6 Audience Engagement Tips to Boost Shares and Conversions
Whether you are an independent blogger or a large company representative, chances are you have given some thought to content marketing. Finding the right content for the audience you can truly benefit from can be an exhausting process. The struggle is even more real when you consider the fact that you have to spend weeks planning and preparing content before any results become visible.
Content marketers often rely on paid advertisement and influencer boosts in order to get any form of traction. Luckily, there are several audience engagement efforts that have proven themselves flawless companions for conversion. Let’s take a look at some of the most intriguing tips for raising your content’s traffic and engagement on the web.
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Choose meaningful topics
The best thing you can do for your audience and the subsequent shares and conversion rates is to choose meaningful topics to tackle. Not every customer or follower likes to see one particular type of content.
For example, a graphic design blog may focus too much on poster design and lose book design aficionados in the process. You need to make sure that your content is varied enough so that people of different profiles find something interesting with your brand on it.
Ethan Dunwill, manager of content department at Rated by Students had this to say about content research: “It’s easy to fall into the trap of creating content about the most obvious trendy thing out there. The reality is often more complex and requires content marketers to dig deep in order to discover what their audiences truly crave.”
Look for inspiration on other sites and social media outlets and see if you can pinpoint several topics worth exploring. This will undoubtedly do wonders for your overall engagement and conversions since people will genuinely care about what you talk about.
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Scheduled content
In order to boost engagement and spark a discussion with your follower base, you will have to show that you are committed to provide more original content to them. It’s always a good practice to create a content calendar for your website and social media pages.
Once you know what content types and topics you will tackle during the next several weeks, you can put them in order of publication. Try organizing your publishing calendar so that you have a new piece of content every two or three days.
If you are stretched thin or don’t have the time to create content on a constant basis yourself, you can check out Trello, Schedule Calculator as well as several writing services company reviews on the web. These sites feature top rated writers who are ready and able to fill the gaps in your content calendar based on your requirements. This systematic approach creates a sense of “loyalty” with your follower base and ensures that they check back with your content outlets.
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Add an incentive
Companies often use incentives in their promotional content to spark up an interaction within their customer base. You can use the same logic with your own content and add small tokens of appreciation for the people who follow you constantly.
Things like discount codes for popular websites, Amazon store credit, points towards a neat branded reward and similar items work wonders for shares and conversions. These items won’t cost you anything more than a small paid ad would on social media. In turn, they can provide much more than a limited-time advertisement would.
Include small gifts and freebies in every few content pieces and ask people to share, comment and talk about your content in return. This two-fold deal has proven successful for major brands and small independent content creators alike – there is no reason not to give it a shot.
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SEO for outreach
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a highly effective content optimization method to have in your arsenal. While it won’t add to your shares and conversion rates directly, it will make your content more visible in general. Let’s assume that a marketing expert is searching for an original article about a topic he or she is interested in.
If the marketing article (for example) is well-optimized per SEO standards, that article will show up in the search results of any major search engine. Sites such as Bing and Yahoo operate based on SEO regulations set by Google who is a majority shareholder in the digital marketing sphere.
In that regard, you can look through your personal Pocket, as well as several reviews of companies which specialize in content creation and optimization. These reviews and testimonials will help you decide which writing service is best suited to your specific content’s niche. If you want to reach as many people as possible with your content, make sure to optimize your content accordingly before publishing it.
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Implement calls to action
Most marketers would agree that the content you create is only as good as the CTAs that follow it. Calls to action (CTA) are a common marketing trend which ensures engagement, conversion and overall activity around your brand.
For example, a call to action for a retail shoe store could be “call now, and get a 50% discount!” This arbitrary example shows how you can implement the same mindset to your website and social media content. What better ways to have someone interact with your content than to simply ask them to do so?
Be professional, creative and original in your CTAs to avoid coming off as spam and distasteful. Use the same system of CTAs across your content calendar and monitor the performance of your newly-created audience engagement mechanism.
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Social proof matters
Lastly, the easiest way to “prove your point” on the internet is to attach a research or a proof to it. Social proof is one of the most effective tools in content marketing. It can showcase the effect of your product, service or point to a wider audience and back it up by facts.
People love to see numeric data, graphs and charts in their online content. It makes them feel safe about the investment or the time they are about to spend on a certain brand.
You can use third-party social proof or conduct your own research if you have the time and resources. However, make sure to always link the data back to its original source. Otherwise, your social proof will come off as nothing more than hearsay.
An ongoing engagement (Conclusion)
Once you find the perfect balance between your original ideas and the engagement tips we discussed, it’s important to enter a routine. Don’t stop creating new content even if you notice an increase in your shares and conversion rates.
Once that happens, you will know that you are on the right track and that you should focus on quantity and scheduling from thereon. An online business is only as popular and attractive as the marketing surrounding it. Stay true to your brand and the right audience will flock around you.