It’s one of the biggest truisms of our time, but it bears repeating: the world of digital marketing moves fast. As 2015 runs out of the blocks, here are the in-vogue strategies that will keep you up to date with the digital zeitgeist and – more importantly – attracting prospects and converting leads to grow your business.
HARNESS THE GROWING PREFERENCE FOR VISUAL CONTENT
Images, videos and infographics have become an increasingly powerful weapon in the marketer’s arsenal. As the www gets more and more saturated with information, visual content can be a neat way of slicing through the maelstrom with a short, sharp message that is easy for your target market to digest. A study from Demand Gen Report found that in 2014 the use of videos for B2B marketing increased by 8%, while the use of infographics rose by 9%.
BLOG YOUR WAY TO A BULGING CLIENT LIST
Of course, the growth of visual content by no means sounds the death knell for blogging. According to Social Media B2B, B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those that don’t. Reaching out to your target market with thoughtful, insightful and drop dead awesome content is more important than ever.
TIME TO BLACKLIST WHITE PAPERS?
White papers can sometimes be seen the elder statesmen of B2B marketing but remain a powerful way of reaching out. As recently as the summer of 2014 Demand Gen Report found that the top three content formats that B2B buyers were using to research a purchase decision were: white papers (78%), case studies (73%) and webinars (67%).
Yet a survey from the same researchers revealed a growing preference for short-form content, with 95% of B2B buyers claiming to favour content that was short, digestible and optimised for mobile services. Instead recycle the white paper into broken down piece of content, such as a series of blog posts instead?
GET AN EMAIL ADDRESS AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE
Think about all the business websites you have visited in the last ten years. Now think about how many you have never gone back to. Those businesses lost you because their content didn’t grab you enough. Your website needs to be a hive of great content that’s effortlessly keyed in to your target audience’s fears, needs, desires and ambitions – so your reader is more likely to want to hear from you in the future and leave their email- an invaluable piece of information for any business. So make sure there’s a clear newsletter sign up form on every page of content you create.
UNLEASH THE POWER OF LANDING PAGES
Landing pages are all about conversion. They allow you to focus on specific offers and strip away the other normal elements of your website.
You put together a short, sharp email to send to your segmented list of new subscribers, but instead of sending them to a standard page on your website, you should create a landing page. A landing page is a simple page with a single focus – in this case, getting people to RSVP to your event. It allows you to drive conversion by allowing your reader to fixate on one message, rather than getting distracted by the rest of your website.
REMEMBER YOUR READER
So we’ve seen that visual content is growing in popularity, white papers may have had their heyday and a well-watered blog remains as important as ever. The key is to always remember your reader. Think about his problems and how you can solve them. What knowledge or insight or humour can you give to your reader that they will genuinely value?
When you approach your content strategy with your target audience front and centre, you can’t go far wrong.
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