How To Generate Leads With Content Marketing

To run a successful business, you need to develop a pipeline to attract consistent (or better yet, growing) sales. For many businesses, this means generating enough high-quality leads to keep the sales team busy and the conversion rates up. But with so many new companies popping up on the internet, how do you find more potential clients? The answer is simple: Use content marketing to generate leads.

Effective content marketing takes a lot of work and strategy. For companies wanting to make a difference online, publishing content is necessary and can’t be overlooked. Learning how to generate leads by developing and executing an effective content marketing strategy is a powerful way to increase your leads and sales.

Not sure how to generate leads with content marketing? We’ll share some of the ways content marketing actually helps businesses with sales and some of today’s best practices for increasing lead generation.

How Content Marketing Can Help You Generate Leads

Many businesses struggle with lead generation. Your sales team is likely capable of consistently converting a certain percentage of qualified leads. However, getting enough good leads to them while minimizing the low-quality ones can require a well-developed pipeline. Content marketing can be a cornerstone of that pipeline.

Digital content is gaining popularity because 77% of adults in the U.S. are online at least daily, according to the Pew Research Center. Furthermore, 28% are almost constantly online and 45% are online several times per day.

The secret to the effectiveness of content writing is that you can offer something of value to your audience for free. It is unlike almost any other type of marketing. Whereas an ad, website, video or any other form of marketing is simply promoting your brand, content is engaging potential leads with information that they want. Therefore, because there are no strings attached, potential customers are much more likely to trust your content. And as any company knows, more trust can lead to more sales.

You can generate leads with content marketing by simply trading your valuable information in exchange for contact information. If your content strategy is well-targeted, a large percentage of the leads generated will be likely customers.

Top 5 Content Marketing Strategies For Lead Generation

The key to effectively generating leads through content marketing is to have a good lead capture setup. This looks a little different for every business. For example, techniques that work for a consumer electronics brand may not translate well for an industrial hardware business. Nonetheless, if you focus on delivering value through your content, you can use it to effectively generate leads.

There is a wide range of lead generation strategies that you can customize to fit the needs of your brand.  Combine quality writing with these strategies for some killer content that catches the eyes of potential consumers. Wondering which content marketing methods are so useful? Here are five effective lead capture techniques that you can incorporate or ask your content writing agency to do for you.

1. Use Strong Calls to Action

The simplest form of lead capture through content writing is to have strong calls to action at the end of your content pieces. A CTA is a prompt at the end of some content asking the person reading to do something.

If your content is intended to generate leads, you could ask your reader to complete a form. This form could provide information to your sales team to contact the person with additional information. Similarly, you could provide contact information to have interested potential buyers contact your team. Writers from the content writing agency you work with can easily incorporate these types of calls to action to instantly increase the lead generation power of your content.

Depending on the strength of your content, you don’t necessarily need anything complicated to convert readers to leads. If your readers are highly interested, they will be ready to convert with minimal effort.

2. Downloadable White Papers

Another option for generating leads is to exchange contact details for more information. A great way to achieve this is by offering a downloadable white paper or datasheet that is unlockable through a form completion.

For this strategy to be effective, you need the downloadable content to be genuinely enticing. It can be helpful to have professional writers produce the white paper based on data from your team. If the paper isn’t interesting and well-presented, it will be hard to generate leads.

This technique typically works best for products and services for which the buying decision is highly data-driven. For example, if you are supplying enterprise software, a white paper about relevant innovations in the industry could be valuable. However, if you are selling dog beds, it will be a less effective strategy (although a downloadable guide to preparing for your first puppy may be effective). The key is creating something that is relevant and useful.

3. Webinars and Other Events

You can offer free access to webinars or similar events in exchange for form completions. Getting people to sign up for webinars is a lot like getting them to download a whitepaper. You need to provide valuable information in a professional format for it to be worthwhile to your audience.

When done properly, webinars can be very impactful. A survey by ReadyTalk indicates that about half of respondents converted between 20% and 40% of their webinar participants into qualified leads. That is an impressive rate and ranks webinars as the top form of content for generating qualified leads.

Other types of events may work a little differently. For example, you could have a professional networking event. In this case, the most important element is getting a crowd of relevant people. Whatever your event is, if it is enticing and valuable for your audience, you will generate leads.

Of course, you’ll need some persuasive writing to help potential leads become interested in a webinar or similar event. Generate leads with content marketing by writing a series of blog posts and social media snippets that support and explain the event. You may also want to a little digital advertising as well to boost customer reach for a large event.

4. Promotional Offers

Another way to generate leads with content marketing is to provide promotional discounts to people who provide their contact information. This could be a one-time discount, or it could be signing up for regular emailed promotions.

This will produce two very valuable types of leads. The first discount connects with people who are close to making a buying decision. They are looking for a deal and may become long-term customers if they have positive buying experiences. The second is for previous customers who are thinking about coming back. Working with them can help you to develop a strong base of repeat clients.

Formulate a few sentences that describe exactly what the discount is and be sure to advertise it on your social media platforms. Including discounts is just another way to convince interested leads to convert.

5. Content Newsletter

Finally, you can ask your audience to sign up for a content newsletter. This may be industry news or other relevant information for your readers. This is doubly effective because you are getting contact information as well as successfully getting the potential customer engaged with your brand for the long term.

Committing to a content newsletter means that you are committing to a large, consistent writing project. Again, consider working with a content writing agency to ensure that both the writing and the presentation of your newsletter is up-to-par. If it is not a well-produced newsletter, you will likely have a high unsubscribe rate. A content writing agency can also help you keep up with deadlines and word counts.

Additional Tips for Successful Content Marketing

Content marketing has become a highly popular channel, especially for generating leads. While this validates the efficacy of content writing, it also means that there is a lot of competition for audience attention. Fortunately, you can outperform many content marketers simply by having a thoughtful strategy.

Content writing can be time-intensive and challenging. Whether you produce your content yourself or hire a content writing agency, the following tips will help ensure that your strategy is successful:

• Create for Your Niche: The most important element of an effective strategy is that it should be made for your target audience. This may sound obvious, but a large amount of unfocused and ineffective content is created each year. Consider what people in your niche are interested in and what would be valuable to them. Then inform your content writing agency about the tone, personality and topics you require.
• Focus on Quality Over Quantity: It is better to produce one piece of content per quarter that is effective than weekly content that is ineffective. If your content is low-quality, it won’t attract potential buyers and may even turn some would-be customers off. Evaluate every piece of content created for your brand based on whether it is helping with your goal of generating leads.
• Repurpose Content Across Channels: You can get extra mileage from your best content by repurposing it across different media and channels. For example, if you have an excellent whitepaper, you could turn it into a webinar. If you then record your webinar, you could edit it into a video to share on social media.

Go Deeper With Your Lead Generation Content

Getting the fundamentals of each piece of content is great, but don’t forget to go deeper. The way you distribute content, SEO strategies and original writing can make your content even more effective:

• Have a Consistent Schedule: Consistency can go a long way for your content marketing strategy. The goal is to generate leads to keep your pipeline full. Without a systematic plan, you could end up with a boom and bust cycle, which is going to leave your sales team alternating between being overwhelmed and scrounging for leads. Release content on a regular schedule and keep the leads coming in smoothly. Many content writing agencies use deadlines and can create a steady output of content for you to use.
• Target Keywords Carefully: Content marketing and search engine optimization should go hand-in-hand. Every article, blog post or whitepaper that you create should have keywords that reflect likely searches by your intended audience. Ultimately, your content writing will be in vain if no one is finding and engaging with it. Have the writers from the content writing agency you use implement these SEO strategies or work with an agency that already does.
• Offer Something Unique: As mentioned above, it is important to offer value to your audience. Whenever possible, you should make sure that whatever you are offering is also unique. Remember, there is a lot of noise on the internet. Getting your signal to break through means you need to have something that your competitors don’t have. This is one of the perks of working with a writing agency; Each writer’s unique perspective adds variety and diversity to the content your produce, as long as they stay consistent with the tone of your brand.

Learn How To Generate Leads With Content Marketing

If you’re looking for ways to increase sales, content marketing is the secret ingredient you’ve been missing. Simply direct your content toward potential customers, incorporate a few lead generation techniques and watch the magic happen.

To get the most out of lead generation content, you will likely need to post a lot of engaging content. If you don’t feel equipped with the writing skills or endurance to do so, there are great options available. Consider working with a content writing agency. Specialized teams can formulate blog posts and other types of content that can become lead generation trailblazers for your business.

Here at BKA, we’ll work with your needs and make sure your content looks exactly the way you want it to. Check out our Content Shop and find the content that can best help you generate leads.