Originally published July 11, 2023 , updated on June 1, 2023

An engaging content marketing strategy leads to conversions for a variety of reasons. Captivating copy is more likely to capture your target buyer’s eye, hold their attention, and encourage them to move to the next step along the sales funnel. Engaging copy can also offer valuable information to your online reader – helping you build an emotional connection and, in turn, garnering their support. 

The more your prospects engage with your online copy, the more likely they are to convert. Engaging copy also has the power to help your business reach your sales targets and boost your bottom line. In this blog, we’ve explored eight content creation ideas you can use to get started when putting together a social media strategy that sells.

Eight Steps to Develop a Content Marketing Strategy That Drives Conversions

Engaging content can be a powerful tool in driving conversions for a business. When your online copy is engaging, it captures your target buyer’s attention and encourages them to interact with your brand in a meaningful way. Here are eight steps you can take to develop the kind of copy that converts.

1. Understanding Your Target Audience

Understanding your audience is key to creating copy that resonates and holds their attention. The first step you can take when drawing up your content marketing strategy is identifying your target audience. Identifying your audience requires ample market research. Only then will you be able to create enticing copy that’s persuasive enough to sell your services.

When starting your market research, your SEO content writing service will begin analysing your target prospect’s needs, preferences, and pain points. The trick will be to hook your reader by introducing a problem they’re familiar with. Next, you’ll offer your reader valuable information that aims to solve that problem. Subtly, your business becomes “the solution” through the helpful information you share or the services you provide. 

Your market research informs your wider content marketing strategy. This strategy will be based on your market research and collected data – which will then be used to create an ideal buyer persona. A “buyer persona” represents your company’s ideal customer. It’s meant to create a clear image of who your customer is. For example, the buyer persona will identify what job your ideal customer is most likely to work, their temperament, needs, goals, desires, and preferences.

2. Choosing the Right Content Formats 

When it comes to great SEO content development, your online media is only part of what engages your audience. The information you share must be insightful and original enough to offer value. You should also share your digital media in the most suitable content formats. 

Written Content

If you’re targeting an audience that works in high-level or executive positions, you may want to offer them written content. Written content can be distributed in white papers explaining product guides in depth. 

Informative articles and blog posts are other popular forms of written media. Long-form written pieces educate a reader on solutions to their pain points. Helpful information that offers value to your online reader can show that your business is credible and worthy of investment.

Visual Media

Visual online media is also effective. You can share content in the form of infographics, images, and videos. Like written content, images can express certain topics to specific buying profiles. These attention-grabbing pieces can attract an audience and pull them to your site. 

If the images you share are more informative, they can educate the reader, too. For instance, infographics can list a prospect’s steps to buy a product. Videos can include testimonials or success stories that engage your prospects and earn their trust. An audience that trusts your brand may be more likely to convert.

Interactive Content

If you choose to work with SEO content writing services, they can create quizzes, calculators, and polls to incorporate into your content marketing strategy. These are all highly engaging digital media forms. 

Interactive media is engaging because it is dynamic. Dynamic media connects with your clients on a personal level. And in a cluttered online space, it could give your business’s content marketing strategy a competitive edge. According to Forbes, interactive content will be trending for the rest of 2023. Interactive media can create a more personalised online customer experience linked to higher engagement and conversions. 

3. Creating Attention-Grabbing Headlines 

When considering the most important part of a piece of content or ad, opinions differ. Some say that an advert is successful because of the sum of all its parts. Nonetheless, any advert’s headline sits at the top of the list. Without a headline, people may not read your ad in the first place. Headlines entice your prospects, capturing their attention and encouraging them to read more.

For example, there is a difference between the emails you open and don’t. Often, this difference lies in the subject line. So, you want to ensure your subject line or headline is magnetic enough to captivate your readers and get them to engage. There is a general recipe you can incorporate into your content marketing strategy that could use to make your headlines magnetic.

Your headline should be between five to ten words. Make your headline concise and punchy to serve as a tidbit of what your content covers. When jotting down your content creation ideas, some people recommend starting an entire written piece with your headline so that the piece really aligns with the topic at hand throughout.

4. Utilising Storytelling Techniques 

Infusing storytelling into your SEO content development is a surefire way to make your brand stand out. Studies show that people remember stories up to 22 times better than other forms of digital media. Studies also show that stories more easily persuade people. 

SEO content writing services use stories in their content marketing strategy because stories create an emotional connection with your online reader. Storytelling also subtly reinforces your brand narrative. As a result, stories can humanise your brand on top of being engaging media forms. Emotive stories can, in turn, earn your audience’s trust – the key to creating conversions. 

Using brand storytelling in your content marketing strategy ultimately invites a reader along for a journey. Crafting a compelling story means considering your wider narrative – so that your reader is engaged in the long term. We’ll reiterate that an engaged and connected audience is more likely to support your brand.

5. Focusing on Value and Relevance

Another key aspect to consider when developing your content creation ideas is ensuring that the information you share is valuable and relevant. Very often, instead of clicking directly on adverts, a prospective client may research your products or services instead. 

Once your readers feel better informed, they may make a query or a purchasing decision. It’s clear that online copy has the power to influence your prospects’ buying decisions. Valuable copy is original and well-researched. It empathises with your prospects and offers them solutions to their pain points by serving as a trustworthy source of information or by subtly recommending your services.

On top of being valuable, copy must be relevant. Your SEO content development service should create copy that caters to your target audience’s needs specifically while speaking in a tone your buyer profile will resonate with best. Making sure your copy is relevant is why a great social media strategy and up-to-date market research are so important. 

6. Incorporating Strong Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

A call to action (CTA) is a statement that clearly tells an online reader what to do next, according to where they are in the sales funnel. You might add a call to action at the end of a Youtube ad, with a clickable link to a website or a signup page. 

A call to action will simply explain to the reader what they can expect should they follow the CTA. Without a clear CTA, your reader might jump off the sales funnel instead of getting to the end and ultimately converting. Creating persuasive CTAs takes practice. However, you can start by using a couple of recommended steps. When you see pop-up CTAs on websites or Google ads, they’ll usually say something like, “Visit our site to learn more.” CTAs begin with a direct action verb. 

Next, offer a high-value product but with little risk. So, instead of directly encouraging your reader to buy your product, you could motivate your reader to visit your site and “learn more” instead. As a result, our online reader isn’t being pressured into making a purchase but feels like they’re gaining something of value (information) by being encouraged to visit your website. 

You could try to include a value proposition or a selling point to make your CTA persuasive, like highlighting a discount or special. Lastly, use colours that make it stand out – so that your audience can’t miss your CTA.

7. Optimising Content for SEO 

SEO, or search engine optimisation, can help increase your content’s visibility online. Your marketing agency can use SEO techniques to ensure your online media works with Google and social media platforms’ current algorithms. When you search anything in Google, websites incorporating great SEO techniques usually pop up first. The same applies to social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. If your content is visible to your target audience, it may more likely be engaged with, too.

One SEO technique involves incorporating trending keywords into your website’s copy. Trending keywords are phrases that are most commonly searched. These keywords can be strategically placed in different parts of your website. For example, certain phrases may be placed in your blog’s headings or on your business landing page. 

There are a variety of other on-page optimisation techniques your business can use to improve its SEO capabilities. On top of adding keywords to your website’s landing page and in blogs, you could add keywords to your online images’ alt-texts too. When it comes to sharing videos, adding a script with trending keywords can also improve online visibility and, thus, engagement. 

8. Measuring and Analysing Performance

The metrics or data we analyse are called key performance indicators (or KPIs). KPIs measure performance over time to help you reach a specific outcome. Meeting your KPIs can improve engagement and, thus, conversion rates too.

Tracking KPIs sounds complicated, but it doesn’t need to be. With technological advancements, there are many ways to measure your digital strategy’s performance. You can use the insights from your digital media campaigns, alongside online tools like Google Analytics, to see how well your advertising strategy works and whether it results in conversions. These metrics will also show you where to make changes to improve engagement and conversion rates.

Collecting and analysing data is helpful because it can inform your team – and ultimately improve your marketing efforts and service offerings. Reviewing collected data also tells you whether you’re getting an ROI for your marketing efforts. Two key metrics to track will be your engagement and conversion rates to see where they fall short and where you can improve them. 

Looking for Great Content Creation Ideas?

If you’re looking for original and exciting content creation ideas, consider working with the Goodman Lantern team. From market research to tracking meaningful metrics, to creating compelling copy that converts – we’re passionate about upgrading your content marketing strategy. Contact us if you’re looking to up your engagement and boost your bottom line!

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