Are you having a hard time generating leads using content marketing?
If so, the last thing you want to do is neglect the approach.
You should be aware of the Pareto principle, which states that approximately 80% of the results you see will come from 20% of your efforts.
Therefore, you want to ensure you are focusing your efforts on objectives that actually get results. You cannot have a proper marketing strategy without solid content marketing objectives.
If you want to learn about which content marketing objectives will help your business succeed, keep reading.
Attract More Traffic to Your Site
Other content marketing objectives will not matter if you cannot get more pairs of eyes on your content.
Web traffic can be a pain for many business owners. But there are several ways you can approach this objective.
Your first priority should be SEO. Conduct keyword research and look for long-tail keywords that you can rank with.
You want to focus on your headlines as well. Do not produce clickbait content, but avoid any boring headlines.
Just remember to keep your headlines at or below 70 characters, because this is all that Google displays.
Use web analytics tools to monitor your progress.
Wait before drawing any conclusions, as SEO will not have an immediate impact on your web traffic.
Increase Your Conversion Rate
Your conversion rate is a quantifiable metric that serves as on of the key indicators of content marketing strategy health.
Whether you are already well-established or still building your brand, an increase in your conversion rate is a positive sign.
You can calculate your conversion rate by taking the number of conversions you have and dividing it by the total visitors.
The median conversion rate sits between 2 and 3 percent. The best conversion rates can be 5 times as high as that.
Improving your conversion rate is one of the more effective content marketing objectives. The reason is that it informs your about whether your efforts are working or if you are just wasting your resources.
Use A/B testing to analyze and improve your conversion rate. This technique often involves taking a web page and modifying it to see which variation converts leads at a higher rate.
Additionally, you can use conversion rates to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing channels.
Improve Brand Favorability
Brand favorability refers to how the public views your brand.
If you want to keep your brand favorability high, it is important to keep your finger on the pulse of the freshest content marketing trends.
Currently, one of the fastest-growing content marketing trends is live video.
Much of this growth has to do with the fact that almost all of the major social media platforms now offer the option to stream live video.
Facebook introduced Facebook Live in mid-2016, and Twitter followed suit a few months later.
But how exactly does live video benefit your business?
Believe it or not, live video can have a massively positive impact on how your customers view your brand. Twitter found that video streaming a live event boosts brand favorability by 63%.
There are several ways to incorporate live video into your content marketing strategy. For example, you can do live Q&A sessions, live interviews, or live events.
Generate More Leads
One of your primary content marketing objectives should be to generate more leads.
You may already produce great content. However, you may not be sharing it correctly.
A way to increase your leads is to use effective distribution channels.
For example, take advantage of email marketing, as it is a highly effective method of distributing content. In fact, B2B marketers rate email as the most important content distribution channel for success.
You want to make sure you spend ample time researching your email prospects. Normally, this step should take you take longer than crafting and sending the emails.
Also, use LinkedIn as much as you can, especially if you are a B2B business.
Establish Yourself as a Thought Leader in Your Industry
Thought leaders are those at the cutting edge of innovation in their industry. Instead of referring to others, everyone in their industry refers to them.
Becoming a thought leader involves separating yourself from the pack.
This is one of the more difficult content marketing objectives to accomplish because it requires you to think outside the box.
Becoming a thought leader involves a consistent production of informative content.
It does not matter how you present your content. It can be through blogs, videos, or infographics.
However, you must focus on using your innovativeness to build influence by sharing unique opinions.
Improve Your Lead Nurturing
Generating leads is just the first step. It is an important one, of course, but if your lead nurturing is sub par, you will fail to convert.
Lead nurturing refers to the process of building unbreakable relationships with your leads. The goal is to nurture them throughout the buying process until they are ready to buy.
For starters, you want to make sure you follow up with your leads as quickly as you can. Many businesses slack in this department, so you can use this as a way to separate your brand.
Also, use timely, personalized emails to build that connection.
Nobody wants to get an email that comes off as generic. It feels phony and inauthentic.
Avoid automating your emails unless you are dealing with more customers than you can handle.
Boost Brand Awareness
Brand awareness refers to how familiar consumers are with your brand.
This is one of the most critical content marketing objectives for growing your business.
The good thing is that there are several ways to approach this objective.
One of the most overlooked brand awareness boosting methods is guest posting.
Guest posting refers to publishing an article on someone else’s site. It gives you access to an audience that you probably would not be able to reach otherwise.
Aside from guest posting, you can also hold social media contests and giveaways.
Photo contests are a great option, as almost everyone has access to a smartphone.
Lastly, you can also incorporate referral programs into your strategy. You can use this word-of-mouth tactic to get consumers to share your brand with their friends.
Increase Customer Retention
Aiming for a higher customer retention rate results in higher profits. This is one of the ideal content marketing objectives for businesses that are leaking customers.
An effective method of retaining customers is to focus on customer service.
Rather than simply going through the motions of customer service, aim to provide customers with “wow” moments. The more you can delight your customers, the higher your retention rate will be.
If you make a mistake, apologize immediately and offer something in return to make up for it. The results will surprise you.
Also, use surveys to detect the weakest points of the customer experience. Not only will you be able to detect the issues, but your customers will appreciate that you care.
Develop Your Own S.M.A.R.T. Content Marketing Objectives
You can formulate your own content marketing objectives, starting broad and then working your way down to the specifics.
An example of a broad, general objective is “get more customers”.
While, sure, getting more customers would be great for any business, that objective lacks direction and specificity.
How do you plan to get more customers? Will you do so by conducting more keyword research? How many more customers are you aiming to get, and by when?
Broad content marketing objectives simply fail to answer the questions above, as well as other relevant ones. If you want your strategy to succeed, you need to get a lot more specific.
An ideal content marketing strategy involves S.M.A.R.T. objectives, not vague ones.
After all, these objectives will determine the overall direction of your marketing strategy.
Every S.M.A.R.T. objective has 5 characteristics:
- Specific -Know exactly what you plan to accomplish.
- Measurable – Make sure your objectives are quantifiable.
- Achievable – Having achievable but challenging objectives can encourage you to work towards a goal.
- Realistic – The more realistic an objective is, the more incentive you have to pursue it.
- Timed – Set a specific date for when you want to reach the objective.
Before you dive straight in, conduct a thorough SWOT analysis for your business. This will help you assess your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Determine your content marketing objectives by matching your strengths with opportunities in the industry. Next, see how you can turn your weaknesses into strengths.
Keep in mind that objectives will differ from business to business. An objective that seems effortless for one business could very well be unrealistic or pointless for another.
Final Thoughts
Tens of thousands of new articles are posted online every day. The competition for the attention of the average internet user is fierce.
The best way to cut through the noise is to go the extra mile by creating outstanding content that beats everyone else in your niche.
Sure, it takes time to see results from content marketing. It is a complex undertaking that includes creating content and optimizing it for all platforms.
However, S.M.A.R.T. content marketing objectives allow you to find ways to increase the ROI of your content.
There are many objectives you can focus on, including, improving your SEO, nurturing your leads, and improving brand favorability.
If you want to learn how to build a successful business that provides you with passive income, feel free to contact us!
