You wrote (and rewrote) the copy, planned the launch, created the landing page, and hit the publish button.
…now what?
Cross your fingers and hope it converts? Or spam your lead database?
Yikes 😬
The best marketers know that an effective content strategy is the cornerstone of any successful marketing campaign. That’s why I’m baffled when marketers throw their content strategy to the wind.
It’s high time we changed that.
Today, I’m going to introduce five tips for how you can drive up conversion rates on your content — everything from big picture strategies to tweaks in your content creation process. And the best part is that these are all things your content team could start doing tomorrow.
So pick up your note-taking pens, and let’s get started ✍️
Our team presented these tactics at the ContentRev Summit hosted by Content Marketing Institute. If you want to watch the full recording, click here. Otherwise, keep reading for all the insights 💡
1. Deliver the Content People Actually Want
Every good content marketer starts by asking themselves, “Who am I creating this content for?”
While I’m totally on board with creating content that brings in traffic or funnels leads, at the end of the day, your content is for your audience. It should represent the voices of your customers, users, and industry experts.
We take this to heart at Drift — it’s something we’ve baked into our content strategy from the very beginning. And it’s why we like to tune in to how people actually interact with our content 👇
In the era of remote work, digital overload is all too real. Often, buyers will not have the energy to interact with something long and impersonal.
In short, deliver content that is shorter, personalized, and more human.
2. Don’t Reinvent the Wheel (Recycle It)
Trainings, podcasts, ebooks, reports, and much much more. It’s no exaggeration to say we’re shipping content all the time at Drift.
With the volume of content we produce, you may think we have an army of content creators behind the scenes. But that’s not the case.
We’ve just learned how to scale our content really well.
Not every piece of content has to start from scratch. We like to give our content a second life through one of the four Rs:
- Reuse: Take the elements that work and reuse them across multiple pieces of content. For example, you can pull stats from a report to make your webinar more compelling.
- Repackage: If you’ve got a piece of content performing well in one format, why not try another? A single event can be turned into an ebook, training, blog post, etc.
- Reposition: Everyone consumes content differently and interests can vary wildly. Reposition your content to reach specific personas, industries, or targets.
- Refresh: Put a new spin on outdated content so that it feels fresh and new. This also means being unafraid to retire content that isn’t working or no longer fits your brand.
Ultimately, the four Rs are about iterating and improving on your content, rather than starting with a blank slate. So even if the content isn’t brand new, you are still saying something interesting and innovative to your audience.
3. Make Conversation-Worthy Content
Everyone has heard the saying, “Content is king.”
But at Drift, we think about this slightly differently. For us, engagement is king.
Your content and community teams are the fuel for your revenue engine — which is teams like demand gen and marketing ops who work in service of pipeline and revenue. The fact is you cannot create a relationship with buyers through content but you can increase engagement. So even if content does not directly contribute to sales, it is still part of the overall machine.
That’s why we aim to spark conversations with our content.
The first part of that is eliminating friction. Our content is open and accessible to everyone — without a form in sight. In addition, we use chatbots to instantly engage our buyers, whether it’s right after the visitor downloaded an ebook or registered for an event.
Having this engagement channel gives your buyers the chance to ask questions and dive deeper. That conversation around content can easily trigger a larger sales conversation.
If you want to take this a step further, you can create a Conversational Landing Page, specifically designed for digital ad campaigns. With this, a potential buyer who clicks on the ad will be greeted by a custom chatbot and invited to fully engage with the content (and maybe even sales).
4. Double Down on Internal Enablement
If you want to maximize buyer engagement, then your content can’t simply live within your content team. Everyone across the company should be in touch with content and be able to use it in their day-to-day.
Our solution: creative briefs.
We have three levels to our briefs: offer-level, campaign-level, and theme. Together, these briefs explain the purpose of our content and the message it serves.
- Theme: Written on an annual basis, these briefs create alignment between campaigns and teams through overarching messages and stories.
- Campaign: Covers all offers made for a specific audience as it relates to a trigger event, like a product launch or in-person event.
- Offer: Provides examples of content, e.g. webinars and blogs, for a specific offer.
Through these briefs, we ensure the entire marketing team understands who the content was made for, which allows us to align everyone around increasing buyer engagement.
Of course, content will only do well if it’s seen — so we rely heavily on fellow Drifters to spread the word. My advice is to make it easy to share that content with the right message using a sharing platform like Bambu.
Even if your content team is still planting roots, take some time to enable your fellow teams. You may only share one or two briefs per quarter but all this will help your teams drive pipeline with content.
5. Find Your Voice, Then Teach Others to Sing
What’s better than having people share content? Teaching them how to embody it.
One of the biggest ways to drive conversion is to have a strong brand voice. After all, brand is what will make you stand out against your competitors.
It’s simple: strong brand voice = strong brand recognition = more engagement = higher conversion 📈
Start by voicing the essence of your brand. Aim for something short but impactful. For example, our brand essence can be summed up as, “Everything starts with a conversation.”
Then, make sure all your teammates can express it. Because we put conversations at the center of everything we do, we’re invested in having our employees sound like Drift. That’s why we’re currently in the process of revamping our Conversational Copywriting course.
By taking the time to teach people how to embody your brand, everyone in your company will have a signpost that they can return to as they navigate their own work.
Prioritize Engagement & Watch Your Content Conversions Soar
Now, you’re probably thinking…does this actually work?
Well, we have the numbers to back it up.
We pulled our engagement numbers from the past six months relative to our goals. During that time, our content engagement hit 114% to goal and our offer page sessions hit 123% to goal.
Pipeline-wise, we increased our conversion rates by 3x. That meant more booked meetings, greater brand recognition, and millions of dollars in influenced pipeline.
And it all comes down to engagement.
In the end, engagement is what will turn conversations into pipeline. So use these tactics to put engagement at the forefront of your content strategy. That is how your content will truly shine.
