Let’s get one thing straight: the reason all your favorite brands create content is because it actually works.
Brands that run content marketing campaigns have noticeable spikes in conversion rates and traffic.
As if that wasn’t enough, it offers an ROI that’s 3x higher than paid search generates 3x the leads that outbound marketing does.
And did we mention that it typically costs 62% less than traditional ads?
There’s no denying that an engaging content marketing strategy can do wonders for your business.
But lately, it feels like the term ‘engagement’ has just become another marketing buzzword.
Spend five minutes on the average digital marketing blog and you’ll be told that your content needs to either be engaging or it needs to drive engagement.
Entrepreneurs all over the world are told that engagement is important, but too often it’s used as another way of saying ‘attention’.
Except there’s just one problem — that’s not what engagement is.
There’s a massive difference between traffic and engagement, and understanding that difference is the key to properly executing a content marketing strategy.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.
Like any business owner, you’re trying to build a content marketing strategy that actually drives conversions. And being told that your content needs to be ‘engaging’ doesn’t offer much in terms of direction.
That’s why today, we’re going to analyze effective content marketing strategies and break down what it means to craft engaging content.
By the time we’re done here, you’ll not only know exactly how to create engaging content, you’ll also understand how the biggest brands in the world use 3 content marketing fundamentals to build online authority.
1. It Has a Distinct, Unique Brand Voice
In this ever-changing digital marketing landscape, there’s only one constant rule you can count on.
If you’re going to become an online authority, you can’t afford to ‘blend in’.
But before we can actually consider what your brand voice should sound like, it’s important that we clearly establish what it means to create engaging content.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s define ‘engagement’ as a connection that consumers have with your business/mission statement/products/services that compels some form of conversion.
Obviously, not all conversions are equally valuable. There’s a big difference between getting a consumer to download an ebook and getting a consumer to spend $1000 on your business.
But as long as the conversion is pushing consumers from the marketing funnel towards the sales funnel, that can fall into the category of ‘engagement’.
So, how does content fit into all this?
Well, when content is ‘engaging’, it creates the connection that leads to an inevitable conversion.
And the first step to creating that connection is to craft a brand voice that speaks to the needs, interests, and goals of your audience.
Let’s take a look at 2 highly successful digital marketing brands, Moz and Neil Patel, and see how they both built compelling brand voices.
If you’re not familiar with Moz, they’re a digital marketing titan. Aside from being highly knowledgeable, they’ve managed to build an impressive following over the years.
When it comes to their brand voice, the easiest way to define it would be 80% professional, 20% conversational.
Their content doesn’t read like a white paper, but there’s a clear emphasis on facts and figures that can sometimes make the content feel a bit robotic.
Contrast that with Neil Patel’s personal blog, which presents readers with a brand voice that’s 50% professional, 50% conversational.
While Moz’s blog feels like a proper analysis, Neil’s content feels more like you’re having a chat with your Wall Street buddy about which stocks to invest in.
It’s informative when it needs to be, but it’s not afraid to be casual and ‘to the point’.
To be clear, neither of these approaches are inherently better or worse than the other. These brand voices are unique, consistent and appropriate for their audiences.
And that’s the point.
These brand voices work because each brand has a deep understanding of their audience’s pain points, industry-related interests, and expectations when it comes to content.
So if you want to successfully craft a compelling brand voice, start by auditing your buyer personas and identifying what your audience craves.
Starting with buyer personas is your best bet. If your audience is full of 40-50 year old professionals who want facts and figures, don’t bother coming up with witty commentary.
On the other hand, if your content is made up of 18-24 year olds that love hiking, focus on being authentic, quirky, or passionate avoid ‘faceless corporation’ syndrome.
The goal is to identify a tone that helps your content bridge the gap between business and consumer, and then consistently maintain that tone throughout your content marketing efforts.
If you’re really struggling here, take a look at your competitors.
What do the online authorities in your industry sound like? Which of those methods is the best fit for your business? These are the questions you need to ask when crafting a brand voice.
But don’t just end up copying them. Take the best parts of their approach, and then find a way to offer your audience even more value.
Maybe your content has more statistics or your statistics are more recent. Or you might create content that more effectively cuts through the usual business chatter and tells better stories.
Only through having a strong understanding of consumer pain points and preferences can you develop a distinct brand voice that turns potential customers into paying customers.
Of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Having a unique brand voice is great, but it means nothing if you’re not offering valuable content.
2. It Prioritizes Value to the Reader over Self-Promotion
As far as marketing content goes, there are typically two schools of thought.
The first relies on what we’ll call ‘traditional marketing’ principles, while the second relies on modern marketing principles.
Confused? Let’s try a little thought experiment.
To better understand how each of those marketing principles work, we’re going to take a single brand and see how it would be promoted in both 1978 and 2018.
Enter Airbnb, a massively successful online marketplace where people can book and offer accommodations around the world.
In the marketing ecosystem of 1978, the marketing strategy is pretty straightforward.
Airbnb accommodations are laughably cheaper than hotel rooms. So, traditional marketing wisdom states that this brand should focus on how they offer more for less.
Not a bad strategy, right?
And in the 70s, embracing that strategy might’ve been the right move.
But we don’t live in the world of the traditional consumer.
Modern consumers aren’t just looking to save money. They’re looking for value that speaks directly to their experiences.
That’s why Airbnb’s marketing strategy in 2018 completely skips over the fact that they’re cheaper than hotels to focus on what they really offer: a unique, local experience that no hotel could ever offer.
When you stay at an Airbnb, you have access to locals and an authentic living space. That’s infinitely more compelling than just telling people they can ‘save some cash’.
Moral of the story? Your product is supposed to be better than the competition’s. Instead of pointing out the obvious, find ways to offer consumers the kind of unique value they can’t find anywhere else.
No matter what kind of products/services you’re selling, you can always create content that prioritizes value to the consumer.
If you’re selling hiking backpacks online, don’t just create a blog post titled “Top 10 Hiking Backpacks” and expect people to be impressed.
Remember when you identified your audience’s pain points earlier to build a brand voice? Well, you can use your deep understanding of those paint points to create content that addresses their specific needs.
Continuing with the hiking backpack business, there’s a good chance that blogs titled “Top 10 Hiking Essentials” or “5 Hiking Essentials for Beginners” would perform better.
Why? Because it’s objectively valuable.
Whether or not they buy a backpack from you, that article will add something to their lives. And if you’re able to do that consistently, you’ll earn your audience’s trust and be one step closer to becoming an online authority.
At the end of the day, the content you create needs to present readers with a unique perspective, while also offering them undeniably useful solutions to their problems.
But that still leaves us with one question: how do you actually build valuable content?
Typically, there are 2 types of content that audiences find valuable:
- Entertaining Content
- Educational Content
Entertaining content is great…when it’s executed properly. If it’s handled poorly, you run the risk of sounding gimmicky and ruining your credibility in the process.
That’s why we usually recommend that brands focus on educational content.
Not only is it much easier to properly execute educational content, but the average business owner already has all the tools they need to start creating content today.
After all, you’ve done plenty of research at this point. You know your audience and their pain points like the back of your hand.
More specifically, you’ll be able to create content that walks them through their problems and offers realistic solutions.
Still, not all educational content is created equal.
Some educational content can focus on actionable, tangible solutions. These are usually blog posts that acknowledge a specific issue, then provide the reader with a solution they can use immediately to solve their problem.
But sometimes it’s best to ignore the symptoms and go straight for the illness itself. That’s where thought leadership content comes in.
This kind of content focuses on helping consumers reevaluate the way they think about your industry and help identify when their thought process is fundamentally flawed.
If you expect your business to be taken seriously, you’ll need your content to be taken seriously first.
3. It Provides a Clear, Actionable CTA
This is where most business owners drop the ball.
If they’re serious about creating a top-notch content marketing strategy, they’ll usually take the first 2 fundamentals to heart.
But the concept of adding a clear, actionable call to action? Few businesses are able to properly implement that principle.
On the surface, it seems simple enough. But in reality, putting a compelling CTA at the end of your content can sometimes feel a bit challenging.
Why? Well, because it can feel difficult to include a CTA without sounding cliche or gimmicky.
And to be fair, that’s a legitimate concern. The last thing you want to do after earning all that goodwill with your content is lose it all by making readers roll their eyes with your CTA.
So, how do you provide a clear CTA without sounding ‘business-as-usual’?
Simple: just make it relevant.
If you just wrote an amazing blog post on the best laptops for college students, don’t try to sell them phones at the end.
That might sound ridiculous, but you’d be amazed at how many business owners have CTAs in their content that has nothing to do with what was just discussed.
It’s about more than just being inconsistent, though. What you really want is for consumers to have a clear path from ‘interested’ to ‘sold’.
As a business owner, your job is to reduce to friction, right? Well, the jump from marketing content to CTA should be logical and appropriate if you want to minimize friction as much as possible.
Relate your CTA to your content, specifically on a case-by-case basis. And don’t tell people to ‘check out your ecommerce store’. If they just read about laptops, tell them to buy one of those laptops today!
If your site always fixates on a singular topic, you can provide a blanket CTA at the end, provided that it’s always relevant to the needs of your audience.
For one of our favorite example of CTAs, we turn to Buffer’s Social Media Blog.
After getting through any piece of their admittedly top-notch content, you’ll be greeted with this:
There’s nothing wrong with getting to the point with consumers. Telling consumers to buy something is only annoying when they aren’t interested in it.
But if someone just read an article on the best laptops for college students, they’re probably interested, don’t you think?
Exactly.
Channel that connection that the consumer has already demonstrated and turn that mild curiosity into a conversion with your CTA.
Conclusion
Listen, we get it.
Content marketing can seem pretty intimidating, at first glance.
There are quite a few moving parts to it, and as a business owner, you’ll need to keep track of them constantly.
But with a strong understanding of the content marketing fundamentals, you can guarantee that the foundation of your marketing campaign will be rock-solid.
Take the time to analyze your audience and develop a unique, compelling brand voice. Find ways to create content that adds undeniable value to the lives of your consumers.
And make sure to include a clear, actionable CTA to move consumers from the marketing funnel to the sales funnel.
It may not be easy, but with the right approach, it’s only a matter of time before you’re able to consistently turn potential customers into repeat customers.