The Ultimate Guide to Create Content That Converts
In today’s world, content is king. If you want to be successful in your business, you need to create content that converts. But how do you know what content will work best for your business? This article contains tips on creating engaging content and how it can help boost conversion rates on your website.
Content is growing in popularity as a marketing tool. Content can have an incredibly positive effect on your traffic, engagement, and conversion rates. Today we will focus on improving the most important component of marketing strategy — your content. We highlighted five methods to help you build engaging content meant to increase conversions.
1. Your Headline Should Be Catchy
When blogging or designing landing pages, the first element customers see is your headline. If the content could grabs their attention, they will most likely continue reading it. If not, they will most likely bounce from the page.
There are several types of headlines, but there are certain things that all successful headlines have in common.
The most high performing headlines:
- contain seven words
- include numbers
- start with What, Why, or How
- start with The or This.
A powerful headline can occupy little space, but still creates a captivating caption that converts. By combining several of these powerful elements, you can create catchy headlines for your content.
Use the headline to outline your point. If the text lacks a few details, you can add a concise explanation after a colon or hyphen. Another good tip is to use numbers for listicles.
Besides the aforementioned suggestions, choose high-converting keywords and phrases. Marketing tool provider, The WiderFunnel, reports that certain words can help encourage conversions like “you,” “because,” “free,” “new,” and “instantly”.
2. Your Intro Should Be Intriguing
A good headline is a critical component of any blog post, and it does its job well when it piques the reader’s interest. To keep them interested, you need to start with an interesting introduction. To persuade readers to continue reading, the headline is your bait, and the intro is your hook.
And the good news is that you can turn your introduction into a hook for search engines as well.
When readers find what they are looking for, your site has a lower bounce rate and better engagement with your brand.
In a blog post, the first paragraph is typically established as an introduction to what the reader should expect and comprises three or four sentences. They should be precise and explain all the benefits your readers will gain from the post. Otherwise, why continue reading the rest of the content?
You should also write effective subheadings to engage your readers and boost conversion rates. Highlight the major benefits in the subheading or with bullet points to make it easier for the reader to scan and interpret the information.
3. Your Content Should Include Visuals
If you want to improve your performance, consider adding visuals to your copy. They inject more life and also grab your reader’s attention. And they are an excellent way to break longer pieces of text up.
The average social shares for articles with more images are twice as high as those that lack visuals. The Buzzsumo study looked at a million different articles and found that the ones with images every 75-100 words were more successful than those without them. This study was published in 2017, but visual content’s popularity has been on the rise since then.
Pay attention to which type of content you’re creating and design your visuals accordingly. This means adjusting how much space the image takes up on the screen, what colours you use and even going so far as altering fonts depending on your audience.
The following five types will boost your conversions:
- Visuals as Original Graphics
Having high quality original content will show that you’ve dedicated the time and energy to create something valuable and unique for your readers. If your company doesn’t have brand designers, there are user-friendly tools like Canva or Xara to help you create memorable visuals.
If you opt for original graphics, use them as featured images in your blog posts and social media campaigns. Designing engaging graphics that are relevant to your post topic can make a positive impact on your audience. - Visuals as Charts and Graphs
Including data like stats and visual aids like charts or graphs in your content helps readers to better understand your point. This will help your readers visualise the content, which makes it easier for them to process. - Visuals as Screenshots
Screenshots are a great way to illustrate how your service, product or app works and improve your content. Visual content has the potential to express ideas and thoughts that words sometimes cannot. For instance, you can use screenshots to demonstrate how-to instructions for a tool or the practical application of a strategy. For most businesses, the credibility of a claim can be supported by showing a screenshot.
To make your position clearer, highlight, comment or edit your screenshots.There are free photo editors, such as Instasize, which is optimised for the platforms you’re active on. They also manage the quality of images as they edit them. - Visuals as Infographics
Data-heavy pieces and concepts are challenging to explain solely with words. When information needs to be presented visually, an infographic can come in handy. A recent study from Venngage reveals 40% of marketers consider infographics to be the most engaging type of content. - Visuals as Videos
As you may have noticed, images and text alone may not be enough to describe a product’s features or benefits. Consider including informative videos on your blog posts or landing page to improve conversions. Or, you can include video testimonials on your website or show reviews from customers and influencers.
If you lack the time, skills, or resources to produce original video content for your site, consider using footage from stock footage websites. They offer videos that can be viewed as many times as desired after a single fee is paid. Or to get started, a small investment as a low-cost monthly plan will allow you to tap into their vast archives and find videos, animated logos, and templates.
When you hit a plateau in your content strategy, it’s helpful to browse through the extensive archive of intro videos, Instagram Stories templates, animated logos, and YouTube templates.
4. Your layout Should Be Easy to Read
There are several factors that will contribute to better sales through content, but the most important decision is the layout. If you want to provide practical tips and knowledge, it can make readers’ lives much easier if you organise your content into brief paragraphs. If your users have difficulty digesting the content delivered, it will negatively affect your conversion rates.
Are you looking for methods to make your content more reader-friendly?
Here are a few suggestions:
- Divide the blocks of text into shorter paragraphs of five lines, no longer.
- Use bullet points to emphasise the key points.
- Include visual elements to support your claims and divide text blocks.
- Add subheadings to make your content more readable.
5. Your CTA Should Be Convincing
Want to convince your prospects to convert and take action?
Include a persuasive call-to-action. Regardless of the place, every call to action needs to improve conversions. Every time you include a CTA, whether it be to increase subscribers to your newsletter or download your e-book, at the end of a blog post, on your video, landing pages for your products and services, it needs to improve conversions.
To ensure it’s interesting enough, here are a few elements that improve your CTA potential:
- Clarify what you expect people to do. Start your sentences with actions – such as “Download our free e-book now” or “Call us today”.
- Be straightforward. You may need to write a longer sentence when you end your blog post with the CTA. For a landing page, keep it under six words.
- Focus on the benefits.
- Accelerate urgency with phrases like “now”, “today,” or “right away.”
- Create a sense of exclusivity by using terms like “special” or “exclusive”.
- Stress the benefits of your product by mentioning “free” or “save.”
Combine some compelling suggestions to create each CTA and run A/B tests to decide which is best for converting.
Don’t Settle for Less Than Quality Content
Diversifying your content won’t transform your writing into content that converts overnight. This article outlines several recommendations, for content marketers of all levels, for turning out-of-date, uninspired work into hard-hitting transformative pieces of marketing.
If you want to discuss the methods covered above or find out which content strategy works best for your business, reach out to us today.
We’d love to hear from you.
