Converting prospects isn’t always possible the first time they land on one of your client's Web pages. Good SEO copywriting needs to be more than just attractive to search engines. Your content writing strategy needs to be combined with engagement strategies in order to make sure that you lead prospects through the sales funnel from initial contact to repeat customer.
What are engagement strategies?
Engagement strategies are techniques that allow you to participate and communicate with prospects. They invite conversation and encourage feedback. They are the hook that keep your readers coming back for more.
Five winning engagement strategies
Engaging your site visitors so that they will stick around long enough to buy...and then buy again isn't difficult once you get the hang of it. How do you create the kind of content that keeps visitors returning again and again (and eventually buying your product or service)? Below are five content writing strategy ideas that keep your visitors interested for months and years to come.
1. Give value.
Offering value is one way to engage your site visitors, according to Charissa Hurd writing for Biz Action.com. She explains that value doesn't have to be about offering the deepest discounts (although coupons and special Internet only offers are one way of offering value.) Value can also be you sharing your specialized knowledge or providing entertainment value.
2. Make it personal.
As interesting as your content is, if your reader doesn't feel that it applies to him, he won't hurry back to your site. Making your content personal includes making the reader understand how and why your product solves a problem he has or meets a need of his. However, it needs to do this using words and images that are familiar to him. If your prime customers are professional men, you don't want to talk to them like stay-at-home moms and vice versa. One way to make your content personal is to use quotes from satisfied customers. Another is to post images of customers using your product.
3. Encourage user generated content.
Another way to increase your reader engagement is to let them be part of the action, advises Smart Insights.com. If your product lends itself to reader stories, a good content writing strategy is to let readers submit content themselves. Of course, you'll edit it slightly so that it fits with your editorial guidelines, but user-generated content is much more likely to be shared (with the writer's friends and family) and to garner return visits from other readers looking to learn about other people's experiences with our product.
4. Be amusing.
Just as people return to watch their favorite television shows each week, site visitors will return to see what new content you've posted if they find your point-of-view entertaining. How you do this depends on your product and industry, but this could include videos, jokes, fun facts or entertaining stories. Just remember that whatever you do needs to have some bearing on your product. It can't just be cute baby or cat pictures.
5. Make your brand visible.
This might seem obvious, but sometimes we get so caught up in our content writing strategy, with being amusing and telling readers all of the benefits and features of our product that we forget to tell them who we are and where they can contact us. Your name, address and a link to your sales or check out page needs to be on every page you write. After all, since most visitors find your site via search engines, you don't what page they'll view first.
Creating engaging content that turns your client's site visitors into repeat customers doesn't have to be confusing or a chore. Simply view your content from your visitor's point of view and write accordingly. The result should be increased traffic, increased page views per visit and, best of all, increased sales.
