Why Content?

Every business has one common goal: to sell the services or products you offer.

In today’s digital landscape, you can explore various avenues to promote your products, including:  

• Social advertising
• Paid advertising on search engines
• Micro-influencer campaigns within your industry.  

The above tactics are all in the pay-to-play arena, and while they are popular for producing straightforward results, you must focus on your organic efforts as well. Onsite content, such as blogs, is often overlooked since it can be challenging to correlate sales with this type of content.  

However, if you align your content with your marketing goals, you can define the right metrics to measure your content's performance. Doing so strengthens your content strategy and improves brand awareness and customer conversions.

Let’s dive a little deeper.

Aligning Content with Your Goals

When it comes to leveraging content on your website, versatility is key. It should align with multiple goals at various stages of the buyer's journey. For example, an awareness- level blog highlighting material trends in the residential building industry may bring you brand awareness and align you as a thought leader. However, it will likely not lead someone to a purchase page.  This result does not mean this content isn't necessary because while they may wait to purchase, it is probable that they will go to other parts of your website to learn more. Likewise, a blog post comparing two types of cladding options may help convince a buyer in the consideration stage to make a decision, eventually leading to a purchase.

To align your content appropriately, your goals must be clearly defined.  

If you want to be a thought leader... ...you can do that through non-promotional content.

If you want to further inform your current clients... ...that can be done through tips and tricks, case studies, and how-to blogs and videos.

And if you want to push prospective clients further down the funnel... ...you do that through content conversions.

Driving Content Conversions

Content conversions are the lifeblood of any successful marketing campaign. They refer to the tracking measurements when someone converts after reading a piece of content on your website based on the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) you have in place. These could be sample requests, completing the “Contact Us” form, or clicking on calls-to-action such as “Go to Dealer”.  

When evaluating what makes a piece of content successful, your best bet is to track these content conversions on a linear scale.  

For example, a person searches for “best tips for choosing weatherproof decking materials” on a search engine and finds a blog post on your website. They enter your site through that link, read the article, and see other articles related to their search that address their current pain points; so, they click through to two or three more articles. On that final blog post, they decide that they’re interested enough in your product to request a sample, and they complete the form. In Google Analytics, you should have sample requests set as a goal.  

While the potential customer filled out the form after reading that third or fourth blog, they initially entered the site from that primary blog and continued their journey with the ones in between – each of these blogs are given an equal part of credit because they contributed to the customer journey.

Measuring and Tracking Success

Several elements go into measuring the success of content, but there are a few specific ones True’s digital team looks at.

• Customer Journey Stage – While content should be spread across each stage of the buyer’s journey, site visitors historically tend to enter the blog from the awareness stage. This means they are often new to the product or brand and are seeking out information, so content should consider that.
• Trending Pages – Is this a piece that’s bringing visitors onto the site often? Are they extending their journey after visiting this specific blog article? If so, you can consider the piece successful.

• Average Time on Page – This is a KPI that may vary depending on the topic of your blog. If users are spending substantially longer time on the page, they may be fully reading it, but they may also not be finding what they need. Do you have a video featured on the page? They could be watching it, leading to higher on-page time.
• Exit Page – If the users are exiting your site from a blog rather than a product or contact page, that is not a successful conversion, and the page should be reviewed for content and relevance.

To track these metrics, you need to set up goals in Google Analytics. For True, these goals are ultimately determined by our clients’ objectives.  We work with each client to guide the goals they want to track, as every organization is different and desires to see different outcomes.  Some companies may want to see an average time on page of 1:30 minutes while another may want 5 minutes. Some organizations are concerned with tracking traffic to the blog, while others view email sign-ups and PDF downloads as more important to their marketing efforts. If they know exactly what they want, those are the goals we put in place. These goals, however, can change throughout the year as we continuously evaluate performance.  

If a client is unsure of how to set their goals, we will review their year-over-year (YoY) statistics for the previous twelve months to help them determine achievable objectives – often aiming for 10% growth. And if a client has lofty expectations, we review the 5-year history to confirm that those goals are possible; if they aren’t, we’ll make suggestions for more attainable growth.

When a goal is missing the mark month-over-month consistently, that means the goals need to be reviewed and an analysis of where the drops are occurring needs to be completed. And if goals are being exceeded consistently, that generally means they need to be reset at the end of the year to aim for something a little higher.

True Target SEO and Content Marketing: How It Plays a Role

Like many parts of the customer journey, SEO plays a significant role in content and measuring its value. But True takes a slightly different approach.  

Enter: True Target SEO.  

It’s important to recognize that high visitor numbers often indicate content that appeals to individuals in the Awareness Stage of the customer journey – which is great for getting your information in front of potential customers who may be on a longer timeline to buy. So, to maximize the effectiveness of your content, it’s crucial to leverage an SEO strategy that attracts visitors at every state of the purchasing funnel. Even content with lower visitor volume can be highly effective if it plays a role in successfully generating valuable conversions.  

The True Target SEO strategy revolves around emphasizing long-tail keyword phrases that specifically address the pain points of visitors at each stage of the funnel. We dive directly into issues users may have and try to answer them in blog format. We look at the overall on-page experience of the visitor to see where the gaps are in content, aiming to be a knowledge resource at every stage of the journey.  

By strategically incorporating keyword phrases and optimizing things like meta tags, headings, and content structure, we can help you increase your search engine visibility. And when you increase your visibility, you ensure that your content reaches a wider audience and attracts targeted visitors from various stages of the buyer journey. This steady flow of organic traffic to your site means greater opportunities for conversions and growth.

Ready to boost your brand awareness and customer conversions? Discover the power of aligning your content with your marketing goals and leveraging the True Target SEO strategy.