It’s 2024. Content marketing is table stakes. Everyone knows it. . 

And in ♔the age of AI, that means there’s more content and more nois𒆙e than ever before.

In the past you could get away with some 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:half-hearted content marketing, 🌺but the days of putting your strategy❀ on autopilot are over. 

The tactics that worked ♊even two or ༺three years ago will continue to deliver diminishing results — and this applies especially to conversions on your website.

So, how do you actually convert website visitors in 2024? Depending o🦩n what you’re currently doing, here’s what you should STOP, START, and KEEP. 

How to improve website conversions in 2024: Stop, Start, Keep

Before we dive in, it’s important to remember what a conversion is. It’s a transaction. A visitor is giving you some🐼thing to get something in return. 

And while conversions are important, we can’t trick ourselves into thinking they’re the true goal of o🔯ur marketing.

If we optimize for conversions without putting our customers’ needs first, we’ll try 🍃to coax conversion with sub-par content and fluffy promises.

The purpose of your website is to help your visitors find what they need to become customers. You do this by educat𒁏ing and buildiꦕng trust. Full stop.

Keep that in mind as you read below. 

STOP: Talking about yourself

This is where it all begins. When someone gets to your website, whether organic or direct, they’re looking for a company that gets them. 

But what do they see? Nine times out of 10, they see a company that loves to talk abo💛ut itself:

We offer…

Our proven formula…

We’ve been recognized…

Our staff…

I’m still amazed at how often I see this on websites. Companies fall into the familiar ﷽routine of talking about themselves instead of their customers. 

Look at these ex▨amples from major brands, both B2🐭B and B2C.

Notice instead of feature-dumping or jamming their copy full of “us” and “we” they offer a simplified explanation of ✃how their customers benefit from choosing their company. 

All too often, I see business websites jam-pa🌊cked with copy that sounds like it’s the company’s resume. I promise you this does not have the effect you're looking for. 

STOP: Relying on sub-par content

There’s an old joke in content marketing:

Question: How many premium offers does it take to change a light bulb?

Answer: Give us your email address and we’ll tell you.

Five years ago, your ebook, your whitepaper, your PDF might have stood out because it was groundbreaking. Potential customers would eagerly give up their contact information to access it. These visitors turned into good-fi♊t prospects to enter your sales process. 

Today, that sa🀅me content is drowned out by a thousand alternatives. 

Wꦅhat’s going to make someone choose yours? What’s going to make them give you their email address instead of finding the same 🔜information somewhere else for free?

If you want to convert visitors, you need high-value, unique cont𒀰ent. 

STOP: Thinking narrowly about what content can be

I’m not saying that ebooks and PDFs can’t be high-value content. They certainly can. But increasingly, businesses should use things like pricing🐷 calculators and self-selection tools to convert visitors. 

The goal of your content should be to provide visitors with everything th🎶ey need to become custome❀rs. You want to make it easy to buy from you. 

Tools that are in❀teractive help your 🍷customers see what making a purchase from you will be like. When you get them to do that, you’re bringing them one big step closer to buying.

But self-selection tools are just one way to think creatively. Don't get stuck in the trap of thinking narrowly about what content can b💖e.  

START: Investing in original content

Here’s what happens: A business hire🅠s a marketing agency to produce con🐼tent for them. You know, blog articles, guidebooks, whitepapers. The agency turns around and hires freelancers. 

Those freelancers know precious little about your industry. They know even less about your company and your culture.

So what do they do? They research u🅷sing Google. They use ChatGPT or Jaspe꧅r. 

They pull together content from the same sources as a high school kid writing a term pa𝓰per. 

The result? Derivative content. It’s fine. It’s just, well, meh.

Thꦉis derivative content you🎀 get from an agency is no different than what’s already out there on the internet because it comes from the same sources. 

It’s just adding to the noise. Adding to the super-saturation of content. (And, 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:in the age of AI, the noise is just going to keep geting louder.)

Are your potential customers going to read this unoriginal content and say, “Wow, this company really GETS me”? 

Not likely. 

Are these vi🦩sitors going to surrender their email addresses so they can read even more? 

I mean, would you?

No. This factory approach to content amounts to an expensive game of telephone. You tell your agency something, your agency tells a freelancer. The resulting content is underwhelming — as are the results of your content marketing𓆉. 

You may see a boost in traffic, ꧟but this will flatten out pretty quickly, while very few of your new leads turn into customers.

KEEP: Auditing and improving your conversion paths

Companies put a ton of work into their homepages. As they see it,♋ this is their digital storefront — the first thing a visitor sees.

But think about it: In the age of content marketing, many of your customers are coming to you from organic search. That means they’re landing on articles and blog𒁏 posts long before they ever see your homepage♕. 

Don’t believe me? Pull your traffic data. Last week at IMPACT, we had 64,219 visitors — only 🥀2,001 of whom saw our homep🍌age. 

My point is this: Every single webpage is a po♑tential first impression of your busin🌜ess.

If someone com💦e⛦s to your site through organic search, will they know what to do next?

Here’s what to do:

• Choose 20 high-trafficked blog articles. Look at each as if you are a visitor.

• Identify the “next steps” for your readers. Are there links to relevant articles and videos? Is there an appropriate CTA pointing to a tool, landing page, or sign-up?
• Remove friction. Tighten the copy, eliminate competing offers, and simplify the instructions.

Make this a recurring task for your team. If you 🤡want people to convert on your site, make it clear and easy for them to do so🏅. 

KEEP: Creating valuable content for your audience

Content marketing works when organizations are willi🦂ng to provide value to their customers. Content that🍌’s fluffy or slick doesn’t cut it. No one’s raising their hand to download a sales pitch.

Instead, your visitors want unbiased educational content that addresses their fears, worries, and concerns. They want you to answer their 💧questions and make it easy 🌌to buy from you. 

This kind of trust-building content is vital to♌ ꦰsuccessful conversions. 

Don’t get mad at your would-be buyers for spurning your content. If you provide enough val🌜ue🌠, they’ll come. If you don’t, they’ll look elsewhere.

#1 Conversion hack: Treat your buyers like people

Remember, a conversion is a transaction. Visitors give you co🌳ntact details in exchange for something of value. 

The problem is, along the way we started seeing conversions as the goal of our marketing. The result of this mindset is everything we talked ab✱out in the beginning: an abundance of sub-par co🌌ntent trying to coax some more conversions in the hope that those conversions are actually hot leads who are eager to buy.

And here we are: Too much content, not🧔 enough value.

And site visitors are skeptical. They know that accessing that🅘 ♛resource could mean they’ll be spammed with sales emails and nurture campaigns for months. 

To optimize your website for conversions in 2024, put your customer first. Craft your copy to speak to their problems. Provide content that delivers real value. And once you get a conversion, don’t shoehorn every new contact into a one-size💮-fits-all nurture campaign. 

Your customers deserve better.