Marketing Solutions: Content Strategy

Marketing Solutions
That Make Sense:
Conversion Content Strategy

– Marketing ideas are like opinions:? Everyone has them, regardless of whether they are solicited, well-informed or productive.?? Marketing solutions are another thing altogether.???In order for a marketing idea to become a solution, it must generate a return on the investment you put into it.? Absent the desired ROI from your marketing, it’s really not a solution at all.??This applies equally to outbound and inbound marketing and many companies fall short of their inbound marketing potential.

Inbound?Marketing Solutions:
A Review

Successful Inbound Marketing Solutions result in visitors to your?website and other places where you make your presence known (e.g., blogs,?whitepapers and social networking sites, aka SNS, among other types of content marketing)?and the conversion of those visitors into customers.? Content fuels this “Conversion Machine.”

Inbound Marketing Solutions, to be truly effective, require a strategic content plan as part of an overall comprehensive program of Inbound Marketing.? To maximize effectiveness of such a plan, an organization should commit it to a formal, written document that outlines a Content Strategy based on goals, objectives and budgets.? If it increases conversions because it generates calls-to-action (CTA), then the Content Strategy?is indeed an effective component of your marketing solutions.

Content Strategy:
Essential to Crafting Inbound Marketing Solutions.?

Simply put, an investment in?Content Strategy is an investment in your future because it invests in future customers.? Content in and of itself is simply information, something?those who visit your online presence may or may not consider interesting, important?or even relevant.??And make no mistake, there is a huge difference between providing information?and creating conversations.?? The former?simply makes you a resource,?the latter?produces marketing solutions for onsite and online marketing initiatives.

Successful Inbound Marketing may involve complex information and ideas, but it fails because of two simple?truths:

1)??Ignorance

2) ?Lack of Planning

Marketing solutions require?intelligence and an actual plan based?on strategic goals and objectives.??Demand a formal written Content Strategy from your marketing team, your marketing firm, yourself, written Content Strategy that fully integrates applicable best practices.

How Content Converts

In?order for?Content Strategy to become a Conversion Machine that creates the conversations needed to turn visitors into customers, it?should:

• Prioritize focus on products and/or services
• Develop content funnels which enable you to identify the content necessary
• Identify landing page opportunities to attract visitors
• Outline content development?to Educate, Engaged, Encourage and Embrace potential customers at each stage of the purchase cycle
• Close?gaps in Content for UX (User Experience)?and SEO
• Adhere to?Inbound Marketing?Solutions Best Practices

Unlike taking the measure of a man, taking the measure of information involves not judging the content of the character but the character of?the content.

A Conversion Machine requires…

Superior Content
“Fit for a King”

…content rich in important, relevant, useful information.? If your content lacks those characteristics, it?actually becomes a barrier to conversion rather than one of your marketing solutions.

 

The most effective Content Strategy creates conversations that convert visitors into your customers by utilizing, for example, 3-D content written to target personas, written around product/service customer benefits and written and served at the perfect point in the buying cycle.? As well,?when you??write content for SEO and UX, start by writing for prospective customers first because content is consumed when it answers your prospect’s questions.? When you answer their questions, it leads to conversions.

The Four “E’s”
of Content Conversion:

A good way to remember what your Content Strategy should include is The Four E’s of Content Conversion:

• Educate
• Engage
• Encourage
• Embrace

Inbound marketing solutions that include Content Strategy that accomplishes those tasks will ultimately:

1. Attract Visitors
2. Nurture Leads
3. Create Customer Conversations
4. Cause Conversions

Inbound Marketing Solutions:
Without effective Content Strategy, you don’t have any.

Would you like some?