research the blogs of top content marketers, agencies, and brands, with our focus on these 3 areas: Layout and design (number of grids, use of pictures, banners, overall design) Readability (line height, font size, active white space) CTAs (types, techniques, placement) And our research gave us some interesting insights for improving conversion from your blog traffic. Also Read: 5 Types of Content to Get More Traffic to Your Blog So, if you are looking at more shares of your blog, more people subscribing to your blog, more leads through your blog, and more comments on your blog, here are some the 7 most effective blog design strategies to achieve that. 7 Most-effective blog design principles to get more conversions Neat layout for your blog’s home page – An attractive color scheme, adequate white space and clean layout (especially grid formats) can motivate visitors to read more. Bold and clean post titles followed by a few lines of snippet can also tell the visitor what a blog post contains. Zero compromise on readability – Choosing the right font type (Arial, Georgia, Verdana, Serif, Sans Serif) and the right font size (11-point or above, but maximum 14) are necessary to make your blog easy to scan, readable and comprehensible. The right line height and length, color contrast, active white space and alignment are also important. Ace the internal page design – A good design will encourage readers to take action. This is why you need to use the sidebar efficiently, place CTAs correctly, and incorporate social share buttons for easy visibility. Always include good images – Since the human brain processes visuals faster than plain text, use crisp and vibrant photos or illustrations or graphics to capture the reader’s attention. Pay attention to the sidebar on the right – This sidebar can be cleverly used to feature your best-performing posts, or ask the reader to sign up for newsletters or register for a free training session. Basically, use the sidebar to nudge the reader to take an action that is aligned with your business goals. Strong and clear CTAs – Use powerful CTAs that tell the visitor exactly what to do and place it right, if you want more conversions. A bold-colored CTA that pops up at the top of a blog or one that is big and on the right sidebar, asking the reader to speak to a marketing expert will grab more attention than a simple call for email signup. You can also use CTAs that ask the reader to try a tool for free or download an e-book. Position the bio right – A short and crisp bio with your image will lend a personal touch to the blog. It will increase credibility and you can include a link for those who want to read more. We have covered each one of these
How to Write a Case Study to Convince and Convert Prospective Customers ?
As a content marketing agency, we often get these questions from our clients – “How do we actually get customers?”, “How do we convince customers that we are the best?” “How can we show clients that we are better than our competitors?” To be honest, no matter what your industry or business type is, you are sure to have these questions sometime or the other. And our answer to all these questions is writing a good case study,which showcases your past success in a detailed and data-driven manner to prove your mettle in your industry. If you want to convince and convert potential clients, this is your best bet. Not sure what is a case study and how will it help? Well, as a business, just saying you are awesome at something (like boosting organic traffic in our case) is not enough to convince customers that they should buy your services or products. You need to give them some hard data that proves your claim for real. And this is where a case study helps. Such a detailed, data-rich study can help you narrate a past customer’s success story and elaborate on how your product or service helped solve their business challenges. A case study will also include the metrics you used to measure the success – be it in terms of revenue gained or number of leads generated. Check out this case study example for a better idea, before you learn the steps of crafting one yourself. Wondering how to create a case study?Here are the steps: 1. Determine the goal or objective of the case study First, figure out what you wish to prove with your case study and which client objective do you want to focus on. While there might be several client objectives, pick the one which you want to show to your would-be customers. For example, your case study could cover any of the following client objectives like lead generation, lowering business costs, increasing profitability and revenue, converting more customers or establishing a foothold in a new market. Read on to create a case study outline. 2. Establish the case study format Now decide which format you wish to use to create your case study. Consider your target customers’ demographics and content consumption patterns to decide which case study format will work for them. Millennial customers might prefer video case studies while CXOs, CEOs, and COOs might prefer case studies in text format. While an infographic case study can be ideal for Pinterest, a textual one can appear on the website, and a video case study can be promoted on YouTube. Here is a bit more information on the popular case study formats: • Infographic –Go for a vertical and longish infographic that charts your path of success from the top to the bottom. As the reader scans down the infographic, he should be able to spot the major metrics you used and the results you achieved easily. For this, use a simple case study format with neat, big font for text and charts or diagrams. Check out some cool infographic templates here. • Textual –Your case study can also be in the form of an e-book and you can make it into a PDF (see the one by Budweiser) that can be downloaded after your site visitors fill up a short form. This will help you capture their basic details like name and email ID and generate potential leads too. • Video –A good ideafor this kind of format is to meet the client and make a video of the interview. This way, your prospective customers can see how your client had actually benefitted from your services and be more convinced. You can also get more creative ideas for a video case study here. • Podcast –This format is ideal if you wish to go the audio way. A real conversation between you and the client will convince listeners about your services or products and seem human as well. Podcast case studies are also easy to follow when you are on the go and has a direct, engaging touch. 3. Identify the right customer for writing a case study Now find the right client to write a case study. Pick a client who has knowledge about your service/product offering and can speak well about the value that he received. Choose clients who have tasted success or achieved good ROI because of your product/service and will be happy to share their success story.Between small businesses and well-known brands (names that are easy to recognize), cover the latter first since it will give more credibility to your brand. Also Read: [Free Case Study] Alliance Fintech – How we used content marketing to boost traffic by 149% 4. Request permission to write the case study Inform your customer and ask for permission before showcasing them in your case study. Draft and email a case study release form. In it, mention why you are creating the case study, how it will be used, the type of client information you will include (like name, job title, picture etc.), what kind of help you expect from the customer and what kind of compensation you will provide. Here is how a release form might look like: You can convince them for the case study by explaining: • How they will get brand exposure and reach out to more people • How employee exposure will shoot up if quotes are shared against top employee names • How they can earn product (the ones you sell to them) discounts • Mentioning that the case study will link back to the client’s website, thereby boosting its organic traffic Remember that when the client reads your request, he will be more eager to know how he will benefit from the case study rather than you. Once the customer signs, approves and returns the release form, you need to prepare a questionnaire to conduct a productive interview and get the material you need for creating a