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You may be writing excellent content, but it is hardly read or commented upon. You may have a terrific website, but people are not looking at it. Sounds depressing, right? Well, it is. But if you take a deeper look at your content, you might as well come up with some brilliant content marketing hacks. We have done that for you. In this post, I have brought to light some life-changing content marketing hacks.
- Create killer headlines
An article or blog with a killer headline not only grabs more eye balls, but also improves your page ranking. Ted Nicholas, the renowned direct-response copywriter, once wrote in an article, “preparing a powerful headline is responsible for at least 73%” of his content marketing success of converting readers into buyers. Having said that, your next action is to ensure your headlines are absolute head turners. To put it simpler words, the headline should short, crisp, and meaningful. If you are using a long-tailed keyword as a headline make sure it accentuates the overall tone of the content. For example, instead of writing,
“How Web Visuals Influence Your Blog Readers to Click (Backed By Science)”, write
“15 Scientific Studies Showing Why Web Visuals Attract Blog Readers” to make more sense.
- Capitalize on current trends
Watch out for current trends in the technology space, digital marketing space and content marketing arena. If you simply write about a new product launch, it might not as many views as writing on its utilities or posting content that compares it with its competitors.
You can also write an article on how Google algorithm impacts online marketing. Write on latest trends in Search Market Optimization, Content Marketing strategies, viral marketing or how AWS helps in video streaming. Attend webinars, conferences, read articles and blogs on top tech magazines to stay updated.
- In-depth content
Creating several content pieces with little insights and publishing them daily with no impact is of no use to us. Readers always look for insightful content; something which will act as a source of information, a go-to repository, or a how-to-guide for a product/service.
You are, for example writing an article on Google algorithms changes in the current year. Your content must contain important facts like the five major algorithm updates, named (in chronological order) Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, Pigeon, and Fred. Next, mention the algorithm tweaks (most of which happened under wraps), but had a huge impact on website rankings in the search results.
- Longer content for better impact
Recent researches show that in-depth articles contribute greatly to better conversion of leads. Marketing experts have observed that longer content creation converted 30% higher than a shorter version on homepage. Also, Conversion Rate Experts increased CrazyEgg’s conversion rate by 64%, just by using longer copy while retaining the same message.
The content should not be too long, either. Limit yourself to 1200 words. Start with an interesting topic, explain keyword briefly, then move on to classifications, use cases, deviations, comparison, and eventually draw a concluding paragraph with your closing thoughts on this. The writing must have facts and figures to support itself, and also add to the overall length. Quote as and when necessary, mentioning the source.
- Gamification for better user engagement
Gamification is a key growth hacking tactic that many marketers make of use of, for tapping into people’s desire to publicize what they do and what they think. They have identified our innate tendency to post opinions and share them over sites like Facebook or Twitter.
Why not take advantage of this for your own blog or article?
One of the best ways to do this is with a WordPress plugin called Love It Pro.
This simple plugin allows visitors to “vote” on the posts they have read or found interesting. This gamification strategy will surely make your content all the stickier.
- Easy sharing of content enabled
One of the best ways to make your content more readable is to make it more shareable. You must have share buttons at the top or bottom of your page. But, in addition to that, you must also create a simple click-to-tweet messages inside the actual blog posts, that provides readers with a call-to-action to share our post on different social media sites.
You may use custom WordPress code to create tweetable quotes throughout your posts that prompt readers to share your content as they read.
The Markerly widget is also a good plugin for making any text or images on you page shareable.
- Call-to-action buttons
Strong call-to-action buttons are a great to increase traffic on your site. According to Unbounce, “the-call to-action represents a tipping point, between bounce and conversion.” In other words, if you don’t want your readers to exit your landing page, then pay attention to the shape, size and color of your call-to-action button.
Use strong words for call-to-action buttons. You may split-tested words strings like “Order information” vs. “Get information” on a call-to-action button.
Also, make sure all the buttons are working. You may boost your conversion rate by 13% or more, simply by testing your call-to-action buttons.
- AIDA for better comments
Did you know that about 78.82% of blog readers prefer to read “how to” articles that contain tips and tricks for achieving a specific result? Your content must be able to draw interest and drive people with its rich and authentic information. Analyze user comments to assess their interest area.
Use the AIDA strategy to get valuable comments that can help motivate your ideal clients to contact you, and get improved search rankings from the added text.
AIDA stands for:
A – Capture Attention
I – Build Interest
D- Create a strong Desire
A – Call to Action
Craft your content in such a way that it is able to capture the reader’s attention, generate interest, create a strong desire to buy/possess the product/service or know more about the subject, and acts. The last one is the most important; user comments. You must have relevant and positive user comments that will lead other readers to take a look at the content.
- Free downloadable resources
We all love freebies. Don’t we? But, only if the free items are useful for us. Online learning resource providers like Udemy or Skillshare allow you to create step-by-step courses for your audience.
You can choose to give them away for free or sell them for a profit. Try it. People will love the free downloadable goodies, i.e., resources.
- Curate your content wisely
By content curation, we mean organizing, compiling, segmenting content to make it more easily accessible in a single web page or blog post. Positioning is the secret of successful content curation.
You may use a content sharing network to find relevant pieces. For example, GrowthHackers is a good one. Also, type in the keyword or headline that you want to write about in Google. Every search result that appears is a potentially viable URL to link to, when you curate.
Want to add more to the list? Let us know your thoughts.
