We’ve all been there. You toil and spend hours working on high-quality content for your business only for its greatest hits to be a band of tumbleweed. You think you’ve brought your A+ game to that informative video, helpful blog, or funny social media post, but it’s not quite getting the traffic you hoped it would.
It’s also not helping your business acquire new customers. Instead, it’s sitting there collecting dust on some corner of the Internet, where no one will know of its greatness. Don’t rely on SEO alone and let strong content fade off into the sunset. Great content deserves an audience, so here are some tips to turn things around:
The problem with getting your content off the ground may actually be the content itself. Maybe the subject matter doesn’t resonate with your audience because it doesn’t speak to their interest or concerns. Customer research is key when interacting with them in-person and online. When in doubt, ask them what topics they would like to see more.
Maybe the content itself is confusing, cluttered, or convoluted. That video or blog could be too long and difficult to understand for your readers’ busy schedules. People respond best to content that is simple to understand, contains surprising or little known information, and speaks to general human existence.
It may be hard to be objective about your labor of your love, but try to look at your content from an outsider's point of view. If you were one of your customers or a potential customer, would you want to read it? Would you find it useful? If the answer’s no, it’s back to the drawing board. When in doubt, flat out ask your customers, it’s better than wasting time.
Many businesses just post their content on top social media sites and hope for the best, and that may work for them, but some fine-tuning can also make a huge difference. There may be a mismatch in social media platforms and where your customer base is likely to be found or engage. Have you done the proper research and analytics?
Are they more likely to engage with your business on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or LinkedIn? What about emerging platforms that encourage discussion or questions and answers like Quora? Maybe they spend their spare time on forums dedicated to their interest or industry? With its many subreddits that focus on specific topics, Reddit makes it easy to get into contact with people who share specific interests.
Be sure to consider the type of media they respond to best as well. If all you’re presenting is blogs to people much more interested in videos, you might not be getting the response you’re looking for. CRM software will help your team visualize much more easily which forms of media gain a better response.
Also, try to engage with them on a personal level. People are more likely to respond to brands that seem like a helpful friend or family member. Take the time to know them on a personal level and connect your products or services to their interests, like music, series, books, video games, sports, restaurants, and films. Share the stories of inspiration and obstacles they share with your team. Uplift them and they will uplift you in turn.
As you acquire leads for your business, you should be segmenting them into categories to better serve their needs on a personal level. Personalized content will make them feel more engaged and loyal to your business as you treat them more like an individual than customer #494309. Create more personalized content with these segments in mind, or think of which segments would be most interested in the content you’ve already created, and send it to them.
You could also do segmented monthly newsletters, sending a list of all the blogs and other content you’ve created during that week to your readers. In order to generate higher open and click-through rates, match the content with each segment’s goals, challenges, and personal interests.
Your design may also be a huge turn off from your content. Don’t leave long paragraphs on your blogs. It may look fine on your computer, but if someone were to view it on mobile it would look like a wall of text. It’s not very appealing if the subject matter doesn’t pull you in right away and may make your blog post seem longer than it actually is.
Break up your paragraphs into four or five lines to create plenty of white space. Use clear headlines to label and organize up your content, and make use of bullets and numbering as well to keep points brief and sequential. Don’t clutter your page with advertisements and CTAs to offers. For a long post, 3 are good enough. One near the top, in the middle, and at the end will suffice. One or two is good for a shorter post.
Your website design itself may also be an issue. The colors could be too bright. The text may be too small. It could be cluttered, leading to difficult navigation for users. In order to determine if this may be the issue for you, engage in some A/B testing with real customers with your current site and a sleeker, more minimalist version. You’d be surprised how many people don’t have the patience to dig around.
Hope you’ve enjoyed our tips with a few ideas for how to turn to things around. Now go forth and get your content the traffic it deserves.
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