Three effective ways to create content that moves prospects toward a purchase or conversion
Key Takeaways:
- Storytelling is at the core of content that converts
- Successful content utilizes emotion to cause desire, which leads to conversion
- Understand what is driving prospects to seek out your content so you can offer them a reason to take the next step
Writing content that converts is not magic. There are best practices proven to drive conversions and tools that can analyze elements of your article to ensure it’ll be attractive to your audience.
Let’s dive into a few of them now.
1. Tell a compelling story
Storytelling is an effective method to communicate. Everything our brains process is in the form of a story. And the premise of every good story is cause and effect. The problem followed by a solution.
What goes into a good story? When it comes to inbound marketing, the most successful content isn’t the story about your product or service – it’s about the problem you solve and why you’re attached to that problem. After all, isn’t that what you really share with a prospect you’re hoping to convert? Good stories are problem-centric.
2. Take emotion into account
Emotion doesn’t convert. But it does motivate. And that’s what you’re really after when writing content for conversion. Your content must guide your audience toward desire, and that desire is to act on your call-to-action (CTA). The three most common approaches to get the desired response include:
- FOMO - Elicits the fear of missing out on something major
- Peer pressure - It’s similar to FOMO in that it elicits a desire to engage in things to experience what others have
- Self-improvement - Does the content demonstrate how a problem can be resolved?
Successful content utilizes emotion to cause desire, which leads to conversion. The propulsion is urgency. Reducing anxiety and distractions to maximize relevance and clarity. Let’s look at these elements a bit closer.
- You add urgency whenever you introduce a limited offer or availability (it also loops back to FOMO).
- Reduce anxiety by establishing trustworthiness. Introduce outside sources that support your approach to solving the problem. Education and perspective are potent anxiety-reducers. Use empathy to show you understand what a prospect feels.
- Reduce distractions to keep prospects focused on a single idea. Clear writing that moves the recipient through a logical progression helps them concentrate. If it doesn’t support the main point, delete it.
- Increase relevance to appeal to their desire for problem-solving. Relevance starts by sharing appropriate problem-centric information with the correct audience segment at the right time in the buyer’s journey.
- Dial up clarity by ensuring that your content contains information that rewards the audience with actionable insight and information. Take the time to explain a new concept using language that resonates with your target audience.
3. Know where the buyer is
It’s unlikely that you’ll increase relevance and clarity by reducing anxiety if you don’t know why a prospect would seek out your content. People visit your site for different reasons and at different stages in the buyer’s journey.
Understand what is driving them to the site and what they are looking for. What mindset are your visitors in, and what information would they find valuable? What’s going to move them to the next step?
Match your customers’ mindset with a conversion strategy:
- Looking for information? Give them educational blogs, eBooks, downloads, webinars
- Ready to purchase? Make it easy with promotion codes, shopping carts, and PayPal
- Have questions or need support? Offer live chat, FAQs, and community support forums
- Looking to validate? Provide testimonials and media mentions
- Looking for what’s new? Share current news and events, new offerings
- How do they like to consume content? Reading? Video? Infographics? Give them what they want.
Look Ma, no selling!
Converting content does not sell. It validates. It educates and arms a prospect with the confidence to take the next step.
Sure, you’re going to sneak in a pitch, but it’s comfortably surrounded by advice. People do business with people they like and trust. This is especially true when it comes to B2B marketing.
A conversion strategy that utilizes the tactics we’ve shared here will help you to craft content that resonates with prospects and accompanies them on the buyer’s journey. It helps you build credibility. It positions you as a subject matter expert. And it engages fully with your audience.
Want to learn more about meeting buyers where they are in the journey? Check out our blog, A Guide to the Buyer’s Journey, to learn more.
