In this article, I look at how to create blog content for lead generation using an example of a surf school in the tourism industry. We look at, setting a goal,  identifying your target audience, focussing on your niche, measuring the results, keeping a dialogue with the clients and sharing that content further.

Content creation in the form of articles is a great way to attract users to your site and retain them. On top of this Google Search is monitoring users on your site to gauge the usefulness of it in relation to the topics they are searching for. If you provide useful, relevant content (not something designed purely to rank for SEO) not only is it 'food' for search engines but if you write it in such a way that it becomes a great resource for people interested in your area of expertise then search engines are able to understand that people are using it (a measure of its usefulness) and hence they will rank it higher in their results.

At the end of the day, that means more users to your site and better exposure in the future with rankings. Win, win. Its a long-term (6 months plus) strategy but combine this with some good on page design to capture leads and you will have a long-term, cheap lead generator for your business.

If you're in tourism, as some of my clients are, then having a content strategy can be a great way to reduce fees from third party booking sites like booking.com, airbnb.com or other aggregators. On top of that if for some reason your business is reliant on these then you can protect yourself against the inherent risk of having one main source of business.

Here's how to start...

What are your content marketing goals?

This article focusses specifically on content creation for the purposes of lead generation so our goal is set but there are other kinds of goals possible. In the particular area of lead generation, different content is be useful at different stages of the sales funnel. Sometimes you want to,

• - build awareness of your product,
• - sometimes you want to educate or evaluate your product compared to others and 
• - sometimes people are ready to book or make contact or purchase.

There is quite a bit to this so if you would like more information read about Lead Nurturing on HubSpot.

So our goal is lead generation and we know that people need different information at different stages of their buying process. What next?

Identify your target audience:

It's obviously important to know who your target audience is. Let's say we were generating content for a local surf shop and surf school. A decent level of awareness will contain the basics like,

• - age (under 30)
• - country of origin (mostly North American)
• - other activities they like (skateboarding, snowboarding, and sandboarding)
• - level of surf skill (a lot of learners, surf lesson popular)

but also you can go a little further as well,

• - North Americans value and are used to good service
• - they like to show their friends back home about the surf they got
• - learner surfers want to know that they are being taught by someone who is qualified
• - under the 30s are price conscious
• - they also like other kinds of relatively cheap but still exciting and adventurous activities (hiking for example).

This kind of knowledge will help you to tailor content to your reader. If you don't know this stuff yet then get out and talk to some of your clients. 

Focus your content on a niche:

Your content should have a general theme. If you are offering surf lessons then you can imagine that your writing should revolve around that. This can be hard to get right in the beginning. You could imagine that writing an article about global warming and its effects on the surf industry might be of interest to your clients - and it probably is but I would say to a lesser extent than

• - The best surfboard to bring on a trip to your area if you are traveling with your own board or
• - How qualified your surf instructors are including all their national championships and
• - Describing exactly how a surf lesson will be undertaken including prices, duration, equipment provided and type of surf break you will learn at.
• - The three best accommodation types for your clients nearby
• - An article describing trips to other nearby surf destinations

When you combine this with the knowledge from targeting your audience and some keyword research from search engines you'll realise there is a lot of content to create.

How to measure your content marketing:

How do you know when you have been successful? Measuring which specific channel business comes through to you from will allow you to see which have been working for you and which are not.

Measuring this depends on how you are collecting leads really. Is it in a chat application, an email or contact form submission, is it a booking through a third party booking service. Whichever it is you will want to understand when you have got it right. 

There is also specific analytic software you can use to help you here, the most popular being the Google Analytics suite of tools which can track particular clicks or downloads or form submissions or other events. Whichever way you choose to measure just make sure you are.

Keep up a dialogue with your clients and listen to them:

You level of contact with your client may vary. Do you have face to face time with them? If so, this is great - ask them questions that you are wondering. How did you find the school? Was there something you were left wondering from the Facebook page or website? After a few months of doing this, you will have a wonderful understanding of your client.

If you are interacting with them on Social Media then ask for suggestions, their own experiences on a topic, feedback in general.

Share the content in places where your customers 'hang out':

The content that you create at this point is now tailored to a specific target audience, you have researched your client, you have written useful content in a niche. On top of publishing it on your website share it on your Social Media. Obviously, your Social Media should also be targeted at your clients as well. What Social Media do your clients use? For many businesses, the answer will be Facebook but for some, it might be LinkedIn or Pinterest. If you aren't sure, ask as in the above steps.

Conclusion:

Content creation can be powerful but like everything having some context and a plan of attack will do wonders and keep you motivated to create relevant and useful content. Content creation is a medium to long-term strategy because search engines want you to have been around a while - they don't dish out trust, in the form of ranking you highly in search results, easily. Consistency is a key element in executing the above strategy.

Do you have any content creation tips to share? Leave a comment below.

Sources:

On top of my own experience I used two articles to guide me,

Lead Nurturing - HubSpot

Content Strategy - Neil Patel