Guest article by Darrell Rios
Every business could benefit from boosting its lead generation efforts. And producing more online content is one of the best ways to do it. But not all types of materials perform equally. The five types of content listed in this article attract the most prospects.
Generate more leads with these 5 types of content
Regardless of the business you run, it’s vital to amplify your audience’s interest in your products and services before you can turn them into paying customers. And what’s the best way to do that?
The simple answer is content marketing. Whether you have a website or a travel agency selling trips to Hawaii, content is an excellent way to induce interest in your brand.
It engages your potential buyers and builds solid relationships with them. But the thing is that producing high-quality content takes a lot of time and effort.
So you can’t possibly tackle its all existing forms. Start by focusing on the five types of lead generation content that tend to yield the best results in attracting new clients.
1. Case studies showcase your success
If you haven’t yet included testimonials from your pleased clients on your website, you should consider doing that. Other people praising your products is one of the most powerful ways to persuade prospects to buy from you.
It adds credibility to your enterprise and proves that what you’re selling is worth the money. But there’s a type of valuable content that’s even more effective in winning over new clients: case studies.
These papers show the step-by-step process of how someone reached success thanks to your products or services. The aim is to demonstrate results and support these with accurate data.
And the cool thing is that this information tends to attract high-quality leads. These are people ready to buy from you and only need one last convincing to do it.
Case study example. Source: vengage.com
Here’s some practical advice for writing the case studies: start by giving an overview of the outcomes.
It lets readers know what the case study is about and entice them to read the whole thing. Next, follow the introduction with content that gives potential clients an idea of your work methods.
Showing the strategies you use to help your clients reach new audiences, beat the competition, etc., gives the readers an idea of whether your approaches could work in their organization.
2. Instruction guides – make your brand a sought-after teacher
One of the most popular types of materials people search for online is the how-to guide. It can be in the form of audio content, plain text, or even a video. The idea is to provide your prospect with easy-to-follow instructions on how to solve industry-related issues.
So your first step in coming up with this lead magnet is to figure out what troubles your potential customers. Once you’ve found the topic, figure out the areas where you can offer valuable insights and expertise.
If you’ve been in business for several years, you probably have enough knowledge about the industry to write this type of guide for the less experienced ones.
If your how-to-guide offers enough valuable tips, the people who download it will probably carry it with them. They’ll go over your advice every time they need additional help to solve their business issues.
That means an insightful instruction guide keeps your brand in front of your prospects’ eyes. And if your teachings produce tangible results, the readers will start to trust and follow you. That leads directly to buying from you.
3. Whitepapers strengthen your niche authority
Every company, especially a business-to-business (B2B) one, needs to strive towards becoming a thought leader in its niche.
That’s because potential customers in 2022 can use Google to do a lot of research on products and services that interest them. And everyone wants to buy from the only authoritative source that other buyers seem to trust.
But how to attain the status of being a sought-after expert in your field? One way is to produce top-quality whitepapers.
Whitepapers are content forms that outline trends in a specific industry and back them up with facts and data insights. When done right, these reports offer lots of value to readers by giving them actionable solutions to relevant business problems.
Let’s take a closer look at how to create this type of powerful content:
- Do a little market research (send out surveys, visit online forums) to understand which issues trouble your audience at the moment.
- Gather as much data about the relevant problem as possible. But make sure it’s all accurate. Presenting false facts can harm your brand’s reputation irreparably.
- Come up with legitimate reasons why your services or products can provide the best possible answer to the problem you’re tackling.
- Make this content format visually more exciting by turning the data into charts. Plus, try to avoid writing walls of texts. Instead, break it down into short paragraphs.
- Add ideas from big names in your industry that support your claims.
- Make sure the overall length of the work is at least ten pages.
Keep in mind that the audience for whitepapers is professionals looking for valuable and specific advice. So taking an almost academic approach to addressing them is the best way to get attention.
Plus, your whitepapers need to leave readers with takeaways they can use in their work or everyday lives. If people invest time to read through your materials but won’t get value from it, they’ll regret giving out their emails for the content.
And they are not likely to become your customers.
4. eBooks make your brand exceptional
An e-book should revolve around an issue that interests your target audience. And the readers’ need for a solution has to be big enough to go through a three hundred-page e-book for answers.
You can also think of e-books as comprehensive tell-all guides. But before creating this tell-all guide, it’s vital to conduct thorough market research. That way, you know your efforts will attract a high number of leads.
Some businesses are concerned they’ll give away their trade secrets when writing about the methods they use. Don’t worry about that. No one expects you to display your financial data or expose any secret formulas in the e-book.
You’ll only need to go into the details that demonstrate the expertise going into your craft. Plus, you don’t have to back all the insights up with examples from your own company.
You can also refer and link to other people’s work and resources. The aim is to answer all the possible questions a reader might have around a problem.
5. Video content – consumers love it
Visual content in the form of engaging videos has always been an excellent lead generation tool. And there are many reasons for this. Firstly, videos can be super engaging.
Regardless of what the clip is about, people always find time for an entertaining minute or two. Secondly, these days, search engines tend to prefer video content to texts.
That means having videos on your site can help you drive more organic traffic to your pages. So how and where to use this potentially successful content in lead generation? Here are some options:
Landing pages
Videos are a way to maximize the lead generation potential of your landing pages. You can have them complement the sales texts or even empty the whole page except for one center-stage video. Both ways are bound to increase your conversion rate because they increase the number of people hearing your message.
The thing is that consuming a video does not require any effort from your visitors (unlike reading a text). Once they’ve clicked “play,” they’re already engaged with the new content as the clip starts rolling.
Social media
Almost everyone in your target market is probably using platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And apart from communicating with friends, they’re also using these sites to research products. So include videos in your social media content to take advantage of this incredible reach.
Email Marketing
Add videos to your email marketing campaigns. Emails remain incredibly effective in generating quality leads, especially when coupled with entertaining videos.
Gated content
Gate your videos. It’s a lead generation technique that means placing your best content behind a wall. And visitors need to enter their email addresses to see it. Some of the most enticing types of videos that can make users provide their information are online courses, webinars, and behind-the-scenes clips.
Most effective types of videos
Before summing up the article, let’s take a closer look at the types of videos that work equally well for all lead generation methods. You can use them to spice up your content campaigns or make your product launches more attractive.
Either way, these videos are worth the effort of making them. They’ll most probably boost your sales and build awareness for your brand. Here they are:
- Video testimonials are a personal and eye-catching way to present raving reviews for your products. It is especially effective if you know what testimonial questions you should ask. The passionate delivery from a satisfied customer in the clip is incredibly effective in getting viewers to take action.
- Explainer videos help your customers to understand how your products and services work. Create them relevant to your customers’ possible search intents and add a call to action (CTA) in the end. That’s a recipe for a fruitful lead generation machine.
- Product videos are what your customers expect to see these days before making a purchase. And chances are your competitors already have plenty of that type of comprehensive content on what they’re offering. Don’t lag behind and produce your own set of product videos to win over new leads.
In summary
So this was our overview of the best five types of materials for lead generation. Use them when you need to come up with content marketing ideas for your next campaign. Whitepapers, case studies, and e-books are excellent lead-generating texts that establish your brand authority.
And value-packed how-to guides keep you in your customers’ minds after they’ve downloaded them. But the most popular type of content in 2022 is a video.
So make sure your website and social media pages have plenty of clips showcasing your company and what you do. You will see a surge in new leads subscribing to your channels and eventually becoming customers. What could be better?
Which types of content have generated the most qualified leads for your business? Share your success stories in the comments.
Author’s bio:
Darrell is a blogger and a content marketer who loves writing on topics around content creation. His tips help turn content marketing into dollars. He believes every company, regardless of the industry, should post regular engaging content for their fans. As a marketer, Darrell works primarily with agencies looking to boost their online presence.
