Here are the techniques that will get you started when creating audience-centric content that drives solutions to problems, answers to questions, and insight that your buyers can’t live without.

 

Look Up Their Questions Directly

 

Want to know what searchers are asking?

 

You can see for yourself on sites like Quora. This ingenious platform – described as “the modern-day equivalent of the Library of Alexandria,” by Ari Shahdadi (a New York lawyer who works with start-ups) has posed itself as the answer to everything by bringing together the combined wisdom of the global hive mind. People ask questions and others answer them. Users then vote on these answers and only the most relevant, helpful and thoroughly researched responses stay on the site. It couldn’t be simpler.

 

Tapping into this resource is pretty straightforward too. You can look up what questions are being asked in your industry and in related industries, and then create content that directly addresses these issues. Quora is an excellent source for content inspiration as it really helps to put you in the shoes of your buyers. It’s like a direct window into the psyche of the consumer, which, as you’ll notice, is filled, with an infinite number of questions that need answers!

 

How do you find popular questions?

 

Just ask Quora!

Up Your Keyword Research With Ahrefs

 

You can put yourself ahead of your competitors by using a premium keyword research tool like Keywords Explorer 2.0.

 

What’s the difference between this and Google’s trusty Keyword Planner?

 

Well, more data, for starters, which equals better accuracy. Ahrefs has about 3.1 billion keywords in its database, which is refreshed every month. It also incorporates clickstream data so you’ll get an idea of which search terms are clicked and what percentage of searches for keywords result in clicks.

Ask the Seeker

 

With Answer The Public on your side, your world as a content producer is about to get so much easier. Type in your keyword and this gem of a site will display the leading questions in an elegant graphic.

Take for example, the search term ‘drinking chocolate.’ Look at the wealth of information you’d receive to help you develop riveting content for your chocolate brand.

It also lists each search query in a more structured format if that is easier for you to scan. You can click on each and see what comes up in the search results. This makes the resource doubly useful for marketers as you can see which sites are ranking well for a specific search query.

 

 

Check Your Top Performers

 

Knowing what is truly relevant may not require looking much further than your own webmaster dashboard. Use this resource and use it wisely, tracking your own posts and understanding which ones are excelling.

 

What are your top performers?

Why are they doing well?

What keywords are your visitors searching for?

Does this data change over time or does it stay relatively the same?

 

Kissmetrics demonstrates how to quickly and easily recognise your top performing pages in Google Analytics. Simply look under the ‘Content ’ menu and then select ‘Pages ’ under ‘Site Content.’

You can then build more content based on your top performing pieces. You can add content that goes into detail in an area you have already covered more generally, or in some way adds to your cornerstone pieces. Remember to give your audience more of what they want, but also to keep it unique, fresh and singularly useful. Don’t fall into the trap of churning out the same thing again and again.

 

 

Ask Your Sales Staff

 

Some of the best insights into search terms come from the people who are interacting with your customers directly – your sales team. Find out what questions people have been asking them and work these into your content.

 

Do they want to know different ways your business’ product can be used, how long it will last or how to best maintain it?

 

Are they trying to discover how they can get more value out of your services or are they looking for information about industries related to yours?

 

With this information, you can go back and create content that will directly answer those questions and concerns.

 

 

Brainstorm with Your Team

 

Having short, inspired brainstorming meetings with your staff every day can drive a plethora of excellent ideas your way; ideas which can then be harnessed within your content marketing strategies.

 

The Content Marketing Institute brought together a panel of experts to offer tips on making marketing meetings productive:

 

While this may seem a bit obvious, there is much more to an effective CTA than simply placing a few buttons on your website and waiting for the leads to roll in. You need to take your visitors’ wants and needs into consideration to target them with the information and assistance that will help them out the most.

Buyer Stages and How They Impact Your CTAs

In order to target your CTAs properly, you need to understand which stage of the buying process your prospective customers are currently in. The three primary stages are awareness, consideration and decision.

Awareness

In the awareness stage, visitors are just becoming familiar with your insurance business but do not yet know whether or not they require your insurance services. CTAs at this stage should focus on providing basic information and further education on the problems they are currently facing.

Customers at this stage are still in the process of gathering information, so this is not the time to pressure them with heavy sales pitches or requesting quotes.

The awareness stage presents your brokerage with its best chance to become established as an insurance industry authority. This is where you are making your first impression on potential customers and converting them into leads.

You want to provide them with the information they need to understand more about the problems they face so that they can see the value of insurance and using brokerage services.

CTAs for this stage should lead your visitor to download more information, like an ebook explaining the advantages of using an insurance broker. When collecting customer information in exchange at this stage, request only basic customer details, like their name and email address.

You can request more of their information, like phone numbers, in the consideration and decision stages, where your broker can reach out to the lead with a warm and welcoming phone call. In the awareness stage, your first priority is to get the visitor to convert into a lead as easily as possible so that you can begin educating them with the information they download in exchange.

Consideration

At the consideration stage, your visitors are aware of the problems they face and are now looking for a viable solution. CTAs here should encourage them to dig a little deeper.

At this stage, your goal should be to lock in visitor loyalty to your brand. CTAs should invite them to subscribe to your newsletter or blog so that they can continue to learn more about what you have to offer in terms of insurance.

Decision

The decision stage is the final stage of the buying process. At this stage, customers are looking for specific information about your brokerage and insurance offerings to help them make their final decision.

This is where the ‘Request a Quote’ CTA comes in. Leads that come from this category should be passed directly to a broker or agent to continue the purchase process. When obtaining contact information for the visitor at this stage, it is perfectly appropriate to request more details, like home and mobile phone numbers.

Converting Visitors into Leads

Once you have attracted your visitors enough to convince them to provide you with their contact information, at any stage, your next step is to continue to nurture that lead to move them through the sales funnel until they are sales ready. As mentioned above, leads at the decision stage can be passed directly to one of your insurance brokers for follow up.

So, what do you do with those at previous stages?

The primary goal is to provide them with the information that they want and need to establish loyalty, but you also have a secondary goal of leading them gently towards purchasing your insurance services.

Remember potential customers searching online are looking for educational information before making a decision.

If you go in with the sales pitch too strongly at the beginning, you run the risk of turning off potential customers, helping is the new selling and if you provide the information they are searching for then you increase your chances of doing business hugely.

Monitor Your Analytics

To strike the right balance between providing information and delivering a sales pitch, you need to be aware of what your customers are asking for. Keep close watch on your website’s analytics to see which areas of your site are getting the most traffic, as well as the search terms that visitors are using to get there.

A/B split testing is another great way to test the effectiveness of your CTAs. By comparing two options side by side, you can see which one is generating more clicks and sign-ups from your visitors.

The terms your prospective customers are searching for give you invaluable insight into the type of information that they really need. In crafting your CTAs, take care to direct your visitors to more of the information they want most.

Once an awareness customer has devoured the information at that level, they are ready to progress to the consideration stage, so start slipping in CTAs to lead them to more detailed information.

Some customers may even jump straight to the decision stage, so be sure to include a ‘Request a Quote’ CTA on the decision stage pages of your website to make it as easy as possible for your website visitors to convert into customers.

Generating Conversions

Through using CTAs for lead generation, you’ll gain many new subscribers and their contact information, but you can’t expect them all to convert to paying customers overnight.

The CTA is just the starting point of the customer relationship, so take the time to nurture it until customers are fully ready to buy.

There is no set timeline for how long the conversion process will take, so be patient as you nurture your leads. With careful strategy and content planning, many of them will convert eventually.