From Prospect to Purchaser: How to Use Content for Lead Conversion

Are you struggling to market your products online? If so, you may need to look at your lead generation marketing. Nowadays, it's no good to create a dazzling website and leave it to attract interest, and it's certainly not sufficient to rely on trade conferences, industry publications, or word of mouth to generate sales.

Successful companies rely on lead generation to supply a steady stream of potential customers. But how can you maximise the number of qualified leads your marketing generates, and how can these leads be converted into profits?

The secret lies in matching the right types of content to the right stage in the customer journey. Properly crafted content can send your conversion rate soaring - here are some proven lead generation tactics that can make that happen.

Model Customer Journeys from Start to Finish

The first tip to learn is the importance of modelling customer journeys. The idea behind modelling these journeys is to understand how customer groups follow that pathway, and which content to supply them with as they progress.

Capture Leads From the Start with Clear CTAs

Most of the time, customers will arrive at the top of a sales funnel via Google, so journeys tend to start by creating landing pages tailored to specific keywords.

Each landing page could begin a separate journey. For instance, it could contain a questionnaire or newsletter sign-up form. The type of content chosen relates to the next stage in the customer's path, from visitors, to potential leads, qualified leads, and - ideally - customers.

Remember to build this content around clear calls to action, which encourage visitors to provide their details. Detail isn't that important here, but employing fluent, simple writing is vital. And, it's also important to maintain a consistent, professional tone. So it's wise to partner with content creators who are experts at branded content marketing.

Gather Information to Create Customer Scorecards

When customers engage via landing pages or other entry points, make sure they are asked to provide information that allows you to move them to the next stage in their journey. This could be data about the company they work for, the products they use, or their general interests.

At this stage, the information supplied is still a hint. It lets us connect visitors with further content, but isn't enough to make a conversion. The aim here is to create customer profiles which "score" leads as they engage with the content we provide.

Remember: you'll need to include requests for consent to gather personal information. So factor that into your lead generation strategy.

Create Content that "Nurtures" Interest, and Provides Information

When you've put a scoring system in place, and perfected your landing pages, it's time to move onto the meat of the matter: creating content to nurture leads.

You might think that this stage in the journey is all about persuading leads to buy specific products, but that's actually a misunderstanding of how the process works. Instead, this stage is all about conveying expertise and useful information.

As customers interact with the newsletters, webinars, or eBooks you supply, you can learn much more about their requirements. As they make downloads, visit information databases, make enquiries, and submit information to forms, it can all be added to their individual profiles.

The idea is that, when a lead satisfies certain conditions, they graduate to "qualified" status, and enough information has been collected to hand them over to your sales team.

Blend High-Quality Content with Slick Data Collection

When crafting lead generation marketing systems, it's essential to get the backroom infrastructure right. So investing in data analysis, SEO, and automation tools to qualify leads is important.

However, you won't see your conversion rate benefit unless you also invest in content that engages, informs, and - eventually - captures leads. Landing pages need to be well-written to maximise their SEO value. Newsletters need to be consistently interesting and relevant. White Papers must offer value, and answer crucial questions. In other words, you can't achieve outstanding lead conversion without investing in content creation.

At greatcontent, we've followed plenty of customer journeys, helping clients to fine-tune the content they provide. We can help you populate landing pages via our content marketplace, or create bespoke white papers and eBooks to the highest standards. Just get in touch, and we'll come up with lead generation tactics that are perfectly suited to your situation.

Text: Sam Urquhart
Image: unsplash.com