Francesca Cordido, Communications Strategist, 8th April 2022
From conversation to conversion
For managers responsible for content marketing strategies, content is a tool to generate sales opportunities; but moving from conversation to conversion is not easy. Here are some tips.
Convince to establish a conversation, which will lead to a conversion. These are the three pillars on which content strategy is built. Persuading the audience to click on the title or key phrase is the first step towards establishing a dialogue, which in turn will trigger the opportunity to generate an action. This sequence seems simple, but it entails difficulties.
While for traditional media publishers generating excellent content is in itself a goal –revenue is obtained through advertising–, for managers responsible for content marketing strategies, content is a tool to create sales opportunities.
As we have already said, content is the key to establishing a conversation with our target audiences. Conversion, however, occurs when the user/consumer performs the action we desire, for example, completing a form or clicking on a link. But achieving that final goal of a call to action is not always easy.
Tracing the customer journey and having adapted content for each stage of the buying process is fundamental for progress.
Therefore, the creation of many types of content is essential. They must stretch from interest, from their first contact with the industry, the product or service, and cover the whole customer journey until they get to know the brand. The ultimate intention is to turn our brand into a reliable source of information.
All the content we create must be available at multiple consumer touchpoints. It is important to be where our customers are. There are hundreds of social networks, although the best known and most used are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter. It is useless to create exceptional content if we publish it in media and networks that our target customers do not follow.
The creation of useful and transactional content, such as a typical “how-to…”, which includes texts, videos, and infographics, provides the opportunity of being on different channels with the same content and at the same time ask users if they want a demo or a budget, for example.
Finally, if you’ve created great, engaging content that attracts many visits, make it easy to convert. It is essential to trigger the steps for conversion with a neat, attractive, simple call to action.
