Eric Ritter

This Is the Difference Between SEO and SEM

January 17, 2021 by Eric Ritter

You’ve come here to find out the fundamental difference between SEO and SEM, right? Let’s start with this.

If we’re talking SEO statistics, did you know that 60% of clicks to websites go to the top three results in the search?

With SEM statistics, more than 25% of searchers will click on an ad because it mentions a brand that they’re already vaguely familiar with.

The main difference between SEO and SEM we can see here is paid versus organic, but there’s so much more to it than that. Keep reading to cover the key things you need to know.

What Is SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) involves the tactics that businesses use online to increase their visibility in search engine results. This is done through hundreds of different methods such as keyword research, on-page SEO tactics, meta descriptions, and many more.

The goal of SEO is to drive traffic to your website organically, meaning that you don’t spend money but use the tactics to increase your standing in search engine results.

There are three main categories when it comes to SEO tactics:

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing each page on your website by targeting a specific keyword and is made up of tactics such as keyword research, creating content, and optimizing your pages for those keywords.
Off-page SEO is the strategy that helps you increase your ranking by connecting to other high-quality, relevant websites through tactics such as link building and managing online directories.
Technical SEO is where it can get a bit confusing, the tactics here include optimizing your website for mobile viewing, focusing on the speed of your site, indexing your website, and having reputable security.

An SEO strategy is best done when it combines all three categories in an ongoing effort to increase your search engine result rankings.

What Is SEM?

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) focuses on one thing when it comes to search marketing, and that is the paid tactics a business can use to rank in search engine results.

An SEM strategy is made up of two parts:

The tactics of setting up, creating, and optimizing adverts
Setting a budget for the placement of search engine adverts and managing it

Another term that SEM is sometimes referred to as is PPC Marketing (pay-per-click marketing). Commonly, Google Ads (previously known as Google Adwords) is the most used provider for SEM.

Basically, a business conducts keyword research and then creates SEM campaigns targeting these keywords to produce results for their industry, service, or products. The results come in the form of a click by the searcher, and the business is charged for each click that they receive.

The Difference Between SEO and SEM

When we compare the two to find the difference between SEO and SEM, you’ll find that there are similarities. Understanding these similarities can help you build both a successful SEO strategy and an effective SEM strategy.

Similarities Between SEO and SEM

Both SEO and SEM have the goal of helping a business appear in search results by using specific terms that a user may be searching for
Both, ultimately, have the goal of driving more traffic to a brand’s website through increasing click-through-rates (CTR)
SEO and SEM are both built on a foundation of knowing who your audience is, of understanding them and how they behave online, they then use this knowledge to create valuable content while searching for results your business should show up in
Both are built based on your keyword research, this is done by identifying the keywords that your brand should be targeting through analyzing popular search terms, looking at competitor search terms, and even looking at keywords that are easier to rank for
SEO and SEM target very specific keywords and are not performed on a whim
Both SEO and SEM are not overnight success stories, they require testing to see if the strategy is working or if there is a need for adaptation

The one comfort in knowing the similarities between SEO and SEM is that the foundation for your work in both are done in the same way. So if you put in the right amount of prep work, you should have the basis for a successful campaign in both.

Fundamental Difference Between SEO and SEM

Once the groundwork has been done through the similarities of both strategies, you’ll need to understand how the two differ from one another, to create effective strategies. Neither concept is a one-size-fits-all approach, let’s have a look at why.

SEM placements look different from organic search engine results, they’re usually identified by a small ad icon that appears adjacent to the ad, whereas SEO placements simply appear in the results as a block of text
SEM results have a different appearance to SEO results, for example, SEM results may include things like phone numbers, or call-to-actions, or extra links
With SEM, obviously, you pay each time a user clicks on the link whereas with SEO clicks, the brand would pay nothing
SEM has the ability to show results related directly to a specific, select target audience whereas, with SEO, you’ll be getting clicks from other audiences too, so SEM allows you to focus on a niche audience
SEM can give you results immediately as you’re paying for results and clicks, you will have the opportunity to immediately be in front of your target audience’s eyes whereas, with SEO, your tactics will take more time to generate organic results

As you can see, both SEO and SEM efforts have a considerable amount of similarities which can allow you to build the great groundwork for both strategies, whereas the differences between the two will assist you in creating effective tactics for both.

Choosing Between SEO and SEM

When looking at the difference between SEO and SEM, the one great thing is that you actually don’t have to choose one or the other. In fact, both strategies work seamlessly together to increase your search engine results if done properly.

Simply focus on your keyword strategy, and knowing your ideal target audience, and you’ll be well on your way to success.

Contact me if you need digital consulting to make your SEO and SEM results soar.

These Are the Common Types of SEO You Need to Know

November 5, 2020 by Eric Ritter

Are you looking to improve your business’s SEO in the coming year? Boosting your SEO can lead to better brand credibility, higher conversion rates, better user experience, and higher close rates, just to name a few.

But, it’s important to understand that there’s more than one type of SEO. And, in order to truly improve your business, you need to work on improving each type of SEO.

What are the different types of SEO? Keep reading to find out!

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO refers to the content that is on your website. With on-page SEO, you’ll focus on strategies that will help you optimize each individual page on your website.

Optimizing your webpages will help search engines understand how to rank your website based on how valuable the information is that you provide. On-page SEO includes:

Keyword Research: This involves finding the best keywords (words or phrases) that people type into search bars. Using the right keywords will drive more traffic to your site
Keyword Optimization: This involves placing keywords in the right place and using them the right amount of times
Content Creation: This involves publishing high-quality, informative content that’s focused on your niche and incorporates the right keywords

Luckily, there are a lot of tools you can use to find the right keywords for your site. In addition to keyword research and content creation, here are some other things you can do to boost your on-page SEO:

Adding HTML tags to highlight headings and other elements of content
Ensuring there are no duplicate pages or pieces of content
Cleaning up the URL structure so there aren’t a bunch of extra numbers and symbols
Choosing high-quality, appropriately-sized images
Inserting the correct metadata
Incorporating inbound and outbound links into your content
Writing content that is error-free

These are just a few on-page SEO techniques that you can incorporate. Also, keep in mind that on-page SEO isn’t a one-time job. You’ll need to continuously update your site to rank high on Google.

Off-Page SEO

In addition to on-page SEO, there’s also off-page SEO. This refers to everything you do outside of your site to rank higher in the search engines. While other types of SEO focus on website content and infrastructure, off-page SEO puts more emphasis on the techniques you use to promote your site to internet users.

The most important off-page SEO methods are link-building and brand promotion. Link building involves getting high-quality backlinks from other websites. These backlinks are basically “votes of trust” that will increase the authority of your website.

In other words, quality backlinks show that you’re in good company. Brand promotion involves getting the word out about your business through social media and other online platforms. It’s all about creating a conversation about your brand and making it recognizable to a wide variety of people.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO focuses on the non-content elements of your website. It involves improving the backend structure and foundation of your website, improving your site’s readability, and providing a good user experience.

All of these things help search engines determine the quality of a website. A good user experience is also important for your customers, and it can affect your overall engagement rates and traffic. With technical SEO, you need to work on improving your:

Site speed: This involves boosting your load time so users can quickly access your site content
Crawlability: This focuses on a search engine’s ability to crawl and access content on a page
Indexing: This refers to how websites are indexed on the internet as a whole
Mobile-friendliness: People are conducting internet searches from their smartphones more than ever before, so your site needs to be optimized for mobile use
Structured data: This is code that’s put together in a specific format
Site architecture: This refers to the structure that organizes and delivers your content on your website
Security: Website security refers to keeping users’ information safe from hackers

There are many audit tools you can use to check on the state of your technical SEO.

Local SEO

Another type of SEO that you need to focus on is local SEO. This type of SEO is for local businesses only. In other words, if you want to get customers to visit your local store, then you’ll need to optimize your website for local SEO.

To boost your local SEO, you need to make sure your business name, address, and other contact details are all on your website. You also need to create a Google My Business page.

To do this, all you need to do is create a Google account. Then, you need to enter your business name and the location of your business. You’ll also need to specify your business services, choose your business category, add a website URL, and add your business hours.

After you’ve done all of this, you can verify your official listing. Then, you can focus on optimizing your page by doing the following:

Adding photos and videos to your listing
Writing a compelling business description
Creating Google My Business posts that showcase announcements and promotions
Adding product collections and service menus
Requesting and managing Google reviews

In addition to optimizing your Google My Business page, you can also create content based on local news, optimize your voice search, and choose local keywords to improve your local SEO.

Types of SEO: Are You Ready to Improve Your SEO?

Now that you know about the different types of SEO, it’s time to start developing strategies for each one. Obviously, focusing on each of these types of SEO takes a lot of work, which is why we suggest hiring a marketing consultant for some help.

Build Brand Awareness: How to Create a Strong Social Media Marketing Campaign

October 10, 2019 by Eric Ritter

In 2019, social media users are expected to reach an all-time high of 2.77 billion users. That means that more than one-third of the entire global population uses social networking websites.

While digital marketing campaigns are certainly not a new phenomenon, effective marketing strategies continue to change and evolve. This makes running a social media marketing campaign successfully one of the most important tasks any business will face.

The creation of the internet took the world by storm, moving at speeds faster than business owners, legislature, and the consumer could keep up with. Moreover, as technology changes and develops so too does our society and marketing discourse. This is why digital marketers must be flexible, knowledgeable, and adaptive to an ever-changing technological and social landscape.

Despite more competition, running a social media marketing campaign is still an effective way to build brand awareness, boost sales, and create loyal customers. Read on to learn how to create an effective social media marketing campaign to see results.

1. Brand Identity

Getting in touch with your brand identity will help you determine the best marketing campaign strategies. Your brand identity consists of your logos, mission statement, values, and tone. Together these components relay a message to your consumers which should ultimately convey what matters most to your company.

Consistent brand identity helps consumers to connect with your product and your company. The best brand identities are clear about their goals and what matters most to them as a company beyond sales and financial gain.

Before you begin a marketing campaign, revisit your brand identity. You should also evaluate how effective your brand identity is at relating and connecting to your customers. If you need to make adjustments, then do so at this time before creating content.

2. Target Audience

Your brand identity is one portion of the equation of what makes your company successful. Another important factor in this equation is an understanding of your target audience. Your target audience is the people your products or services will benefit the most from and who will be attracted to them.

Identify the demographics of your target audience. This includes their age, economic status, job title, and other social factors. It should also include what social media platforms they frequent.

Successful brand identity plus an accurate depiction of your target audience’s preferences and lifestyle will make it easier for your company to connect and achieve your marketing goals.

3. Understanding Social Media Platforms

Each social media platform is different and attracts different target audiences. Before you begin your marketing campaign, get clear on which social media platforms make the most sense for your brand and for your target audience.

You should also read up on the best ways to run a campaign on each of these platforms. This will ensure that you’re following the rules and maximizing your content creation and analytic capabilities.

4. Setting Goals

What is your social media marketing plan trying to achieve? What’s your company’s reason for investing in a marketing campaign in the first place? In other words, what are you trying to gain?

Most likely, your company would like to boost its sales, customer base, and brand awareness. It’s a marketer’s job to determine how these goals will be measured from your marketing campaign. Some key performance analytics could include conversion rates, reach or shares.

Set primary and secondary goals. Then, decide how you will track and analyze data related to these goals for a successful social media marketing campaign.

5. Creating a Vision

After you set some goals, it’s time to determine the best strategies for reaching those goals by creating a vision. Your vision for your marketing campaign should include the angle your focusing on, the type of content you’ll create, and the overall aesthetic of the campaign.

Get clear on what your vision is and what your company would like to focus on the most.

6. Effective Engagement

How will your company engage with consumers throughout the social media marketing campaign? Will your company respond to comments? Will you ask your followers to share the content?

Decide in advance what effectively engaging with your target audience will look like. You should also plan for how you’ll react if the marketing campaign isn’t well-received by some.

7. Studying the Competition

Take some time to analyze what’s working for your competition. While you don’t want to copy them, get a feel for how they’re achieving success. For example, which social media platform is performing the best for them?

What are people connecting with the most? And, how often are they putting out content?

8. Publishing Content

Make a content calendar to determine when, where, and what content you’ll post on social media. Base this off of research such as when you’re followers are most likely to be online. See how each post performs at those times and then adjust your strategy as needed to match the data.

9. Analytics

Most social media platforms now have a way to track the analytics of social media marketing campaigns. Use these features and other tools to determine how well your campaign is performing. The data you focus on the most will be determined during the previous goal-setting step.

10. Review and Re-Strategize

Review the overall success of your marketing campaign. Gather all the data and see what audiences connected with the most. You should also see what social media platform performed the best as well as what type of content helped you most to reach your goals.

Reviewing and re-strategizing will help you to improve future campaigns and make adjustments moving forward with your current campaign as needed.

Implementing a Social Media Marketing Campaign

Implementing a social media marketing campaign is a challenging process. But, preparation is key. The more you understand your business, your target audience and your goals the more effective your marketing campaign strategies will be. At the very least, you’ll be able to look back and determine what worked and what didn’t and improve future marketing efforts.

Need help developing your marketing strategy and conducting market research? Contact me today to learn how to improve your digital marketing efforts.

Anatomy of a High-Converting Digital Marketing Funnel

September 2, 2019 by Eric Ritter

In 2018, digital advertising claimed 51 percent of all ad spending in the US. Globally, companies spent billions on digital marketing strategies.

Most businesses say they’re continuing to increase their digital marketing budgets. Marketers have to split their budgets between search and social, blogging and videos.

Whether you’re new to digital marketing or you’ve used it for some time, you might wonder if it’s worth all the hype. Experts report that ROI is higher with digital techniques, but you have yet to see the payoff.

If this sounds like you, don’t give up just yet. Digital marketing can take some experimentation to get right. One thing you should do is take a look at your digital marketing funnel.

In this article, we’ll go over the basics and share tips for super-charging your funnel for better results.

What is a Digital Marketing Funnel?

The first question on your mind is likely, “What is a marketing funnel?”

If you’ve talked to any of your sales representatives lately, you may have heard them talk about a “sales funnel.” This is a diagram that shows sales people where a potential customer is in the buying journey. It can also give them ideas about how to move a lead through each stage.

The traditional sales funnel has four stages. First, the customer has to be aware of your product, business, or service. After all, people can’t buy things if they don’t know they exist.

The newly aware customer becomes interested in your product in the second stage. They begin to ask questions and learn more. They might conduct research or compare products.

In the third stage, the prospect desires your product or service. They ask you for a quote or talk contracts with you.

In the fourth and final stage, the prospect makes a purchase and becomes a customer.

The Marketing Funnel

The sales funnel idea is helpful for your sales reps, but the marketing funnel is a little bit different.

Like the sales funnel, there were traditionally four marketing funnel stages. These were awareness, nurturing, conversion, and delighting the prospect.

Today’s marketing funnel has become much more complex. The buyer’s journey is much longer and involves more stages. Marketers do well to recognize each individual stage and offer support every step of the way.

The typical marketing funnel should address the following stages:

Engagement and discovery
Education and research
Consideration and evaluation
Purchase and adoption

Some marketing funnels also include steps such as retention and upselling and cross-selling.

Creating a Marketing Funnel

Now let’s look at how to create a marketing funnel for your business. The first thing you should do is define what the lead or prospect is doing at each distinct stage of the funnel.

Next, look at how you can support the lead and encourage them to take the next step. For example, what steps can you take to make people more aware of your brand? If a lead is doing research, what kinds of support can you offer them?

You should create detailed marketing personas for each stage. These will identify the typical customer, along with their concerns and pain points.

Now you can begin to address those pain points. If a customer has identified a problem, you can offer insight and collaborate on a solution.

Each stage requires a different blend of marketing tactics. People at the top of the funnel aren’t going to act on an offer to buy now. Your activities will need to support awareness and education.

You can categorize your activities as TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU. TOFU activities are designed to engage and educate. BOFU activities ask the prospect to act now.

Reaching the Right Audience

Now you have a digital marketing funnel. One of the biggest issues is that funnels yield many more leads than they do customers.

With the right digital marketing techniques, though, you can change that narrative. You can super-charge your funnel to get more conversions.

The first step is to make sure you’re reaching the right people. Digital marketing gives you the tools to reach a very wide audience. It also allows you to narrow your focus and find the people why care about your product.

You can take a broad approach and try to engage everyone on a social media platform like Facebook. The fact is that not everyone is interested in your product or service. If you try to reach everyone, you’ll find many leads that just don’t convert.

Now think about search engine marketing campaigns. By zeroing in on the right keywords, you can find people who are already looking for your product or service. They’re more likely to convert.

Finally, think about which platforms you include in your marketing channels. If your audience is senior management, you’ll find them on LinkedIn instead of Instagram.

Nurturing Relationships

No matter what stage of the funnel your lead is in, your focus should be on nurturing the lead. As we’ve discussed, people at different stages need different kinds of support.

No matter the stage, though, you’ll want to include the following kinds of activities:

Traffic-driving activities, such as tweeting and blogging
Activities that provide value, such as a community or knowledge base
Opt-in requests, like signing up for a newsletter
Engagement, such as personalized email offers

You should also test your efforts to find out what’s most effective with certain audiences.

At each stage, you’ll change the message. A TOFU video might explain how to complete a task. A BOFU video, by contrast, walks the customer through your particular product.

Level up Your Marketing Funnel and Drive Sales

By targeting the right audience and understanding their needs, you can create a better digital marketing funnel. Lead qualifying and personalized messaging help you convert more prospects into brand advocates.

Are you looking for other ideas to super-charge your marketing efforts in 2019? Check out the blog for tips and tricks, and get ready to take your marketing game to a whole new level.

7 Key Benefits of Branding Every Business Owner Should Know About

August 12, 2019 by Eric Ritter

In the early days of starting your business, you probably focused on survival tasks. Getting customers in the door. Getting orders out the door.

You set up vendor accounts and, somewhere in the chaos, managed to launch a website. Now, you work in a more stable routine that lets you think about improving your business.

Along the way, you stumble across the term branding. Yet, the articles talk about things like brand style guides or brand voice. In the next paragraph, they talk about color psychology.

It can look like nonsense at first blush, but it’s not. The benefits of branding exist and you should know about them. Let’s jump in and explore 7 of the key benefits.

1. Improves Your Own Sense of Your Business

A brand and a business enjoy a very close relationship, but they aren’t quite interchangeable.

A business consists of products or services, employees, and the support infrastructure. Think buildings and ethernet cables. A business owner knows these elements very well.

A brand is something more abstract. It’s the personality and principles of your business that surrounds those other elements. It’s something you might not have ever seriously considered.

Defining your brand means asking questions about your business. What makes your business cool or unique? What can customers expect from your business?

Is your guiding star a sense of fun? That means your entire brand must say fun to customers.

Exploring those questions helps you know your business and your potential customers better.

2. Customer Loyalty

Ever hear someone call themselves an “Apple person” or a “Nike person.” That’s the power of branding right there.

A good brand is something that people incorporate into their lifestyle. It becomes part of their personal identity. Of course, that requires that the brand stands for something identifiable.

Let’s say that you run a startup that offers a suite of fitness-related software that includes:

a calorie tracker
a meal planner
a weight trend tracker
a workout scheduling
a sleep tracker

The software suite itself won’t create a brand. A guiding principle like “driving lifelong health,” however, gets you started.

Now, layer in a friendly community forum, health-related content, and guided workouts for different age groups. All of that supports the guiding principle. You end up with a brand that drives loyalty.

3. Gives You a Competitive Edge

Has your significant other ever sent you to the store to “buy spaghetti” or some other non-specific product category? What happens when you get there?

For a lot of people, it goes something like this. You stand in the aisle and stare at the shelves for a while. Then, with nothing else to go on, you pick up a name brand box of spaghetti.

Maybe you pick that brand because you associate it with quality or taste. Maybe you pick it for no better reason than it’s the brand you know. Whatever the reason, you gave your money to that brand over other alternatives.

An established brand provides your business with that same kind of recognition. Maybe people pick you because they believe in your principles. Maybe they pick you because they recognize your brand.

Either way, you beat out the alternatives.

4. Let’s You Price on Value

No-name brands compete on cost because it’s the only way they can distinguish themselves from other no-name brands. Strong brands price based on value or perceived value.

Look at luxury cars vs. economy cars. Since luxury cars enjoy strong, established brands, they can price on the perceived value of that luxury.

When you establish a strong brand, you can price on the basis that your product or service provides a better value.

5. Simplifies Getting Investment

Not every business seeks outside investment, but it’s common practice among tech startups. While your product or service must meet a need in the market, that’s only part of the equation.

Investors can generally gauge whether a product or service has a real chance in the marketplace. The intangible part they care about is whether your brand can capture mindshare with the public.

Anyone can make a better mousetrap. Not anyone can make people want that better mousetrap. That’s what a solid brand does for you.

If you have that brand, it makes investors a lot more interested in partnering with you.

6. More Referrals

A strong brand doesn’t get you referrals at the beginning. As people buy into your brand, though, they start referring more people your way.

As new people buy into your brand, the process repeats itself.

You can let this brand-driven process of organic referrals happen on its own. If your brand and service really are outstanding, you can help the process along with some basic referral marketing.

7. Adds a Layer of Professionalism

A good brand demonstrates consistency across the board.

Your color scheme and logo stay the same across physical and digital media. Your overall tone doesn’t change whether it’s a blog post or a streaming video.

That level of consistency doesn’t happen by accident. It takes work and money.

It communicates that you take your business seriously and will invest in making it look good. That signals a layer of professionalism you won’t see in fly-by-night companies.

Parting Thoughts on the Benefits of Branding

Branding covers a lot of ground, which can make discussions of it seem arbitrary or nonsensical. Nothing is further from the truth. In point of fact, your business will likely enjoy some growth courtesy of the benefits of branding.

You’ll get a better sense of your own business. You encourage customer loyalty and, as a byproduct, more customer referrals. You communicate a sense of professionalism to everyone who encounters your brand.

You get a competitive edge over competitors without strong brands. You can also engage in value-based pricing since you don’t compete on cost.

A strong brand makes securing investments easier if you want outside investors.

While brand building can take a while, the benefits make it worth the effort.

Eric Ritter specializes in digital advertising and marketing strategy. For more information about our consulting services, contact us today.

Get More Leads: What a Content Marketing Funnel Is and How You Can Set It Up

July 21, 2019 by Eric Ritter

The ability to generate traffic and convert leads directly corresponds to the success of your business. Content marketing plays a major role in this process. Research shows that content marketing generates 3x as many leads as traditional sales marketing while costing 62% less.

Crafting an effective content marketing funnel helps you to take even more advantage of this marketing strategy. Learn how to build a content marketing funnel that will convert leads below.

Trend Watch: What Is a Content Marketing Funnel?

A content marketing funnel is a type of marketing strategy that uses various types of content to attract new leads to your business. Conversion happens when the leads get funneled through further content.

Marketers and smart business owners use a content marketing funnel to get more backlinks and indexed pages for their website. They increase organic search traffic naturally so you can spend less money on paid advertisements. They also help you get higher conversion rates while increasing brand awareness overall.

We can break content marketing funnels into three distinct parts: the top of the funnel, the middle of the funnel, and the bottom of the funnel. Each part focuses on a different aspect of marketing.

Top of the Funnel

Content at the top of the funnel focuses mainly on increasing site traffic and raising brand awareness. It’s all about grabbing attention. This is your chance to make an impression and reveal why your product or service offers the customer value.

Show how your business will solve problems or answer questions. Be sure that you present this in a way without asking anything in return from the potential customer.

Middle of the Funnel

Content in the middle of the funnel focuses more on generating and nurturing leads. This content seeks to educate and inform about your business or products.

Present an offer they cannot refuse in exchange for permission to add them to an email list or another form of contact. In this phase of the funnel, you begin to nurture the new relationship and start to build rapport and trust.

Bottom of the Funnel

Finally, content at the bottom of the funnel focuses on those all-important conversions like buying a product or paying for a service. It’s when you convert potential customers into actual customers.

You’ve shown them who your brand is and what it can do for them. Now is the time to present a new offer that naturally turns them into a paying customer. This type of content works best when personalized.

How to Set Up a Content Marketing Funnel in 4 Easy Steps

If you do not currently have a content marketing funnel put in place for your business, follow these 5 easy steps to set one up from scratch.

1. Consider Your Audience

Before you start creating any content, you need to know who you ideally want to consume it. Identify your target audience so you do not waste time creating and sharing the wrong kind of content. If you haven’t already figured out your target market, ask yourself the following questions:

How can your products or services make your target markets’ lives easier?
What questions do members of your target audience ask that your products or services will answer?
What problems does your target market face that your products or services will solve?

Writing content for a middle-aged single male about to retire is very different from the content you’d write for a late-20’s working mom. Once you grasp the daily needs and challenges of your target market, you can build content around meeting these needs.

2. Research and Review Popular Related Content and Content Shared by Top Influencers

After you establish your target audience, you need to figure out what kind of content they like to consume. Take a look at your competition and figure out what content of theirs gets shared most often. Do keyword research to find top performing keywords in your industry and use them to search for more content.

You should also research and review the content shared by the top influences in your industry. Find influencers by being an active participant in your industry. Stay up-to-date with recent news and content shared in blogs, groups, or on social networks.

You can use this content as a baseline for coming up with your own content. It eliminates the concern of guessing what your target audience may want to consume.

3. Create Content for Each Part of the Funnel

Once you figure out an engaging subject for your content, it’s time to start writing. Create different content for each part of the funnel based on what you hope to achieve at that step.

The best kind of content to start with at the top of the funnel includes:

Blog posts
Social media posts
Infographics
Podcasts
Videos

The best kind of content to provide when potential clients hit the middle of the funnel include:

Case studies
Free ebooks and guides
Whitepapers
Worksheets

The best kind of content to convert in the bottom of the funnel includes:

Free discount codes
Advanced classes and webinars
Testimonials

You do not need to use all of this content. Pick one or two types and see how they resonate with your target audience. If they don’t work, try something else.

4. Retain by Restarting

The process doesn’t end once you successfully convert a potential customer through the funnel to a paying customer. You’ve created a set of expectations through each step and you must continue to meet these expectations.

Restart your content marketing funnel but in a slightly different manner. Satisfied, repeat customers act as a free marketing source if help them do so.

Offer a discount on their next purchase when they refer a friend who makes a purchase. Or provide them free trial codes that they can then share with their friends. You can also offer them exclusive content that they can then share with their friends and family.

Send out surveys occasionally to gauge how your customers feel and ask for suggestions about how to improve. By involving your audience in this process, it makes them feel invested in your business and more likely to use your products or services again.

A Digital Marketing Consultant Can Help Flood Your Funnel

Now you should understand how a content marketing funnel boosts your conversion rates by driving more organic search traffic to your site. Take the time to build or revamp your current funnel to raise your brand awareness while paying for fewer advertisements.

Still not sure you know what to do? Hire a digital marketing consultant with proven expertise in creating effective content marketing funnels. Contact Eric Ritter today to see the many ways a digital marketing consultant can generate leads for your business!