With the rise of AI-powered writers, everyone can whip up a piece and post it on the internet. Unfortunately, much of the AI-generated content is subpar — shallow, clunky, and lacks substance. In most cases, it is a rehash of what’s already on the internet.

That presents an excellent opportunity for your brand. You can tower above the fluff by incorporating your first-hand experience with the subject matter. For instance, you can leverage your database to identify the most pressing problems affecting your target audience. Then, you can pepper your website with content showcasing your experience solving these problems.

Incorporating your lived experience as a professional sets you apart. It lets your brand stand out by giving you and your brand a rarified edge — proven experience. People value content written by subject matter experts because it is based on real-life experiences.

It’s often practical, easy to understand, and, most importantly, functional. People can apply some of that knowledge to their problems with tangible results.

It may seem counterintuitive, but sharing your knowledge with your audience pays off in spades. It builds trust, a core requirement for creating a cult-like brand following.

People will bookmark your pages for further reading and share them on their social handles. They will join your mailing list and subscribe to your newsletters, where you can convert them into paying customers.

Most importantly, establishing yourself as a subject matter expert lends credibility to your brand and products. People who benefit from your advice won’t hesitate to purchase your product or pay for your services. As a result, you can effortlessly command higher-than-market prices while building a huge market base.

Don’t Sell to Your Audience

Contrary to popular opinion, the ultimate goal of content marketing isn’t to sell. Given that businesses spend thousands of their hard-earned dollars to generate content, that may seem counterintuitive.

However, the ultimate goal of content marketing is to build a formidable online presence. Churning out quality content helps you create an engaged audience that’s curious about your brand and interested in your products. It helps you tell a good story that helps your audience build a positive association with your brand.

They may find your content entertaining, helpful, inspirational, or enriching. That builds awareness and compels them to engage with your brand, which is core to cultivating relationships with potential customers.

Simply put, content marketing helps prospects warm up to your products and brand so they’re receptive to your offers.

Build an Effective Sales Funnel

A sales funnel lets you turn the carefully curated content on your website into a money mint. Typically, a sales funnel represents a customer’s buying journey. It embodies your efforts to nurture a curious website visitor into a paying customer.

Content marketing lets you cast your nets far and wide. Naturally, you will attract all kinds of people to your website. But not everyone who visits your website is a potential customer or the right fit.

A sales funnel framework lets you make the distinction. It allows you to capture the details of your prospects and qualify them based on their needs. It’s much easier to close a lead when you understand where they’re on their buying journey.

An effective way to build a sales funnel is to divide your web content into three broad categories — top, middle, and bottom of the funnel. Each category corresponds to a prospect’s position on the buying journey, allowing you to tailor your content to address their needs head-on.

You may use popups with enticing offers — freebies, checklists, or gated content — to build an email list. A strong call-to-action (CTA) on each blog post prompting the reader to join your newsletter also works.

Besides capturing email addresses, email marketing solutions feature advanced capabilities to let you segment your list into buying stages. You can then target them with helpful emails to help them make an informed buying decision.

The benefits of a sales funnel are two-fold. It allows you to build an email list, own your audience, and harness the power of email marketing. People who’ll get on your list will likely love your products but may need an extra nudge to make the buying decision.

Test, Test, Test

Wouldn’t it be nice if content marketing were a one-and-done affair? Wouldn’t it be nice to simply pepper your website with high-quality, well-optimized content and watch the money come in?

Unfortunately, the online marketing scene is highly dynamic. And so is your audience. Online marketing strategies often mirror the audience’s online habits and preferences. As such, your marketing efforts must align with changing marketing needs.

Rather than rely on the latest marketing fads, use proven results to inform your online marketing decisions. That calls for testing, testing, testing. Experiment with various forms of content to determine what resonates with your audience.

Do they like long- or short-form blog posts? What topics draw the most eyeballs or engagement? Do they gravitate toward heavily researched content or heavily distilled ones? Are they party to conversational pieces with expert input?

Testing allows you to determine what your audience loves so you can offer them more of it. Luckily, plenty of free tools, including Google Analytics (GA) and Google Search Console (GSC), offer exceptional insights into your audience.

Use them to uncover your best-performing content and topics so you can create more of them. This will allow you to demonstrate your expertise while meeting your audience on their terms.

Still, these analytic tools offer insights into your traffic sources. You can determine which channels drive the most engagement and prioritize them.

Future-Proof Your Business with Exceptional Content

Google, the world’s most dominant search engine, constantly tweaks its algorithms to meet its business objectives. Unfortunately, these changes reverberate across the internet, some with devastating consequences.

Upping your content marketing efforts to prioritize your audience can help you build a formidable and profitable online presence. You can adhere to Google’s ranking guidelines while building a strong community around your brand.

Do you need to level up your content marketing efforts? Our star-studded writing bench, drawn from various professions, is on hand to help you pick up the slack. Talk to us about your content marketing needs.