How do you increase sales with content marketing?

Ever wonder how content marketing drives sales? Here are some industry-specific tips for those who want to build brand awareness about their business online.

This article is Part 3 of 3 in our Expert Guide to Drive Sales with Content Marketing in 3 Steps

Hey: if customers aren’t aware of who you are, where to find you, and what you do, there’s little to no chance they’ll do business with you. In the online world, content marketing is what gets your name out there, and gets your services in front of the right people.

What types of content actually increase sales? | How content marketing drives sales

Capturing your users’ interest with a well-written website content can be a challenge, while creating a successful online marketing strategy is sometimes best left to the professionals.

What is important when creating content, either on your own, or once you have an online marketing strategy in place, is to write about things that are significant to your business, services, product, or website.

For example, at The Digital Navigator, we are experts in SEO and website development services. As a result we write about how other companies and businesses (large or small) can drive sales with great SEO rankings, content marketing tips, and other website performance improvements they may need.

Altogether, our goal is to provide a service for business owners, while our content gives them all the tools and education they need to do it on their own–knowing of course that we’re always there to step in if needed.

Well then, what kind of content will actually increase product sales?

Obviously the answer is going to vary depending on what industry you’re in, but the content that is most likely to increase business sales should match the needs, interests, and problems of your target customers. That means using a few tricks to figure out who you are writing to when you create a piece of content.

At The Digital Navigator, we do have a tried and true four-step method to creating great content that can foster more creativity during content organization, strategy, and development–we’re happy to share it with you below!

4 Steps to Inspire Website Content to Increase Product Sales | How to Drive Online Sales

1. Identify your unique value proposition. Your website should answer the why and how of your business, explaining how your products or services provide value to your customers. In addition to the value proposition, your content should be targeted and relevant to your customers so it is unique and helps you differentiate your website and services from your competitors.
2. Use the 5 W’s (and 1 H) of great content marketing strategy. Although these may seem basic, answering the following will support content writing that is catered to your target audience, your content objectives, and to drive or boost sales for your business.
   • Why? Why are you embarking on this project?
   • What? What is your message?
   • Who? Who is your audience?
   • Where? Where will the message be read (location, device, context)?
   • When? How long will it take to create and publish your content?
   • How? How should you present/structure your content?
3. Target each of your audience personas or avatars. It is essential that you create website content while keeping different target audiences in mind. These varying groups will all have access to your content, so you want to make sure each piece is as multifaceted as possible, and targets buyer needs, interests, and goals. These personas not only help you understand the type of people you are targeting but also give you hints to understand buyer behavior.
4. Use the right language. You should try your best to speak the same language as your audience, since they are the prospective clients who are going to influence your business. If you have younger audiences, use casual language and slang.

If you have professional audiences, don’t hesitate to use more technical language. Whatever the case may be, you should avoid using internal jargon, and always use verbiage that your audience will understand.

You should also use easily digestible language, and lean towards a more conversational tone, so clients can resonate with your content. This is also how marketing increases sales for your content!

Want to know more? Learn how to get targeted leads from Google in our latest blog article.

What does Google want from your website content?

Contrary to what some might think, not all content is created equal. First, you’ll want to make sure that your content marketing strategy aligns with Google’s requirements, and that it is on-brand for your company and sales goals.

By following Google’s parameters, this allows your website to be in a higher-ranked position in search engines results, and doubly ensures that your content is relevant.

Don’t be intimidated by these parameters…we promise they are there to ensure you get great quality content.

You don’t want to miss out on leads who need help with a problem you can solve, only to discover that the highest ranking results from their query aren’t yours.

We recently broke down some of the most important SEO ranking factors you need to increase conversions for your website on our blog, as well as the best way to improve your organic search visibility–we recommend you save those links for future reading to get a full picture of how to get really great ranked content.

For your convenience though, we’ve added some content marketing tips from Google here. Altogether, these materials should help you feel prepared to create outstanding content for your website:

How to Create Good Website Content | How Content Marketing Drives Sales

You asked, “How can I increase my sales with great content”, and we’re here with a few answers to help! Check out the list below for our quick tips on how to drive online sales using content you’ll love to create!

• Improve speed: Use our article on How to Speed up a Website for your web speed optimization to quickly improve speed so users can actually read your content when they land on your website.
• Increase mobile responsiveness: When your site is optimized for mobile, your customers notice, and your content looks great no matter where potential clients find it. Having confusing or ill-placed content while scrolling on mobile often results in unwanted bounces, and less clicks to the rest of your website.
• Write well and update old content: a website that is updated regularly with well-written content frequently will encourage your users to return. This allows both old and new traffic to flow to your website. Remember to update old content as well, since Google likes to make sure your content stays relevant.
• Categorize your posts: using relevant tags and labels are a helpful way to organize your content and encourage users to browse your blog. When content is organized, it allows users to find relevant and valuable content related to their interest with ease–plus helps you rank higher on search engine results.
• Create descriptive titles: relevant titles that are SEO-friendly provide a better user experience, as they can be easily understood by users. Descriptive, unique titles also establishes unique URLs for each post. This process gives search engines dynamic, essential, and valuable information about the content of your page. Not to mention, aligning descriptive titles with what people would actually type in the search engine will improve your SEO results and ranking!
• Connecting with your online community: online presence is important to create a rich network, as it allows your website to be easily accessible so you can communicate with your users. Here, we recommend you focus on building guest articles and curating interview experiences. You can also add linkable content from 3rd party sites. Leveraging content through social media can be effective for your audience, however it does not impact search results, so leverage that content wisely.
• Publish an RSS feed of your content: Although not many content sites today use RSS feeds or readers today, some still use it for SEO purposes. Still, we would recommend relying more on content distribution through email and social media. That said, publishing feeds of your content allows users to be notified whenever you update your website. This helps users understand what other content you have available, all in one place.

Want to know more? Learn how to get targeted leads from Google in our latest blog article, or enjoy free access to our lead generation webinar below. Enjoy!

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This article is Part 3 of 3 in our Expert Guide to Drive Sales with Content Marketing in 3 Steps. Missed out on the basics? Go back and read Part 1: What is content marketing?, or check out Part 2: How to create unique content for your website for more great content tips!