How to Create a Content Strategy to Maximize Lead Generation
Article by Claire
If you haven’t heard already, content is KING. As such, it should be paramount to your lead generation efforts. Today’s consumers value content, but— as everything— not all content is created equally.
According to Marketo, content “must educate, inspire, and beg to be shared. It should help leads overcome challenges and achieve their aspirations. If you are able to do that, leads will flock to you, and you’ll gain their trust.” But how does your business accomplish this? What steps can you take to make to ensure your content is working hard for you? You’ve come to the right place to find out!
The following article will explain why content marketing— also known as inbound marketing— is such an important factor of successful marketing, and what you can do to create the most effective content strategy. 
Why Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is content-driven and includes methods like writing blog posts or articles, posting to social media, and ensuring your website is SEO-friendly. Inbound marketing is more powerful and more cost-effective than traditional methods of outbound marketing or advertising, such as cold calling, trade shows and seminars. In fact, inbound marketing produces three times as many leads as traditional outbound methods.
Additionally, leads made from inbound marketing cost a whopping 61% less on average than leads made from outbound marketing. When it comes to turning leads into customers, inbound wins again. Properly executed inbound marketing is 10 times more effective for lead conversion than outbound, and 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement.
The numbers speak for themselves— switching to inbound marketing could just be the smartest move you make for your business.
Steps to Creating a Content Marketing Strategy to Maximize Lead Generation
A fantastic content marketing strategy is never out of reach. Investing time and energy into creating a successful inbound approach will save you money and lead to an increase in your sales. The following steps will help make sure your strategy is as potent as possible.
1. Research to Find out What Your Target Audiences Want:
Inbound and Content marketing is all about giving value to your customers and potential customers. The content you create needs to be content that audiences want to read and engage with, otherwise your efforts will be in vain. Therefore, you need to take the time to get to know your audience by performing market research. This will help you to answer important questions such as: What does my audience like? What topics will be most interesting to them? What subjects will they find the most enriching? The knowledge you gain from your endeavors will provide a solid foundation and a vital reference throughout the following steps of your campaign.
2. Define Your Keywords:
Following on from the above, you’ll also want to include keyword research as part of your research efforts. SEO is an essential part of a complete inbound strategy, and having the right keywords will help attract audiences to your website and your content. Find what keywords and phrases your audiences are most likely to search for and incorporate these into your content.
3. Offer Valuable Content and Include Obvious CTAs:
Now that you know just what your audiences will be searching for and what type of content is likely to capture their attention, it’s time to create it. Use the results from step one and two to develop compelling content that will captivate potential customers. This includes social media content, blog posts, articles, case studies, ebooks, videos, infographics, etc.
Make sure content is accompanied by useful visuals whenever possible. Blog posts and other digital articles should be 1000 words or longer, include facts and statistics, and start with an attention-grabbing headline. Your blog should be updated as much as possible, but aim for once a week at the very least. If you’re able to blog daily, even better! In fact, 82% of marketers who blog daily acquired a customer using their blog, vs. 57% of marketers who only blog monthly.
Your content should come complete with a defined Call to Action (or CTA). You’ll want to use this CTA to turn visitors into leads, so ask for their email, phone number, or any other information that gives you a direct connection to these valuable leads. Successful content marketing should essentially be an equal exchange: your business giving audiences valuable information, and your audiences, in return, fulfilling your CTA.
4. Make Gated Content:
Gated content is content that is only accessible when audiences complete your desired CTA. This type of content has to be extremely valuable in order to make visitors want to provide their personal information and for it to be worth the time that it takes visitors to enter that information. Gated content will usually apply to content such as ebooks, webinars, free trials, online courses, video series, white papers, statistics and market data, and expert advice and interviews. These special, unique types of content will be worth more to audiences and therefore they can be used to better capture lead generation information.
5. Create Landing Pages:
Create landing pages that will work to convert visitors into tangible leads. In addition to ensuring the operation of your landing page is incredibly fast and efficient, there are some standard design components that all great landing pages usually have. Start with a strong headline and punchy introduction and build the reader’s interest as you move down the page. Your CTA should stand out and be crystal clear, and you should offer your visitors something in exchange for completing it (access to gated content, a promotional code, a percentage off their order, a free consultation, etc). The CTA is the essence of your lead capture, so it needs to be as tempting as possible. Your landing page should also include links to your social media profiles.
6. Promote Your Content:
If your content doesn’t have the chance to reach your target audience, it may as well not exist. Help expose your content by including long-tail keywords. Make sure to leverage social media to your advantage and promote content across your profiles and invest in paid advertising to help spread the word. Consider partnering with relevant blogs or experts in order to gain access to their followings. The more people that see your content, the more chances you’ll have to gain leads.
Lead generation is one of the most important components of your business, and an efficient content strategy is essential for optimal lead generation. The above suggestions will help get you started in the right direction.
Author Bio
Currently working as a Marketing Executive at Design Wizard, Claire is passionate about creating amazing content and bringing people together. Having recently graduated with her masters degree in Marketing she is keen to impact the digital world. Outside of work you can catch Claire taking photos of her rescue dog Storm and checking out social media.