How to use content to increase your online ROI

When looking at the 4-step marketing sales funnel, attention is the largest and upper-most (first) part of the cone. This is where potential customers see or hear something that spikes their interest in a certain brand or product. Content has been around since retailers of old would hand-paint posters and flyers for their business ventures. Today, content is videos on YouTube, posts on Instagram, blogs on websites, and much more.

Content marketing is by no means a cheap endeavour. Anyone can create content using word processors and graphic design software, and millions of people do. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of freelancers and agencies are actually good enough to produce extraordinary content. For this reason, content generation can end up costing a pretty sum (unless you do it all yourself). Let’s take a look at ways to optimise your content marketing for improved ROI:

Content marketing for improved ROI

Got a sales funnel?

Think of the sales funnel as the blueprint advertisers and marketers have been using since the dawn of promotion. Without a sales funnel, there is no direction for the customer on their path to a purchase. If you follow the AIDA model (Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action), the content you produce will fall into both the Attention and Interest categories.

Short-form content, like social media posts and SMS messages, captures the customer’s attention. Long-form content like blog articles generate further interest in the brand and product or service, and when done right should lead the customer to the decision phase.

There needs to be an opportunity – called the Action phase – where an online patron can act on their desire and exchange money for your products or services. Promoting brick-and-mortar businesses online will get customers through your doors, but the majority of them will likely by from you via online channels if you give them the opportunity.

Limit promotional channels

The channels through and manner in which you promote your content can have an impact on your overall online ROI. A common mistake marketers make is to think that success can only be obtained by reaching as many people as possible, across every channel available.

By doing this, marketing budgets get stretched too thin, and can’t cover the cost of generating content for each and every medium. Another reason this shotgun approach to content marketing doesn’t work well is because people engage with content differently on different channels. A one-size-fits-all content strategy will only annoy existing customers and alienate potential ones.

It’s better to take a closer look at the returns you’re getting from each content marketing vein you’re plugged into. Pick the top three contributors to ROI and concentrate on optimising those. There might come a time when your workforce (and bank balance) can handle the workload of true omni-channel marketing.

Be better than the rest

As mentioned above, anyone who wants to create content can do so without having to pay a cent. Design websites like Canva.com, and digital copy writing tools like Grammarly.com, are easy to use and are all one needs to launch a freelance marketing career. The only problem with so much content being generated by so many marketers is that everything ends up looking the same.

There is no secret that advertisers and marketers copy each other – it’s been going on for centuries. It makes sense that a piece of content doing well for a competitor might have the same effect for you. This creates a sea of similar content that consumers eventually bore of and scroll right past. In the ocean of copy-culture content, yours needs to be a bright red buoy.

Monitor global trending topics, as well as your industry’s top thought leaders, and try to be in the first few brands that can relate their business to the trend or event of interest. You know what they say about the early bird, right? Encourage your content producers to think outside of the box, and attempt to set the trends instead of merely following them.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

Ready to launch your lucrative career in digital marketing? Create content that is king, and learn how to successfully promote content for the best ROI potential, with an accredited Digital Copywriting and Content Marketing course from DSM.!