There’s a huge difference between attracting visitors to your page and generating leads — which people seem to overlook in most cases. You can attract thousands of visitors every month with a variety of SEO hacks and ranking higher in the search engine results page (SERP). But if you are failing to generate new leads every month, traffic is not going to add any value to your business.

In a recent report, WebDAM has revealed that blogging consistently allows B2B marketers to generate 67% more leads than those who do not. Moreover, high-value content has always been in demand. And if you are able to meet the needs of the users through your content marketing efforts, they are more likely to trust you as a brand, resulting in generating more leads.

However, lead generation does not happen overnight. You do need a strong marketing plan to turn things in your favor. But most importantly, you need to learn the content marketing tricks that can help you earn the trust of the visitors. Here, we are going to discuss 5 ways you can use content marketing to generate more number of leads for your business.

#1. Know your audience:

The problem with most businesses these days is that they think they know their audience. But in reality, they only have an assumption of what their ideal audience may be. If you are running a B2B business, you need to have a clear idea about who you are serving, and what your audience may need from you.

According to marketing guru Neil Patel, “Smart decisions are based on in-depth market analysis.” So, you need to spend a significant amount of time in learning who are the potential customers for your product or service. Commercial keywords can help you understand the intent of your prospects. You can use tools like Google Adwords Keywords Planner to find what the users are mostly looking for.

Understanding the needs of the audience lets you join the conversation more easily and channel attention to your site, where they can find more focused solutions to their problems. By answering the questions your potential customers are asking, you can build your personal brand. And your content (especially blogs) can allow you to do that.

#2. Your landing page needs to be compelling:

Have a look at your website’s landing page, and then check the landing page of a competitor who is generating more number of leads every month. You’ll find some significant differences.

Before you can create high-converting blogs, you need to understand the anatomy of a perfect landing page. According to Formstack, an ideal landing page should contain the following elements:

• Page headlines and advertisement copy that complements each other
• Clear and concise headlines
• Grammatically correct content
• Trust indicators (guarantee seals, reviews, testimonials, etc.)
• Strong call-to-action buttons
• Links to important pages (in moderation)
• Visual elements that comply with your copy

Image Source: Formstack.com

Unfortunately, learning about the essential elements of an ideal landing page is not going to improve your conversion rates if you don’t know how to utilize them. As you may have noticed, not all landing pages are created equal. And it is important to be unique when it comes to building a brand. But more importantly, you need to be particular about the landing page design in order to draw in prospects and convert them.

Moreover, your landing page needs to be fast. According to KISSmetrics, the delay of one second in landing page loading can reduce a website’s conversion rate by 7 per cent. So, you need to figure out ways to speed up your pages’ loading time while ensuring proper aesthetics and usability of the landing pages.

#3. Publish case studies to showcase your value:

Case studies can be a great conversion tool which allows you to establish your value in the market by exhibiting your skills and ability. In other words, it allows you to generate interest in your services. Case studies function as a catalyst to a curious prospect who needs to take action.

Stories are more compelling to readers than rational information. As long as your case study has a story that resonates with the prospects, you are likely to trigger a response from your lead generation system. In a survey conducted by B2B Technology Marketing Group, 44% of the respondents (digital marketers) identified case studies as the most effective content marketing tactic for lead generation.

To improve your chances of lead generation with case studies, you can use these following strategies:

1. Create a dedicated case studies page. Google’s Think with Google is a good example to consider.
2. Put case studies on your homepage as well, using CTA that links to the case studies page or customer quotes/testimonials.
3. Write blog posts about your case studies to give the case studies more exposure. Writing guest posts about case studies also counts.
4. Create videos from case studies to engage more prospects. Video of your case studies is a powerful way to convey your value proposition.
5. Share case studies on social media and email marketing campaigns. You can even incorporate case studies into your newsletters.

You can choose a client’s success story for the content of the case study and mention your contribution to its success. Try to be as descriptive as possible so that the readers can clearly identify your goals, challenges, approaches and results.

#4. Use lead magnets to attract new prospects:

Lead magnets are valuable resources that businesses give away for free in exchange for someone’s contact information (especially emails). It is a known fact that email surpasses social media marketing when it comes to customer retention. In fact, email is an effective inbound strategy for generating leads. Gathering enough number of email ids through lead magnets is the first step towards achieving the goal.

Here are some of the most effective content types that you can use as lead magnets for generating leads:

• e-Books and free reports which can offer some insights
• Webinars that adds value to your prospects
• Discounts and coupons to entice prospects — perfect for e-Commerce
• Free trial of a premium tool, program or software your business sells
• Free quizzes where the user can get the results upon submitting their email IDs
• Micro-courses which can be offered through video tutorials or a series of email

With these lead magnet ideas, you can boost the number of contacts on your mailing list. According to a report by Hubspot, businesses that nurture their leads through email are 50% more likely to get sales-ready leads.

As myassignmenthelp.com review report, the free samples offered by the website is one of the main reasons for the website’s popularity. According to Allessaywriter, another academic solution provider, the free plagiarism checking tool has helped boost their popularity in the market.

#5. Promote and distribute content through proper channels:

Understanding the intent of potential customers and serving them with relevant content may help you convert visitors into leads. However, in order to expose the content to the world, you need to choose the proper channels to promote and distribute your content, whether it’s a case study, white papers or a blog.

There are plenty of ways to promote your content. Some effective methods include:

• Influencer marketing: Identify influencers in your niche and develop strong relationships with them so that you can promote your content, leveraging on their popularity.
• Organic search: It is possible to attract more number of eyeballs in the market by ranking higher on the organic search. However, you will need collective efforts of influencer links, keyword analysis, and thought leadership to achieve that.
• Syndication: Promoting content through syndication is a great way to reach more number of prospects. Uploading videos on YouTube or publishing content on Medium are notable examples for such strategy.
• Paid: When you are looking for faster results for your lead generation efforts, paid traffic is the best alternative you have. As you can guess, you need to make an additional investment to direct your prospects to informative content across various platforms.

Yes, social media platforms and email campaigns are there, and they are more effective in getting your word out in the world. You can use these aforementioned channels as additional options to boost your lead generation efforts whenever you want.

In conclusion,

There are plenty other ways you can leverage content marketing to improve your lead generation efforts online. While most of these tactics have their own set of pros and cons, it is recommended to focus your efforts on catering your audiences’ needs for a sure-shot win.

Originally posted at RuhaniRabin.com
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