One of the most cost-effective ways to reach your target market is to create and publish great content — content that answers questions your target audience has, providing a solution to a problem they routinely encounter, or that points them to a information source or useful tool which can help them do what they do better.
As the content creator, your focus has to go beyond simply providing information or a solution. You want to know if your content is converting readers into prospects — people who through one channel or another respond to your Social Media posts/articles by taking an action defined by you as a ‘conversion’. These conversions may be someone filing out a form on your website, requesting more information, a phone call to your business, or anything that your business deems as a prospect becoming an interested party.
With that in mind, here are some tips to encourage conversions in your content:
Carefully Craft your Headline — Make It Creative
The first thing a person sees for your blog post or article is the title. Creating a captivating, intriguing headline that invites the readers to want to read more takes time and a bit of creativity, we recommend trying out a couple of headlines with your friends or co-workers — sort of an A/B Test — to see which ones are most effective and interesting. The feedback obtained from your sample feedback group can be used to re-craft the headline- and to help you create great headlines for all of your future content.
Here are some additional guidelines recommended by content experts:
· Headlines with 8 or fewer words are most of effective when measured by click-through rate
· Writing your headline as questions is recommended, over ending it with an exclamation point or period
Add Visuals, Infographics, and Videos to your Posts
Adding visual elements to your content goes far in increasing the readability and appeal of your content. Studies repeatedly show that people are far more likely to read a post that has a relevant image or infographic attached than ones that lack graphics. Visuals also serve to break up long sections of text — making them more appealing and readable.
When using graphics, experts also assert that using original graphics is preferred over stock photography. By using original graphics, your content stands out as unique and intriguing.
When your content contains a lot of data, using graphs and charts is highly recommended by experts. Graphs and charts help reader digest content and to take greater meaning from your article.
Videos also make your content far more likely to be read. The video can support the text in the blog/article, or an add additional information to be viewed.
Write in an easy-to-read format
Often, blog posts are written in a way analogous to a long, drawn out monolog. These posts contain a single (or possibly two) paragraph(s), with long sentences piled one on the top the other. The content may be good, but in this format, it isn’t likely to identify as a key source.
Here are some tips to make your content easier to read and more likely to convert:
· An ideal blog post length would be between 4–6 paragraphs, with each paragraph containing 5–6 sentences.
· Use bullet points to break up long sections of text
· As a general rule, make content scan-able
Have meaningful Calls-to-Action (CTA)
Create CTA’s that provides the reader/recipient with something of value. Make sure the CTA is customer-driven, not business-focused (focused on your business).The idea is to give your prospects something of value or something that can be of value one day — a carefully thought out CTA can do this.
As one of the leading Advertising Agencies in Michigan, Aqaba Technologies has been crafting strong, effective content for our clients for over a decade — creating content that creates conversions — turning readers into prospects.
