Whenever content strategies come into conversation with digital marketing teams, the conversation tends to settle on SEO practices and wining search ranking positions. While content development is closely tied to SEO, well written content also serves a much larger purpose – motivating audiences to take action.

If you’re going to invest time in developing content, then you might as well ensure that the content generates results. Here are 5 simple tips to writing content that meets your digital marketing goals:

  1. Use Emotion

I know some of us are tired of hearing it by now, but I’ll cut straight to the point – there are few appeals stronger than someone’s emotions. Great writing should inspire, build trust, and when it comes to content it should motivate the reader to act.

Before you can ask someone to sign-up for special deals or submit their email for your weekly newsletter, they must feel motivated to respond. There are many techniques available that help leverage an emotional appeal. Here are some to consider:

  • Fear of Missing Out on an Opportunity: There’s a reason why articles with “Top Trends” or products with a “While Supplies Last” sticker are effective. They hint at a time limit for an opportunity.
  • Self-Improvement: Everyone is looking for their edge. Messages that offer to improve one’s self like, “boost leads by 300%” prescribe a desired outcome.
  1. Write to Your Target

To write content that motivates your audience, you’ll first want to know who makes up your audience. Take some time to conduct research on who you should be targeting and who you’re actually converting. This is where the kinship with SEO and analytical tools comes in handy.

A good place to start when identifying your target audience is by creating a buyer persona. With a buyer persona, you’re able to ask hypothetical questions about the style of content that best meets their desired outcomes. Some questions to ask when creating a buyer persona are:

  • What are their overarching goals?
  • How do these goals relate to their business?
  • What do they like/dislike about other products?

We’ve written a blog about researching your buyer persona for your sales funnel. It’s full of great tips and can be found here.

  1. Aim for Understanding

When a potential customer visits your site, you’ll want to provide them with as much information in as little effort as possible. The best way to do this is to write in a voice and style that allows them to take in your concepts, terminology, and advice.

For most industries, a conversational style approach is highly effective as it dives straight into the heart of the content and plainly lays out the suggested course of action. This is especially effective if your industry is riddled with complex and new terminology like technology and research.

  1. Test Topics and Voices

As your site accumulates a larger portfolio of content, you’ll want to segment and track how well your topics and voices are meeting your goals. Doing so will give you a field tested list of the types of content that earns you results.

When conducting a test, consider using the headline of your content as the control variable and segment further based on its style of voice. The headline of your content is a great control variable because it’s often times the first contact your audience has.

Use analytical tools like Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools to accumulate data on key metrics like:

  • Entrances
  • Bounce Rate
  • Average Time on Page
  • Goal Completions

Depending on the organic traffic on your page and the frequency of content published, you’ll want to audit your content at least twice a year. This will ensure that your content is enabling your desired audiences to take action.

  1. Prescribe Advice

So far, we’ve reviewed how developing your content to the desired audience will help you reach its goals. While the content itself is important in garnering trust and attention, the most important piece to your content is the call-to-action (CTA).

The key to a great CTA is to offer advice within your pitch. A reader is more likely to agree to your CTA, whether it’s purchasing a tool or downloading a white paper, when you’re giving context to how it will help lead to their desired outcome.

For example, if you’d like professional help with developing content that meets your goals, fill out our form and one of our experts will be in contact with you soon. Strongpages has nearly 10-years of digital marketing experience, helping clients across a variety of industries meet goals and generate new business.

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