If you could create your own fantasy board of directors, who would be on it? CO— connects you with thought leaders from across the business spectrum and asks them to help solve your biggest business challenges. In this edition, we asked an expert about how you earn online leads through content.
In this edition of "Ask the Board," we asked Sara Jensen, Principal at Brighter Messaging LLC, a company that helps small businesses develop digital marketing strategies and manage their online presence, to share her advice on how to leverage online content to land leads.
At the end of the day, content is king. It's what allows your customers to understand who you are and what you know. With a thoughtful content strategy, you can generate leads online and become a more profitable business. Here are some tips to achieve just that.
Tie each piece of content to a clear call to action
As you're developing content, think about what you want the reader to do after reading it. The obvious answer is to make a purchase or schedule a consultation, but that's not necessarily the right call to action for every content type. Some pieces lend themselves better to top-of-the-funnel conversions, such as signing up for your email list or joining your online community.
Repurpose your content across channels
For most businesses, blogs are at the center of the content strategy because they're posted on the platform you control — your website. However, you don't necessarily have to keep linking out to your blogs to leverage that content. (Posts with links tend to receive fewer average impressions on most social media platforms.)
You can pull out one or two concepts from a blog and expand on them in social posts and videos. Use email to continue discussing the topic. It's highly unlikely that anyone is reading every single thing you post on every channel. Repurposing (but not copying) content helps to create efficiencies in your content development process.
As you're developing content, think about what you want the reader to do after reading it.
Sara Jensen, Principal at Brighter Messaging LLC
Stay in touch with leads, but keep it relevant
An online content strategy has the power to generate a lot of leads, but those individuals aren’t all going to be ready to purchase on day one. If you keep track of how you acquired each lead, you’ll start to gain a sense of what people are interested in. For example, if a visitor to your website downloaded a list of ideas for LinkedIn posts, you should follow up with additional content about social media. You'll see higher engagement rates on your emails if you focus on topics of interest.
Track the right metrics and adjust your strategy based on the data
There are a lot of numbers in marketing, but many of them are vanity metrics — they look nice but don't actually give you useful information about the performance of your campaigns. If you're just getting started with content marketing, keep track of the following three things:
- How many leads you're getting
- Where they're coming from
- Whether they're converting into good customers
Those three metrics give you a lot of insight into what does and doesn't work for your business.
Step away from ChatGPT
When it comes to marketing, content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) is a race to the bottom. You'll sound like everybody else and run the risk of plagiarism. It's OK to use AI for research and ideas, but what you actually publish should be unique and human-generated. If writing isn't your forte, hand it off to a skilled ghostwriter.
CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.
CO—is committed to helping you start, run and grow your small business. Learn more about the benefits of small business membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, here.
