There are often times when you are reading an in-depth, factual and an actionable article, and you leave it halfway, or maybe just after two lines! You don't want to read it any further. Have you ever wondered why? Well, They are hard to read. Right? This sums up the fact that out of the 93% marketers who use content marketing, only 40% found themselves to be successful. This is bound to happen when your readers have limited time, millions of choices, and to make it worse, your content is just another another brick in the wall.

The main reason why most of the readers visit their favourite websites time and again is because of their readability, they are just simple to understand. In order to grab your user’s attention and keep them hooked until your call to action, your content has to stand out in the crowd!

Why Do You Need Content Marketing?

Let us start with a scenario. You are the Head of Marketing in an agency which specializes in design and development solutions. Your main concern is, you are not able to attract your customers. So what you do is you decide to start a blog on your website and publish posts about some of the less known facts, trends, technologies and Q&As in the field of design and development. You write few posts a week and these blog posts will eventually get ranked in Google and other search engines.

Now when people are Googling around for either ideas or answers regarding various aspects of design and development, they stumble upon your blog posts, and they realize that you offer design and development services. Though all of them might not contact you immediately, they will at least have you for future references. So just out of the blue, you have people who have noticed you and your work and they might turn out to be your future customers as well.

This is just a small scenario demonstrating the mechanics of content marketing. Some of the most common and effective components include social media networks, visual content, blogs and premium content assets like webinars or e-books and tools.

The Game Changers

I am pretty sure you remember those times where you are going through a piece of article and one line just seems to stop you in your tracks by piercing your mind and then running through over and over again? This happened to me a few days back. I happened to read through a question in an article on content marketing strategies, and this question changed the way I looked at a content. It simply asked - " Did the traffic do Anything?"

Yes you have an amazing content, you have great traffic and every site out there needs traffic. Right? But traffic is worthless if it doesn't do something. Day by day traffic visits your article or a blog, reads them, and then leaves to be never seen again. That is a huge mistake! Though driving traffic to your blog is very important, converting them to fulfill goals outside of page views and shares is actually even more important.

One simple way of doing this is by making use of Content Upgrades.

Content upgrades act as an additional content piece which the reader can access in exchange for an email address or money. Usually behind a tool, these content upgrades in the form of e-Books, videos, worksheets or info-graphics can make a huge difference in the behaviour of your traffic!

Some Important Things To Keep In Mind

Most of the times, effective content is not about your company, your products or the services. Instead, it is about acknowledging a point and then providing ways to solve it. Some of the things that you need to consider to build a strong content are:

• In-depth research: Make sure that your content fills the void that the customers face! Write what they demand instead of writing about what you think the readers want.
• A Catchy Headline: Headlines can either attract customers or drive them away. So you need to be careful in what you choose as your headline. Watch your lines, get creative and bring out those ideas to attract more customers.
• Effective CTA: People wouldn't mind an entertaining video, a free product trial or maybe an in-person consultation in your content which would help them discover the next step in your content campaign.
• Keep track of Key Performance Indicators(KPI) : It is not just that you start a campaign and once traffic starts coming in, you sit back and relax. Identifying the relevant KPIs to your business to measure the success of your content marketing is equally important. Traffic measurement, traffic engagement and conversion tracking are some of the Key Performance Indicators to make note of.
• Content Promotion: Even the most amazing Bond movies require the right amount of promotions in order to reach out to a wider audience! In the business field, your content is as effective as your audience engage with it. Make use of social media, relevant communities, groups and your personal contacts to have your content seen and shared by the right audience.