Last Updated on November 24, 2022 by Arif Chowdhury
Content is King & there is no doubt about it. However, you need to know how to use content creation hacks to gain an advantage. Every website around the world is constantly creating content for its site.
Nowadays, almost 95% of websites have a blog section. However, before 2005 only a blogger would have such a section. A business website wouldn’t even bother to write anything except their product & about page.
But things have changed since then. Without a blog section, a website surely will fail to get on the top of SERP (search engine result page). But, unfortunately, blogging or constantly creating content won’t let you go anywhere unless you know the secrets of content creation.
You may think creating content is easy, or there is no secret. But this is where you are wrong. Do you know why? Because it is a highly competitive era. Every day around 7 million blog posts are published worldwide. So, if you need to learn how to create content that stands above the crowd, certainly your site will get lost in the noise.
And this is why you need to know the secret of content creation that can convert your visitors to paid customers. But, of course, this is why you create a business website first, don’t you?
Okay, let’s get started. In this guide, I will tell you some tactics to convert visitors into paying customers only if you can properly implement those on your site. I can guarantee that you will get results within a few weeks.
So, why waste time? Let’s dig in.
How does content marketing attract potential customers?
Before I answer this question, ask yourself why people search for reviews before purchasing a product. The reason is simple. They need to convince themselves first whether this product has quality & reliability.
Ask yourself how many times you have changed your decision while reading reviews. Yes, now you get it. Content has the power to convince visitors’ minds. When you write a product review in your blog & people read it. If it is well-written, detailed & engaging, then there is a good chance that your readers will purchase that product.
Now, what about spreading your content like wildfire? Remember, this is a digital era; people spend more time on social media than with their loved ones. So they can’t wait to share anything on their profile if anything is interesting. Did you get my point?
Yes, if you can create engaging content, it will go viral & spread like wildfire. It is called “word of mouth.” Your audience will promote your content for free. And this is how to generate leads from website visitors.
But for that, you have to come up with something that will convince them in the first place. Don’t you think?
Quick Note: A landing page is one of the best ways to attract your target audience by driving traffic. You have to build trust by producing authentic and quality content.
Though it is not something easy to come up with, it is something you have to do to stand above the crowd. It is the very first hack you should do. Without an innovative idea, your content is just like a regular one. You may receive regular visitors as you always do. But, if you want growth like wildfire and want to stand above the crowd, then innovation is a must.
Which type of content usually has more chances to go viral than others? If you have seen the above picture, you may notice that the Coca-Cola company has changed its bottle with a different person’s name. It was a marketing campaign called “Share A Coke.”
This idea was simple. They have launched this campaign with 250 common generic names on the label. So people get shocked when they find it familiar with their friends, relatives, or even loved ones’ names. So what do you think they did when they saw a familiar name? They purchased it & shared it with that person.
It’s not ended there; people share it on social media, email, forums, chats & almost everywhere on the internet. Do you see? It is called an innovative idea that goes viral.
Resource Box: Use Buzzsumo to find current viral content spreading like wildfire on social media. Use those keywords and topics in your marketing plan to boost your growth.
Hack #2: Use a catchy headline to attract the audience.
The headline is the first text your audience will see before they decide to read further; this is one of the best content creation hacks. If it can’t convince them, then chances are your audience will leave from there.
Quick Note: Around 80% of your audience will never pass the headline. Only 20% read your article. It’s because your headline needs to be more convincing. Thus, the headline is a powerful tool in digital marketing.
Your article headline is like a face. If it is not attractive enough, people will not read any further. Thus, you are not going to make any profit at all. So, as you can see, your conversion rate entirely depends on your article headline’s attractiveness.
So you have learned that first, you need to brainstorm to get an innovative content idea, and second, you have to write an attractive headline to catch the eye of your audience.
Here are some sample headline ideas you may use:
- Apply These [6] Secret Techniques to Improve [Content Marketing]
- How [6] Things Will Change the Way You Approach [Content Marketing]
- Master The Art of [Content Marketing] With These [6] Tips
- Knowing These [6] Secrets Will Make Your [Content Marketing] Perfect
- [Content Marketing] Doesn’t Have to Be Hard. Read These [6] Tips
Remember, you must write your headline uniquely to make it stand above the crowd. For best results, try to write 3-4 headlines, then show them to your friends & family members to get the vote. This way, you will get an idea of what the general public will think about it.
Resource Box: You may use this headline analyzer tool to get an idea of how to write a powerful headline for your content.
Hack #3: Craft in-depth content, go deeper.
Now we are in the body of the article; up until now, you had to think about content ideas & headlines. But now we will talk about writing the article itself. But before we begin, do most online marketers skip these content creation hacks?
There are many debates around the web among different writers & bloggers about how many words or how much longer should be optimal for an article. Some experts think it’s roughly 1,700 words (7-minute reading time). Others believe it is 2,450 words. If you search on Google, you will find many debates like this.
You may see the above word count against the top 10 rankings in SERP. They said most of the content above 2,000 words ranks higher in SERP & then shorter articles gradually decline in ranking.
I agree; if you want to write an in-depth article about a particular topic, you have to write a more prominent article, as the short article needs more space to elaborate on everything in detail.
However, what about if your topic is not that elaborate? What if it doesn’t need to write 2,000+ words? Instead, only a 700 words article should be enough to tell everything in detail. Well, in that case, you can write a smaller article.
Quick Note: In the end, all you should care about is your audience. If you can help your audience with a short 300-word article, it will go viral & eventually will rank in the top 1 in SERP. It doesn’t matter how much longer it is, as long as it is helpful to the audience.
Hack #4: Make your content more visual than plain text.
Human brains are naturally attracted to visual things more than text. Look at yourself; whenever you read anything, whether a book, magazine, newspaper or website, what type of content drags your attention more? When you see a picture.
According to science, 50% of our brain is involved in visual processing. It means we are naturally attracted to seeing things rather than reading. Unfortunately, it takes years for bloggers & web admins to understand this simple mechanism of our brains & that’s why since 2007, the use of visualization has increased by a massive 9,900% in web content.
So, what have you learned from here? First, do not just explain everything in plain text; try to visualize something in images or videos. It will increase your engagement rate manifold. For example, in this blog post, I have used images frequently to attract your brain so that you won’t get bored quickly.
Quick Note: On average, a person reads only 20% of your entire article. Most of the time, your visitors skim to get the overall idea.
What is your primary target when you write content in your blog? Do you want your visitor to read & then leave your site? Of course not. Don’t you want to convert this visitor into a paid customer? But how are you supposed to do it? Here comes the CTA (Call-to-action) button, which can attract your visitor to click & take action.
For example, when you search & read a product review from an article, they encourage you frequently to take action by placing a CTA button at the top, middle, or bottom of the article.
Look at the above example; they have put a CTA button at the beginning of the article right after the headline. As I said, only 20% of your visitors will pass the headline, while most will leave after reading it. And that’s why it is a good idea to place your CTA button right after the headline. So, chances are that they will click on the link before they leave your site. Therefore it will increase your click-through rate significantly.
And this CTA has been placed at the very bottom of the article. For the rest, 20% of visitors who will go through your writing, this CTA is for them. After finishing your article, when they are about to leave, you present them with something useful.
As you can see, the placement of your CTA is crucial thing. It depends on the reader’s mentality. You should pick a CTA at the top of your article for 80% of readers who will not read your article & place another CTA at the bottom of your writing, which will finish it. You can also place CTA in the middle of your writing.
However, do not overdo it, as it will harm your site more than reasonably.
Hack #6: Highlight notes frequently to catch the attention.
It is the most innovative content marketing strategy out there. You will utilize “colorful highlights” to catch your audience’s attention. Why do you need to do that? As I said, around 80% of your audience skim your entire content, then leave. They never actually read line-by-line text.
What are they looking for? Bold text, colorful text, images, videos, headlines, etc. So, what do you think? If you do not use the colorful highlight, then the possibility is they will leave within just 5-10 sec. Because in your content, there are no eye-catching things to catch their attention.
Hence, to capture the attention of this 80 % audience, you need to highlight some notes, & resources frequently; therefore, when they skim, they will catch these highlighted texts.
Let me give you an example. Look at this article; I have used colorful “Quick notes,” “Recommended reading,” and “Resource box” frequently so I can catch 80% of my audience as well as the rest 20% of those who read all the text.
The best practice should be to put vital information in this highlighted text so your audience will get everything.
Quick Note: Your content will grab the attention of 20% of readers & your highlighted text will hold the rest of 80% of readers. Who said you are losing 80% of the audience?
Hack #7: Grab leads in the middle of your content.
Lead is the gold mine of any business. So every business worldwide is racing to grab potential leads as much as possible. And this is how email marketing was invented. Not only email marketing, though, but web push notifications are also doing great nowadays.
These marketing tools are potent in converting your regular visitors to paying customers. But, according to experts, 79% of your visitors will never return.
Do you know why that is?
It’s because most of the time, people usually do Google search for content. Even if they return to your site next time, they will do it through Google search. Only a handful of them will bookmark your site or memorize your domain name, or may use browser history to find.
Besides, whenever you publish new content, how will they know about it? Yes, exactly; for this reason, you need to collect their information to send them a notification via email or web push.
The best practice is to use your lead grabber CTA in the middle of your content, so your audience will see it while reading it. Try to avoid pop-ups as much as possible. Most of the time, people ignore it or use a pop-up blocker. Instead, try to offer helpful and free content in exchange for the audience name & email.
You may offer below free resource to your audience:
- free eBook
- tutorial video
- cheat sheet
- statistical report
- survey report
- checklist
As long as your resource is valuable & free, chances are your audience will grab it by giving their personal information. However, when you start an email marketing campaign, do not overdo it. Otherwise, your hard-earned leads may unsubscribe or mark your email as spam.
Just ask yourself, how often do you unsubscribe or mark emails as spam?
Resource Box: Use Icegram to create stunningly beautiful email subscriber forms & pop-ups. Its free account should be enough for your basic needs.
Hack #8: Utilize you’re above the fold content space.
Remember what I said before, 80% of your audience will only read the headline of your content. So, that location of your site is called “above the fold” space. Slightly confusing, right? Okay, let me clear it up for you.
When you first open a website, it doesn’t load the entire page, only the first few spaces. So most of the visitors stay there & read only the headlines & few lines beneath it. They do not want to scroll more unless they find it interesting to check out.
Let me give you an example. Look above the Neil Patel website. I just opened a blog post and didn’t scroll down. What do you see here?
- Highlighted box to grab leads
- The headline of the blog post
- Offering tool to grab more leads
- Offering the same tool to capture leads
So as you can see, in this “above the fold” area, how smartly did he implement four eye-catching elements, including the content headline?
Now ask yourself, what about your above-the-fold area? Is it only containing a headline & a few texts? Or is there something more to attract your 80% audience who are about to leave your site from here?
Recommended Reading: 7 Easy Steps How to Build a WordPress Website from Scratch
Hack #9: Leverage guest blogging opportunity.
Okay, you are about to achieve two significant successes regarding guest blogging.
- Natural backlinks
- Brand awareness
Let me tell you if you need to learn what guest blogging is. When you publish an article to another website, that is called guest blogging. Now the question is why you should do it. Well, the answer is simple: spread your message to other website audiences, increase your brand awareness & receive natural backlinks to your site.
For example, I have published a guest post on the SEO blog and an author profile at the bottom of the post. In this way, I can also spread my message to their audience. They have more than 50,000 visitors per month. So, what do you think? I can reach an extra 50,000 audiences by doing a guest blog.
If I continue to publish a different guest blog on other sites, my audience reach will surely increase manifold. However, by doing so, I will have an audience and will be able to build a strong backlink profile for my site.
Just think for a moment. If you can publish ten guest blogs on ten high-authority sites, you will receive thousands of new audiences and ten backlinks from high-authority sites.
These new audiences may bring you more revenue for your business. And then new backlinks will increase your site authority. Therefore, you will receive more organic traffic from search engines.
Recommended Reading: 400+ High DA Guest Posting Sites for 2021 (Massive List)
Hack #10: Build a resource page.
It is a relatively new method you should focus on. Showcasing your favorite tools, resources, tutorials, books, reports, etc., on one page called “resource page” and highlighting this page in your site menu. So, your audience will visit & grab it & you will receive potential leads & revenue for your business.
Look at the above example from the “Adam Enfroy” website. He displayed his affiliate products on this resource page, i.e., web hosting, CRM software, etc. So people can visit here & check out.
By building a resource page, you can showcase many valuable resources on one page; thus, your audience can check all of it without visiting different pages. Most of the time, your audience will bookmark this page as it contains many tools in one place. They will see it over & over again. You will gain potential leads as well as customers from this resource page.
Besides that, the resource page has a high chance of sharing on social media, blogs & websites. Thus you will receive many valuable backlinks as well.
Quick Note: Try to list all of your affiliate products on the resource page. Also, provide a link to your review article, so your audience can check the details.
Hack #11: Upgrade your old content.
You may wonder why we even need to update old content. Well, if you just started a blog or website, you may not notice yet; however, after 1-2 years, you will realize it. If you publish content every week within one year, your site will have 36 blog posts.
If it is two years, then you have 72 blog posts already published. Now ask yourself how many times & efforts you have invested in writing each of them. If you have written by yourself, then it’s one thing but if you hire content writers for this, then use a calculator to sum up how much you have spent to craft these 72 contents.
Let me help you a bit. On average, a blog post is about 1,000 words. The standard rate is $0.10 per word, which means you had to spend roughly $100 for each piece of this content. So, 72 blog posts worth at least $7,200.
Do you want to waste this huge investment? Or want to reuse them?
Well, if you can update your old content correctly, it will outperform the new one. Do you know why? Because old content has already established itself using many shares, backlinks, comments, etc. At the same time, new content is completely fresh, just like a University freshman.
So, what do you need to do to update your old content?
- Read the entire content from top to bottom.
- Pinpoint which part is outdated.
- Research like you do for new content.
- Make a draft for those obsolete parts.
- Try to use new images, videos & references for the full content.
- Check every internal & external link, and if needed, update those.
- Do keyword research to revamp the entire content.
- Remember to do some promotions as you do for new content.
Conclusion.
Like I said before, content is King, and you may use content creation hacks to convert visitors to paid customers. First, however, you must utilize some tricks to get the best out of your content. The days have long gone when people write content & win the hearts of their audience. Things have changed a lot. Nowadays, competitors are everywhere because of technological advancement.
Before 2005 many people did not even have a personal computer or a proper internet connection. Very few bloggers exist at that time. In 1999, only 23 blogs were listed on the whole internet. But in 2006, it grew to a mind-numbing 50 million. And now, 4.4 million blog posts are published every single day.
Did you get my point? Blogging & content marketing is no longer a chicken race. Only the elite can survive & stand above the crowd, while the rest fade away in the noise.
You can stand among the elite only if you can smartly implement the tricks I have shown in this guide. However, a piece of advice, in the end, do not overdo it. Whatever you do, keep your audience in mind. If you can please them, you already win the race.