6 Tips To Boost Your Content Marketing And Traffic

Everyone does Content Marketing. At least, everyone thinks of doing it, often empirically, and without getting the results expected. A blog should be read and it should convert , otherwise you miss something in your writing and publishing process.

So, if you wait for days and your article is totally ignored, nobody shares it and it does not bring traffic, then comes time for reflection on your content: what are you doing wrong ? There is no magic formula, no recipe ensuring the success of Content Marketing but keys that can help you not miss out on what your audience expects of you.

The first step is to get everything flat. Here are some questions that can help you pinpoint what is wrong:

 Who is your audience?
 What is its purchasing process? Does she take time to decide, does he have to come and go back to the site to initiate the act of purchase?
 What content do they want first? I am surprised at the number of sites that offer me a free trial while I have not had enough content to understand their offer.
 What problem does your product or service solve? What are the benefits for your customers? If you are unable to formulate your offer without hesitation, return to add value. Do not smile, I realize more and more how much one rushes into the action without having well defined its product. You must be able to explain in one sentence what your offer brings to your potential clients.
 What is your marketing plan? Your Content Marketing needs to adapt to it in perfect harmony.

This first step crossed, reread your articles and ask yourself the question honestly: what do they really bring? Are they really up to the expectations of your readers?

Be regular
Why regularity in first point? Maybe because this is the problem we all encounter at one time or another! Maybe because that's my problem in particular. Caught in our work for our clients, we often forget that our blog is written for them as well . In addition, this one can become your first commercial tool , your first source of leads, so look after it!

Listen
Listen to your customers and your audience . What do you think about your social networking industry, how can you participate in the conversation or bounce back on a given information? Social networks bring you closer to your target audience, your audience, they allow you to hear their questions, their discontent, expectations ... It is a source of inexhaustible themes and an incredible opportunity for who will take the time to look.

Respond to a need
What is inbound marketing? Rich in what you have learned from social networks, you can now create quality content that meets your customers' expectations. What is the benefit of reading your article? What are we going to learn, how are we going to be entertained or inspired?

How will you hit your reader so that he clicks on the "share" button at the bottom of your article? Besides, what do we share on social networks? First, Internet users share content that will showcase them in the eyes of their audience. Even if they are not the authors, they are the ones who found the content and who share it. A study by Hubspot showed that the most shared articles are:

 The "how-tos" that describe a procedure
 The lists (what this article is)
 Articles such as "Why?" (Eg: Why is your Content Marketing a failure?)
 Articles such as "What is / who ...? (Eg: What types of content are best shared?)

These categories of articles inform and transmit know-how in a clear way and can be read quickly anywhere.

Then, Internet users share a large part of articles that they have not even read and which brings us to the following point:

Work your titles
Your title must be a promise ! The promise of valuable content, an unveiled secret, a moment of relaxation, a new learning, and so on. You have a dozen words (plus an image most of the time) to inspire your reader. If these few words are not enough to convince them, Internet users will not go further. Your title will always be in competition, on social networks, content aggregators, your own site. He must catch the eye and stand out.

When you write a title, if you do not have the meaning of the "formula that carton", you can confine yourself to these few ingredients that work rather well to increase the virality of your content:

    A number
    Strong adjectives
    Didactique (How, When, Why, ...)
    Profit

An example :
A number + an adjective + keyword + benefit = 10 incredible tricks to increase the benefits of your Content Marketing.

Of course, this may seem a bit opportunistic, but since it works, it may be interesting to create from time to time this type of articles that generate a good commitment if the content follows. Indeed, do not be deceived! If I wrote in the introduction at this point that your article has to make a promise, the content must hold it! Readers will quickly remember a site that sells them only dream. Nobody likes to be disappointed!

Facilitate sharing
Social network statistics 2014 Having share buttons down or on the side of your item is a minimum. Make sure that your reader only has to click on a button to share, that the tweet or Facebook publication is already written for him. In short, chew the job.

How do we behave on the internet? We zap quickly and, despite all our goodwill, if things do not fall under our control, we give up. Besides sharing buttons, add images to pin on Pinterest, quotes to tweeter as below. If the title of your article brings a promise, your content must hold it!

Ask for sharing
Sometimes we put in place all kinds of Machiavellian strategies to get our visitor to produce an action when we could just ask him to do it! Simply mentioning "Please Retweet" would increase sharing by 160%!

This share request has a dual action, known as the Ben Franklin Effect:

"He who has already done you a favor will be better able to make you another than the one you have obliged yourself."
To sum up, someone who helps you by sharing one of your articles (if you take care to thank him as it should), will be more able to renew this experience to help you again. This creates a kind of emotional bond. I am not talking here about taking advantage of your readers, far from it, but simply encouraging this practice and building genuine connections with your community.

Conclusion:

If there is no miracle recipe, there is common sense, simple actions to implement and these few tips might already allow you to go a step and attract more readers to your blog. And we all know: more readers, more potential leads!