The core of content marketing is to produce content in order to generate more sales for your business. Sounds simple, right? Content marketing is simple, but it’s also complicated at times. Content marketing can be hard when businesses see their website visitors increase but their sales have not seen the same success. If you’re getting the sense that this sounds like your content marketing efforts, continue reading to discover the 3 forms of content you can use to generate more sales in 2016.
1. Customer Reviews
The best form of marketing is word-of-mouth: people are much more likely to purchase a product if someone they know recommended it to them. It’s human nature to trust the opinion of the close people that surround you. Many marketers believe that word-of-mouth is something they cannot control – they’re not at the cafe when someone raves about their product. However, there is a lot that marketers can do in order to share the reviews they receive on their product and/or service. You can reach out to bloggers and influencers in your industry and ask them to write an honest review of your business. These people have a big “in” with your target audience and will give them the final push they need to make the sale.
2. Slideshows
Websites, particularly Slideshare, are becoming extremely popular as a content form for businesses. Posting a slideshow on Slideshare can expose your business to tens of thousands of new visitors, and potential customers. Slideshows are great for educational purposes and to allow your customer to see how much you know about your industry. To enhance the effectiveness of your slideshow in generating a sale, insert a landing page at the end of the slideshow. This landing page should bring your readers to a lead offer that they’ll want to take advantage of right in that moment (this could be a free eBook for providing his/her email address). Receiving some sort of contact information will allow you to follow-up with those readers who took that extra step to learn more about what your business has to offer.
3. Tutorials
Often times, products or services may be difficult for potential consumers to truly understand and get a hold of. There are various types of tutorials that you can utilize to grab your consumers attention, ranging from in-depth explanations of a product to helping your audience accomplish a goal. What makes tutorials so useful to your audience is the amount of detail and instruction provided in each post. Don’t be afraid to go through each step in extreme detail to outline to your reader how to complete the tutorial. You want the post to be as easy to understand as possible so be sure to use everyday vocabulary and include pictures.
2016 is a new year that brings along change, experimentation, and excitement. Don’t be afraid to try something new to grab the attention of your audience and enhance your content marketing strategy. This can all begin by simply creating new forms of content to generate more sales in this new year. What other forms of content do you predict will be most important in 2016?