Content-marketing not for seo purposes: email

Brands today are gradually moving away from regular blogs to a new type of content in order to better manage conversions and traffic. In the Hobspot blog, the authors talk about how marketers are more and more aware these days that content leads to sales, and they understand that it should not only be on the blog. Only then is it possible to get long-term traffic and convert site visitors into buyers. While in the B2B segment blogs are getting better at preparing brochures, cases and reports, marketers like me (who started their careers in SEO) are just stuck at the point that they only post content on the website to attract visitors. But even if we achieve this, what should we do next? And shouldn't we explore other channels that will drive us more traffic?

In this post, we will look at content types that are created not only to attract new visitors, but also to motivate them to return to your site and buy again and again.

Email as content

Email is a channel that interests me more and more. This is a very powerful channel, because you post content directly in the mailboxes of those visitors who have agreed to it. In no case can not buy email addresses, as in this case you will encounter the fact that you get into the black lists and your letter will go to spam. While e-mail is a powerful media outlet, a recent study by Mailchimp shows that the discovery rate of letters over the past year has decreased from 13% to 12-12.5 on weekdays and to 9.5% on weekends.

As with any other marketing channel, we have different indicators and metrics that we need to measure. The opening rate of letters tells us nothing about whether people really buy something from us. At best, they are an indicator of what you wrote a headline that makes people click on the letter. But you have to go beyond this metric to see if people really buy something from you.

The goal of email marketing is to get people back to your site. Opening a letter sets the tone because people will never go to your site without opening a letter. With the new inbox tab in gmail (and on mobile devices, where half of the discoveries of all messages occur), the goal is to make the emails so interesting for your user base that they have to open them.

Here are some content creation ideas for this to happen:

Excursion

One of the best ways to convey value to users, which is suitable for many companies, is a tour of the content. If you are a large portal, such as Pinterest, Houzz, you can send content to people by inserting into it interesting collections, posts, images, useful tips. For example, this is one of the Houzz messages:

Grovo also does a phenomenal job, building a chain of letters throughout the customer's life cycle:

And Aaron Orendorf does a great and effective work, using the whole process of content marketing, building not only his own assets, but also using the strength of experts and user assets.

Special content

Another type of content that will surely lead people to open your letters is special content. In addition to the fact that this content is interesting to users, it usually does not fall into the "Spam" or "Promotions" tab. For example, I rarely open letters from Orbitz, because they send the same thing every day, but I enjoy reading the newsletter of Megaplan and ICRC.

As you can see, these companies send letters that bring value to readers. They do not just distribute information via RSS feeds. They oversee the special content that they create themselves, because they know who their target audience is. All of them are aimed at marketers. I am a marketer. Therefore, I open their letters, digest the information and share it with others.

Subscription confirmation

Another way to ensure that your emails will be opened is to ask permission to send messages with information that recipients are interested in. It works as follows:

You have a product that people view several times before buying.

If the product that the customer wants to purchase is not available, ask for permission to send them a notification when it arrives at the warehouse.

Send them letters only when the order status is updated.

This policy may work well for sites such as renting apartments or selling outerwear.

For example, in most online stores, if I want to buy shoes, but I have a small foot (shoes size 39 can be bought with ease only in China), I should be able to choose my size from the drop-down list and if it is not in stock, enter an email address to find out when my size will be available. For example, in this mThe store does not have this functionality.

In the online store "Textile" (which I developed), provide the opportunity to receive notifications by e-mail as soon as new options appear. Right now you can subscribe to hourly, daily, monthly notifications. I would add the option "When this happens."

Special offers

A great opportunity to email your subscribers is free materials. Everyone loves getting something for free and this is a way to gather brand advocates and prove to them the value of what you are doing. After all, if you e-mail your materials for free, they will probably go on to buy what you offer.

For example, the First Interregional Pawnshop Union does an excellent job. They hold meetings every year and then send free video lectures to their subscribers. Thus, they get new leads, sell more and more tickets for rallies and offer a lot of useful for the pawnshop community.