How to put in writing content material that converts – Outbrain

Marketers use content for a number of reasons, from increasing website traffic to increasing website traffic growing brand awareness and generate engagement.

But one of the main reasons is, quite simply, to turn more of your audience into customers. However, this is easier said than done, especially in a very crowded market where it (and rightly) looks like there is an ocean of content to compete with.

So how do you write content that converts?

How can you get people to take action after reading your content?

And how do you ultimately achieve a positive ROI from your content marketing strategy?

In this blog post, discover 7 key tips to help you write content that converts:

Step 1: know your audience

Are you writing content for your audience based on their needs and wants? Or do you write content based on what you think they need and want?

Because there’s a huge difference between the two, and it’s so easy to skip this important step in creating content.

Great content – that needs to convert:

• Address a very specific target group
• Solve a common problem or pain point in your target audience
• Add real value to your readers by providing them with a solution to their problem (I know we hear that all the time – and yet there is still so much bad content that offers no value at all … just content about the content sake!)

However, in order to know the problems, needs and wishes of your target group, you first need to know this target group better:

• What common problems they encounter
• What frustrates you
• What makes you excited and happy

Because once you get to know them and have a clear idea of ​​what they want to know and learn, you can create content that is specifically tailored to them.

Neil Patel, for example, is really a master at this; You can clearly see that he knows exactly who his audience is and what his problems are and that he addresses them quickly within his content:

In this BlogFor example, he starts with a question that arouses emotions and addresses a very specific pain point of his audience: despite all efforts, not being able to rank for a keyword.

And then he goes on to give them tips and strategies that will help achieve those results.

So your goal as a content marketer is to find out what problems and weaknesses your audience has – then you can use them to create powerful content that will help them get the results they want and therefore:

• Increase trust in your brand
• Give readers a reason to come back to you for more content
• Give them a reason to subscribe to your newsletter and also to get in touch with you on other channels
• And finally, give them a reason to convert

Step 2: Everything is in the headline

You’ve probably heard that over and over again – but your headlines are so incredibly important, it’s really worth repeating.

After all, it’s that simple: if your headline doesn’t get people’s attention and interest, they won’t read it. And if they don’t read it, you won’t increase your conversions either.

So don’t leave your headline casual, as it has a massive impact on your click-through rate and traffic, as well as your conversion rate.

Follow these tips to write more Effective headlines that convert (i.e. get people to read your content):

• Make sure the content is very clear so that readers know exactly what will get them out of reading it
• Use numbers in your headings: studies show that numbers are incredibly powerful and can help you generate more clicks and readers. Here is a list of the strongest numbers to use in your headlines, as found by Buzzsumo in their study of 100 million headlines (spoiler: 10 is by far the most popular!):

• Use emotional headlines where appropriate; they too can encourage a lot of traffic and engagement. They won’t work in all situations, but whenever possible, use emotional phrases in headings to encourage emotional responses. For example, in the same study by Buzzsumo, they found that phrases like “tears of joy,” “makes you cry,” and “to see shocked” tend to generate more interactions
• Focus on one of your audience’s problems: remember the example of Neil Patel earlier? Just as your content should solve one of your audience’s problems, your headings should also make it clear what problem that particular content is helping with.

Step 3: Learn to structure your content and make it easier to read

Although online content has definitely improved a lot over the past few years, I still often see content that is simply not readable enough – even if the information in it is good.

The thing is, it’s not just about creating value; It’s also about creating content that is easy to read and makes you want to read on.

With that in mind, here is a checklist to use every time you write content to improve readability:

• Use the introduction to relate to your readers’ problems and / or explain clearly what the content is about and how it gets them.

Here’s a great example of Backlinko, a blog that generates huge amounts of traffic and often receives the coveted Google rankings on the first page:

• Use short sentences and paragraphs, as well as bullets and lists:

Remember, people read your content on small screens, are on the go, and are also distracted by other tabs, social media, and notifications. If you want people to read your content, make it easy for them; and it is not easy to read long, chunky paragraphs. Think of the backlinko example above: it perfectly shows what your content should look like – clean, simple, well-structured, and easy to read.

• Divide your content into sub-headings: Always use sub-headings in your content. This makes reading and leafing through enormously easier.
• Use more visuals in your content: Visual content – such as screenshots, photos, videos, GIFs, etc. – make it easier to read and ensure good “breaks” in your content.
• Avoid jargon: Always use language that your audience understands.

Step 4: write more personalized content

Another important step in increasing your content conversions is to write more personalized content for different members of your audience.

It’s important to remember that regardless of your niche, your audience is not a single mass of people with the same questions, needs, and wants.

So if you want to increase conversions, you need to write targeted content for all of these audience segments and focus on their needs and weaknesses.

Step 5: add interactive elements to your content

Interactive content has come a long way in the past few years and is easily accessible for marketers and businesses as well. And research shows it can be an incredibly powerful tool in your marketing strategy as well.

In fact, generate interactive content twice as much commitment than normal static content.

And if people are actively engaging with your content, that’s good news for your business: it means they’ll spend more time on your website, they’ll likely come back for more content, and last but not least, increase your conversions from the content.

There are numerous types of interactive content that make your content better and more engaging. Here are some of the most popular types that you can try right now:

• Mini games: research shows that they are some of the most effective forms of interactive content in the awareness / discovery phase
• Interactive Infographics: Infographics are still very popular forms of content, but you can make them even better and more engaging by making them interactive
• Interactive calculators: Pocket calculators are particularly good in some situations because they also offer added value; For example, on a blog about increasing conversion rates, I included this easy-to-use interactive conversion rate calculator to both increase engagement and give readers something more and more exciting:

• Quizzes and Polls: Include relevant quizzes and polls in your content to get readers to engage and read on with the rest of your content

Step 6: add content upgrades to generate more leads

A simple “trick” Increase lead generation from your content is to include content updates. This is probably one of the most effective ways to quickly add to your email list.

But first, what exactly is a content upgrade?

It’s a lead magnet specially created for a blog post or content.

And that means you are essentially creating targeted lead magnets.

And because they’re so targeted, it means readers are more likely to agree.

For example, if you’ve read a guide on how to rank the first page in search results, you would probably be very interested in receiving a checklist of all the steps you need to take to optimize your content and get it top ranked.

Here are some of the most powerful upgrade types you can include in your content:

• PDF versions of your content (especially for high-quality, long content such as instructions)
• Checklists
• templates
• cheat sheet
• Reports
• worksheets
• Case studies
• Formulas
• Courses
• Infographics

Step 7: Track and Measure Your Results Consistently to Increase Your Conversion Rate

To increase your conversions from your content, you need to closely track your content marketing results so that you can understand:

• What content generates the most conversions
• What types of content generate the most conversions (lists, guides, content with interactive content, etc.)
• What are the similarities between your best performing content?
• Which headlines get the most clicks and traffic
• What content doesn’t deliver enough results

You can find out all of this with the help of your web analytics.

However, in order to track your conversions from content, you need to set it up Conversion goals in Google Analytics; You can find it in the Admin section in the View column.

From there, just follow the instructions to finish setting up your goals:

But first you also need to consider what a conversion is: from the obvious ones, like buying your product or making a reservation, to other, more complex conversions, like visiting your contact page, searching for one of your business locations, watching a video visit a landing page, etc.

The conversion goals in Google Analytics are easily customizable so that you can keep track of all the conversions that are important to you. Once set up, you can then see which content is generating conversions and which is not.

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Writing content for the sake of it – also called filler content – may not get you the results you want and need.

Instead, you need to create carefully crafted content that is very targeted and offers great value.

This is how you increase your traffic, your engagement and perhaps most importantly your conversions.