How to Generate Quality Leads With Your Agency’s Content Marketing Strategy

One of the biggest challenges any digital agency faces while implementing their content marketing strategy is converting strangers, or readers, into quality leads. To convert these could-be clients from strangers into leads, you need to first assess the market you operate within.

Conduct Detailed Market Research

Market research is necessary before you set your content marketing strategy into action. Without a good understanding of the market—including your potential audience and competitors—you will likely not make the impact you want. Understanding your market can help you avoid any pitfalls that would be awaiting those who rush into the content production cycle without a plan, and guide your content into the niche(s) that better impact your audience.

Conduct research into the types of content that will impact your audience the best. Focus on what content resonates with them, either through competitor content analysis, or by analyzing the effectiveness of the content types your digital agency produced for your audience in the past. How effective was this content? Were there any gaps in the content (missing types of content/topics) that caused audience drop-off? Why are your content pieces not converting like you want? Answering all of these questions, and digging deeper to try and understand which types of content your audience values, will enhance your lead generation abilities.

Build an Email List by Utilizing “Lead Magnets”

Lead Magnets, in simple terms, are content pieces (and types) that attract your target audience, and convert them into leads. There are many different kinds of lead magnets, as new and innovative forms of content are created regularly. However, there are a few well-established forms of lead magnets that are commonly used and worth discussing.

eBooks

Simply put, eBooks are digital books. Generally they will cover a specific topic or series of topics, and can be standardized or innovative in their design. Ultimately, what they look like, and the messages and information they contain, is up to you. Just make sure when you’re researching and writing the information that will be contained within these eBooks that you consider your audience and understand what they value. Convert these readers into leads by allowing them to download the eBook by submitting their email address, as this is far less costly in their minds than purchasing a book on a similar topic elsewhere.

Webinars

Webinars are online seminars. They can cover any topic and be as long as the presenter intends them to be. However, due to the rapidly-expanding online (digital-first) environment, it’s safe to say Webinars are likely to be fierce competitors to conferences in the very near future. Take sign-ups for your webinar via email addresses, as this is the simplest way to generate leads. Additionally, using email reminders for your webinars will insure a higher attendance rate.

Content Newsletters

Another direct way to generate leads is to create a content newsletter that people can sign-up to with their emails. Make sure the content shared is either niche (and offer many niche newsletters) or broad (and offer only one or a few larger newsletters), and leads will likely come in quickly.

Podcasts

Podcasts are not only a great way to generate leads, but also a great way to show off your digital agency’s personality and the skills/knowledge of your staff. However, podcasts can be hard to produce and maintain over a long period of time (unless you already specialize in podcasts).

Audio Clips (Sound Bites)

From your podcast, you can collect sound bites (audio clips) that can be used as an easy way to double the content your podcast produces. Generating emails with sound bites is likely to be a bit harder, as the people who are interested are likely to overlap with those who’ve already watched/listened to your podcast, but it’s always worth offering another form of content to your audience.

Short-Form Video Courses

Producing video courses in what your agency specializes in can be time-consuming and costly for your business. However, creating short-form (no more than 2 minutes) video lessons can be beneficial to generating leads. Firstly, it can be valuable to show your agency’s knowledge, but also it can directly generate interest in your courses and these viewers may become leads over time.

Mini-Presentations & Slideshows

Mini-Presentations, or Slideshows, can be very valuable ways to extend the life of your written content. Take the most valuable pieces of information from these articles and condense them into a slideshow. Make the visuals/aesthetic appealing, title each slide appropriately, and offer value with the information within the slides, and your business is likely to generate leads in no time.

Infographics

Besides written content, audio content, and video content, visual and graphical content is also extremely valuable to most audiences. These days people resonate more with imagery than with words, as attention spans are shorter and people are less likely to read a whole article of 1000+ words. Therefore, one of the best ways to capture their attention and attract them as potential customers is to condense the information of a long-form article into a visually rich infographic. And, in the end, people may even come to your site regularly for your infographics.

Content Syndication

Content Syndication is when content is shared on a 3rd-party website/platform. This is generally more beneficial to those who are syndicating (publishing) their content on a bigger platform than their own website or social media accounts, and can be extremely valuable in generating quality leads. Depending on the sites you’re making content syndication agreements with, you may be able to share most types of content (written, audio, video, etc.) on their sites. Be sure to always do detailed research on which platform you wish to syndicate your content on, and determine if the platform’s niches/audiences match your desired audience.

Clearly Visible Calls to Action (CTAs)

One of the worst things you can do in the lead generation process is to neglect your content’s and website’s calls to action. These can be buttons, click-through-links to other pieces of content, or even suggestions to buy your products or services (with links for ease of access). However, not properly connecting the content with the CTAs can be disastrous for your business’ goals. Make sure that all CTAs are easily visible, easily understandable and in the focus/forefront of your site or content. If you’re really unsure why potential leads aren’t converting with your calls to action, consider installing a heatmap/session-replay plugin for your site to see where drop-off is happening, and remedy the problem in these areas.

Use TDA to Generate Quality Leads for Your Digital Agency

TDA can help your agency generate quality leads. Join TDA today and list your agency’s content and case studies in our content archive, and take advantage of the benefits TDA can offer today. If you’d like to learn more about content marketing strategies, check out the article Best Practices for Updating Your Agency’s Content Marketing Plan.