Having a website is a great start to promote your business, your products, and the services you offer. However, if you want to stand out from the crowd and show potential customers how you differ from the competition, you will need to go a few steps further. Providing content that is new, unique and relevant to your audience is essential if you want to stay in the game.
The best content which will most likely lead to engagement and interaction from online users is that which is being written with the audience in mind. Does what you write about solve any of your readers’ problems? Are you providing solutions, answering their questions, or offering some kind of helpful advice? Nobody can judge better than your audience whether you are achieving these goals or not, so why not let your audience help you create content that really matters?
There are several approaches to gathering content ideas from your audience which in turn will increase the likelihood of engagement with your business. Furthermore, providing content that is relevant to your readers will also increase their trust in your status as an expert and in your brand, ultimately leading to an increase in sales and revenue.
Surveys
Most people love voicing their opinion if they are given a chance, especially in a safe and anonymous environment. Creating an online survey about a topic or blog idea is a great way to validate that idea and get first responses from your audience. There are plenty of free and paid survey-creating apps and online tools. Keep it short and simple, offer multiple choice answers or enable comments and see how users respond to give you several angles to look at. You can integrate surveys into your website as a popup, publish them on social media or send them to your networks via email.
Q&A
This approach will take a bit of research but will definitely be worth the effort. Depending on your industry, you will come across people asking the same questions over and over again. Scan the competition, read comments people are leaving on social media topics, blogs, forums and online communities relevant to your industry or attend webinars and look out for those repetitive questions and inquiries. Then write about them.
Go offline
The best way to find out what potential or existing clients want, think or care about is to ask them face to face. Every offline interaction is a chance for you to get to know your audience better and find ideas to write about. Talk to them about their goals and challenges, ask for feedback, whether it is positive or negative. If you can, make time for follow-up phone calls, emails or coffee catch-ups in person. Then all you need to do is listen.
Testimonials
Word of mouth is still just as important as it was 100 years ago, and many people heavily rely on reviews from others before deciding on whether to make a purchase or not. Let your customers talk for you, let them tell their story and how your business, product or service improved their life. People love a good story and most likely there will be plenty of others among your audience that can relate.
Keywords
This approach focuses solely on data. Using tools such as Google Analytics or Google Trends, look for the most common keywords, phrases or search queries related to your industry. Take a look at the competition and see what works for them, which topics get the most engagement, likes, shares or comments. Use popular keywords, take a look at what has already been written, and put a personal spin on it.
If you need some inspiration about creative content for your website that will attract new potential customers and keep your audience engaged, talk to the friendly team at Energise Web today. We offer a range of copywriting services and solutions that will help make your website more attractive and put you ahead of the competition.
Very comprehensive and informative! Thanks for sharing this helpful content! Regards