Secrets Revealed: How to Create Content That Converts

Content marketing is big business. It's been estimated that over 80% of B2B and B2C businesses use content as part of their marketing strategy, and that number is only increasing. With so much effort being put into creating content, it's important to ensure your audience sees it and engages with it.

This isn't always easy: the average conversion rate for marketing email campaigns is just 0.06%, according to research from Mailchimp.

So what can you do to make sure yours succeeds?

Here are six tips for creating effective content that converts!

Understand your audience and what they care about.

This is the most important step, and you should be able to answer these questions before writing a single word:

• Who are your readers?

• What do they care about?

• What do they want to know about?

• What do they want to buy from you?

• How can you help them accomplish something with your content (and when)?

Know your end goal with content and exactly what you want it to achieve.

It's not enough to just create content. You need to know exactly what your end goal is and why you're creating it. If you don't have a clear idea of what your ultimate objective is, then how do you know if your content is working?

Here's a simple test: If someone asked me, "What are you trying to achieve with this blog post?" I would be able to answer with confidence. But if they asked me "What was the purpose of this blog post?", I wouldn't have an answer ready at hand. And that's because I didn't actually have one!

It may seem silly or unnecessary but it really matters when we're talking about conversion rates and SEO rankings (which are often affected by the intent behind our writing).

Use the right content to achieve your goals.

In order to know what the content is for, you must first know its purpose. Let's say you want people to buy a product or service. Then you need a landing page that sells it on your site (or off). The next step is deciding what format this should take. Does it need to be an ebook? A video testimonial? An infographic? A blog post?

The possibilities are endless! But before we get carried away with all these exciting options, let's pause and consider who the audience will be. If they're newbies in your industry, they'll probably respond better if you send them a white paper than if they're experienced professionals who prefer reading long-form articles. If they're millennials then maybe Instagram Stories is more their thing than YouTube (though both platforms are great). And so on...

Use A/B testing to evaluate content going forward.

A/B testing is a great way to learn more about your audience and how they respond to different types of content. For example, you can test two versions of an article on the same topic and see which one resonates better with your audience. Or, if you have a long-form piece that’s been doing well on social media, try posting it as a blog post instead.

If you are getting consistent traffic from Facebook ads but not converting into leads or sales, A/B test new ad copy and images to see if that changes anything.

Testing different pieces of content over time allows you to see what works for your target market at different stages in their buying cycle — whether it be through paid ads or organic SEO — so don’t just look at the short-term results!

The better you understand your audience, the more likely you are to create effective content that converts.

You may be asking yourself, “How do I know what my audience wants?” The answer is simple:

• Ask them.

• Listen to what they say in the comments section of your blog posts and on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

• See what content gets shared most and comes up on their personal newsfeeds more often than other posts (this will give you an idea of what they’re interested in).

• Look at behavior patterns over time, especially when it comes to clicking away from a page or making purchases (which will tell you that they have an interest in certain products or services).

Conclusion

If you’re looking to create content that converts, the first step is understanding what your audience wants. You may not always get it right on the first try, but by using A/B testing and listening to customer feedback, you can improve over time.