The importance of high-quality content can’t be stressed enough, particularly now that more than 50% of the global population, or 4 billion people to be more precise, is online. For example, according to a recent survey, 61% of U.S. online consumers made a purchasing decision based on recommendations from a blog. In a similar vein, 82% of smartphone users conduct online research before they make an in-store purchase.
But even superb content can’t bring traffic to your website if it’s not properly promoted. The synergy of content and social media strategy can send you a lot of visitors. However, there’s an important question that you should ask yourself – is my website prepared to convert all these leads and turn them into paying customers?
Align your content and social media marketing
These two strategies go hand in hand and neither can work properly without the other one. They also play similar and overlapping roles in your overall marketing strategy, as their main objectives are to:
Help your audience understand and learn more about your company’s field of expertise and products;
Educate your audience on how your products can help them solve their pain points, as well as about the latest trends in the industry;
Entertain your audience and engage them by addressing the topics they’re interested in;
Convince them to make a purchase.
In order to achieve all these objectives, the first step is to get to know your audience, find out what their common pain points and problems are, and identify their preferred social media channels. So, what you should do is develop buyer personas and bear them in mind when creating your content strategy. Another thing to take into consideration is the type of content which performs best on a particular channel. For example, news about the latest acquisition or merger in the industry is more suitable for LinkedIn, while Facebook requires more entertaining content featuring images, infographics, and videos.
Optimize your website
All your content and social efforts will be in vain if your website leaves much to be desired. To prevent all the interested visitors you have carefully nurtured on your social media channels from bouncing once they enter your website, you need to make your website user-friendly. Here are a couple of tips for boosting UX and keeping your hard-earned visitors:
Optimize for mobile. Despite the fact that more than 50% of all searches come from smartphones, not all websites are mobile-friendly. Given that people are 5 times more likely to leave if your website isn’t optimized for mobile, it’s clear what you have to do to make your visitors stick around for a while.
Improve your website’s navigation. Make it as easy as possible for your visitors to navigate your website and find what they’re looking for. An intuitive navigation bar design is crucial, which means that the buttons should be ordered in a logical order – “Company” and “About” come first, while “Contact” should be the last item on the list. As for the drop-down menus, it’s best to organize items according to your priorities, because those closest to the top will be the most clicked on. Place your logo in the top left-hand corner and link it to the homepage, since 36% of visitors use it to go back there.
Improve aesthetics. People tend to form their first impressions about a website primarily based on its design, and 94% of the feedback in a survey trying to establish which factors influenced the credibility of health websites concerned visual appeal, while only 6% addressed the usability and content.
All this might sound pretty straightforward, but there are lots of settings to adjust and fine-tune, so make sure to consult professionals who specialize in WordPress and who can successfully deal with any potential bugs and glitches, and keep your website running smoothly.
Polish your landing pages
When it comes to the number of landing pages you should build, the rule says the more the merrier. Businesses with more than 40 landing pages generate 12 times more leads than those with less than 5. The point is to direct the traffic from your social media campaigns to designated landing pages which will capture the visitors’ imagination, and convert them. Essential elements of an effective landing page include:
A catchy, attention-grabbing headline which sums up your offer in a concise and yet clear manner. Its role is to tell your visitors how they will benefit if they decide to convert, and prompt them to take action.
The copy on every landing page should present a unique selling proposition of your offer by highlighting its value through easily graspable and compelling takeaways. Keep it short and effective and break up chunks of text into bullet points for better readability.
A strong call-to-action placed above the fold, which will prompt your visitors to click and convert. Use actionable words such as download, sign up, register, or subscribe. A successful CTA stands out from the rest of the page and is highly visible.
Social proof in the form of customer reviews and case studies, which will give your prospects a gentle nudge towards taking action by showing them that others like your product.
Finally, it’s important to emphasize that your landing page shouldn’t be cluttered with unnecessary information. In other words, by including more than one offer per landing page, you’ll confuse your visitors and they won’t understand what exactly you want them to do.
The only way to make the most of the powerful cocktail of content and social is to perk up your website and supercharge your landing pages.
