When your competitors are blogging, tweeting, pinning, and facebooking 24/7, it becomes frustrating when you realize you can’t keep up.
Well I have good news, you don’t have to keep up!
For most business owners, content marketing is worthless if it doesn’t drive traffic to your website, generate leads, and convert those leads into customers. So the simple way to hack your content marketing is to focus on creating content that converts.
So what converts? A report titled B2B Content Marketing Trends 2013 reveals the two simple answers:
Customer testimonials (89 percent) and case studies (88 percent) are the most effective content marketing tactics.
Customer Testimonials
The easiest way to use a customer testimonial for content marketing is to create a blog post on your website with a simple quote from a happy customer. If you want to be a real pro, add a picture of the customer or at a minimum, a stock photo related to the quote.
From there, share this testimonial blog post on all of your social media pages and your done! Rinse and repeat every few weeks and you’ve got yourself the makings of a top notch content marketing strategy.
Case Studies
Case studies are like customer testimonials on steroids. Not only do you need to share your happy customer’s quote, you need to take it a few steps further by doing four additional things:
- Document the demographic profile of that customer
- Document their situation before using your product
- Document their situation after using your product
- Show how you bridged the before and after
The data shows that a few case study blog post each quarter can turn your website into a lead generating magnet.
Life is Easier When You Focus on What Matters
The problem with social media and content marketing is that business owners tend to over complicate things. Of course you need to engage with people by sharing and commenting on their stuff. This isn’t complicated, but it is time consuming.
Don’t stress this part of it, engaging with your audience is just something you have to do. Commit to a regular routine of social banter, and just be consistent.
After that, focus on what matters. When it comes to content marketing, what matters is generating leads and converting those leads into customers.
So if the data shows that customer testimonials and case studies work best for the vast majority, chances are they will work for you. Do yourself a favor, and make life easier by spending the rest of the year focusing on these two simple things.
