Use Content Marketing to Generate Quality Sales Leads

Use content marketing to place your valuable information in the right channels. People are looking online for information. If you post an interesting item in a popular blog, publish an article in the top industry e-newsletter or develop a widely-circulated presentation on Slideshare, you will boost quality traffic to your Web site.

For success, develop a content marketing strategy that provides valuable content. Valuable content is information of value to your prospect. This content does not carry a hard-hitting sales agenda. Your mission here is to enhance reputation and drive traffic to your Web site.

Need help? Contact Us for help in setting up content strategies and hubs.

Here are some key tips for creating an effective content marketing program.

• Conduct preliminary research and create a list of potential content topics from sources such as.
  1. Your Web logs. Identify the keywords driving the most engaged viewers to your Web site.
  2. Google Trends. Discover the most popular keywords in your industry and watch for seasonality to the search patterns for your topics.
  3. Your in-house content. Inventory that you have on-hand and find content you can re-purpose for other content marketing efforts. For example, do you have a popular blog post, e-newsletter article or industry presentation?

• Map-out a content calendar. List the content topics you want to market by month
• Create a content hub. You can use the Internet to capture valuable information for your content marketing, including:
  1. RSS feeds from popular blogs
  2. E-newsletters from top industry experts
  3. Google alerts for relevant topics, keywords or companies

• Identify your distribution channels to disperse your content. You can:
  1. Submit articles to industry e-newsletters
  2. Publish your own e-newsletter
  3. Produce a white paper or e-book
  4. Write articles and post them in industry portals
  5. Create YouTube or Slideshare presentations
  6. Post comments in popular blogs
  7. Participate in industry Webinars

Watch the responses you get from distributing your content. Each content element you distribute should include a trackable link to an appropriate landing page.

Ultimately, content marketing is successful if it helps you start a dialog with your prospects. The more interesting your content, the more potential customers will pass it along and the more sales opportunities will grow for you.