How to Measure Content Marketing Success with Content Marketer Lyndsay Phillips

Like many business owners, you may have done everything you can to make your business successful: you’ve made a beautiful website to attract customers, your business services perfectly represent your expertise, all the paperwork is done – you are ready to go! But something is still missing. You aren’t getting as much site traffic as expected and no one is signing up for your services or buying your products. What is going on here?

It’s likely that there are many businesses just like yours, competing for the internet’s attention. The trouble is that it is hard for people who need your products or services to actually find you online. Luckily, there is a lot you can do to improve your online visibility for the right people and increase traffic on your website as well as your operating cash flow. You will be surprised that our suggestions aren’t as difficult to carry out as you think!

How to Do Effective Content Marketing Using SEO

If you want to get started on increasing traffic to your website and converting visitors into clients, we’ve created a step-by-step SEO cheat-sheet for you.

1) Ask yourself, what are my ideal customers looking for?

Chances are, you know exactly who your ideal customers are, but you don’t necessarily know what kind of keywords they use to search online for businesses like yours. For instance, real estate investors and entrepreneurs looking for content marketing help would search for “content marketing for real estate investors” or “how to create content for real estate businesses.” If there are no keywords like these on a content marketer’s website, most of these potential customers would not be able to find the business.

2) Optimize your whole website for SEO keywords

By researching keywords that your ideal customers are using on Google, you can strategically place them into your content so that your website can be searchable by your ideal audience. Using primary and secondary keywords in your meta title and description will further help you rank higher in search engines, maximizing your visibility and traffic.

3) Create optimized content that your ideal customers are searching for

What if you don’t have enough content on your website or it doesn’t correspond to what your potential customers are looking for? You can write or create other content that discusses topics your audience is interested in. Make sure to optimize your new work and be consistent about posting new content every week so that you stay relevant and competitive. Creating this kind of optimized content using SEO keywords will not only help your potential customers find you, but it will also allow you to show off your knowledge and authority in your field, further building trust with your audience.

4) Inspire your potential customers to take action

So you’ve already brought your ideal clients to your website and you even see some engagement but, sadly, you still aren’t getting any requests for your services. Visitors often only act on something if they clearly know what it is, how it can bring them value, and if the whole process of taking action is easy and enjoyable. To encourage your visitors to take action on your services, you can add a call to action paragraph at the end of your blog posts offering a high-value incentive (for example, free downloadable content or a complimentary consultation) and directing visitors to your business services page. Remember, people love to be rewarded for the actions they take!

Using pop-ups as calls to action is another effective way for your website visitors to take immediate action on your offerings. But tastefully placing and timing pop-ups is an art, so make sure to let your visitors enjoy your content for a while before creating a distraction for them.

How Ardor Increased Organic Action: A Smooth Sailing Business Growth Content Marketing SEO Case Study

With so many content marketing businesses out there, Lyndsay Phillips, the founder and CEO of Smooth Sailing Business Growth, knew she needed to stand out. She also knew her marketing strengths (real estate, individualized content strategies for clients, lead generation, sales funnels, and podcasting) and her niche market (busy real estate investors and entrepreneurs). Even as a marketing specialist, she was having trouble getting traffic on her website and connecting with her ideal clients.

Even though Lyndsay’s real estate knowledge was stellar, her marketing content impeccable, and her real estate marketing podcast well-received, she sought out Ardor SEO’s help to finally match up with the people who need her the most.

So how did we do it? We used our well-practiced methods that have worked for our clients time and time again. This is our testimony of how any business can bloom in a short period of time with the right SEO strategy.

Our Strategy for Smooth Sailing Business Growth

In this content marketing SEO Case Study, we will take you through our work process that helped Lyndsay increase her website traffic and demand for her services, multiplying her operating cash flow.

1) We found out what real estate investors and entrepreneurs are searching for online.

By researching what real estate investors and entrepreneurs search for on Google, we found specific topics and keywords that interest them. We also took into consideration what keywords have worked well for Smooth Sailing’s competitors and have come up with the strongest keywords such as “real estate digital marketing” and “real estate video marketing” that would get Lyndsay’s business searchable by her target real estate audience.

2) We pinpointed ways to get Lyndsay in front of her ideal customers.

Lyndsay had a lot of valuable content on her website, including blogs, videos, and podcasts. Knowing what Lyndsay’s audience wants to learn from her, we were able to choose and optimize just the right existing content on her website and advise Lyndsay on what to write about and create next.

We then used keyword mapping to insert powerful keywords into the chosen content. For example, we placed the keyword “real estate video marketing” in a blog article focused on the benefits of using videos in real estate marketing. We also made sure to create stellar meta tags for each blog, using primary keywords in the meta title and secondary keywords in the meta description. To direct visitors searching with a specific keyword to only one significant piece of content on Lyndsay’s website, we deleted duplicate URLs that were leading to identical content. We also used a unique set of keywords for each piece of content to concentrate relevant traffic to the content and avoid keyword cannibalism. An important piece of our strategy has been to post brand new or optimized older content every week so that Lyndsay continues ranking high in online searches.

A big part of getting seen on the internet is having more chances to be seen. We helped Lyndsay find similar businesses to whom she could give value in some way and who were willing to link to her content on their website. Including links to outside content in her own writings has also been crucial for new visitor engagement, retention, and conversion. By allowing people to find her on highly ranked websites and linking to other reputable websites with high-quality content, we helped Lyndsay get found and bring more value to her visitors who were much more likely to stay on her website and look around.

3) We optimized Lyndsay’s website so her visitors turned into clients

To convert more of her visitors into customers, we advised Lyndsay to include calls to action in all of her posts. The most effective calls to action remind visitors why they came to the site in the first place – they outline the visitors’ problem, give them a solution, and highlight the desired outcome, prompting visitors to act on their needs now and not later or never.

Calls to action are most effective when there is an incentive, or immediate reward involved if the visitors take action. We made sure that Lyndsay included in her calls to action high-value free content and offers, as well as a link to her services related to the content. Lyndsay also strategically placed additional calls to action throughout her content. For instance, she appropriately placed graphics in her blog posts which linked to her social media pages and her podcast “REI Marketing Show,” boosting more engagement and conversions as visitors found their way to additional valuable content.

4) We used a cash flow calculator to help engage, retain, and bring value to Lyndsay’s audience.

As a bonus, we developed a cash flow calculator for Lyndsay’s visitors, giving them another reason to stay and engage with content on her website. Cash flow calculators are a valuable tool for both business owners and marketers to assess their marketing ROI, among countless other benefits. By taking time to absorb her high-quality content, Lyndsay’s audience can gain more trust in her services. More trust means a higher likelihood that these visitors will take advantage of the services Lyndsay is offering. 

Are you a content marketing expert who knows what it takes to make content that shines to attract customers but need some help bringing your own business in front of your ideal clients? Our SEO services will help your brilliant marketing work get seen by the right people so you can go on doing what you do best – helping others succeed in their business through your marketing expertise. Leave the details to us so you can connect with the clients of your dreams!