The Elements of Great Marketing Content

Having a continuous pipeline of fresh content that you are proud of, that represents your brand well, and that impresses (and converts) your market has always been important. There is a lot of content out there, and most of it is good. For it to be great, it needs to be equally useful for your market and you. Here’s a basic formula: Insightful + Impressive + Compelling = Conversions

Insightful

The entire piece doesn’t need to be packed with insights. Most readers are looking for only one ah-ha moment. So, focus on providing at least one piece of helpful information that most readers won’t be able to find anywhere else. If you are experienced in your industry, think of what you’ve learned on the job that would surprise most people and include that in the content. For example, I’ve learned that the chances of anyone filling out a contact form on a B2B website are slim to almost none—despite all the “evidence” to the contrary. Once you come to grips with this, you can stop knocking yourself out trying to get people to fill out the form and spend your time on more productive activities.

Impressive

The content should make people want to do business with your company without overtly saying so. Send the message that you know what you are doing, that you are professional and that you value your customers. A few subtle ways of doing this are to

· Add a footnote or two (not hyperlinked text) that includes links to highly respected resources that you used.

· Use industry jargon sparingly, but use it. You want your readers to know that you speak the same language.

· Throw in a big word or two, but explain them in the context. People like to learn new things.

Compelling

Despite the benefits of displaying thought leadership, what you really want the reader to do is take some action that benefits you. You don’t want to ask the reader to take action that will culminate in them having to wait around for someone to call or email back. This means you don’t need to include a contact box with fields the reader needs to complete (hence my earlier comment about contact boxes) or an email address. This leaves the reader with the impression that the ball is back in your court—that they need to wait for you to respond. Instead display your phone number and only your phone number at the end of the content, with a sentence that says something like: “Contact our Engineers”—not “Contact Sales.” That’s exactly who most readers don’t want to contact. Make it clear that the ball is still in the reader’s court. As counterintuitive as this may seem, research (and experience) does bear this out.

If you’ve been in your field for a while, you surely have all kinds of information readers would be very interested in.

For a no cost discussion of your situation and how we can leverage metrics-based marketing to grow your business call 630-363-8081.