Something that amazes me as a marketeer is how difficult it is to transform your mindset from push to pull marketing – from shouting out what we want to sell and how great we are at it, to offering the target group something valuable every time they meet us – both offline and online.
All of us should, and need to, think again about our strategy when it comes to publishing content online. Here are a couple of tips to help all of us in our journey.
1. Same format - new platform
A couple of years ago, you could take the easy road. Just publish your datasheets and brochures online. However, do you remember the pain of having to scroll through them? It’s obvious that while these pdf files provided the content, they lacked the user experience required for easy consumption. With mobiles taking over as the preferred device for internet browsing, marketeers now must think of user experience on handheld devices. The four-column format that fits on desktops will not work on the smaller screens.
💡 Spend some time reworking on the layout of the datasheet that gives your visitors a better online experience.
2. Same content - new platform
If we continue with the datasheet as an example, would you like to publish it as gated content? Is it reasonable to believe that the visitor would want to give you their contact information in exchange for it? A datasheet is your USP description as it contains your best arguments for why the customer should buy from you. However, before gating the content, it’s time to take a step back and think from the inbound point of view. Ask yourself the question, “How much value does it have for the visitor?” By gating the content, you will convert visitors to leads, but you take the risk of them feeling cheated and not wanting to come back to you.💡 If you want to gate your content, make sure it is valuable to the visitor.
3. Same format and content, but no call-to-action (CTA)
Now that you have published your datasheet, what do you want the visitor to do when they have read it? Would you like them to contact you? Certainly, there is secure contact information at the bottom of the datasheet; however, can you measure if the caller or emailer has found the information right there? Additionally, we need to ensure the CTA is clear and well-defined for the user.
💡 Once you have ensured that you offer valuable information in a format that fits the platform, consider how to capture those who are genuinely interested in your services a user-friendly and measurable way.
Time to learn and adapt
Four years ago, when I started my inbound journey online, I saw the child in me repeatedly trying to push a square block into a round hole. The child learns quite quickly that this is not possible - it is high time that we learn the lesson too!