Lead Generation Through Content Marketing: How Does it Work?

Content marketing is a great way to generate leads, and this guide will give you seven great tips on how to do it effectively.

1. Make a decision on the type of content to be created

There are myriad content types available to choose from, making it crucial to select those that best align with your goals and the needs of your target audience. Otherwise, you run the risk of an ineffective content marketing campaign.

There are two main reasons for starting a content marketing campaign: to create content that will bring in traffic, and to generate leads. The two are closely related because you can’t generate leads without traffic. If your main goal is to generate leads, you should consider using white papers, testimonials, and case studies as content, because these “lead magnets” will help nurture your prospects.

There are many types of content that can be used to generate traffic, such as blog posts, videos, infographics, podcasts, and social media posts. Other content types to consider include content upgrades, free reports, and webinars. Any format of content you choose should be able to convey value to the viewers.

2. Constitute a buyer persona [know your audience]

Before creating any content, you need to understand your ideal audience by creating a buyer persona for them. Trying to appeal to the internet as a whole will not result in any real interest. You can only provide value to your customers or clients when you know what they need.

A buyer persona is an ideal customer that a brand, product, or service is trying to attract. It is a research-based or fictional document that shows the details of this ideal customer. Having a buyer persona helps businesses understand who their prospective customers are and what results they want. This allows businesses to create content that is focused on attracting the right people.

A buyer persona should include the following details:

• Name, Gender, Location, Age, Occupation, Income

• Problems your target audience need solutions to

• Target audience having any objection towards your product or services, and reason for objection

• What they’re struggling with and questions they need answered.

Content created for an audience that is not a good match has a limited chance of generating any leads or, even worse, the wrong lead. The goal of a buyer persona should be to help you pinpoint, with great accuracy, the type, tone, style, and probably delivery channels of content that will improve conversions or sales.

A buyer persona can be created for each different product or service that is offered, in order to appeal to the targeted customers more and attract leads. However, if you are new to content marketing, it is advisable to stick to only one persona at a time, as it can be intense to handle multiple personas all at once.

To create an effective buyer persona, you need to include as much relevant information as possible to help make decision-making easier and faster.

In order to identify the ideal customer, market research surveys and interviews must be conducted. Customer service crew members should not be taken for granted as they are the ones who interact with potential and current customers.

After completing your research and creating a buyer persona, you will have a much better understanding of the content that will appeal to your target audience and generate leads. Keep in mind that generating leads starts with understanding your audience.

3. Choose your content distribution channels

The process of distributing can be complex and needs to be planned out accordingly. After creating content, the next step is to distribute it. This involves deciding how to share it and which channels to use.

There are fundamentally two ways to distribute content – organic and paid. Organic distribution takes time and effort to build up online presence and authority, since money isn’t involved. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Search Engines, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest are examples of platforms under this distribution channel. Just so you know, all these channels don’t have to be utilized collectively for content distribution before this can prove to be effective. With your buyer persona you can discover the platform that will be the perfect fit for your website and audience.

Paid distribution is a great way to get faster results without putting in a lot of time or effort. A well-crafted PPC campaign can generate new website visitors and quality leads very effectively. PPC, or Pay-Per-Click, campaigns are paid ads that only cost money when someone clicks on them. Google Adwords, Social media ads, Banner ads, Display ads, Content Discovery Networks, and Native ads are all examples of PPC campaigns.

Instead of worrying about which channel to use, why not use both of them to get twice the results? It all depends on your budget and how much time you’re willing to spend.

4. Utilize content promotion techniques

Content that is varied makes promotion easier because it allows you to be less tied to one platform that you may not be very excited about.

If you have content in multiple formats, what is the best way to promote it? Without promotion, the content might as well not exist.

If you want to get new customers through content marketing, you need to promote your blog posts and reach out to the right people. This will help you get out of your comfort zone and convert leads into customers.

You do not need to have your content be off-beat or go viral on a social media channel in order to be successful. If it does not fit your messaging, stick with your quality content.

Here are some of the best ways to promote your content and generate quality leads:

If you want to make your content more effective, consider using targeted opt-in forms.

A content upgrade is something that you can download within a blog post, such as a bonus, a report, or the content you’re reading in a different format.

Instead of having one universal report or ebook that you give away, create a very specific and valuable bonus each time you write a blog post.

Building your email list is quickest through this method because the lead bait is directed at individuals reading your blog post, which increases the likelihood of them becoming subscribers.

There are other things that you can give away as a content upgrade in your post:

• Videos
• Podcasts
• Membership access
• Hardcover book
• License for software
• Discount code
• Templates, WordPress themes
• Plugins

The key to making content upgrades work for you is to produce high-quality, detailed content on a regular basis. By establishing yourself as a go-to source for this type of content, you’ll be able to attract the people who are most likely to be interested in your business.

You can improve the reach and conversion rate of your headline by targeting long-tail keywords.

5. Maximize social media outreach

Reaching out to potential leads through social media is essential to your success in generating new leads.

If you want to be successful in any industry, you have to connect with others who will help you reach more people.

This is the type of chain reaction that can be set off by a social media marketing campaign. If you are able to connect with just three social media influencers, that can quickly lead to Ten new connections being made within twenty-four hours. The reason being, is that the people you have connected with are also apart of a network and have their own followers on various social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

It is very important to have a good understanding of the steps to social media engagement so that you can communicate effectively without being too pushy and still respecting social media culture.

If you want to be successful in your industry, it’s a good idea to follow expert figures on social media, and get involved in conversations with them. This way, you can stay up to date on the latest industry news and developments, and gain some valuable insights and advice.

Find three experts in your industry and locate one of their online profiles.

Then, you have three things to do:

• Check how many followers the expert has (1000+ followers, preferably)
• Follow the expert
• Visit their blog to contact them directly

Try to connect with experts who are willing to discuss your topic.

You shouldn’t just look at the number of followers someone has when you’re trying to decide if they’re worth following. It’s better to follow someone with 2,000 diehard Twitter followers than to follow Justin Bieber with his millions of followers.

The purpose of conducting a social media analysis is to identify social media influencers and offer them assistance.

If you want to increase engagement on your social media channels, try doing one or more of the following: commenting on other peoples’ blogs, sharing content with your readers, recommending products, or sending friendly notifications. The more you give, the more connected people will feel to you, and that’s when real engagement begins.

6. Map out your content plan

When you’ve decided what kind of content to create and how to distribute and promote it, the final step is to create a content plan that ties all these processes together and makes them more effective.

Your content plan should include the topics of content you will publish, the frequency of publication, and when to promote already published content. You should update your content plan regularly to keep it effective.

A content calender, like Trello, can promote communication between editorial members by keeping track of work flow.

7. Generate lead nurturing through email

The most important reason for lead nurturing is that the first contact with a potential buyer does not usually lead to sales. These people need to be educated and informed.

Your email newsletter can help build trust with potential customers and turn them into paying customers. By making your newsletter informative and valuable, you can make potential customers more likely to buy your product.

Once a prospect joins your email list, they should receive a confirmation email to qualify them as subscribers.

You should be grateful to the people on your list for letting you contact them. Only send them material that is high-quality and interesting, not every day, but occasionally.

From there, your subscribers will be expecting to receive regular updates that are more informative, more valuable and more likely to spur them to action on a regular basis.

The frequency with which you send out emails is up to you, but it is recommended that you maintain a consistent schedule so that you can gauge the effects of your marketing strategy.

The goal of a follow-up email is to get subscribers to open and read it. Try to communicate at least once a week so that your subscribers don’t forget about you.

Conclusion

Anybody can start a blog, but it’s hard to get people to subscribe to it or trust you enough to buy from you. If you want to succeed in social media marketing and blogging and get more leads, you need to focus more on your target audience’s needs.

If you follow these seven steps, you will eventually generate leads with content that is valuable to them. Keep optimizing for users, because search engines track what users do on your site.

If you want to increase your search traffic and attract more leads, make sure your content is high quality.