Meet the Content Trends Tipped to Drive Sales in 2023
Consistently finding new ways to improve your sales conversions can be tricky. With so much site competition for online sellers, boosting your organic ranking score has become harder than ever before.
In a recent Optin Monster study, 72% of leading marketers revealed that content creation was their most effective source of sale success. As a driving force behind increased SEO ranking and boosted brand awareness, prioritizing engaging content within a marketing strategy could be your key to conversion victory.
From content to conversation, businesses that prioritize a remote, content-driven selling journey are 64% more likely to exceed their sales goals in 2022.
The impact of an e-commerce boom
As the e-commerce industry multiplies, traditional sales strategies have fallen to the gutter. Today’s commerce climate requires a strong knowledge of shoppable social platforms, and site SEO as the future of sales turns digital.
In 2020 alone, over 40% of online businesses failed to meet their sales targets, with over half of the respondents claiming that budget restraints were their main cause of downfall.
How can marketers use content to increase their chances of conversion?
One digital sales strategy that has taken off in the wake of the online shift is content marketing. Known to boost brand awareness and stack up a loyal following, many sales representatives still fail to use content-based promotion to their advantage in 2022.
Here are some of the easiest ways to increase your chance of conversion with your content.
1. Get to know your demographic first
The first step you should take when creating a strategy is to engage in demographic research.
Getting to know your audience is essential. Not only will your team have a better understanding of what products/services are likely to catch their eye, but gathering information on your targets can boost content creation success too.
Whether you choose a data-focused route or social listening approach, you must gather information on:
- Your demographic’s values: What are your target consumers passionate about? Find out what topics are starting conversations amongst your audience.
- Key market trends: What are your most successful competitors posting about? Take inspiration from current industry trends and incorporate that into your content strategy.
- Platform engagement: Which platforms are your demographic most likely to engage with? Take audits of your social channel engagement and track which platforms have the most potential.
In turn, you’ll be able to create content that speaks directly to what they are searching for, and blends in seamlessly with their platform feeds.
In fact, content personalization is essential in the battle to boost sales. A staggering 63% of online consumers claim that they will bounce off of a social post if it doesn’t speak to their values.
As you can see here, just under a third of marketers have a very extensive personalization strategy in an attempt to keep user engagement rising.
2. Start a blog
Content creation comes in all shapes and formats in the marketing world. While social content may be seeing new engagement highs, it’s important not to forget your site content when aiming to improve sales conversions.
Taking time to start a blog is a great way organically drive conversions. The key here is to create written content that speaks directly to your consumer. Make sure your creations are fresh and insightful while providing a quick call to action for your user.
Did you know that nearly all search sessions begin with searching for keywords? The more keywords and site-based backlinks you include, the greater chance you have of driving sales. While the process may be lengthy, inserting volume-heavy keywords into your copy boosts site visibility, while organic backlinking easily guides users to product/service pages.
Why not start guest blogging too?
If you’re looking to boost the success of your keyworded content, why not move away from your own site and start engaging in content collaborations?
60% of bloggers currently write 1-5 guest posts monthly. By collaborating with other like-minded sites, marketers can quickly drive traffic to their own landing page and, in turn, boost the chance of a conversion.
Here’s how to write a guest post in three easy steps:
- Write with a publication in mind: Guest posting is competitive, especially when a publication is bombarded with pitches. To stand out from the crowd, make sure you’re writing your piece with the publication’s audience in mind. Follow their content style and make sure your article is unique.
- Link your brand organically: When writing a guest post, try to include a backlink to your site. Not only will it be clicked on by readers, but sites that are linked out to high-authority publications are more likely to rank highly in Google searches. The key here is to be organic. Don’t just place a link anywhere; make sure it is relevant to the content and isn’t spammy.
- Get creative: Think outside of the box when it comes to writing your guest post. Why not write something seasonal, or take a new angle on a topical conversation within your industry? If the piece offers new insights, it’s more likely to be successful.
There are plenty of marketing magazines, startup publications, and business-based blogs. If your target consumers stumble across your brand name in a popular publication, it could draw them to your site.
3. Prioritize your social content
It’s no secret that social selling has taken off. With over 90% of top sales performers now using social selling tools, it’s time to start utilizing your social platform content to drive those conversions up.
As defined by Hootsuite, “social selling is the practice of using a brand’s social media channels to connect with prospects, develop a connection with them, and engage with potential leads.”
From consistently posting to starting conversations with your content, your social channels can quickly harvest leads when managed well.
The key here is to take advantage of social media’s shoppable features. From in-platform purchasing to shoppable links, social sellers must create content that organically sells their products while directly linking back to their checkout page.
Create social posts that seamlessly blend in with user-generated content while also optimizing promotional material to fit the formats of each personalized platform.
For example, if you’re looking to create content for TikTok, follow a snappy video-based format and incorporate platform trends such as viral sounds into your post. For Instagram, the key to boosting visibility lies within your content description. Find out what keywords your targets are searching for and add them as searchable hashtags within your content captions.
While UK TikTok trends may be soaring, a whopping 67% of smart sellers have revealed that Facebook remains the most effective platform for social selling. If you’re new to the game, this is a great platform to start on.
4. Embrace the potential of video content
If you want your site and social content to perform well, it’s important to stay on top of consumer and market trends.
One trend dominating the marketing sector, in particular, is the rise of video-based popularity. From interactive animation to product-based tutorials, video content has been ranked as the content form with the highest sellable potential.
In fact, 96% of online users choose to consume video content before reaching for any other source of information.
Moving forward, content-driven selling should aim to take a video format, as consumers are more likely to click and engage for longer periods of time.
Make sure your video content is:
- Short and snappy: Gen Z and Millennial consumers are consistently known to bounce off of a piece of content in seconds if they are not interested. Make sure your video gets straight to the point and quickly catches their attention.
- Provides a quick call-to-action: Your video must be actionable. It should tell consumers what to do next. For example, a product-based video should direct the viewer to the relevant product page.
- Sharable: One of the easiest ways to go viral on social media is to create sharable content. If your video is on trend, humorous or something creatively unique, it is more likely to be shared by your demographic, in turn boosting brand awareness and the likelihood of site conversions.
“If you look at the current trends in digital (social, paid, and email), notice the amount of movement that you see on each channel. Then notice how much more prevalent it is than before. Since platforms (such as Instagram) favor accounts that post video content, this will very soon become a necessity for marketers,” states Christopher Tompkins, CEO of The Go! Agency. “My advice is to step out of your comfort zone; you will need video soon,” he claims.
The content trends of tomorrow
As we step into 2023, content creation continues to play a key role in the success of online selling.
Combining outreach efforts with a content marketing strategy can aid the creation of inbound sales leads. Content marketing boosts brand awareness on a number of platforms and can encourage consumers to click on a product or service link.
As we move into a more interactive future, content trends will continue to change in line with technological development. From virtual reality to interactive experiences, the future of content marketing will be digitally driven.
As consumers demand new levels of content personalization, smart sellers should constantly be looking for new ways to address new trends and keep engagement booming, especially as e-commerce competition grows.
