Content is King. We’re all very aware of that, especially if it’s our goal to become more discoverable in search engine queries. So what do you do if you’re creating lots of content, but not seeing many results in return? Your website traffic isn’t increasing, social media engagement is minimal, and your conversion rate isn’t improving. If this is the situation you’re in, don’t skip over this blog series. We’ll give you the practical tools to maximize the ROI of your content marketing.
Know your target audience
Great content starts with insight into your target audience. Who are you writing for? Get to know your audience, understand what intrigues and influences them. If you know who you’re dealing with, they’ll be much easier to reach. This might sound like a lot of research, but precisely by mapping out the details of your target audience, you’ll get a whole lot closer to your goal of maximizing your content marketing’s ROI.
The easiest way is to write out a persona. After looking into your audience, you’ll know their average age, where to find them, and where they’re from. You’ll also be able to understand how they think and what their needs are. That’s how you really get to know your target audience and how you’ll be able to write content geared towards them specifically. The more specific, the better, and the higher your ROI will be.
Use of SEO
Once you’ve taken the first step of mapping out your audience, it’s time to take things a step further. It’s a smart move to apply SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to your written content. Because you know your audience, you’ll be able to research which keywords they’re searching for in their queries to find comparable products or services. You can do that type of keyword research with the free Keyword Planner in Google Ads or through our Textmetrics Content Ranking Index.
By using the right SEO, your content will be easier to discover in search engines like Google. Be aware that your keywords need to be relevant. The content should directly relate to the keywords, otherwise, you’ll see the opposite effect. If you’ve written great content that is valuable to the reader, your search engine ranking will improve even more. So make sure both the SEO and the content are relevant!
Evergreen content
Evergreen content can also create added value in terms of search engine discoverability. This is the type of content that is frequently searched, for example ‘pregnancy and nutrition’, ‘how do I bake a pie’, or ‘how do I build a closet’. Every sector or line of business has this kind of evergreen content, so use it to your advantage. Once you combine this with the right SEO, your website traffic should quickly increase! Read our blog ‘Evergreen content & SEO: what’s the smart approach?‘.
Attractive atmosphere
It’s quite logical, really: a user-friendly website creates an attractive atmosphere. A visitor who reaches your website through a search engine query will stick around longer if they find your site attractive. A website with lots of distractions or an illogical menu structure will likely scare readers away. So be kind to your visitors and provide them with a great environment in which they’ll read your blog posts. That’s not just good for the reader, but beneficial to you too. Your visitors will be more inclined to read multiple blog posts and become even more engaged in your website.
Gaining insight into your audience, researching the right keywords, and providing an attractive setting — together these form the first phase of action towards maximizing the ROI of your content marketing. Once you’ve applied those, it’s time to take things to the next level. How? You’ll find out soon in our next blog about this subject.