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

But one of the main reasons is, quite simply, to get more of their audience to convert into customers. However, that’s easier said than done, especially in a very crowded marketplace where it seems (and rightly so) like there’s a sea 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 ultimately, how do you generate a positive ROI from your content marketing strategy?

In this blog post, discover 7 essential 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 are you writing content based on what you think they need and want?

Because there’s a big difference between the two and it’s so easy to forego this important step when creating content.

Your goal as a content marketer is to find out what issues and pain points your audience has – then, you can use that to create powerful content that helps them achieve 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 engage with you on other channels as well and ultimately, give them a reason to convert

Step 2: It’s all in the headline

You’ve probably heard this time and time again – but your headlines are so incredibly important, it really bears repeating.

After all, it’s as simple as this: if your headline isn’t getting people’s attention and interest, then they’re not going to read it. And if they’re not going to read it, then you’re not going to increase your conversions either.

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

Step 3: Learn to structure your content and increase readability

While online content has definitely improved a lot over the last few years, I still often see content that’s simply not readable enough – even if the information provided in them is good.

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

Considering that, here is a checklist to use every time you write content, in order to increase its readability:

• Use the introduction to relate to your reader’s problems and/or clearly explain what the content is about and what they’ll get out of it.
• Use short sentences and paragraphs, as well as bullet points and lists.
• Break down your content with subheadings.
• Use more visuals throughout your content.
• Avoid using jargon: Always use language that your audience will understand.

Step 4: Include content upgrades to generate more leads

An easy “trick” to increase lead generation from your content is to include content upgrades. It’s probably one of the most effective ways to grow your email list quickly.

But first, what exactly is a content upgrade?

• It’s a lead magnet created specifically for a blog post or piece of content.
• And what this means is that you’re essentially creating highly-targeted lead magnets.
• And because they’re so well-targeted, it means that readers are more likely to opt-in.

Here are some of the best-performing types of upgrades you can include in your content:

• PDF versions of your content (particularly for high-value, long pieces of content, such as how-to guides)
• Checklists
• Templates
• Cheat sheets
• Reports
• Worksheets
• Case studies
• Formulas
• Courses
• Infographics

Step 5: Track and measure your results consistently to increase your conversion rate

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

• Which content generates the most conversions
• What types of content generate the most conversions (listicles, how-to guides, content with interactive content and so on)
• What common traits there are between your best performing pieces of content
• Which headlines get the most clicks and traffic
• Which content doesn’t generate enough results
• You can find all this out by using your web analytics.

Conclusion

• Writing content for the sake of it – a.k.a. filler content – can’t get you the results you want and need.
• Instead, you need to create carefully-crafted content that’s highly targeted and offers huge value.
• That’s how you grow your traffic, engagement, and perhaps most importantly, conversions.