Can content marketing really drive website traffic?
I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical when we first started exploring the idea of content marketing as a vehicle to drive website traffic. With roots strongly planted in response-oriented marketing, I wondered how something as soft as content could possibly drive action. As we started to investigate inbound marketing as a strategy, it became clear that content marketing had proven to be an effective approach. Here are some of the most compelling facts:
• According to HubSpot, companies that blog 20 times per month get 5 times more traffic than those that blog less than 4 times per month.
• HubSpot further reports that companies that blog have a significantly greater amount of inbound links and a better chance of generating leads.
• Lastly, HubSpot reports that 57% of companies with a blog have acquired a customer from their blog.
It turns out that content marketing can work to generate web traffic. Our initial 90 days of inbound marketing yielded remarkable results:
• Increased inbound visits to the website 10 times more than the month prior to initiating the program
• Generated 50 times more inbound leads than the prior period
• Doubled the number of pages on the website within 90 days
As we started down our content marketing journey, it became clear that there was a way to marry response and action. Here are 7 considerations for how to infuse response marketing into a content marketing strategy.
1. Leveraging keyword analytics to shape the content strategy.
Analytics help ground any strategy and definitely build depth into a content marketing strategy. It starts with analyzing current web content to determine users’ interests, and then building a keyword tree. The keyword tree identifies direct and indirect keywords that can help generate traffic. This phase includes utilizing a keyword analytics tool that helps gauge which keywords should be prioritized for content development. Factors include difficulty to rank against keywords and accessibility of content development for those keywords. Grounding the content strategy in analytics ensures a strategically sound approach.
2. Ending each blog article with a call-to-action.
Rather than leaving each article with a strong conclusion and “thanks for reading,” incorporate a call-to-action that leads the reader to other relevant information. The key is to ensure the call-to-action is reader-centric. It should benefit the reader, and not be something that is self-serving in any way. Provide the reader with a mechanism to learn more about the topic, with a drive to an ebook or other related blog articles. This helps transform a one-way content marketing strategy into a two-way dialogue.
3. Utilize lead forms to capture information.
Leveraging strong calls-to-action and lead forms within landing pages can help deliver tangible results for your inbound marketing efforts. It’s important to give reasons for prospects to provide information. It’s critical to provide solid information and compelling landing page copy to ensure that leads complete forms.
Analyze what content is getting traction from a traffic standpoint and build a natural extension of that in the form of an ebook or white paper. Also consider new delivery methods such as infographics and videos. Blog articles should be the hub of your content marketing strategy, but they don’t have to be the only tactic used to deliver all content.
Then build landing pages that optimize every best practice. Check out our ebook on optimizing landing pages to learn more about how to take your landing pages to the next level.
4. Apply behavior to deliver relevant and personalized communications.
Once users engage, leverage behavior to develop targeted, relevant communications. Applying behavioral information to personalize outbound and follow-up communications takes the entire customer experience to a more actionable level.
Leverage interactions to inform ongoing communications streams, including segmenting customers for follow-up. Personalize communications and target an individual with a series of related content.
5. Integrate content marketing with email for an integrated strategy.
Email is one of the most effective channels to marry inbound with outbound marketing. And by nature, email is an action-oriented channel. The best place to start is to use email as an outbound method for complementing inbound marketing efforts. Identify the most common barriers to purchase and develop a series of content that overcomes these barriers. If you’re uncertain as to the barriers, talk with frontline sales, review search data and, most importantly, talk to prospects and, of course, customers.
Leverage email to reach out to prospects in an educational and expert manner. Incorporate or highlight content within email to deliver ongoing educational messaging, demonstrate expertise and overcome barriers.
6.Utilize a centralized database.
Creating a unified database is essential to supporting inbound and outbound marketing efforts. This includes aggregating high-level contact information as well as marrying engagement with behavior. In an optimal world, capture all promotional history, including social post content and other interactions with each contact. This information can help ensure necessary tracking to identify solid recommendations for driving action across the customer experience.
7. Determine metrics up front.
One of the golden rules for ensuring program success in most marketing efforts is to determine metrics up front. Consider key metrics across each phase of inbound marketing: creating web traffic, generating leads, engagement of lead nurturing efforts, leads moved to a sales-ready state, and lastly, conversions.
You can also gain learnings by analyzing the high-level macro results of the inbound marketing programs. This data also provides a platform of real-time learnings and feedback that will shape other communications tactics.
On a micro level, leverage behavior to determine the value of engagement against specific groups. This helps determine how to best enhance content going forward to generate leads that have positive business impacts. Analyze content that drives engagement, social sharing, comments and reviews, and information downloads.
So, as it turns out, content marketing is an effective strategy for generating website traffic. Furthermore, inbound marketing is a powerful strategy when married to outbound marketing.