Leadsource Content Marketing Blog

Lead Generation: The Power of the “How-To”

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There's good content, and then there's great content.

One of the most compelling ways to create great content is with a "How To" guide that explains how your service, process or product works.

Good "How To" content not only generates leads, it is a magnet for inbound links -- a great way to boost your Google page rank. It can be a video, a micro-site, or a downloadable document, depending upon the audience. 

But regardless of the format, good "How To" content typically offers at least one of the following*:

• Useful Information -- a "How To" video that shows how to select the right checking account, investment counselor, or attorney can take on a life of its own if available on YouTube (as well as your site).

• Instruction -- a "How To" download that illustrates the steps in staining a deck or cleaning a concrete driveway shows your products in-use, without the implied bias of paid advertising.

• Entertainment -- just because it's a business topic doesn't mean it can't also be fun. A "How To" that shows the wrong way (and then the right way) to use a product or service can use humor to make an otherwise dry subject memorable.

Great content often has a theme that appeals to curiosity, self-interest, or worry. It also uses an engaging promise in the title which, oddly enough, often involves a "How To".

* With apologies to C. Gordon Hoxie ("How to Build an Offer"), legendary New England direct marketer who labored to teach a bunch of young writers the rules of good content, long before it was called that.

5 Ways to Turn Existing Marketing Material Into a Content Goldmine

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Information -- not advertising -- is what people search for on the web when thinking about a purchase. And chances are that a ton of informative content is locked inside of your existing marketing materials -- the same ones that nobody downloads today.

The trick is to re-purpose it into blogs, videos, podcasts, white papers, etc. that provide information to help buyers decide -- without the hard sell.

Companies that offer informative content become trusted providers -- something that all the ad money in the world can't buy. They also stretch their marketing budget by re-purposing existing materials into informative web content.

There are many places to mine quality content within a company - but here are 5 great places to begin:

1. Showcase Your People - your subject matter experts are an invaluable source of information that purchasers want to know before deciding what to buy. Brief "how to" interviews can be turned into blogs, videos, and much more.
2. Capture Speeches - executives spend days crafting informative speeches, only to have it lost forever. When videoed and transcribed, they are a great source of podcast and video content, and feedstock for blogs, white papers, press releases, and e-books.
3. Repurpose White Papers - think about how much valuable technical content is locked inside of your promotional white papers. This can be a huge source of good web content.
4. Mine Your Training Materials - this is a major source of "how to" articles. You've figured it out to train your people, why not use it to help prospective customers make better buying decisions?
5. Expand Press Releases - with a little bit of magic, a promotional press release can be turned into a blog article that contains useful information for a prospective purchaser, along with links to more "how to" information.

Turning existing marketing materials into direct response content is a great way to build trust with prospective buyers, and leverage your past marketing investment. Companies who do "get found" on the web by the people that matter -- prospects looking to buy now.