April 19, 2023
Content Marketing Growth Hacks for Traffic and Conversion
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So, you want to drive more traffic to your website? Furthermore, you want to improve your conversion rate? While these are lofty goals, there are plenty of strategies for helping you reach the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.More companies than ever before are throwing resources at content marketing and growth hacking.Note: if you want to learn more about growth hacking, check out “The Definitive Guide to Growth Hacking.” Once you are done there, the Content Marketing Institute shares plenty of high quality information and advice on this form of marketing.With that out of the way, it is time to bring the two together. It is time to settle on the best content marketing growth hacks to drive traffic and conversions.
8 Content Marketing Hacks for More Traffic
It doesn’t matter if you are new to this world or have been dabbling for quite some time, the following techniques will point you in the right direction.
Maximize your Current Traffic
There is no denying the fact that every business wants to drive more traffic to its website. While you are attempting to do so, take a step back to examine the impact you are having on your current visitors.Is your website failing to produce conversions, despite the fact that you are receiving an admirable amount of traffic?If so, analytics tools can be your best friend. Google Analytics may be top dog in this space, but if you want to dig deeper, if you want to learn more about your visitors, check out KissMetrics. Its tagline says it all:“Track, analyze and optimize your digital marketing performance. We show you what's working and what's not across all campaigns, mobile and web.”
What are People Doing on your Website?
Regardless of how much traffic you send to your website, there is no guarantee of conversions.Use a service, such as Crazy Egg, to better understand what people are doing once they land on your site. This service helps you answer that one burning question:“What's making your visitors leave?”Once you know the answer to this question, you can adjust your website accordingly, thus increasing the amount of time visitors stick around. Subsequently, your conversion rate will improve.
Use Infographics on your Blog
Everybody knows by now that “content is king.” If you want your website or blog to perform at a high level, you need to publish high quality content on a regular basis.Along with traditional blog posts, don’t overlook the importance of infographics. Techopedia defines an infographic as follows:“An information graphic (infographic) is a visual representation of a data set or instructive material. An infographic takes a large amount of information in text or numerical form and then condenses it into a combination of images and text.”In other words, you are combining content with a “visual” as a means of presenting a large amount of information.If you don’t think this is worth your time, here is what Neil Patel had to say on his popular blog:“Within 2 years, we were able to generate 2,512,596 visitors and 41,142 backlinks from 3,741 unique domains from 47 infographics.”Talk about growth hacking. Creating an infographic is a lot of work, but the end result may be better than you ever expected.
Make it Easier to Share your Content
Everybody needs a little bit of help. This holds true in all aspects of life, including business.You can produce the best content in your industry, but if nobody knows it exists the results won’t be what you expect.This is why you should make it easy for others to share your content. For example, the Click To Tweet WordPress plugin is used on many of the top blogs in the world. (In fact, WordPress plugins can be a powerful addition to your content marketing toolbox.) With this tool, you can easily create “tweetable” content for your audience. Two words: Yes. Please.Other tools to consider include:
It doesn’t take any money to implement one or more of these tools. Better yet, it only takes a few minutes. If you aren’t making it easy to share your content, you are missing a big opportunity to drive traffic back to your site.
Use Guest Blogging
By now, you have likely heard the myth that guest blogging is dead. This isn’t true. The game may have changed, but you can still play (and play well).For many years, guest blogging has been a powerful content marketing growth hack. Here is what’s different: you don’t want to guest blog for the sole purpose of gaining backlinks to your website.Instead, your primary goal is to provide value and build your brand. If you are successful in doing so, your company’s audience will grow.It is worth noting again: don’t guest blog for the links. Guest blog for the opportunity to share your knowledge and build your brand.
Use 404 Pages to your Advantage
A 404 page is never a good thing, but this doesn’t have to be the end of the world either. Rather than force visitors to find their way away from this page, give them something to click on.For example, you can setup a custom 404 page with links to your most popular content. This will increase the chance of the person staying on your site, as opposed to leaving (and quite possibly never coming back).Here is a quick guide on how to create a custom 404 error page.
A/B Testing Headlines
Your content is only as good as your headline. Even if you have something of great value to share, many people won’t make it past the headline if you don’t grab their attention.But how will I know which headlines convert and which ones are duds? It’s all about A/B testing.KingSumo is a tool that makes it simple to test headlines. With this tool at your disposal, it is easy to see which headlines perform best. This will allow you to make more informed decisions moving forward.
Yes, Longer is Better
Gone are the days when you could stuff your blog with 250 word posts and watch your rankings increase. In today’s day and age, the search engines, Google in particular, want you to provide something of value. If you don’t follow this rule, you can’t expect to rank near (or at) the top of page one.According to Capsicum Mediaworks, content length is extremely important in regards to search engine rankings. On average, the top 10 Google results have a minimum of 2,000 words. You are seeing that right: 2,000 words, not 200 words.There are times when a short post is all you need, such as when you are introducing a new team member or giving an update on an outage.When it comes to writing content that ranks, long form content is the way to go. This should be the bulk of what you do.
Over to You
With these five strategies in mind, you are now in better position to use content marketing growth hacks to drive traffic and conversions.Maybe this is new to you.Maybe it is old hat.Either way, there is no denying the benefits.Already know all these things and looking for a new strategy? Have you considered building a mobile app to augment your content marketing efforts? Check out our guide on how to use apps to grow your content marketing traffic and engagement here.
