It’s a simple equation: more web pages = more visitors = more leads and sales opportunities. Every page on your website is an opportunity to be found in a search engine result. According to research in our eBook, “Marketing Benchmarks from 7000+ Businesses,” company websites with 51 to 100 pages generate 48% more traffic than those with fewer than 50 pages.
The practice of producing online content in order to attract website visitors and convert them into leads and customers is fundamental to the inbound marketing methodology. But for some marketers, the prospect of producing frequent content may seem daunting. After all, “who wants to read about their boring industry,” they say to themselves. Or, “where will I find the time to write so much?”
The fact is you probably already create more content than you think. With a little revision much of it would make great website fodder. Here are 4 things you can do to jump-start your inbound marketing content creation.
1. Do a Content Audit
Think you don’t have much to talk about? If your business is like most, you probably already have content that, with a little tweaking, could make several great blog topics. The volume of content that already exists about your company might surprise you. Here are a few places to start looking for ideas:
- Company brochures
- Product information sheets
- Presentation slide decks
- Sales pitches
- Brainstorm ideas with other employees in the office
- Ask customers what they’d like to know more about
- Answer frequently asked questions
- Describe how news or current events affect your industry
- Check websites of your suppliers, vendors and competitors
Do an audit your existing company communications. With some minor editing, a company brochure or sales presentation can be repurposed as a helpful blog post or downloadable offer.
2. Create a Content Calendar
Like professional journalists, a content calendar can help your organize your plan for adding new, original content to your website on a regular basis. You can use calendar software, like Outlook or Google Calendar to schedule post dates, or make a simple content calendar in a spreadsheet to help you keep track of topics, titles and keywords. (To help you get started, download a content calendar that we use here.)
And you don’t have to do it all yourself. Hold a weekly or monthly editorial meeting to brainstorm topics and assign articles to among the staff.
3. Share Visual Content
Whether a sales pitch or a craft talk, you probably have a PowerPoint slide deck that you’ve presented. Repurpose presentations as downloadable eBooks, or share them using online services like SlideShare. Share product photos using Flickr or Shutterfly, create audio podcasts describing your services, post eBooks, white papers and press releases, and produce “how-to” videos and post them on YouTube.
Remember, downloadable offers should be place on landing pages with a form to capture the contact information of potential new leads.
4. Blog Often
You can also reuse your presentations as topics for company blog. Each new blog post is fresh content for your website and helps to further promote your downloadable content offers. Consider these benefits:
- Blogging results in a 55% increase in website visitors.
- Companies that blog just once or twice per month generate 70% more leads than those who don’t blog.
- Companies that increase blogging from 3-5 times per month, to 6-8 times per month nearly double their leads.
Bottom Line
Original content is your website’s messenger; it will inform prospects about what you do and how you do it better than your competitors. With the variety of formats to create content, you should always be contributing original content to keep prospects engaged and interacting with your website.
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