Reach Your 2023 Conversion Goals with These 10 Content and Email Marketing Tips

Intro

Ask any content or email marketer about the overarching patterns they’ve seen among client requests, and you might get a variation of these answers:

• Clients need someone who can make their brand look “different.”
• They want their posts to go viral.
• They want to improve their average conversion rate (and lower their bounce rate).

While we won’t be able to help you with the first two points, we’re peeling back the curtain and sharing insider tips on conversion rate optimization across marketing strategies.

For this article, we’ve got a bunch of actionable insights, subject matter expert (SME) input, and examples. All of which can help you boost your client’s conversion rates through content marketing and email marketing efforts.

Are you ready to take your client’s average conversion rate to the next level?

Let’s dive in.

1. Speak like a human

It doesn’t matter if you’re a B2B or a B2C company. As long as you’ve got a human customer on the other side of the computer making a purchase decision, you’ve got to speak like a human to move them further down the conversion funnel.

People don’t want to interact with a faceless brand or feel like a number on a spreadsheet. A personalized approach works wonders in building genuine connections and improving the user journey.

And where does that journey begin? The awareness stage — where content like blog posts, whitepapers, and e-books thrive.

But, in the age of artificial intelligence, how do you write like a human?

Screenshot by Juwaria Merchant

Here’s what Ryan Law, CMO at Animalz, has to say:

“Byline your articles from real people. Write conversationally, and acknowledge the fact that someone with a pulse—and not a corporate automaton—is on the receiving end of your marketing copy. Crack jokes, share opinions, and tell stories the reader will relate to. Use content to elevate your team, and not just your corporate brand account.”

Ryan says that sticking to these principles will help you win a sale over a global enterprise every time. In other words, it’s the secret recipe for conversion rate optimization.

Generative AI is, without a doubt, the cheaper alternative to hiring a full in-house content marketing team. But it lacks that human touch potential customers (and search engines) crave. So what if there’s a way to have your cake and eat it too?

That's where outsourcing some of your content creation tasks to a contractor can help you with your content marketing needs. Hiring a blog writer can help you save time and money, improve your SEO, increase traffic, and reduce the average bounce rate. What’s not to love?

2. Use images and graphics

Visuals can make or break any piece of content. For example, if you’re on a website searching for how to sign-up for a free trial, which of the following resources would you prefer:

• A step-by-step summary of how to sign-up
• A step-by-step summary on how to sign-up along with images

Our guess is the latter because visual cues can provide more context, and help you live up to the adage “show, don’t tell.”

In fact, when a digital agency, She Knows SEO, started incorporating visuals in their campaigns, they saw an increase in engagement rates by 25% and a drastic difference in their conversion rates.

However, you can be more strategic with the use of your visuals from there on. For example, you can position eye gazes near your biggest value proposition.

Screenshot by Juwaria Merchant

If you don’t have the resources to produce high-quality custom images for every campaign, tap into a library of free vector images. These sharp, scalable visuals catch attention and improve the user experience, which can lead to improved click-through rates across your marketing campaigns.

3. Create content in a timely manner

We all know of Ryan Reynolds as a marketing guru of sorts. But what’s the one marketing initiative Ryan Reynolds has applied that’s gotten him excellent results?

It’s the fast-follower strategy. Just take a look at Ryan’s Instagram or Facebook page, and you’ll find that he’s quick to move whenever there’s a new market trend.

For example, at the height of Amazon Prime’s TV show Jury Duty’s success, he got Ronald Gladden, the main character, for a Mint Mobile ad.

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And he might be onto something because more than 78% of users browse platforms like Facebook to find new products and services. It’s a no-brainer to tap into these channels and make your content as engaging as you can.

4. Personalize wherever you can

Personalization is another go-to strategy to consider, mainly because the more specific and targeted you can be with your content, the more you increase the chances of your prospects converting.

For example, when building content calendars for your next month’s blog content, you can base your ideas on a variety of personalized criteria:

• The current stage of the customer journey that your potential customers are in
• Any current target audience paint points
• Certain purchase drivers
• What they’d like to learn from you
• The type of CTA / value proposition that resonates best

Similarly, when creating email campaigns, you can personalize subject lines, customer names, content, and topics for different subsets of readers. Tap into the power of Google Analytics and other databases to put customer data to good use.

5. Create strong headlines

The fact of the matter is that it’s 2023 and people have tons of marketing materials to read. For example, you’re not the only person in their inbox telling them about your sale. And you’re not the only person on the internet educating them about a topic.

So, the only way you can stand out from the competition is by creating an eye-catching headline (or a subject line — if that’s more your thing), even when targeting the same keywords.

For example, when you type the keyword “documents” in PandaDoc, these are the search results you’re met with. Now, if you had to take a pick, which one would you read?

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Chances are, you picked the option that compared Britney Spears and Coca-Cola because that’s an unlikely match, and you want to learn more.

Quick Note: Your headline woes don’t stop at just creating the perfect title or subject line.

Readers love to skim blogs and emails, so you need to create headers that get the point across, too. For example, even if you skim this blog and only read the headers, you still might get an idea of what the piece is trying to convey.

6. Construct targeted CTAs

A HubSpot study found that more personalized CTAs can boost conversion rates by 202%. That's not a drop in the bucket.

So, it's time to bid CTAs like "Click here" or "Know more" goodbye and be more specific and targeted to motivate potential customers to click.

For example, Brad Smith from Wordable uses “I Want The Training Videos Now!” on his online form to encourage users to unlock access to pre-recorded videos about how his SEO agency increased monday.com blog traffic by 1,570% in 3 months.

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You can even access a free eight-minute teaser — no strings attached (read: no email required). The more specific the CTA, the better. These small details have more of an impact on conversions than they appear on the surface.

So, here are a few tips for creating effective CTAs:

• Help your customers imagine what it’d be like to use your product. Don’t paint a negative picture of what they can lose if they don’t use your product, but rather show what they can attain if they do.
• Showcase your value proposition and then immediately back it up with an example, customer reviews, or a case study that shows the results you’ve achieved for other clients.
• Test button sizes and multimedia elements to determine what resonates best with your audience. Don’t underestimate the power of data-driven decisions.

7. Make it convenient for users to convert

Convenience is our mantra in 2023. To ensure your prospects can sign up for your services, make it as convenient as possible by:

• Using extremely simple language
• Showcasing the importance of your product
• Providing specific examples
• Not buying the lede
• Not asking them to go to a different channel to sign up (e.g., email to website)

All in all, don’t make your customers connect the dots to know how your products can impact their lives — connect the dots for them in the most simplistic way possible.

For example, when you search “edit a PDF on Mac” online, companies like Adobe don’t just show how to edit PDFs — they show how to edit PDFs on Adobe, thus making your customers subconsciously use Adobe when they want to edit these files.

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8. Consider offering mystery rewards or sharing free resources

An older JCR study shows that people who are awarded mystery rewards are more likely to complete a task by 62%, as opposed to those who aren't offered the reward. You can offer mystery rewards (such as the chance to join a lucky draw) when customers sign up or buy your products.

Similarly, sharing free resources, such as templates, research studies, or e-books, builds your authority and credibility and gets you noticed by many places (e.g., there were many free research studies linked to in this article).

When you build credibility or motivate customers in this way, your chances of boosting conversion rates are comparatively higher.

9. Utilize urgency and scarcity tactics

Urgency and scarcity tactics are another great way to get customers to buy.

Cath Brands, the CMO at Flintfox, says, “Without some sort of urgency or scarcity, the customers simply struggle with decision fatigue and will put down your emails for some other time.”

“Incorporating urgency and scarcity elements into your email campaigns will always be a net positive for your conversion rates, and I have personally witnessed email campaign conversion rates skyrocket by more than 30% after incorporating these two elements into the emails.”

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On that note, whenever you’re promoting an offer on your social media pages or on other channels, please ensure the landing page has the same offer. For example, you can’t offer a limited-time discount on your social media pages and not link to the same offer on your landing page.

The best part? This strategy works well for B2B and B2C products. So, when creating a SaaS content strategy (or a content strategy for another industry), you can add some urgency and scarcity-related tactics in there, and watch your online conversions soar.

10. Test frequencies

Last but not least, keep on testing email and content frequencies and timings. See what works and what doesn’t. Which topics land well and which don’t, and you’ll be on your way to boosting conversion rates tenfold — only a slight exaggeration there.

For example, when Belkins, a lead generation agency, changed its email frequency from once a week to one email in three days, its conversion rates were boosted by almost 20%.

But keeping track of all the moving parts when you increase publishing frequency can feel like you’re herding cats. That’s where a content planner comes into play.

You can plan out all of your email, blog, and social media content weeks or months in advance and never miss a beat. Consistency is the name of the game, and using the right tools helps keep you on track while holding you accountable. A recipe for success, if you will.

Put your best foot forward

You might find many tips and strategies on the internet for boosting your content and email conversion rates. The one thing you won’t find is how to be yourself.

So, if you wish to truly boost conversions in the most organic way possible, be as authentic as you can with your customer. Because, at the end of the day, it’s not really about the sale — it’s about the customer experience and building the trust of your prospect.

As the saying goes, “People buy from people they trust, and they trust the people they like.”