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5 Best Landing Page Builders That Will Maximize Conversions

Good landing pages are the lifeblood of any digital marketing campaign.

Without them, visitors don’t know what to do next.

Where can they sign up? Where do they find the product from the ad they just clicked?

Simply driving traffic to your homepage from a search engine, paid ads, or lead magnets won’t work.

That makes landing pages critical for conversions.

However, they can also take hours to build, especially when creating multiple landing pages for a specific keyword or different campaigns.

Trust me. I’ve done it before.

What do you do? You need a landing page builder.

 

Why Should You Consider a Landing Page Builder?

You’re a busy entrepreneur or digital marketer. I know you don’t have the time or bandwidth to sit and fiddle with back-end code and figure out how to design a beautiful landing page.

What about hiring a web designer or a developer? Let’s face it. While designers and devs are excellent at their jobs, their services aren’t cheap.

This is where landing page builders come in.

You can have a fully responsive, mobile-optimized page designed to convert curious visitors into paying customers within a few hours.

What do you need to input? Your website text, fonts, images, and brand colors.

Everything else is drag-and-drop with dozens of integrations to make capturing leads and sales as straightforward as possible.

However, the best landing page builders don’t stop at page design. The creme-de-la-creme on the market (see below) offers robust analytics to help you figure out what’s working and what you need to send to the trash bin.

The result?

You save hours figuring out how to optimize and improve your conversion rates. Instead of reading blog after blog and getting frustrated, you can go back to focusing on what you do best.

 

5 Best Landing Page Builders That Will Maximize Conversions

Ready to say hello to efficiency? Here are the top landing page builders for your next digital marketing campaign.

#1 – Swipe Pages

It doesn’t get better than Swipe Pages for an affordable landing page builder. With a few clicks of your mouse, you can create insanely fast, mobile-optimized AMP landing pages.

With no coding required, it’s one of the top options for marketers and entrepreneurs.

The best part? Swipe Page’s landing page templates give your site visitors an app-like experience. You won’t need to worry about elements squishing together or losing sales because your mobile site sucks.

At $29 per month, you’ll struggle to find another builder offering lightning-fast AMP pages at that price point.

Remember, a one-second delay in page loading times can result in a seven percent reduction in conversions.

With Swipe Pages on your payroll, your conversions will go up. Use the A/B split testing feature (more than two variants are possible) to nip what isn’t working in the bud. You can also leverage dynamic text replacement to personalize the site experience for customers.

This is only the tip of the iceberg for Swipe Pages features. Some of the other tools you’ll have at your fingertips include:

• multi-step forms
• Google Analytics & Facebook Pixel integrations
• variant performance analytics
• responsive breakpoints
• performance optimization
• blend modes
• parallax scrolling

Essentially, everything you need to create a landing page that drives visitors to take action and boost your bottom line.

Swipe Pages Pros:

• 40+ high-converting templates
• 80+ pre-built blocks
• AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)
• no coding skills required
• fully responsive multi-screen editing
• connect to 1000s of third-party apps like Zapier and Mailchimp1-click Stripe checkouts
• built-in analytics
• offers hosting and a custom domain

Swipe Pages Cons:

• no funnel offering yet (upsells, order bumps, etc.)
• no heatmaps
• server-side A/B split testing is only available on the highest-tier plan
• dynamic text replacement feature is not available on all plans

Swipe Pages Price: Plans start at $29 per month.

 

#2 – Unbounce

Unbounce is the “OG” landing page builder tool. It comes with excellent drag-and-drop features and a strong focus on conversions with the help of its AI-powered Smart Builder.

You’ll find popups, sticky navbars, and plenty of other options to help a visitor take action. Whatever your landing page goal, Unbounce can help you achieve it.

One of my favorite Unbounce features is Smart Traffic. Once you hit 50 page views, the tool automatically sends visitors to the landing page most likely to convert.

The only downside? It’s not a beginner-friendly tool.

The learning curve is steep with dozens of tools and integrations, but you’ll reap the rewards if you have the time and want an advanced landing page builder.

At $90 per month for the basic plan, Unbounce is one of the most expensive landing page builders on the market and targets enterprises over small businesses.

If you’re not making money from your leads yet, start with one of the cheaper alternatives like Swipe Pages before making a big investment.

Unbounce Pros:

• 100+ AI-powered landing page templates
• integrates with WordPress, Google Ads, Salesforce, Marketo, and other popular emails, CRM, and analytics tools.A/B split testing
• dynamic text replacement for SEM campaigns
• AMP-ready mobile pages
• fast page load speed times
• add sticky headers, pop-ups, maps, scripts, and pixels to pages
• quickly duplicate pages

Unbounce Cons:

• expensive
• high learning curve
• not beginner-friendly
• features like redirects and integrations are only available on the higher tier plans
• built-in forms feature has limited options
• coding skills are required for certain features

Unbounce Price: The Launch plan starts at $90 per month.

 

#3 – Leadpages

Do you need a landing page for your one-product online store or a simple way to build your email list? Leadpages is the solution for you.

It’s perfect for digital products like ebooks, presets, or courses.

With integrations like OpenTable, restaurants can use Leadpages for reservations, and online coaches have access to Calendly to process payments for strategy calls.

It is versatile enough to create a wide range of web pages (with templates to boot) and the attractive price point makes Leadpages stand out from less intuitive options, like Mailchimp.

To get your page up and running, select a template and start customizing the look and feel of your landing page. You can add videos, images, and forms. Select pre-styled content blocks from the Sections menu for items like a pricing plan or a standout call-to-action.

With built-in conversion guidance, Leadpages almost guarantees you’ll create a landing page that will convert visitors into paying customers.

Leadpages Pros:

• 2.4 seconds page load speed
• unlimited page publishing
• 200+ professionally designed templates
• mobile responsive pages
• code-free drag and drop functionality
• built-in lead optimization toolA/B split tests40+ integration
• slow starting price

Leadpages Cons:

• A/B testing, online payments, email triggers, and advanced integrations are only available on higher-tier plans
• low tier support
• not all templates are free
• templates can make all sites look the same, which isn’t great for branding

Leadpages Price: $37 per month for a standard plan and $74 for a Pro account.

 

#4 – HubSpot

HubSpot is one of the leading tools for digital marketers and salespeople. The platform is an all-in-one solution with CRM management, email marketing, blogging, forms, and a landing page builder.

If you’re searching for comprehensive marketing software on a budget, it doesn’t get better than HubSpot’s Marketing Hub package.

Inside the software, you’ll find HubSpot’s landing page builder. It will help you create beautiful pages that generate leads and look great on any device.

The best part? You don’t need to rely on designers or an IT team to knock it out of the park.

What I love about HubSpot’s landing page builder is the personalization feature. It lets you display different content, CTAs, and forms to improve your conversion rates.

You can showcase personalized content based on visitors’:

• location
• source
• device
• lifecycle stage

Why should you care about adding dynamic pages to your repertoire?

Well, when you increase the number of landing pages, you’re likely to see a 55 percent increase in leads.

However, that only happens if visitors get the right information at the right time. HubSpot’s personalization features give you the power to deliver custom content at just the right moment.

HubSpot Pros:

• built-in library of mobile-optimized templatesA/B split testing
• personalize content based on CRM data
• easy-to-use drag and drop landing page builder
• customized SEO suggestions to improve search performance
• high-quality customer support

HubSpot Cons:

• only available as part of the Marketing Hub platform.
• limited features on lower-tier plans.
• HubSpot branding on the free plan.

Hubspot Price: Free with paid plans starting at $45 per month.

 

#5 – Wix

Looking for a landing page builder that’s simple, affordable, and converts visitors into email subscribers?

Wix is one of the best options on the market.

Start with a conversion-optimized template (choose from over 30 options). Use the drag-and-drop editor to add or edit any element on your site. With no coding skills required, it’s an easy process that will have your page up and running in no time.

Once your site is live, Wix has a robust analytics tool to optimize your performance. Connect your Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, Crazy Egg, or Hotjar to dive deeper into your data, run A/B steps, heatmaps, and gain actionable insights to boost conversions.

The only downside? Wix isn’t the best solution for everyone. The landing page builder targets limited use cases like coming soon pages, webinars, product or app landing pages, and events.

Wix Pros:

• easy to use
• beginner-friendly
• affordable
• free 30+ templates
• connects with third-party apps and sites

Wix Cons:

• limited bandwidth and storage on cheaper plans
• functionality isn’t as robust as other builders
• website builder more than a dedicated landing page builder

Wix Price: Plans start at $4.50 per month

 

Frequently Asked Questions About Landing Page Builders

 

Conclusion: Landing Page Builders

When it comes to an effective digital marketing campaign, landing pages are not the place to scrimp.

They’re the best way to drive tons of targeted, specific conversions.

Without one, your visitors are left to fend for themselves on your site. If you’re bidding on specific keywords, don’t waste your ad spend on directing people to a generic home page and hoping for the best.

A landing page builder makes it easy to create and publish a high-converting landing page.

The best part? It will only take a couple of hours to design and hit publish.

Choose one of the landing page builders above and you’ll be driving more leads in no time.

What’s your favorite landing page builder?

Source: neilpatel.com

The Riches Are Not in The Niches

In marketing, everyone says you need to pick a niche.

And mainly because people believe the following things…

• It is easier to market when you pick a niche (fewer competitors)
• Easier to make money (fewer competitors)
• You can get traction faster from a monetary standpoint (fewer competitors)

In other words, you make money faster because there are fewer competitors, but that isn’t really true.

Unless you are looking to create a “lifestyle” business, the riches are not in the niches.

And I wouldn’t recommend going after a niche.

 

VCs don’t fund “niches”

By no means am I trying to say you should raise venture capital or even need to?

But ask yourself this… what major venture, or venture fund at all, funds niches?

Sequoia, Andreessen, Accel, Tiger, Softbank, and all major funds don’t fund niches.

Companies that raised money a long time ago from VCs such as Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Apple… and the list goes on and on… are all examples of companies that go after big markets.

And that’s what VCs want… the elusive “unicorn”. A company that hit over a billion-dollar valuation, which doesn’t happen when you go after a small market (aka. a niche)

Even the funds that specialize… let’s say fintech venture funds aren’t going after niches. Fintech is a massive category and isn’t really a niche.

In other words, they don’t go after “niches”. Why?

Well, let me tell you a quick story that will explain why…

Years ago, I was speaking at a conference in Seattle. It was more so a panel.

It was me and Rich Barton.

If you don’t know who Rich Barton is, just think of Expedia, Glassdoor, and Zillow. He is the founder of all 3 of them.

Someone from the audience asked him… “what type of companies do you invest in”.

His response was simple… “big markets”.

He didn’t mention niches. He said entrepreneurs should go after big markets because it is roughly the same amount of work to create a business in a small niche as it is in a big market. So why limit your upside?

And then to make the message even more clear, he gave us all a baseball analogy. When you go up to the plate and swing it takes the same amount of effort to swing a single, double, triple, or home run. So might as well swing for a home run each and every time.

 

It takes the same amount of work…

If you are going to create a business, it takes the same amount of work to create a business in a small niche as it would go after a big total addressable market.

And believe it or not, it’s actually easier to generate more revenue when you are in a big market, versus going after a niche.

A great example of this is my latest company, NP Digital. It was the 21st fastest-growing company in the United States according to Inc Magazine.

My other businesses were not on the fastest-growing companies list in the past.

You could say some of it is luck or the right timing. But that isn’t the main reason it is on the list.

You could say great execution, but I worked just as hard on my previous businesses.

And you could say I have more experience now and I do… but I also had a lot of experience when I started the business before this one.

The big difference on why this business is growing so fast is because it is in a big market… advertising.

That’s it! Seriously, that is the big difference between this business and others. My previous businesses were in “niches” or smaller markets.

This one is in a bigger market. Which makes it easier to generate revenue.

 

For every excuse, there is a counterpoint

I was at a conference the other day and a few people talked to me about going after a “niche” which encouraged me to write this blog post.

They used the same logic that I mentioned at the beginning of this post in which:

“It’s easier if you create a business in a niche”.

Well, let me break down a few things for you…

1. Marketing in a niche isn’t easier – sure you can get your SEO rankings faster, but the keyword volume isn’t that high. So, getting to the top won’t add revenue fast enough. Plus, you won’t have as much traffic to run conversion optimization experiments which makes it more difficult to optimize your site.
2. It’s not easier to grow your revenue – I’ve found that it is harder to make money in a niche. There are fewer people to sell to, which makes it harder to scale up and grow.
3. It’s harder to become efficient in a niche – from a financial margin perspective, when you have low revenue in many cases it is hard to have high-profit margins. But as you scale you can make things more efficient and have a better profit margin.

 

Conclusion

If you want to go after a niche, you can and there isn’t anything that is wrong with it. But your upside will be limited.

Sure, you can have a great lifestyle business and if that makes you happy, by all means, go and do it.

If you want more, then you are going to have to create a business in a larger market.

So, this brings me to the real question, is your business or the company you work for in a “niche”? If so what’s your game plan?

Source: neilpatel.com

How to Create a Wikipedia Page

Wikipedia is an ever-evolving, user-generated encyclopedia that allows users to add content, including pages, articles, and general knowledge. Topics span from pinball to Prometheus and everything in between.

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

If you’re interested in creating a Wikipedia page for your business or marketing endeavors, you should know upfront that getting a page added to the encyclopedia is notoriously challenging.

With a slew of rules that determine what content can be added to the site and the sheer effort of writing a highly-researched page about your business, creating a Wikipedia page is no easy feat.

To help guide what content does end up on the platform, Wikipedia has five pillars to guide creators as they build content for the platform:

1. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia.
2. Wikipedia is written from a neutral perspective.
3. Wikipedia is free, editable, usable, and distributable by all.
4. Respect and civility must guide interactions among Wikipedia editors.
5. The platform has no firm rules, only guidelines, and policies.

After a page is published, volunteer editors are deputized to edit and add to the page for the duration of its existence.

Although those guidelines may seem daunting, there are big benefits for marketers and business owners who manage to make the encyclopedia work in their favor.

The largest benefit of Wikipedia is its sheer size and reach.

The encyclopedia averages over 2.5 billion unique visitors per month, earning it the title of one of the most visited sites in the world.

In addition to the sheer magnitude of users, the platform offers other benefits to marketers and business owners:

• Earn traffic and drive backlinks to your site:

When you become an active contributor on Wikipedia and start optimizing content, you can identify pages that are relevant to your audience.

Search for relevant articles with broken links and those with missing citations, then use links to your site to update those pages.

When you add appropriate links in the right spot, you’ll score backlinks and drive traffic to your website.

• Guide to your services and offerings:

Given the structure of a Wikipedia page, you can provide readers with basic information like your brand story, location, and executive list.

You can also include numbered lists of your services and offerings that allow interested parties a top-of-funnel interaction with your products.

Through direct linking, you can then drive to the respective pages on your website.

• Build credibility:

While Wikipedia is not a valid source for scholarly research given its user-generated nature, there’s no denying that people flock to the platform for information.

By building a page for your organization on the site, you can further develop your credibility as an established company.

As we’ve discussed, publishing your page on Wikipedia can be a complex process.

However, the benefits far outweigh the challenges.

 

10 Steps on How to Create a Wikipedia Page

In this post, we break down the ten steps on how to create a Wikipedia page.

1. Create an Account

The first step in your journey to creating a Wikipedia page is registering an account on the platform.

While starting an account enables you to create pages, it has other benefits, including:

access a permanent user page where you can share a brief bio and a few photos access a talk page where you can interact with other users build your reputation as a Wikipedia author customize the ways your pages appear

To register an account, complete this form.

After you’ve completed this step, you’re on your way to your first Wikipedia page.

 

2. Contribute to Existing Accounts

While Wikipedia is home to exclusively user-generated content, to build credibility on the site, you should contribute to existing accounts and pages.

You can do this by editing existing entries regularly for clarity, factuality, and reliability.

To do so, you need to first create a user page.

As you engage more with improving content, you can boost your credibility on the site, increasing the likelihood that, when the time comes, your page will stand a fighting chance of getting published.

 

3. Verify a Page Doesn’t Already Exist

Perhaps you’re an expert on a particular niche topic that you’re certain no one has tackled in the expansive landscape that is Wikipedia.

Regardless of how unique you perceive your topic to be, you should still dig to determine whether someone has already staked their flag in your topic.

Use the search bar to explore any pages that may be related to your intended topic.

 

4. Check Your Topic’s Notability

Unique to Wikipedia, notability is testing editors use to determine whether a topic is substantial or relevant enough to need a unique article.

To earn this title of notable, the information on your page must use reliable, independent sources.

In general, a topic needs to meet two specific qualifications to be deemed worthy of a stand-alone page: general notability and subject-specific notability.

If your topic meets these two guidelines, you’re a step closer to actually getting your Wikipedia page published.

However, editors can still opt to merge related topics, eliminating the need for a stand-alone page.

 

5. Research Your Topic and Gather Resources

Before diving into writing your Wikipedia page, be sure to fully research your topic.

Whether you’re building a page for your business or developing an adjacent industry topic, be sure to include both internal and external sources to ensure that you are solidifying your reliability and notability in your draft.

 

6. Create an Outline

After you’ve gathered your research sources, build an outline for your page.

Here, break your information into digestible sections that can be indexed through the site’s table of contents that accompany every page.

 

7. Write a Draft of Your Wikipedia Page

Take your time as you write your Wikipedia page.

You want your content to be thorough, thoughtful, and helpful, providing searchers with what they want to know.

While Wikipedia pages can do a lot to benefit your marketing efforts, keep in mind that the true intent of the platform is encyclopedic and impartial.

 

8. Add Citations

Incorporating citations into your Wikipedia page is vital to your page’s success.

Citations are the vehicle that drives searchers to trust the information you share on your page.

Before you start creating your page, Wikipedia shares the disclaimer that: “The topic of an article must already be covered in reliable sources that are independent of the subject.

These include journals, books, newspapers, magazines, and websites with a reputation for fact-checking.

Social media, press releases, or corporate/professional profiles do not qualify.”

We’ve talked a lot about credibility in this blog post—by using reliable citations, you can boost your overall credibility.

 

9. Submit Your Article for Review

After you’ve written and proofed your page, it’s time to submit your article to Wikipedia for review. This process can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to get the go-ahead from Wikipedia.

As we mentioned earlier, publishing on Wikipedia is notoriously challenging; you may have your page or article rejected a few times for finally gaining approval.

 

10. Continue Making Improvements

Once you’ve completed your page and gained approval, it’s not time to rest on your laurels.

As your page gains traction on Google, you must conduct regular updates to ensure it provides the most relevant information about your offerings.

 

Frequently Asked Questions About How to Create a Wikipedia Page

 

How to Create a Wikipedia Page: Conclusion

Whether you’re looking to increase traffic to your website, improve your search engine optimization, or simply build credibility, Wikipedia is a great outlet.

Through a number of strategies, marketers can make the user-generated encyclopedia work to their benefit, doing much more than simply providing information to interested parties.

As you begin to learn how to create a Wikipedia page, keep in mind that the process may be complicated.

For your page to be approved, you need reliable sources that stack up to imbue credibility in your page.

However, regardless of how long the process takes, the end product will be well worth it.

What strategies have you used for marketing on Wikipedia?

Source: neilpatel.com

How to Create a Lead Generation Minisite in 3 Steps – Tips & Tools

 

Do you have a long list of domains you never had time to create a website for?

Who doesn’t, right?

Here’s an idea for at least one or two of those: set up a lead generation website.

I have an SEO background, so in most cases, my advice would be: keep everything on your main site.

Don’t dilute the brand.

 

Why Do You Need a Separate Minisite for Your Brand?

Yet, there are several reasons why you may want to set up a separate minisite for your brand.

These reasons include:

For personal branding reasons.

Ok, I have my business and my main site, but what do I do with myname.com domains which I rightfully registered so no one else would?

Should I just keep it empty?

I don’t have time to maintain another site!

That’s when a one-page “portfolio” style website makes total sense.

When you need to take an extra position in SERPs.

This makes sense for brand-driven search results.

Google will usually grant you one — maximum of two — positions when people search for your name in combination with another term, but, obviously, you’d want to control more of those search engine result pages.

Let’s say people are searching for something like [your-name coupons], there will be lots of third-party (affiliate) sites that will potentially drive those customers away by showing your competitors or showing ads.

So grabbing a separate domain, like your-name-coupons.online and curating the most recent special deals of yours would give you more control of that search.

When you are launching a completely different project.

I am an SEO and suddenly decide to write a book on being a mom.

It is a good idea for me to register a domain (which would match my book title) to start collecting leads for my future book independently of my main business.

In all the above cases, getting those sites to rank and drive some organic visibility will be quite doable.

When it comes to personal brand or brand-driven queries, all it takes is to set up a minisite and link to it from your main site.

That being said, keeping all links and brand exposure consolidated around your main site is obviously smart, yet there are many cases when you need a separate entity.

On top of that, you are likely to be busy and cannot spare much time for your new site, so let’s keep things easy.

How to Set Up a Mini Lead Generation Site

Here’s how to set up a mini lead generation site:

1. Pick a Domain

This step is getting harder and harder now that it is becoming next to impossible to find an available .com domain that wouldn’t be all dashes.

I’ve got good news for you:

There are lots of options beyond .com domains, and all of them are equally effective.

There’s a cool tool that will help you pick a great domain and even help with branding.

Namify is what that tool is called, and it’s a time saver!

The tool allows you to find a cool brandable name in minutes. Unlike other domain name generators, it focuses on short names that create niche associations and are easy to remember.

You’ll love those ideas.

 

On top of that, Namify will draft your visual brand identity (logo and color scheme) for you to use right away:

2. Set Up Your Site

When dealing with a secondary asset (which is not your main site), the easier the setup, the better.

With that in mind, I suggest using WordPress, which makes it incredibly easy to create a website.

Here’s a detailed beginner-friendly guide on making a WordPress site.

All you need is to follow the steps.

And here’s a huge collection of one-page WordPress themes (both free and paid) which are easy to customize to match your chosen color scheme, logo, or your main brand.

There are tons of one-page WordPress themes to choose from.

Once the basic setup is done, it is time to create your content.

To make it easier, try running Text Optimizer for your core search query — it basically writes content for you.

I use Text Optimizer to create the core structure of my page: the subheadings, introduction and key points to be covered.

After that, I write my text.

This has been the biggest writing productivity booster I’ve ever tried.

Since this is going to be a website focusing on collecting leads, using Text Optimizer is a great idea because it is also an intent optimization tool that makes sure your copy meets your site visitors’ expectations and hence increases the conversions.

3. Set up Your Lead Generation Funnel

Finally, setting up a clear lead generation funnel is something you will be focusing on.

Obviously, you will need to keep experimenting with your CTA wording and placement, here but here are a few ideas for you to get started:

3.1 Set up your lead generation forms

Setting up a lead generation form doesn’t require any technical skills these days.

Here are a few easy-to-use online form builders you can use to create a form to collect leads from your site visitors:

Don’t be afraid to gamify your lead generation web forms and make them fun!

3.2 Implement secondary engagement triggers

No matter how cool your web forms are going to be, the majority of your site visitors may feel wary of giving you their email addresses.

Some people may be in a hurry; others may not have enough trust in your brand.

Regardless of the reason, these people may be willing to convert a bit later.

So coming up with additional engagement triggers is helpful:

• Install Facebook pixel to be able to reach out to those visitors through Facebook ads
• Try using a smart chatbot or feedback widgets to get those people to talk to you without sharing their personal details. This may encourage them to follow your conversion funnel on a later basis.
• Use more traffic-driving conversion optimization tactics to engage more of your site visitors. Remember that certain conversion optimization tactics will also improve your rankings, so it is well worth the effort.

3.3 A/B test often

Again, this is going to be an ongoing process: When it comes to generating leads, there’s never “good enough.”

You need to experiment with new engagement triggers and change your forms on a regular basis.

This is where A/B testing to identify your better-working tactic is always a good idea.

I know lots of marketers who shy away from A/B testing because it is deemed too technical.

Finteza is a web analytics tool that makes A/B testing easy and available to anyone. Here’s how to run A/B tests using Finteza.

Conclusion

If setting up a minisite to claim your old but neglected domains have been on your mind for quite some time, I hope this guide will finally get you up and running.

I did my best to make it as easy to follow and implement as possible.

When it comes to lead generation, every bit helps, and who knows, maybe this site will drive some great leads.

The post How to Create a Lead Generation Minisite in 3 Steps – Tips & Tools appeared first on Content Marketing Consulting and Social Media Strategy.

Source: convinceandconvert.com

7 Reasons Why Nobody is Reading Your Content and How to Grab Their Attention

Content, content, content.

It seems like content is the only thing anyone can talk about these days.

You’ve probably read post after post about how “content is king” at least a dozen times.

However, despite your best efforts, you can’t seem to see what the content hype is all about.

You write blog posts.

You create videos.

You participate in social media.

And yet, crickets.

You’re creating content, but it’s not getting you very far.

Unfortunately, creating content isn’t enough to really market your business.

If no one is engaging with what you’re producing, you’re simply wasting time, energy, and resources to clutter an already overcrowded web.

But this doesn’t mean content marketing is ineffective.

In fact, 20% of business owners believe content marketing will have the largest impact on their business in 2018.

If you’re not getting results from the content you’re creating, it typically means you’re doing something wrong.

But with a projected 16% growth rate between 2017 and 2021, content marketing isn’t something you can just hope will pass by.

If you want to market your business successfully, you need to find your errors, shape up your content, and start getting conversions.

 

7 Reasons Why Nobody is Reading Your Content and How to Grab Their Attention

To help you improve your content marketing strategy, here are seven of the biggest mistakes you might be making – and what you can do to turn your results around.

1. You have no strategy

Are you posting whatever you want, whenever you want?

A lot of marketers do this.

In fact, only 37% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy.

This means the majority of marketers aren’t thinking strategically about the content they’re creating.

This makes it easy for your audience to ignore whatever you’re sharing.

A content marketing strategy helps you identify what you’d like to accomplish with your content, as well as how you’re going to use your content to achieve your larger business goals.

In other words, it forces you to put intention behind your content.

Moz describes content marketing strategy as the overlap between content marketing and content strategy.

At this intersection, you’re able to use the content you’ve created to bring your business plans to life.

If you’re operating without a content marketing strategy, this disconnect makes it difficult for your target audience to know what you want them to do.

However, when you create a plan, you’re putting a purpose behind your content.

Creating a content marketing plan doesn’t need to be difficult.

In fact, Content Marketing Institute outlines how you can create an effective plan in just one page by outlining your objectives, goals, metrics, and strategy.

Once this is done, you’re ready to move on to an editorial calendar.

Your editorial calendar should work hand-in-hand with the content marketing strategy you’ve created.

Here’s an example of an editorial calendar template from HubSpot.

This calendar breaks down exactly when you’re going to publish your blog post, as well as the title name, content details, and keywords you’re going to target.

It also shares which personas you’re trying to reach and what you’re going to offer them.

This kind of well-thought-out planning means each piece of content you upload fits within the content marketing plan you’ve established.

There are dozens of ways you can create an editorial calendar.

Quickbooks chooses to house their editorial calendar in Airtable – allowing one editor to manage over 4,000 pieces of content.

Others, like Buffer, turn to Trello.

Personally, I like Asana.

But the tool isn’t the point. The best tool is ultimately the one you can get everybody to use consistently.

 

2. You’re not publishing enough

When it comes to uploading content, quality beats quantity any day.

However, if you’re just posting once a month, you’re going to struggle to grab any real attention.

Consistency is key to building trust and credibility both with your audience and with search engines.

The idea is simple.

When you create more blogs, you’ll drive more traffic to your website.

With more traffic, you can prove to Google that you have content people want to read.

Once they understand you’re sharing valuable information, they’ll give your content a boost on their results pages – bringing in even more traffic and attention.

However, it’s easier said than done.

If you’re stuffing your website with low-quality information that your audience doesn’t care about, it doesn’t matter how frequently you post.

In fact, The Writing Cooperative found that blogging every day actually decreased their views compared to when they were posting just six times a month.

In March 2017, before their posting experiment, The Writing Cooperative was getting about 14,000 views each month.

But once they began blogging every day, views began to decrease.

The problem here is that they couldn’t continue to create high-quality content each and every day – and their readers noticed.

The key to getting attention through your content is finding the right balance between quality and quantity.

You also want to go beyond simple blog posts.

While blogging is a great way to bring traffic to your website, it doesn’t appeal to everyone.

Not everyone likes to read blog posts.

In fact, 53% of consumers said they’d like to see more videos in the future.

And with customers becoming more and more dependent on voice search and smart speakers, blogging isn’t always the most effective way to deliver content.

When you’re thinking about how often you should publish, you also want to consider what you’re publishing.

Videos can be a great way to grab attention, break down complex topics in a way that is easier for your audience to understand, or show off your products.

For example, Red Bull uses YouTube to show off the extreme sports, events, and competitions they sponsor.

With over seven million subscribers to their channel, Red Bull has one of the most popular YouTube pages out there.

Infographics are another way you can make your content more interesting for your audience, especially if you’re showing off large amounts of data or research.

In fact, over 41% of marketers said that infographics were the most engaging forms of visual content for their audience.

This ranked even higher than videos.

Infographics are insanely popular because they’re easy to skim and visual, making them ideal content for your always-busy customers and clients.

You can also expand your reach and get more attention to your content by producing podcasts.

Podcasts have been increasing in popularity over the past couple of years, with an estimated 67 million individuals listening to podcasts every month in 2017.

Repurposing written content into spoken can help you reach customers who don’t enjoy reading – expanding your audience to new individuals.

When trying to create different kinds of content, don’t be afraid to get creative.

However, you always want to think back to your target audience.

Focus on creating content that your audience will want to engage with.

 

3. You’re confusing content with sales pitches

Your content shouldn’t sell.

Sure, the whole purpose of marketing is to create interest in your business and drive sales.

But you can’t start out a relationship with a potential lead with a sales pitch.

Today’s customers don’t like being sold to.

That’s mainly because they don’t need to be sold to.

With the Internet at their fingertips, customers are more capable of discovering their options without ever needing to speak with a salesperson.

In fact, 60% of consumers won’t connect with a salesperson until they’ve already created a shortlist of potential purchases.

By the time they’re ready to buy, they already know more or less what they’re looking for.

This means you need to use your content to educate them – before you ever have the opportunity to connect.

Your content should be specially formatted to meet the unique needs of your buyer during every stage of their journey.

Let’s break down what that journey looks like.

First, your lead needs to become aware of your brand.

This means you need to be entertaining, engaging, or interesting enough to stand out from the piles of information already on the web.

You can do this in the form of videos, fun blog posts, educational webinars, and engaging social posts.

Take a look at this Instagram post from GoPro.

This high-quality image is attention-grabbing, causing followers to stop their scrolling and take notice.

However, it also shows off what the GoPro is capable of – increasing awareness about the brand and its products.

Next comes the consideration phase.

During consideration, your audience needs to better understand their problem, as well as their available solutions.

The content you might create for them could include product comparison videos or articles, case studies, or podcasts.

Here’s an example of a webinar from Instapage that would attract customers in the consideration phase.

During this webinar, participants learn more about how Instapage and Marketo can help lower their cost of customer acquisition, helping them determine if it’s the right solution for them.

This then brings the lead to the next stage of the buyer’s journey – the decision phase.

At this time, your lead is ready to choose which product or service is right for them.

You can encourage their decision with testimonials, product reviews, and demonstration videos.

Codeacademy uses their Stories page to share how past participants have used their skills to change their lives or careers.

These stories function the same as testimonials, allowing potential customers on the fence about purchasing to see how the decision influenced other customers’ lives.

Raphael Paulin-Daigle of SplitBase.io tells ConversionXL, “A type of social proof that works over and over again is testimonials. Whether it’s in video or written form, they’ve helped increase the conversion rate of the clients’ landing pages in every case.”

If your customer decides to buy, they’ve finally reached the delight phase of the buyer’s journey.

Here, they’ve already purchased, but you want to use your content to encourage them to buy again.

You can do this with newsletters, training webinars, or customer satisfaction surveys.

The Hubspot Academy is an example of content that reaches customers who have entered the delight phase of the buyer’s journey.

By offering training and certifications, Hubspot stays in touch with customers while providing content that can improve their experience as a customer.

Notice how none of these content forms include a sales pitch.

Instead, during each step of the way, the focus is on the customer and helping them find the right solution to their problem.

When your audience feels like you’re helping them, they’ll be more inclined to engage with your content.

 

4. You don’t know your audience

When you create a piece of content, do you know who you ultimately want to engage with it?

You’re probably thinking “customers.”

Unfortunately, just trying to attract anyone with a credit card isn’t going to get you great results.

With the mass amounts of content and information on the Internet, customers can find content that speaks directly to them – no matter how niche that might be.

To get attention, you need to find your audience and create content just for them.

When you focus your content, you might be narrowing down your audience pool, but you’re making deeper connections.

This can help you see real growth from your content.

Let’s take a look at how Modernweb used a hyper-targeted content strategy to bring in 10,000 visitors in just three weeks.

They started with defining their “who.”

And they got specific.

They came to the conclusion that they would be writing for “technology executives inside of enterprise companies.”

While they had clients who owned startups and small businesses, they weren’t their ideal client. So, they weren’t an area of focus.

Next, they dove into understanding the day-to-day pain points that those individuals experience.

Finally, based on the audience and pain points they established, they created a content plan that addressed those needs.

In this case, ‘Modernweb’ decided they’d focus on sharing stories from enterprise businesses who had recently switched from older to newer frameworks.

They identified their audience, understood what they were struggling with, then presented them with content that explained how similar individuals handled the same problem.

In just three weeks, their web traffic saw a major jump.

Just from getting to know their audience, they were able to bring more unique visitors to their website and keep them engaged for an average of 9 minutes.

There are a few different ways you can begin to replicate Modernweb’s results.

First, create a buyer persona.

A buyer persona walks you through who your ideal client is.

Here’s an example from ClearVoice.

It breaks down exactly who they are, what problems they experience, and what kinds of solutions they might be looking for.

You can go deeper into your buyer persona to explain things like what they do each day, what kind of education level they have, or what they might do in their spare time.

The more detailed you can get with your buyer persona, the more targeted you can make your content.

If you have a wide range of products or services, you may also want to create multiple personas.

For example, here’s another example from ClearVoice.

While both John and Sandy have similar needs, they have different goals and challenges – meaning they’ll need to be targeted differently.

This can ensure that each of your audience members is well represented.

Next, pay attention to what they’re doing on social.

Monitoring your customer’s social activity can give you insights into the problems they’re facing, the solutions they may want, and what questions they may have.

You can then use this information to refine your content and guarantee you’re creating something they care about.

Check out the questions they’re asking on traditional platforms like Facebook or Twitter, but also dive into question sites or forums like Quora and Reddit.

For example, if you’re a personal finance firm looking for content ideas, the Personal Finance Reddit page can be a goldmine.

Users are constantly jumping on to ask questions about paying off debt, how to properly invest, or get advice on what to do in credit scams.

Knowing the real-life struggles your audience is facing can help you adjust and refine your content strategy to truly fit their needs.

Both of these pages can give you a great jumping-off point for creating new content.

Finally, participate in conversations with your audience.

Get involved in Twitter Chats or Facebook Groups where your audience is hanging out.

Check out how RivalIQ gets involved in a conversation with a participant during the #BufferChat.

Not only does this allow them to make a great impression, but it also gives them some insight into what potential customers may be struggling with.

As you become familiar with the conversations they’re engaging with, you can refine your messaging and topics to better suit their needs and preferences.

 

5. Your voice isn’t genuine

Customers want to purchase from companies they believe they can trust.

In fact, the top quality that customers look for in a brand is honesty, followed by friendliness and helpfulness.

However, if it seems like you’re just putting on a persona for sales, they’re going to be hesitant to connect.

When creating your brand voice, it needs to connect who your brand is with who your audience thinks your brand should be.

Let’s consider this graph for a second.

Snarkiness is the last thing that customers what when it comes to brands on social media.

However, when we look at brands like Wendy’s and MoonPie, their attitude gets them hundreds of thousands of engagements.

So, what’s going on here?

Both Wendy’s and MoonPie have made it their brand persona to be snarky, witty, and sarcastic on social.

It’s who they are – and that’s why it works.

They’re not pretending to have an attitude just for attention.

It’s a unique indicator of their content, allowing them to create a reputation that makes customers want to connect.

Check out this quote from Juntae Delane, Founder of Digital Branding Institute.

According to Juntae, a brand’s voice needs to go beyond simple industry jargon and bland business tones.

Instead, it needs to match with the customer’s needs and provide a human element to the brand.

You can build your brand voice of the buyer persona you’ve created.

Based on your buyer persona, get familiar with the kind of language, tone, or colloquialisms your audience may be using.

Check out how they speak on their own social media platforms.

Then, take a look at the competitors or other brands they’re engaging with.

Once you’re familiar with the way they communicate, create a storyboard for your voice.

Think of your brand as a unique individual.

Outline what your brand likes, what they don’t like, how they perceive themselves, and how they want to be perceived by others.

You’ll also want to dig deeper to consider larger ideas that might not have any direct influence on your brand.

Today’s customers are expecting brands to be more than just a business.

For example, 65% of consumers believe it’s important for brands to take a stand on social or political issues.

Take a look at the conversation created around Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham criticized Parkland school shooting survivor and gun control advocate, David Hogg, for getting rejected from four colleges.

David responded by calling out all of Ingraham’s advertisers, asking them to pull their support of the show.

Within a few days, companies like Hulu, Bayer, and Nutrish had announced they’d be pulling the ads from Ingraham’s program.

After a few weeks, the program had lost 24 advertisers.

However, not all advertisers chose to separate.

Mike Lindell, founder of the MyPillow, announced he would be leaving his advertisements on the program.

By becoming a part of important conversations and debates, brands can refine their voice and make their opinions and beliefs more well known.

While it’s impossible to prepare for every kind of hurdle or backlash your brand may experience, knowing where your brand falls in these situations can help you create consistent messaging through your content.

 

6. You’re not promoting

Remember when Beyonce released a surprise album without any marketing?

In three days, she sold almost 830,000 albums.

It was impressive.

However, if you’re trying to use this tactic to promote your content, you’re in for a rude awakening.

Unfortunately, you’re not Beyonce.

And that means you need to promote.

Proper content promotion is really the key to getting attention to your content.

If you’re simply posting links to your latest blog post on your Twitter account, you’re probably going to get ignored.

Take a look at this Tweet from user Vic Maine.

It’s just a link, featuring no context, hashtags, or other interesting information that might entice the reader to engage.

So, it’s not really surprising to see it hasn’t started any conversations or gotten any traction.

However, you can refine your promotion strategy to include email marketing, social, forums, and influencer marketing to improve your results.

First, let’s take a look at social.

Companies have been promoting their content on social for years.

However, the way you should promote and where you should promote is always changing.

Just one shift to the network’s algorithm or design (or even a negative post from an influencer) and your entire promotion strategy might be turned upside down.

Take a look at Facebook, for example.

After changing their algorithm, many brands reported a drop in organic reach.

However, you can work around this algorithm shift by either paying to promote your content or creating content that your audience wants to engage with.

Check out this breakdown Buffer created of important signals that can influence your ranking on Facebook.

As you can see, some of the most important factors of what gets ranked depends on how users are interacting with the post.

This means you want to focus more on creating content that individuals want to engage with, rather than strictly shock-value content.

You should also make your content easy for your readers or viewers to share your content on their own.

Within blog posts, including “Click to Tweet” bars or share buttons can help encourage visitors to share the content with their friends or family – helping to improve your reach.

Content Marketing Institute frequently uses Click to Tweet bars to make it easier for their readers to share their content.

You can also use more targeted marketing approaches to help reach your audience, such as email marketing.

When you properly segment your email lists, you can share your content with individuals you already know are interested in what you’re sharing.

Take a look at the results MailChimp found for campaigns segmented by interest groups.

By sending specific content to your audience members based on their interests, you can dramatically improve your campaign results.

 

7. Your content isn’t properly optimized

Promoting your content is just one side of the coin.

To truly bring attention to what you produce, you want your audience to be able to find what you’re creating.

This means it needs to be properly optimized.

Each piece of content should comply with your greater SEO strategy.

This means going beyond just creating content that your audience wants to read or engage with.

Keywords should be factored into each piece of content you create.

By finding words or phrases that your audience is actually searching online, you can increase your chances of them finding you.

The Keyword Planner from AdWords is one way you can find new keyword opportunities.

You want to find keywords that are high in average monthly searches but low in competition.

Don’t simply guess at what you think your audience wants.

You also want to make sure your content is properly formatted.

Your titles and heading should be strong and capable of standing on their own.

According to CopyBlogger, 8 in 10 individuals will read a headline – but only 2 in 10 will read the rest.

This means you need to create headlines that your audience can’t resist.

The CoSchedule Headline Analyzer is one tool you can use to improve your headlines.

The tool analyzes your word balance to give you an overall score out of 100.

It also provides you with insights on length, sentiment, and even guesses which keywords it believes you’re targeting.

This can help you test the strength of your headlines before you post, saving you trouble and guaranteeing higher results.

But blog content isn’t the only thing you need to optimize.

You also want to make sure your videos, infographics, and images are optimized appropriately.

To optimize your videos on YouTube, start with an optimized title that describes the video and includes the keyword you’re trying to rank for.

This isn’t too much different than writing blog titles.

However, you also want to tag your videos appropriately and write a full description.

Your video description lets the YouTube algorithm know what your video is about.

Check out this description from a DottoTech video.

He provides a clear overview of what will be featured in the video, as well as some links to the apps he’s going to talk about.

This can help improve his connection to those pages and give him the opportunity to further target his keywords.

Images are another area you’ll want to ensure are properly optimized.

First, make sure you’re using high-quality images that are the appropriate size for where they’re being placed.

This can help improve your page load time to keep visitors happy.

You can use a compressor tool to change the size of your image without hurting the quality.

You’ll also want to place the keyword you’re trying to target in the file name.

Because Google can’t actually see what your image is, it’s your responsibility to tell them.

Use captions, alt text, and title text to give Google a better understanding of the image you’re sharing.

 

Conclusion

In today’s digital age, you can’t afford to create content that is easily ignored.

However, it takes time to craft messaging that your audience will want to engage with.

Keep these seven tips in mind the next time you create content.

What tips or tricks have you found that improve your content-creation process?

About the Author: Neil Patel is the co-founder of Neil Patel Digital.

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