Whether you’re a chiropractor, own a SaaS company, or run a law firm, B2B and B2C companies vary widely in their business models. Yet, the things they have in common are the desire to generate leads and drive business growth.
Though achieving these goals through marketing can be time-consuming, this article will present the top growth methods for successful marketing execution. Here you will learn how to accomplish three ways to help you become a better marketer:
Create multifaceted content
Build customer relationships
Adapt to new tools
Plus, you’ll know how to implement each method by utilizing the top tactics below. Here are the top three approaches you should consider implementing today.
Creating Multifaceted Content
Content marketing isn’t just for B2C brands. B2B companies are also making a significant jump in this marketing realm by creating a strategic content marketing strategy.
Yet, when it comes to helping entrepreneurs become better marketers, they must focus on creating content for more than one channel. This approach uses well-rounded subject matter to attract new leads and convert prospects by focusing on audience pain points in different areas of the internet.
Here are a few tips to help you implement a multifaceted content strategy.
1. Create Buyer Personas
When developing different content, understanding who the content is reaching is important. You should have a clearly defined audience, known as a buyer persona.
A buyer persona gives you a picture of an ideal customer. The details of a buyer persona include demographics such as age, income, location, etc. In addition, you should describe the buyer’s personality, interests, goals, wants, and needs.
2. Align Content to the Sales Funnel
Once you create your buyer personas, you can add an extra layer to your content marketing strategy by mapping the buyer’s journey. In essence, it helps to create “evergreen” content that addresses customer issues at each stage of the sales funnel.
A sales funnel’s purpose is to nurture the prospects at each stage, helping them move closer to sales. The process works like this:
Awareness: This is the top of the funnel where prospects are looking for information to help them articulate their problem. Content at this stage should focus on the buyer’s pain points rather than the product or service. Examples include informative blogs, ebooks, guides, infographics, etc.
Consideration: The buyer at this stage understands their problem and is now ready to find solutions. Consider creating content focusing on specific solutions to solve the buyer’s problem. Examples include webinars, product features, and comparison blogs.
Decision: The buyer is ready to compile a list of solutions. You can create brand-specific content at this point, focusing on the benefits of your company’s offerings. Examples include case studies, reviews, and demos.
3. Measure Return on Investment
Once you start creating content to maximize traffic and convert leads, you must understand the results of your content marketing campaigns by analyzing data. Based on your goals and timelines, consider using metrics to measure your results, including:
Total leads such as email subscribers, purchases, and free-trial sign-ups.
Total impressions from Google Analytics.
Traffic from the content you publish.
Changes in bounce rates.
Once you analyze your results, you can use this information to maximize future content marketing strategies for success.
Establish Customer Relationships
One method of helping entrepreneurs become better marketers is forming organic relationships with customers. Customers are savvier than ever and don’t want you to bombard them with sales pitches or advertisements.
Instead, they prefer to get to know you first. That way, you understand them better and can create products that cater to their needs. One way you can start building customer relationships is through social media.
You can use social media to post customer reviews or user-generated content to attract new buyers and increase your customer base. Engaging prospects and providing valuable content your customers find share-worthy across various platforms is also useful. Additionally, you can gain regular feedback and distribute content that fosters engagement and drives website traffic.
Here are some tips to help you get started on social media and form relationships.
1. Choose the Right Platforms
Not all social networking sites were created equal. That’s why it’s important to consider which platforms you’ll use for your business carefully. The best way to decide is to look at your target audience’s demographics and determine where they spend their time on social media.
B2B businesses mostly rely on LinkedIn or Facebook to reach their target audience. For example, a broker might be interested in connecting with users to gain qualified leads for buyers interested in purchasing a home. Meanwhile, B2C companies might use Instagram or TikTok to engage users since their target audiences are mainly on these platforms.
2. Think Creatively
Avoid being afraid to create fun content. Social media is a place to develop personal connections. So whether you’re a B2B or B2B brand, it’s important to show the human who’s behind the other side of that screen.
Consider putting yourself in your audience’s shoes and what they might find interesting. How can you mix intriguing and easy information for your audience to consume?
Making an additional effort like this can help you connect with your audience and stand out from the competition.
Adapt to New Tools
Marketing is constantly evolving. There will always be new trends and directions to explore. While it’s not necessary to master all things at once, you can still become a specialist in an area or possess multiple technologies.
One example is discovering how to make video content for marketing.
Video content is one of the most powerful tools for marketing today. Hubspot Blog Research found that 88% of B2B and B2C brands have an entire team dedicated to creating video content.
Yet, why is video such a staple of marketing? It helps raise brand awareness, increase revenue and advertise products.
If you’re considering going in a new direction with video, here are some tips to help you get started.
1. Focus on Stories Instead of Sales
If you want more people to watch your videos, create value for them instead of focusing on your brand. The best video content shares stories that connect with the viewer’s emotions.
For example, suppose you’re a doctor specializing in sports medicine. In that case, you could tell a story about how your business changes clients’ lives. Essentially, you can develop a story about how you’re making a difference in your community.
2. Be Strategic in the First Few Seconds
Attention spans are short these days. Therefore, a successful video provides clarity and gives viewers confidence that what they’re watching is worth their time.
Consider grabbing attention with a hook, such as a quick preview of what’s coming in the video. You can also attract more viewers by creating a high-quality thumbnail. The best thumbnails are clear and begin to tell viewers what they’ll gain from watching your content.
3. Create a Call to Action
Always include a call to action that aligns with your marketing goals. Do you want them to visit your website or share the video on social media?
You can easily instruct your viewers to take action by asking them in the video through someone speaking or using text.
Either way, adding a call to action is easy and can create results you wouldn’t have without one.
Use These Top Methods to Become a Better Marketer
You can ultimately reach your business goals using these methods to become a better marketer. Without these strategies, you won’t be able to collectively produce results such as obtaining leads, increasing revenue, and scaling your business growth.
The marketing space is crowded. Therefore, these tactics will allow you to distinguish yourself from those with similar offerings.
What other methods can you share that have helped you to become a better marketer?
Eleanor Hecks is the founder and managing editor of Designerly Magazine.
She’s also a web design consultant with a focus on customer experience and
user interface. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dogs, Bear and
Lucy. Connect with her about marketing, design, and/or tea on LinkedIn!
Small business owners often struggle to find the best marketing strategy that fits their budget. Here is a look at some of the greatest tips for getting the most bang from your marketing budgeting.
Whether you’re a B2B, B2C or expert firm, you’ll walk away with enough secrets to successful marketing to add new leads and find loyal customers.
How Do You Successfully Market a Small Business?
Small and medium enterprises in the United States spend marketing dollars directly based on a business owner’s decisions. Smaller businesses might find it wiser to focus on local clients first. According to Statista, companies spend around $173.3 million per year on local advertising. They split the rest between TV, radio, digital, and events.
Successful marketing strategy execution often starts with an overarching goal. Small business owners find a top-of-mind awareness (TOMA) strategy works well to build brand awareness and develop a loyal customer base. Over time, you’ll gain referrals from your current clients.
What are some of the top secrets to successful marketing campaigns? Here are our top suggestions for small business owners.
1. Learn From Your Customers
Get to know your audience and what their needs are. The better you understand your buyers, the easier it will be to meet their needs. You can survey them, pay attention to buying trends and ask what you can do to improve their experience.
With your TOMA marketing strategy, you’ll want to take actions such as:
Call those who buy from you repeatedly and ask why they chose your brand in the first place.
Inquire about how you can help them refer more friends and family. For example, can you offer any materials that would be of help? Reward them when they do refer new customers.
Survey your customers after a successful campaign. Find out why they chose to buy and if they have other needs. When you understand their pain points, developing the relationship you need to keep your brand at the top of their thoughts becomes much easier.
Pay close attention to any negative comments or complaints. How can you fix the issue for that customer and prevent it on future orders?
2. Use New Technology to Manage Clients
You don’t have to track every little detail of your client’s needs. Instead, invest in technology that handles customer relationship management. Regular emails from you can keep you at the forefront of their thoughts.
Send a birthday greeting to let them know you enjoy their business.
Offer discounts when sales slow down to clear out old merchandise and make way for new.
The happier your clients are, the more you can use their reviews and testimonials in your marketing campaigns.
3. Promote Yourself
Put yourself in the shoes of the average person visiting your site for the first time. If you’re a newer business, they’ve likely not heard of you and don’t know if they should buy. However, they’ll feel more comfortable trying out your product if you stand behind your work.
People often have to hear of you several times before remembering the brand name and messaging. How can you promote yourself consistently and frequently for your TOMA approach?
Create a social media persona matching your brand personality.
Post frequently and predictably at the same time of day and on the same weekdays.
Enlist the help of others to get your name out there. Ask customers to share your social media posts or forward your newsletter.
Pay for ads to get in front of the same people repeatedly.
Feature glowing feedback from customers and highlight how much you believe in what you offer. Do you feel your product or service is the best in the industry? Thinking about your unique value proposition and using it in your marketing can help gain new clients’ trust.
4. Send Welcome Emails
You likely already know email marketing can be highly effective at attracting and keeping customers. However, did you know that welcome emails have a 91.43% open rate and offer an opportunity to highlight your brand personality?
How can you enhance your brand awareness via emails?
Stick with brand guidelines, using your logo and brand color palette for instant recognition.
Make calls to action (CTAs) look the same as the ones on your website so people know to look for a particular pop of color.
Create great subject lines that tell users exactly what they’ll get when they open the email.
You can also track how well an email performs by seeing how many opens you get and who clicks through to your offer.
5. Use SMS
Short message service (SMS) is an excellent way to add personal touches to messages you send. You might use it for customer service issues and to problem solve. There are also many ways to connect with your clients through small positive messages.
Circulate an offer, discount code, or just share news.
Add links to orders or short surveys.
Send a happy thought just to let customers know you are thinking of them and care about more than just making a sale.
Thank them for an order or update them on the status of one.
Many businesses have found great success with this marketing strategy. 98% of people will open your message, which is why thousands have used texting to drive customer retention.
6. Set Clear Employee Expectations
As your company’s leader, you must train your employees in the customer service model you want to exude. Make sure everyone understands your expectations and their role in the buyer’s journey.
Write out what your company policies and philosophies are.
Encourage employees to tell others why it’s a great place to work.
Feature your top staff members. Put a face on the workers for better brand awareness.
At the same time, you don’t want to create an atmosphere where people say, “That’s not in my job description.” Set the example by jumping in and helping when someone feels overwhelmed or has a tight deadline. If your employees see you taking the lead and helping others, they’ll be more likely to embrace the same spirit with their work.
7. Watch Trends
Pay attention to what kids are into and how other businesses in your industry market to their customer bases.
When apps like TikTok first arrived on the scene, mainly preteens used it to repeat dances and popular songs. Today, companies worldwide use them to reach new customers via fun marketing videos.
Stay on top of what your competitors are doing.
Study their social media presence. What kinds of posts do they schedule? How often do they post? Do they use paid ads?
Why do people know their names? Do they do a lot of radio interviews? Perhaps they sponsor local groups and have a strong presence in your community.
Study their name versus yours. Is their business moniker more memorable or more applicable to the industry?
Take a step back and rethink your brand image. Don’t be afraid to rebrand if necessary or to tweak colors and messaging until you hit what keeps your brand at the forefront.
Why Should You Change Up Your Marketing?
Embracing new trends and paying attention to what works for the competition are the secrets to successful marketing. You may not have time to woo people one-on-one, but you can automate relationship management and invest in social media marketing.
If you fail to step up and try new things, you risk growing stale and your customers getting bored with your brand. You only have time and effort to spend. If something doesn’t work, replace it with a new idea.
If you choose to focus on a top-of-mind awareness strategy as outlined above, run everything through the filter of how it will impact brand recognition and keep your audience engaged.
Which one of these list items would you like to implement today to find your successful marketing strategy?
Eleanor Hecks is the founder and managing editor of Designerly Magazine. She’s also a web design consultant with a focus on customer experience and user interface. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dogs, Bear and Lucy. Connect with her about marketing, design, and/or tea on LinkedIn!
The B2B market has irrevocably changed in the last few years. Customers are better informed and expect a different, more personalized type of service. Strategies that worked even a few years ago are becoming outdated, leading CEOs and VPs of Sales to seek new ways to generate leads.
Our 2021 Ultimate Guide to Lead Generation for B2B Service Businesses will teach you how to update your strategy.
How to get more B2B leads in 2021?
While the question for many businesses is “How can I get more B2B leads?” the real question should be, “How can I get more qualified B2B leads?”. Quality over quantity.
So, we’ll focus on how to get well-qualified leads.
How To Implement the Right Lead Generation Strategy
Choosing the right strategy depends on several factors, including:
#1. What is Your Product or Service?
When customers buy your product or service, they are fundamentally purchasing a solution to a problem. A good product addresses a specific pain point. It could be that you save them time, money or offer them a solution that’s not on the market. Whatever it is, make sure that your marketing materials demonstrate the value of your solution.
#2. Who is Your Target?
Understanding who you are trying to sell to requires deep research. What are the demographics, what don’t they like about competitor’s solutions, how can you make life easy for them? Etc.
#3. What is Your Business Revenue Model?
Different revenue models require different lead generation strategies. One-off purchases, scaled pricing, and subscription prices require their own considerations and knowledge of various consumer personas.
#4. Where Do Your Customers Hang Out?
Specific platforms have distinct demographics. If your B2B consumer persona is serious business people, try LinkedIn. If they are Millennials, Instagram could be the right place.
Tips to Plan Your B2B Strategy:
Understand your customer persona
Underline the value of your product or service in your marketing materials
Understand that different business models need their own approach
Concentrate your efforts in the places your personas congregate.
Five Channels for B2B Lead Generation
#1. Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is all about content and solid SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It is still one of the most effective ways to get site traffic — and leads — to your site.
Capturing leads can be done with this process:
1) Write helpful content that targets keywords and questions relevant to your product.
2) Valuable content will help you rank and appear in the SERP when your target market is searching for solutions.
3) Once your leads visit your site, you need to find a way to get their details.
4) Use gated content that requires them to leave their name, phone number, and email address.
Which Gated Content Can Act as a Lead Magnet?
This content will depend on your product, service, and target audience. But some of the types of content that attracts leads are:
White papers or ebooks
Webinars
Research
Demos
Email series
In short, offer your prospects valuable content, and they’ll arrive.
The thing to remember when using inbound content as a strategy is that it takes time to bear fruit. So keep at it. It can take as long as 6 to 12 months.
#2. Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
If you need something quicker than inbound marketing via SEO, PPC advertisement is a solid strategy.
This process involves paying for site traffic. There are several pros and cons here.
Pros:
-Lots of traffic
-Potential to target your demographic
Cons:
-Expensive
-Can get expensive
-Not all traffic is verified
Additionally, there are lots of options available in the ad space. Banner ads and ads that target demographics via social media (for example, Facebook) are good. Additionally, Google offers a wide range of services to get your product or service in front of the right eyes.
Native ads are another appealing option. These are the ads that appear like native content on a news feed or other digital publication.
#3. Social Marketing
Having a social media presence is crucial for most products or services. Creating brand awareness and establishing expertise and credibility in your field are great ways to get attention.
1) Make social media posts that are interesting, helpful, and include your CTA. However, it’s not always time for the hard sell. Most of your interactions will be with people in the awareness stage of the sales funnel, so a gentle approach is the most effective.
2) Use social media to drive traffic to your site or landing page. You can use content like blog posts, videos, or other values to achieve this. Once you’ve got them there, you can try and capture their details.
How to Generate Lead Through LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a fantastic resource for B2B leads. This platform is where most prospects are.
Here is a proven lead generation strategy for LinkedIn:
1) Make a solid profile.
2) Be active with posts and in relevant groups. Make connections.
3) Engage, make connections, be helpful, demonstrate how your solution can help.
4) Collect relevant details and contacts, which by now should be warm leads
#4. Influencer Marketing
Millennials have become skeptical and untrusting of traditional advertising. For this reason, influencer marketing took off because it offered something similar to trust and word of mouth.
However, while marketers generally used it for B2C products, influencer marketing has become popular for B2B recently.
Depending on your niche, this can be very effective. And not necessarily by using well-known names. Micro or nano influencers can be very effective, with the bonus of locking down on very tight demographics they serve.
#5. Outsource Lead Generation
While the above tactics are effective, outbound lead generation still gets the best results. However, many businesses struggle to generate enough leads for their sales people.
By outsourcing cold calling and appointment setting, you can let your reps focus on their core competency: closing deals.
With the assistance of a B2B lead generation service, you can make sure each prospect is fully qualified and warmed up already, leading to higher conversions for your sales team.
Conclusion
B2B lead generation costs time and money. Formulating strategies that work for your market and your target audience is vital. Using a combination of inbound and outbound marketing, you can make sure your lead pipeline is full of quality prospects interested in your product.
Author’s bio: John Dubay is the Managing Partner at Leads at Scale, an outsourced sales support company that helps B2B companies generate well-qualified leads at scale, ready to be closed.
Copywriting Secrets to Generating More Leads for Your Business
Copywriting is a key player in any business’s lead generation process. Every campaign email, advertisement, blog, or landing page you write must be engaging and impactful enough to convert your visitors into leads, and those leads into sales.
The trick to achieving this lead conversion is to create content that captivates your visitors. You need to get them interested in your products and services, keeping their interest long enough to convince them to invest in what you offer.
Here are 6 essential tips to create copywriting that generates more leads for your business and boosts your bottom lines as a result.
1. Bear Your Customers in Mind
Your copywriting should always focus on the needs, interests, and demands of your target audience. If your headings, topics, and calls to action aren’t converting visitors into leads, it may be time to consider updating your content strategies. If your content grabs the attention of your visitors, this will reflect in your improved conversion rates.
One effective way to ensure that your copywriting strategies are to take the reviews and opinions of past customers into consideration. Read up on past testimonials, reviews, and customer communications to find out the most notable benefits of your products and services from their points of view. You can incorporate these strengths and benefits into the future copy to ensure that you’re highlighting your business’s offerings in a positive and compelling way.
The copy on your sales pages should showcase customers’ positive reviews and experiences with your products in a way that tells your leads exactly what they can expect when they invest in them. Your sales copy or content copy can also touch on how you have addressed past product concerns or updated your offerings to meet the changing needs of your target market, showing that you’re attentive to your customers’ preferences and open to their suggestions.
For example, instead of headlining your landing page with a simple headline such as
● ‘Freelance Job Finding Tool,’ you could use the headline ● ‘Instantly Find Great-Paying Freelance Jobs Online with Us.’
The latter benefit-based headline immediately tells visitors they can expect excellent service from your business and that they can benefit directly from buying your offerings.
Creating captivating written content that increases your lead generation rates will also require an in-depth knowledge of your core audience. You need to know your target market in and out if you want to be able to use the right persuasive language to convert them into customers.
You can write your content using certain personas to help you engage with your audience more effectively. This approach allows you to address specific age groups, demographics, interest groups, and pressure points with content that’s relevant and approachable to them.
Approachability is key when it comes to lead generation, and by writing using a persona, you can make your brand’s identity seem more relatable to potential customers while offering them persuasive media that truly resonates with them.
2. Focus on Calls to Action
Calls to action (CTA) are an obviously crucial element in any business’s written copy. However, what many companies don’t realize is that their copywriting strategy should have its basis on a single, focused CTA rather than multiple, general directions.
You can use focused, imperative language to instruct potential customers on which steps they should take next. CTAs like:
● ‘call us now,’ ● ‘book your spot now,’ or ● ‘sign up for a free trial today’
are all effective, as long as a single, clear action gets priority in your text. Terms like ‘inquire’ and ‘contact us’ may suit B2B businesses more, while B2C companies can use CTAs such as ‘buy today.’
Don’t suggest further reading, flood your readers with pop-up ads, or bombard them with unnecessary actions.
Use your sales and service web page copy to tell them the benefits of your product or service and instruct them to take direct action to reduce the incidence of choice paralysis. This is one trait of being a good copywriter.
In contrast, your blogs must offer useful and actionable information that adds additional value to the products and services your brand already offers, like how-tos, guides, and relevant news.
3. Work on Your Customers’ Emotions
Copywriting is as much an art as it is a science. Using emotive language can go a long way in pointing out the benefits of your products and engaging your audience.
Headlines like ‘Take the Stress Out of Supply Chain Management’ allow your content to resonate with your readers’ potential stress points and give the impression that your brand empathizes with them. It’s crucial to word your copy in a way that highlights the fact that your readers’ lives will be easier if they invest in your products and services.
4. Be Generous with Your Visitors
You could offer your website visitors a free eBook, guide, or digital download in exchange for their email addresses or contact details. Free gifts like these act as a lead magnet to convert visitors into leads, and they also enhance your brand’s reputation, which could generate even more valuable leads in the future.
5. Focus on Readability
Today’s online audience has a short attention span, and you need to capture it quickly lest you lose it forever. You can make your content more readable by using brief sentences and paragraphs, easily legible fonts, and bullet points to help get your information across quickly and concisely.
Tools like the Flesch reading ease test can help ensure that your content is as readable as possible. This tool measures readability and grade level, helping you find out whether your content will reach the intended audience.
The trick to making your content readable and engaging for your readers is to model each page of written content after a step-by-step process. Use a combination of headings, brief paragraphs, infographics, block quotes, and lists of imagery to keep them immersed throughout. This will also keep your content skimmable.
Using descriptive headings will allow your audience to find the areas of your content that they’re most interested in.
6. Create and Stick To Strategy
Your copywriting strategy should always focus on creating a copy that generates leads and converts them into paying customers. Once you’ve gained a keen understanding of your audience, use specific strategies to stand out and highlight the benefits of your offerings in a relatable way.
Copywriting Tips for Writing Emails That People Open
Use these 8 elements of high-opening email subject lines to craft emails that people are more likely to open.
#1. Self-interest
Using terms like ‘you’ and ‘your’ allows you to address your readers directly and to engage them with communication that speaks to their own interests.
Examples include:
○ ‘Simplify Your Life with These 3 Time Management Apps’ or ○ ‘Pressed for Time? How [your tool] Can Help You Streamline Your Work Schedule Today’.
#2. Curiosity
Email subject lines that get people curious about what the mail contains are a great way to ensure that your emails actually get read. You can draw your readers in by adding intriguing headlines like:
○ ‘Open for a Surprise’ or ○ ‘You Won’t Believe Our Festive Deals This December’.
Give your readers just enough information to arouse their interest and then leave the real explanations for the body of your mail.
#3. Offer
Nothing catches someone’s attention quite like a great deal or a special offer. Your email subject lines for offer-related emails need to be short, concise, and catchy in order to distinguish them from the many other emails your target audience receives daily.
Headlines to use include:
● ‘Spring Sale—Offers Just for You’ ● ‘Get 15% Off on All Purchases Today’ or ● ‘Sale Alert! Up to 40% Off Your Favorite Beauty Products’.
#4. Urgency
Conveying a sense of urgency in your email subject lines will compel your readers to click immediately. It’s essential to persuade your readers to read your promotional emails the second they receive them, as most people don’t go back to review past emails. Examples of urgency include:
● ‘24 Hours Left on Our Special Offer—Don’t Miss Out!’ and ● ‘Only One Week Left to Take Advantage of Our Free Webinar Program’.
#5. Humanity
The personable language will prevent you from sounding robotic in your sales emails and allow your readers to better relate to your brand’s identity. Terms like:
● ‘oops’, ‘our bad’, and ● ‘woohoo’ can add a human touch to your email correspondence.
#6. News
Most people will appreciate updates on your business. You can use subject headlines like:
● ‘We’re Open Late This December! Our New Holiday Shopping Hours’ or ● ‘We’re Going Online—Here’s What You Need to Know About Our New Online Store’ to share important news about your enterprise.
#7. Social proof
People are more likely to trust a brand that others have rated positively before them. You can make your emails more persuasive by adding subject headlines like:
● ‘It’s Overwhelming How Much Love We’re Receiving!’ or ● ‘Here’s What Chicago’s Best CFOs Have Had to Say About Our Products’.
Remember to include photos and designations of the people giving the testimonials in your emails, as this adds credibility to the message you’re sending your target audience.
Tips for Writing Attention-Grabbing Headlines for Blog Articles
Your blogs’ headlines have the power to captivate your readers—or drive them away. Catchy headlines are especially important if your goal is to gain more leads.
Attention-grabbing headlines will motivate your audience to click on and read your blog posts. They may even convert potential customers into active ones, which is crucial to your business’s success. Readers who are bored by your headlines will likely go elsewhere, and it may take more effort to recapture their attention in the few.
Here are our top tips for writing attention-grabbing blog article headlines every time.
1. How-to headlines
‘How to Write Attention-Grabbing Headlines for Your Blog Articles’ is a good quality headline for a blog article. It addresses your readers directly and focuses on people’s need to gain valuable new skills.
Computers, mobile devices, and the internet have made it easy for people to find answers or information. All you need to do is determine what problem your product addresses, and what the solution is. Once you have this information, point your readers in the right direction with how-to guides designed specifically to answer their most pressing questions.
2. List headlines
List articles are popular because psychologically speaking, humans crave certainty and predictability. A blog headline like ‘10 Ways to Earn Money Online While Traveling’ tells your readers precisely what they’re in for—that there are 10 different ways to earn money online while they travel. They can also decide if they have the time to read all ten listed methods.
3. Curiosity
This is another psychological copywriting tactic that plays on people’s natural curiosity. Your readers want to learn, and they want to know what their peers know too. Questions are an effective form of writing a copy for headlines as they prompt readers to think about the answers to the questions. For example, a headline reading ‘Are You Really Ready for Marriage?’ would get plenty of attention from single people, people in relationships, and even those who are engaged who want to make sure that they’re ready to take the plunge.
4. Threat and warning headlines
When it comes to writing topics to attract more audience, these headlines are extremely compelling to readers, most of whom want to avoid problems before they occur.
Headlines like:
● ‘Do You Recognize the Warning Signs of Early Dementia?’ or ● ‘Here’s Why Social Media Addiction is the Next Great Health Crisis’
promises essential tips to help your readers avoid these issues before it’s too late.
Headline Template Hacks
Last but not least, these headline templates are all based on highly effective content writing strategies like the ones listed above. Use them in your next blog posts to captivate your readers and improve your blog engagement rates:
● What [#] Studies Have to Say About [Subject]
● [#] [Noun] That Are Proven To [Desirable Outcome]
● [#] Ways To Be [Adjective] When You Don’t [Verb] [Adjective]
● How To [Verb] An [Audience] With The Best [Subject] Tips (+[#])Free [Resources])
● [#] Data-Driven [Noun] From [#] Of The Most Popular [Noun]
● [#]+ Easy Ways To [Verb A [Noun] That Will Skyrocket By [#]% In 1 Year
● How To Use [Noun] To Increase Your [Desirable Outcome]
● The [#]-Minute, [#]-Step Solution For The Best [Noun]
● How To Rock A [Noun] That Will Save You Tons Of Time/Money
● How To [Verb] Your [Noun] For Massive Growth
● To The [Role] Who Will Settle For Nothing Less Than [World-Class Outcome]
● Break All The Rules And [World-Class Outcome]
● How Your [Service Provider] Is Ripping You Off And What To Do About It Right Now
● I Found A [Adjective] Way To [Get Incredible Outcome]
● See Why We Have An [Adverb] [Adjective] [Social Problem] In Just [Short Time]
● [Influencer Or Celebrity] [Emotional Reaction] [To Thing That Basically The Whole World Already Understood]
● Is This The World’s First [Good, Bad, Or Desirable Thing]?
● How To Survive Your First [Good, Bad, or Desirable Thing]
● Who Doesn’t Like [Somewhat Accepted Taboo]? [Unexpected Answer With Tease About Why]
● I Spent [Time] [Working Toward Goal]. I Just [Quitting Statement]. Here’s Why.
● I Don’t Regret __________. But Here’s What I’d Do Differently
● Would You Do [Unimaginable Thing]? I Just Did.
● Who Else Wants __________?
● The Secret Of __________
● Here Is A Method That Is Helping __________ To __________
● Little Known Ways To __________
● Get Rid Of [Problem] Once And For All
● Here’s A Quick Way To [Solve A Problem]
● Now You Can Have [Something Desirable] [Great Circumstance]
● [Do Something] Like [World-Class Example]
● Have A [Or] Build A __________ You Can Be Proud Of
● What Everybody Ought To Know About __________
● How To __________ Every Day
● How To __________ As a [Role]
● Give Me 30 Minutes And I’ll Give You [Desirable Outcome]
● Try These 5 [Tactics] For A Week, And Be Twice As [Productive].
Do your contacts engage with your emails the way you would expect them to be? How many of your readers do actually open the emails and reply to you?
While no magic wand can help you convince everyone to open your emails and reply back, there are some tips that you can implement to improve your email campaign results. But, before implementing the tips that we have prepared for you in this email, you should start by creating clear goals for your email marketing campaign.
The most popular objectives for email marketing campaigns are the following:
Increasing the email open rate
Personalizing the customer’s experience
Establishing a connection with the email subscribers
Improving the emails click-through rate
Succeed in retaining the target customers and turn them into valuable brand advocates
Now that you have more clarity on the ways email marketing can help you, are you ready to find more about the 12 clever ways you can use to get a response from your recipients?
Tip #1: Create intriguing subject lines
You compare your subject lines with the movie trailers. Would you be curious to see a movie if the trailer is dull and unexciting? Most probably not! The same happens with the subject lines.
For example, the scarcity tactic seems to be working very well these days. A subject line that looks like this: “4 HOURS ONLY! 75% off ALL Jackets in Stores. Go!” would make any “fashionista” grab a cab and go to your store immediately.
Another successful tactic would be adding punctuation and questions directly in the subject line. By using this tactic, you start a conversation with your prospect directly from the subject line. For instance, if you ask a question in the subject line, you intrigue your prospect to give you an answer.
Take the example of Sephora, which sends an email with the subject line “Rough Day?”. In other words, the brand sends an invitation to dialogue and intrigues the recipient to immediately open the email and find more about the company’s proposal.
Imagine that your reader opens your email after an exhausting day in the office. Would he/she be impressed by an email that includes phrases highlighted with red, yellow, green, while others are written in italic or bold? Or would he/she like an email that is easy to read and includes different bullet points that make it easier to understand the main idea?
Instead of using special fonts or different colors, you can win the readers by keeping the content clean and using bold or underline to highlight some important words. Also, you can improve your readability by maintaining the contrast ratio at 4:5:1 for normal text and 7:1 for large text. Besides, you can use tools like Color Contrast Checker or Colorzilla to improve your contrast ratio.
Tip #3: Personalize Your Emails As Much As Possible
Personalizing your emails and subject lines can significantly improve the response rate. According to studies, a subject line personalizer will improve the response rate by 26%. According to a study developed by Experian Marketing Services, personalized emails can generate six times higher transaction rates.
You can take the example of Uber that uses this powerful strategy very often. For instance, the company sends an email to its users after the first month of using its services. The email usually starts with the phrase “You’re doing awesome, [recipient’s name].”
In the emails sent by Uber, the company includes details according to the recipient’s habits of using their services. Therefore, Uber’s emails include advice on what their prospects can do to improve their statistics to benefit from the company’s special offers. An email like this will automatically attract the recipient’s attention and obtain a reaction from his/her side.
An email that contains grammar or spelling errors will be immediately considered unprofessional or spam by readers. You shouldn’t forget that your emails speak about your professionalism and attention to detail. So, if you want to make a good first impression, you should take proofreading seriously. It may seem a tiring job, but it’s helpful for your professional image.
Tip #5: Use segmentation to get the best results
When you send the same email to your prospects, they see you are not interested in their personal needs. Depending on your business profile, you should address your messages to different categories of customers. As each client category has different needs and expectations, the emails should reflect these aspects as well.
You should segment your list and personalize your emails to target the right type of customers. You can filter your clients based on gender, age, or product interests. For instance, if you choose to segment your audience based on age, you should know that the difference between the prospects born in 1996 and 2010 is an 8-second attention span.
Tip #6: Choose the right moment to send your emails
Many marketers make the mistake of sending emails when their target audience is too busy to read them. When you create your emailing strategy, you should first analyze the metrics delivered by your emailing software. Based on your customer’s behavior, it will tell you when most of your readers open your emails.
Many marketers send their emails three times per month. This is a good strategy as long as they choose the right time to send it. Studies show that the perfect time for sending emails should be between 8 am and 4 pm. Besides, some specialists consider it better to send emails during the weekends when people are more relaxed and open to reply to a personalized email.
Tip #7: Optimize your email’s format for mobile devices
Studies show that approximately 46% of all emails are opened on mobile. Also, 35% of business professionals prefer to open their emails from their mobile devices.
This means that you should format your emails to be easily opened from a desktop or mobile device. Such a strategy will help you improve your response rate and tell your readers that you care about their comfort.
Tip #8: Calls to Action are important
When you want your readers to do something, you should be clear in explaining what they need to do. If you add a clickable button in your email, support it with action words and highlight the button with a different color. Instead of writing “Click here” it’s more efficient to name the button as “Get a free sample now!”. This way, the reader will have a clear reason to perform the action you expect them to.
A successful call to action should meet the following conditions:
include an appealing image that follows your brand’s vision and mission
keep the wording clean and clear, and try to have less than five words in your CTA
use words that trigger emotions such as free, new, proven, easy
place the CTA in the place where it makes the most sense in the context
use a different color for your CTA than the rest of the text
Receiving emails from “no-reply” addresses is one of the most annoying things for any reader. How can the client get in touch with you if your email address starts with “no-reply”? One simple example would be that such an email address cannot be added in the contacts list.
A more successful strategy would be creating a shared inbox and sending your emails from addresses such as blog@yourdomain.com. Thus, you encourage your prospects to reply to you. Apart from showing your recipients that you have dedicated resources to reply to their emails, setting up a separate email address will also help you separate your business emails from messages from prospects.
In case you lack resources for organizing an adequate customer care service, you should encourage your prospects to save “no-reply” emails that include confirmations, reminders, or transactional messages. Besides, you can use autoresponders and reply back to your prospects with contact resources such as an email address and phone number.
Tip #10: Show your recipients that you understand their needs
It’s clear and obvious that when you email to your prospects, you want to turn them into your clients. But why would someone prefer you over your competitor? First off, email recipients should feel they are important to you, and you understand their expectations. Instead of presenting the service features, focus on highlighting the benefits that the service can bring to your prospect, including the emotional side.
Tip #11: The first sentence is highly important
The first sentence will tell your reader whether he/she should continue reading your email or skip it. It’s not enough to convince your recipient to open the email with an intriguing subject line. He/she should also read it until the end.
For example, you can open your email with a quick question that targets the reader’s needs. Or create a last call to make the reader understand that he/she should take advantage of your offer.
The example presented above follows the AIDA model. AIDA stands for Attention Interest Desire Action. The first lines start by grabbing the recipient’s attention with an intriguing question. Then it continues by making the prospect get interested in the service. Also, these first sentences make the recipient want and buy the service right away to save the extra 10 hours each week.
Tip #12: Don’t forget about emotions
Your readers receive hundreds of emails daily from different companies that want to sell them something. A winning strategy to improve your response rate would be to include emotion in your emails. Statistics show that the emails that expose emotions (not necessarily positive ones!) tend to draw out between 5 to 15% more reactions than those written in a neutral tone.
Getting your recipients to open your emails and respond to them takes you closer to finalizing a sale. While building a successful email marketing campaign might seem a big deal, you shouldn’t get discouraged and keep testing your strategy until you meet your response rate objectives. With each response that you get, your brand, content, and services become more relevant and better known by your target audience, don’t you think so?
Author’s bio. Jessica Fender is a copywriter and blogger with a background in marketing and sales. She enjoys sharing her experience with like-minded professionals who aim to provide customers with high-quality services. You can check her last review of TutorDoctor.
High-quality content is a sure way to attract new customers, as well as retain your existing audience. However, if you go online, seeking expertise on some pressing topic, as your customers often do, you will soon discover that finding a detailed, up-to-date reply that is easy to understand and follow is quite a task. You will likely need to shuffle through a couple of articles before you will get the answer you are looking for.
This is how your customers feel when they attempt to get some insight online – as you can imagine, it is very frustrating. This is exactly the reason why you shouldn’t settle for average content quality and post mediocre writing copies, but instead learn how you can make your articles “pop” and fulfill their purpose of supporting your company’s image, educating your audience, boosting traffic to your website, and, of course, generating more leads for your business.
By now you are probably asking yourself: how can I upgrade my content? To help you out, we will reveal some blog content writing tips that will teach you how to elevate your content and produce truly helpful and exceptional articles for your readers to enjoy and learn from.
8 Blog Content Writing Tips to Creating Lead Generating Content
#1: Learn your audience and what content they need
Studying potential customers is a great way to understand your target audience. Answer these basic questions when researching your product’s consumer:
What does your target audience look like?
What are their main sources of information?
What are their goals?
What main challenges do they face?
If you want to create lead-generating copies, always consider your target audience before you put any work into writing.
#2: Choose the right types of content
Once you get to know your audience, it will become clearer what type of articles they prefer consuming. Develop a list of content types and categories, based on customer’s likes, dislikes, wants, and needs. For each category, determine which stage of the buyer’s journey this content will be most efficient at. Creating content for specific stages of the sales funnel will increase content’s relevance.
Since we’re sharing our ultimate blog content writing tips today, here is a list of several types of content categories you should explore:
Educational information – can be used during the evaluation stage, where your target audience examines how a product meets their requirements.
Guides, infographics.
Landing pages.
Blog posts.
Check out this infographic that showcases different content types and how effectively they produce leads:
Information provided by Venngage
#3: Plan your content
A comprehensive content marketing strategy should include different forms of content for different target audiences with varying interests. At an industry level, it is imperative for your company to establish itself in its chosen area of business as an expert of the highest caliber with a high degree of trust. This is why you can’t simply post whatever and whenever it’s convenient – instead, you should do proper research, plan content according to customers’ needs, shining a light on some pressing topics that may arise in your industry. One of nifty copywriting secrets to top-notch content is not just its high quality, but also timely release – it should “hit the spot” exactly when customers need it.
Content planning also gives you time and opportunity not to rush articles, but spend the necessary time assuring their quality in the eyes of both readers and search engines. This step includes proper keyword research – determining which words and phrases resonate with the audience and should be included in your content. Conduct a thorough analysis of keywords in your niche, identify high traffic keywords, pinpoint which ones are a better fit for your articles.
#4: Create lead magnets
These content writing tips may not be news to you – make sure content is helpful for your readers, as well as easy to use. However, we would like to elaborate on this tip and give you a practical piece of advice that you can utilize for your benefit – create lead magnets. A lead magnet is a free, useful, easily downloadable information, usually exchanged for customer’s emails. There are hundreds of lead magnet options: guides, checklists, cheat sheets, infographics, reports, video tutorials, template kits, and so on.
No other content is as useful and handy as a powerful lead magnet. It provides value for customers but also allows you to expand your audience, collecting insight that will allow you to share more of your content with people who are actually interested in receiving it.
Here are some tips on writing a great lead magnet. Make sure that it is:
Specific.
Unique.
Easy to read.
Valuable.
Instantly downloadable.
As well as:
Shows off your expertise or unique proposition.
Solves a real problem.
Has a simple name, which makes it immediately clear what it is and how it can be used.
Powerful lead magnets build audiences’ trust, showing visitors of your website that you are eager to put expertise to good use and educate them. Such trust is valuable – it helps build a better relationship with the audience, driving them to closer explore what your business has to offer.
#5: Address your audience properly
Here is another copywriting secret that helps write more engaging and personalized content. When creating effective writing copies geared towards lead generation, remember the rule of three pronouns – “I/You /We”:
Write in the first person (use “I”);
Appeal to the reader directly (with the pronoun “you”);
Unite yourself with readers (using “we”);
Refer to the company by its name (instead of the pronoun “we”).
This creates an illusion of personal interaction between reader and writer, such that can only exist between two people, and not between a company and individual. Thus, content takes on an emotional connotation. Lead-generating content should be reader-oriented – it should talk about the reader and what they want to receive. Of course, this is only possible if you are writing for an audience, the interests, and needs of which you are well aware.
Writing is not easy. As long as we are on the topic of connecting with the audience, it is something that you can learn if you visit this site – it contains prime samples of content that you can learn from, studying real examples of high-quality academic writing.
#6: Use content framework: Problem–Agitate–Solve
Another way to level yourself with your customers is by showing that you feel what they feel, understand their problems. You can do so by applying this simple but well-established formula for writing persuasive content: PAS, which stands for “Problem/Pain”, “Agitate”, and “Solve”. Firstly, you should highlight the problem – paint it in vivid detail that will let your customers know that you understand them and relate. Secondly, elaborate on the problem, discuss its effects, building up tension to make your readers desperate for a solution. Finally, offer a straightforward solution that you can provide, thus creating the feeling of gratitude and relief in your readers.
#7: Create a sense of urgency
You can ramp up the “volume” of content and drive readers to take immediate action by setting a deadline or another time limit, describing consequences if readers miss out on your offer, keeping an assertive tone, utilizing a warm color palette for design, etc.
#8: Hint on taking action
CTA is commonly used to motivate readers. It doesn’t matter what is a topic of your content – you should always “keep eyes on the prize” and aim content at reaching your goals. If it’s lead generation, gear all content to make readers want to, for example, try your product. However, a trick is making an agenda discreet – don’t place direct demands, but weave subtle hints into text.
Sharing is Caring – Uncovering Blog Content Writing Tips
Even if your content failed to entice readers before, leave all worries behind – the above-mentioned tips on producing lead-generating content will help you create high-quality engaging, easily digestible writing copies that readers will not get enough of. We only have one question for you – are you ready for leads to swarm your website?
BIO: Kristin Savage
Kristin is a writer and editor with years of publicist and marketing experience under her belt. She uses her articles to speak with each reader individually and educate them on topics that keep them restless. Her skills and poise transfer through her writing, evoking readers to gain new knowledge by the pound. As a well-rounded specialist, she uses her voice to cut through the noise and deliver pure facts. In her free time, she loves playing video games and running.
Content marketing isn’t just for B2C brands. B2B companies are also making a significant jump in this marketing realm by creating a strategic content marketing strategy.
Author’s bio: 
