3 Easy Steps to Creating Content That Drives Website Traffic

Today we are going to go over 3 easy steps to creating content that drives traffic to your website.

Now most people know that creating content is a necessity these days: it gets you noticed, it gets you readers, and (above all) gets you customers and turns leads into actual buyers of your product or service.

However, most businesses go wrong in that they just create content kind of willy-nillly and without a purpose.

Believe it or not, there actually SHOULD be a strategy behind your content creation.

So here are 3 easy steps to creating content that drives traffic to your business website:

STEP #1: ASK YOURSELF: “WHO’S MY AUDIENCE?”

Before creating content, ask yourself who your ideal audience is. How you can you figure this out?

 

#1. LOOK AT YOUR EXISTING CUSTOMERS

Ask yourself a few questions:

 

1. What caused them to purchase from you in the first place?

Was it your pricing? What is the connection they felt to you as an authority figure? Or was it the types of service or products you offer? Do you specialize in a certain niche that your customer can’t read about anywhere else?

 

2. Write out what your ideal customer is like.

How old are they, what’s their annual income? What are their pains and everyday problems that you can help solve? How can you help make their lives better? Remember, you want to show your customer Heaven looks like, and then provide him the steps for how to get there through your product or service.

Asking yourself these simple questions will take you a long way towards figuring out who your audience is and how you can create content around that ideal person

STEP #2: WHERE DOES YOUR AUDIENCE HANG OUT ONLINE?

Most people will create a piece of content and then just spray it everywhere for the Internet to (not) see; they’ll dump it on Facebook; they’ll post it on Instagram, they’ll put it on Pinterest. Then?… they’ll wonder why it doesn’t get any traffic.

Do not be this type of content creator.

If you specialize in a certain industry or niche of people, find out where your crowd hangs out.

Ramit Sethi at I WIll Teach You to Be Rich calls these “watering holes”. In other words- where do your customers get together online to talk about the industry or do business?

A lot of people’s first thoughts are to go immediately to Reddit or other various sites. Instead, check first to see if there are any specialized forums or communities in your industry where people interested in your business will congregate.

Also check to see if there are any associations, YouTube channels, or even trade magazines that people read, and consider even trying to get your content on those channels- a lot of times, you’ll find they’re WAY less crowded than the others you’re used to.

Speaking of Facebook groups: they are the new forums. Traditional forums have died out and Facebook groups have taken their place.

Look around for Facebook groups online, and when you find some good ones related to your industry, click on the ‘See All’ tab to find similar groups and pages.

Finally, focus on only 1-2 channels. Don’t spread yourself too thin trying to be everywhere, posting in 10,15, or 20 different social sites and groups. You’ll burn yourself out and will dread creating and distributing your content.

 It’s much better to focus on and build your community in just 1-2 specific channels.

STEP 3: CREATE CONTENT THAT TRANSFORMS YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER

This is the most important step.

Remember: the purpose of content creating should be to transform your ideal prospect- in other words, take them from 0 to 100 using your advice and guidance.

For example, is your content trying to help people lose weight? Is it trying to help them find a partner or make more money? Create content that will help them lose 10 pounds or make $1,000 that month.

Every piece of content you create should give a mini-solution to the overall problem your business solves.

Ask yourself what the buying cycle is for your typical client.

If you’re selling a lower-priced or fairly inexpensive product, you probably won’t have to deliver as much content, education, or information to your prospect in order to get them to buy. On the other hand, if you’re selling a higher-ticket item, you prospect will probably need (and want) a lot more information and content from you in order to be brought to the edge of becoming a full-fledged buyer.

FInally, ask yourself what your audience needs to know before doing business with you.

For example, if you’re a website designer, maybe your client needs to be educated on the purpose behind creating their website; not what color it should be or how good their ‘About’ page is, but how the site can contribute to making more revenue and helping their customer.

Or maybe you’re a personal trainer, and before a client works with you, you want them to come in knowing about certain types of meal plans you recommend, or workout routines you use.

I know when I was teaching guitar lessons, I would give my new students a little ‘pre-homework’ that they needed to have completed before they started coming to lessons. This way, I knew we’d both be starting from the same page every time, and could start helping them immediately instead of having to go over the basics for a few lessons.

Think of this as ‘pre-prepping’ them to buy from you.

All in all, this process does not have to be complicated- your content creation just needs to have a purpose (versus being created randomly and haphazardly), a plan, and deliver a small transformation that your reader can take action on. Think about who your audience is, where they hang out online, and what kind of changes they want to make, and then create content around the answers to those questions.

With all this in mind, I would love to hear from YOU:

What’s the hardest part about creating content?- is it coming up with new topics? Actually creating the content? Or is it even just scheduling it all and figuring out when and where to post it?

Answer in the comments, and I’ll make a post about the most popular problem.