Our team members have spent years perfecting the art of crafting engaging, quality content, and today we’ll share the foundational strategies for creating content which leads to better conversion rates. Read on to learn about four small content changes that can make a big difference for your bottom line.
Know Your Audience
Who buys your product and why? Is this demographic the same one you target with your sales copy?
By knowing your core audience demographics, you can tap into your customers’ needs and write content that not only connects with them emotionally but also contains keywords that help your content show up in search engines.
When identifying your audience, pull as many data points as possible in order to create a cohesive customer persona. Here is a list of potential demographic factors to help you create a persona:
- Age
- Sex
- Income
- Location
- Education
- Employment / Occupation
- Relationship Status
- Ethnic background
- Religion / Moral Outlook
Knowing this information helps keep your audience at the forefront of everything you create. While it may seem obvious to know your customers, it’s often overlooked in favor of chasing current trends. Everything you create should speak directly to your target audiences.
Know Your Story
Storytelling is an art that is alive and well for the most successful brands. At the end of the day, content that converts is content that invites your customers to become part of the story. Making a purchase with your business should make customers feel like they’re part of something larger than a transaction, whether that’s being part of a particular profession, ideological outlook, or interest group. Your story should transcend the typical business/customer relationship by firmly establishing your businesses’ mission, values, point of view, and voice.
Of course, creating your story relies on your understanding of your customers, and thus cannot be created until you have a firm grasp on who your customers are and what matters to them. If this seems like a daunting task, our team can help clarify your story, unify your messaging, and breathe new life into your customer engagement through effective branded content.
Know Your Position
In the words of author John Mason, “You’re born an original, don’t die a copy”. The same is true of branded content. Research shows that we are adding 2.5 quintillion bytes of data to the internet every day. Somewhere within that 2.5 quintillion bytes is your site and your content. Originality really matters in a vast sea of information.
Rather than copying another brand’s style, identify what makes your company different. Is it a compelling backstory or rich history? Are you demonstrably better than your competition? Were you the first in the industry, or are you actively disrupting an old industry? By knowing your unique position within your market, you’ll be better able to identify your target audiences, fine-tune your messaging, and convert customers.
Know Your Goals
It’s not enough to create cool content; you need to create content that builds trust and incites action. But in order to do that, you need to set clear, quantifiable goals to measure your success. Setting goals helps you determine if you’re hitting your key performance indicators (KPIs), and further tweak those KPIs if new data suggest that there are other indicators worth measuring.
Goals should be specific, timely, and achievable. For example, instead of saying we want more customers, try this: We want our online purchases to increase by 10% this quarter, and we want to decrease cart abandonment by 25% within the next 10 months. These goals are clear and will help your team stay on track to meet those goals. Additionally, you may locate new KPIs. For example, if the average return rate decreases after you’ve published some new, informational content on your product detail pages, this is worth noting this for future updates to those pages.
So, to recap, here are the key takeaways:
- Get to know your audience
- Figure out your brand’s story, and align all content with that story
- Determine your company’s unique market position
- Set measurable goals and be flexible about KPIs
Don’t let another day of dismal conversion rates get you down. Realign your content to speak to your audience, tell your story, and solidify your market position. With the right content strategy, you’ll be meeting - and exceeding - your business goals!