What’s your target that you want to achieve through content marketing? Is it better page ranking or clicks? These two are different, especially if you consider the platforms. Let's dig deeper.
In the first case, you need to satisfy search engines, so that they rank your pages for related keywords. In the second one, both search engine and social media plays a key role. The more intriguing the title is, the more clicks it gets. There are two factors working:
Let’s take up an example:
We searched with “How to control global warming” on Google. We got the following page at the number one position:
This article is a list post, as the title suggests. On the contrary, here is a more technical article that appeared at the 4th position.
The reason is Google understands the buyer intent while returning webpages for each query. Google knows that when people search for “effects of global warming”, they look for pointers in simple layman’s term.
Here we saw that link bait article worked better. Now let’s examine another example. This time we searched for “custom jewelry”. Google understood when users search with “custom jewelry”, they might want to buy them.
So, Google placed eCommerce sites at the top positions and not the information-rich wiki page.
Here again the buyer intent was given the utmost importance than keyword and information.
You must be thinking that content strategy is critical. Actually no! All you need is, simplify it. It depends on how well you understand three factors:
- Your searcher intent
- Your content
- Your marketing target
The golden point:
It’s that juncture of your content marketing, where all these three pointers meet.
In other words:
The golden point of content marketing = Content that would satisfy your searcher’s intent when they search with a related keyword on search engines + Content that would attract people to click on them + Content that would be in line with your marketing goal.
One content for one pointer is not a smart strategy as we’re living in an age of content overdose. A Moz article suggests that meeting all three points perfectly might not be possible every time. In this case, you can focus on any two factors at a time.
For example, your content marketing strategy may look like:
Article 1 = searcher’s intent + marketing goal
Article 2 = marketing goal + link bait
Article 3 = link bait + searcher’ intent
Now the most important part: How to write headlines that your audience can’t ignore
How to create headlines that would satisfy your buyer intent: Focus on your business and your target audience’s behavior. This is the most important thing you need to understand.
For example, if you offer online marketing consultancy, create content that would either show off your knowledge in the niche or help your target group to find their answers.
You not only need to craft the headline promisingly but also need to provide enough value for your audience. Else, even if you trick your audience to click on your content, search engines would not rank them well.
How to create headline that gets more clicks: Link bait content is the one that provokes your audience to click on your content, be it on SERP or social media. But it’s more than that. More clicks equal to better search engine ranking. It also creates virality. List posts, data-backed titles, how-tos, controversial titles work best as link baits.
Let’s take a look at some of the great link bait headline examples:
How to set the right marketing goal: This is a little tricky. Analyze your business properly to determine the right marketing goal at that point of time. If you’re a beginner, your marketing goal should be to create a brand awareness. If you have already made it, your goal should be generating sales.
Are you into content marketing? Do you consider all these factors to create your headings? If not, will you try it for your next post?
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