What’s the best way to use digital marketing to grow your business?
The ideal marketing strategy for your company depends on your goals. You might want to focus on branding. Perhaps you wish to manage your brand’s reputation, Or are you looking to enhance customer retention?
These are all excellent ways to help your brand prosper. But, without a proper plan for customer acquisition, they won’t deliver the required results.
Awareness-stage content marketing is one of the best ways to attract new clients. It’s an incredible method for building brand and product familiarity.
Want to learn how to create a content marketing strategy for targeting early-stage leads? That’s what this article will focus on.
What’s one mistake marketers make when producing awareness-stage content? It’s focusing on conversions.
Selling your products or services should, indeed, be your ultimate goal. Nonetheless, a great content strategy caters to your audience’s needs and wants. And those depend on their position in the buyer’s journey.
Early-stage leads (usually) aren’t ready to buy. Instead, they’re still researching solutions to their pain points.
Source: ahrefs.com
So, don’t try to present them with conversion-oriented content at this phase of the shopping journey. That won’t lead to customer acquisition. Instead, it may come off as pushy. Plus, introducing your brand as profit-oriented could alienate your potential prospects. And that’s a development you want to avoid.
In other words, don’t focus on conversions when targeting early-stage leads. Rather, expose your readers to a maximum number of blog pages. This will help:
So, how do you create a content marketing strategy that prioritizes traffic retention?
Well, start by producing content in clusters. Publish multiple complementary blog posts. Do your best to create high-quality article collections. Cover all relevant consumer questions relating to a topic. And always try to provide readers with unmatched value.
Then, place contextual internal links in your articles. This will help direct traffic to other relevant blog posts on your website. And it will encourage your audience to read more than a single article.
Not sure how to make this tactic work? Check out how Transparent Labs applies it in its content marketing strategy like in this post on lower back workouts, for example.
Source: transparentlabs.com
This brand heavily invests in high-quality awareness-stage resources. However, Transparent Labs understands the importance of reader engagement. So, instead of allowing first-time web visitors to leave the website, Transparent Labs encourages them to stick around.
Throughout its blog posts, Transparent Labs places links to valuable, data-backed resources. This tactic guides user attention to new content on the website. Plus, it creates opportunities to enable subtle product exposure.
The result is a positive brand impression and an elevated awareness of Transparent Labs’ products. Positioning the business as a potential solution to the reader’s pain points.
Why do people use the internet?
Yes, staying in touch with friends and family and keeping up with the latest news are important reasons for going online. However, according to DataReportal’s Digital 2023 Global Overview Report, 60.9% of internet users seek information and knowledge.
Source: datareportal.com
So, if you’re trying to attract your target audience, study the topics they’re interested in. Then, create valuable content that presents them with the knowledge they seek.
This topic selection method is an excellent example of designing a content marketing plan that works for the awareness stage.
So, how do you create a content marketing strategy that incorporates this approach?
One way to do this is to use an approach like Aura. This brand’s target audience consists of Amazon sellers looking to boost profits. Yet, many of these customers aren’t aware of the concept of automated repricing (which is what Aura’s tool does).
The brand understands that it needs to grab its prospects’ attention. So, it creates resources on popular sales tactics, like Amazon arbitrage. It takes care to make these educational articles superior to any other online guide. It focuses on earning the reader’s trust.
Then, Aura finds subtle and logical ways to mention its product. What’s so clever is that this isn’t an overt sales tactic. Instead, it’s a simple suggestion on extra ways for readers to boost their Amazon profits.
Source: goaura.com
What’s the best point for an effective content marketing strategy? Without a doubt, it’s in-depth audience research. But, the overarching goal of content production is to generate sales. And that requires your ideal customers to discover, notice, and click on your content.
To do this — especially if you’re investing in blog posts — you’ll want to secure high rankings on SERPs.
According to research, Google rankings are crucial for attracting web visitors. The latest data from FirstPageSage shows that the clickthrough rate for the #1 search result is 39.8%. Position #2 earns 18.7% of clicks. And position #10 only 1.6%.
Source: firstpagesage.com
In other words, ranking high on Google increases your chances of attracting web visitors. And it does so by almost 25 times.
What’s great about using SEO to boost content marketing results is that it’s fairly easy to do.
What’s the best way to use content marketing to attract awareness-stage consumers? Naturally, your top goal needs to be capturing and retaining their attention.
Topic selection and search engine optimization can help accomplish your goal. Still, the type of content you produce also plays a big part in determining the effectiveness of your digital marketing strategy.
With this in mind, invest in content formats with a high chance of yielding positive outcomes. So, what types of content work best in 2024 and beyond?
According to the Semrush State of Content Marketing report, 45% of marketers listed videos as the best-performing format. And it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
Source: semrush.com
These resources are engaging. They are effective at driving product understanding — even for complex solutions. They can build brand trust and credibility. And they’re good for SEO.
The best part about video content is that it works equally well on your website and social media. Thus, it gives you a much wider canvas for targeting early-stage leads. Incorporating video as part of a rebranding strategy can also help reposition the brand and strengthen its appeal to a broader audience.
Want to know how to create a content marketing strategy that works? Consider factoring video into your approach.
For example, check out how Bay Alarm Medical does it on its homepage and YouTube channel.
On its website, Bay Alarm uses video to establish brand trust. It showcases testimonial videos from credible industry influencers, trustworthy media outlets, and satisfied customers. These add a valuable dose of social proof to the brand’s website. Plus, they help early-stage leads gauge the purpose and value of Bay Alarm’s solutions.
Source: bayalarmmedical.com
On its YouTube channel, however, the brand adopts a different approach. Here, it mainly focuses on awareness-stage content, covering various safety-related topics. Every video aims to answer common user questions. Plus, each one creates an opportunity for Bay Alarm to mention the benefits of its products.
Pro Tip: Video creators should create videos with subtitles to increase engagement and enhance the reach of their videos.
This approach is great for helping the brand engage its audience with valuable content. But it also allows Bay Alarm to increase product awareness. And that creates new conversion opportunities where there were none before.
Source: youtube.com
Creating conversion opportunities is the obvious goal of your content marketing efforts.
But here’s the deal. Most early-stage leads aren’t ready to buy as soon as becoming aware of a product. Instead, they need to go through a detailed evaluation process. That way, they can gauge whether a solution fits their needs.
So, if you’re investing in content for the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey, don’t aim for sales. Instead, try to make a positive impression. Work to engage and delight potential customers. And try to ensure they perceive your brand as a trustworthy business.
One way to achieve this is to make your expertise available for free.
Many marketers avoid this approach because they think it damages conversions. But, chances are, first-time website visitors aren’t ready to buy in the first place.
Ask yourself. Can you produce free resources that will please early-stage leads? If the answer is yes, then do it. This strategy allows you to encourage prospects to continue interacting with your business. Consequently, it helps you boost their chances of converting into customers.
You should also consider investing in white papers and other content formats that establish expertise. These can be great tools for ensuring high SERP rankings. And they can even turn into a driver of word-of-mouth marketing — especially if they’re unique and valuable to your customer base.
Do you need inspiration to develop a content marketing plan that incorporates this tactic? Check out Classical Guitar Shed.
Source: classicalguitarshed.com
This brand’s website includes a Free Resources section. Prospects can download sheet music on this page, explore lessons, and learn techniques.
What’s great is that all of this content comes for free. And it’s a wonderful opportunity for the brand to engage its audience. Ultimately, a consumer who gets a low-risk chance to try out a guitar lesson will be much more likely to buy a course. Especially compared to someone who’s dissuaded from trying to learn due to a high initial price.
The primary goal of awareness-stage content marketing is to attract and engage audiences.
Blog posts, long-form resources, and videos—including landing page videos—do a marvelous job at this. They’re effective at attracting leads. They can answer common questions. They direct high-quality prospects toward the mid-to-low stages of the sales funnel. And they can cement your brand’s trustworthy reputation.
But do you want to create a content marketing strategy that delivers results? In that case, consider exploring ways to go a step further.
For example, what if you could produce content that not only addresses your target audience’s pain points but also helps remove them? Think of resources such as calculators, quizzes, or personalized routine planners.
If you can invest in interactive content that does this, you’ll have an easier time impressing and capturing early-stage leads. Remember that these formats are also more engaging. That means they’ll be far more likely to rank high on SERPs, which will also benefit your SEO.
For example, brands like Eden Emerald Mortgages build content strategies around this idea.
This business understands that its target audience has a few specific pain points and questions. Moreover, it knows that answering these questions can be complex and time-consuming.
So, the brand doesn’t force early-stage leads to read long articles. Especially not on dull subjects like borrowing power, stamp duty, or mortgage refinancing. Instead, EE Mortgages developed several interactive tools to solve these problems automatically.
Source: eemortgagebroker.com.au
By doing this, the brand attracts web visitors who align with its ideal customer personas. It helps prospects find answers quickly and efficiently. It captures them as leads. Most notably, it establishes its credibility, which is crucial in low-trust industries like finance.
The great thing is that this tactic works just as well for ecommerce brands.
Do you have a strong understanding of your audience? In that case, you can create interactive tools. And don’t just try to help your prospects find answers to their questions. Look for ways to do more.
Create tools that provide personalized product recommendations to shorten the sales cycle. Or help buyers through the evaluation stage by helping them choose the right solution for their needs.
Using content marketing to engage early-stage leads can be challenging. You have to:
Furthermore, there’s one more obstacle to remember. The average conversion rate across all industries is less than 2% (Statista). To use content to convert customers, you need to maximize your reach.
Source: statista.com
Ultimately, attracting more people to your brand offers several notable benefits. You get a higher chance of engaging quality leads. You have a bigger audience you can inspire to buy.
Plus, you can use the virality of social media to your advantage. By creating conversations around your brand or solutions, you can reach people who haven’t even entered the sales cycle.
But here’s the deal. Making this happen isn’t as easy as creating a few average social media posts. To harness the power of social networks as a content distribution channel (and the amount of time people spend browsing them), you need to do a significant amount of research.
Source: datareportal.com
With this in mind, return to your audience research process. Then, try to identify your ideal customers’ relevant online behaviors.
Find out what platforms they use. Explore content formats they consume and interact with. And study how they react to different calls to action. If your audience spends most of their time on TikTok, then boosting video content on TikTok can help maximize reach and engagement.
Furthermore, explore tactics to make your existing content go the distance by repurposing it for social distribution channels. That way, you’ll get more out of your marketing budget. Plus, you’ll have an easier time achieving cohesion across your distribution channels.
While social media platforms are excellent for distributing content, combining them with direct channels can further amplify your reach. One effective approach is using bulk SMS to directly share valuable resources, such as blog posts, webinars, or interactive tools, with your audience. With its high open rates, SMS can drive immediate engagement, making it a powerful complement to your social campaigns, especially when targeting early-stage leads who may not follow your brand on social platforms yet.
To gather inspiration on how to do this, check out Level. This business works hard to capture the attention of its social media audience.
So, to present them with the type of informational value they seek, Level transforms blog posts into visual content. This helps the brand drive organic traffic to its website. Plus, it raises awareness about its unique solutions among homeowners who haven’t considered the benefits of investing in smart locks.
Source: instagram.com
Finally, there’s one more thing to remember when learning how to create a content marketing strategy that works for early-stage leads.
One successful interaction won’t be enough to convert customers.
Instead, your content marketing plan needs to account for the stages of the buyer’s journey where your prospects understand what your solution does but aren’t ready to buy yet.
So, when targeting awareness-stage consumers, focus on creating interaction opportunities. Then, do your best to delight customers at every touch.
For example, you could work to align your content creation tactics with your lead nurturing strategy. That way, you will:
There are two easy ways to do this.
Social media and email marketing are great for generating interaction opportunities. For example, consider Balance. This brand sends out a weekly newsletter, which acts as a distribution platform for new content. The articles are meant to engage awareness-stage and inactive leads. And they’re meant to encourage them to start consuming some of the brand’s content.
Source: Screenshot provided by the author
But, if you’ve got a heftier customer-acquisition budget, you could also experiment with retargeting ads. Or you could even produce multi-touch content formats like online courses that encourage your audience to build a long-term relationship with your brand. You can also implement a content marketing virtual assistant to speed up your content writing volume with better quality.
Learning how to create a content marketing strategy that will keep your business thriving is no simple task. By following the advice in this article, you’ll find yourself ahead of most of your competition. High-quality content delivered to the right audience could be the key to allowing your brand to stand out.
As with any other digital marketing plan, the key to success is agility. That means you need to track and analyze the performance of your tactics. Continue to study your audience’s behaviors. Most importantly, adjust your approach to align with your ideal customers’ needs and wants.
That way, your posts will always come off as relevant, valuable, and attractive. And people will be happy to spend their time interacting with your business.