For the fresh-faced content marketer, lead generation feels like sorcery. How can that blog you wrote in a caffeine-induced haze ever become actionable content? And why isn’t every other content creator as stressed about this as you?
Well firstly, they sober up. Then they check that their 2am ramblings are relevant to their target audience. And finally, they read a hell of a lot of guides like this one.
Content marketing lead generation is achievable for every level of content marketer. And we put five tactics together to prove it.
Get the comprehensive guide to content marketing lead generation below
The keyword-packing SEO hacks of yesteryear are no more. Google now rewards content that’s helpful to readers. In fact, its RankBrain algorithm uses machine learning to determine search intent. In Google’s own words:
Search algorithms look at many factors, including the words of your query, relevance and usability of pages, expertise of sources and your location and settings. The weight applied to each factor varies depending on the nature of your query – for example, the freshness of the content plays a bigger role in answering queries about current news topics than it does about dictionary definitions.
This means that while you must please the Google crawler by doing things like:
You must also answer questions that your target audience has about your niche if you want to generate hot leads. And comprehensively. Research shows that top 10 results tend to be north of 2,000 words.
Only writing content that plugs your product or service will make you hard to discover on the search engine results page (SERP). Meanwhile, writing content that never plugs your product or service will turn leads towards your competitors. That’s why creating content for different stages of the buyer’s journey is so important.
In the Awareness stage, buyers know they have a problem but they don’t know how to solve it. On search engines, they’ll make informational queries like:
When the buyer is working out solutions to their problem in the Consideration stage, they’ll make navigational queries like:
They’re also likely to carry out some commercial investigations by searching:
In the Decision Stage, when the buyer is ready to choose their fate, they’ll make transactional queries like:
For content marketing lead generation, you must create a blend of this content. By doing this, you’ll be able to guide them from A to Z. A detailed picture of your ideal customer also helps in this process. With one, you’ll be able to specific wants, needs and pain points in every piece.
Achieving your lead gen goals is directly linked to your visibility on search engines. And getting to page one of the SERP is crucial. That’s because 75% of searchers don’t get as far as page two. So, choose your target keywords and track them.
And if you don’t quite reach page one, think about adding more value. To do this, you could create an infographic to your piece, adding relevant alt text. You could also Google search your keyword and review FAQs and related searches. This will help to improve the depth of your content.
Tools like Google Analytics also give you key metrics like session length, bounce rate and click-through rate (CTR). The more data you gather, the more effective you’ll be in recreating content types that your audience responds to.
Say your blogs about content marketing have high session lengths and low bounce rates. Whereas your blogs about tips for startups have low session lengths and high bounce rates. To action that data, you’d exchange your content about startup tips for more content marketing pieces.
If you’re ranking in the number one spot for your search term, your competitors are trying to dethrone you. The good news is you can stay ahead of the game by updating your content. Identifying keyword gaps and including new research to back up your points prompts Google to re-crawl your content.
Increasing your reach is also an important content amplification strategy. And industry influencers can help you achieve it. That’s because they have large and targeted followings. Their endorsement gives you a gateway into untapped audiences and helps support your SEO efforts.
Beyond socials, influencer networks and organic SEO, where do you turn to push your latest Ultimate Guide, webinar or online event? Well, part of the answer lies in channels you already own.
Email, for example, is a largely untapped marketing resource. And if employees send 40 emails on average per day and the business has 100 workers, that gives you 4,000 opportunities to push your content. Per day.
Email signature marketing platforms allow marketers to centrally control campaigns. This means you can push different campaigns to different audience segments and measure their success.
Lead capture software, website visitor tracking platforms and social proof tools could also help you drive your content marketing lead generation.
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