If you think creating a website is all what you need for lead generation, you should re-think. According to a research, consumers spend 79 days on average just to conduct research before they finally buy online.
Consider your website as a shop and think of all the expenses you need to put just to sell a product. On top of that, the wait for 79 days is seems like an expense. Does it mean that the entire world of online business is vague? Certainly not!
It means there’s a huge room for improvement for those hanging below the average line, especially those just making entrance into online world. It’s good that you have a well optimized content, courtesy well-planned SEO, but is it really salable?
Why are you not getting the leads, even after best SEO company Toronto for content optimization? May be you’re not doing it rightly. Or perhaps, you’re not publishing the content that can give you your share of audience.
Well, whatever the reason may be, you can read further about the three valuable content ideas that are known to boost the leads.
- Ebooks
EBook content is more substantial than blog post and it should be easily digestible as well. For eBook as a lead generation tool for business, there are two considerations:
- Quality
- Promotion
How to Make Your eBook High Quality
You need to invest a lot of efforts and time. The rest depends upon the leads you can get. Here are some tips though:
- Do better than what audience expect: The content needs to be comprehensive and the chosen topic should be discussed in great great depth. Push your reader to the point of saying, “This is the real treasure” and the next thing he’ll do is download your eBook.
- As it is an eBook, there’s no need to care about the length, but it’s better to keep it long enough, say 5000 – 10000 words.
- Include relevant links from reliable resources (outside your website).
- Pay attention to design: eBook is the result of your hard work, so it’s design must be appealing and eye-catching. Whether you have an in-house designer or a freelancer, never compromise on layout. The format of your eBook Must be spot on.
- It should be visually engaging
- It should be easy to read
- It should grab reader’s attention instantly and carries it on till the last word.
How to Promote eBook
There’s no better place than blogpost to promote your eBook. Use attractive visuals and include call to action. You can include call-to-action within or at the end of the blog post. Visual plays differently than text. Reader feels more connected to the well-designed button than just a text link.
Other than blogpost, you can do the following to promote your eBook:
- Using slide-in sign up form
- Email marketing
- A landing page designed specifically for eBook
- Social media advertising
- Tools and Templates
You can convert potential leads by providing them with tools and templates, if they give you their email contact in exchange. That’s an excellent ploy to earn a lead. You can then project your company in much better way.
Here, the approach counts a lot. Big companies may have in-house services to develop their own tools, but small companies rely heavily on your services as they have a fairly small team to manage all the tasks.
So, what kinds of templates should you create?
- Checklists: They can be produced with a little effort in a small amount of time, yet they’re quite valuable for consumers. Create checklist of your services with brand name appearing in the header. The layout should be clean.
- Cheat sheets:these are similar to checklists. Keep them between 1-2 pages. Cheat sheets should have highly specific topics.
- Toolkits: A toolkit can be a compilation of different resources included in one download. They are quite useful for the readers.
- Slideshares: You can share knowledge with the help of slides and presentations. They should have attractive visuals and there must be some actionable tips to attract potential leads.
- Editable templates: customers find downloadable and editable templates more useful than any other “Content for Free”. They’re also easy to create and share. While creating templates, consider how they can be valuable for the customers and what aspects can customers customize.
3. Reports or Whitepapers
Reports and whitepapers work best for B2B companies – agencies that share industry-specific data and aim for thought leadership. Reports are meant target certain need in an industry, therefore they should be full of facts, in-depth and authoritative.
So, here are the elements of reports or whitepapers.
· Whitepaper should be more than just a guide book. Usually, whitepapers consist of 10 pages.
· You need to dig deeper and draw conclusion from reliable sources. Whitepapers and reports consists of examples, statistics and facts to elaborate the point.
· The focus is important. You need to be very clear about your objective and results that can benefit your audience in any way.
· Layout is important. Include charts, graphs and visuals to elaborate your views and break up dense text.
· Use quotes and views of industry leaders to add credibility to your words. Construct a strong support around your content.
· Grammar, vocabulary and accuracy of words is important to maintain professionalism in tone. Be serious and straight to the point.
How to Utilize Content for Lead Generation
Finally, here are some tips to use content effectively for lead generation.
1. It is vital to understand the stage at which potential lead access to your site. The conversion path needs to be well-planned so that the prospect can become your loyal customer from any stage.
2. Identify the gaps in content after creating and implementing a content marketing plan. Fill those gaps as many as possible.
3. Your content must answer each query your visitors have or could come up with.
4. Try some changes and experiment for a short period. Use results to modify content and its placement.
Your content strategy must be flexible and reworkable. Be creative and change your strategy according to trends, latest fashion and demands of your audience.