5 Reasons Why Your Content Is Not Converting

Your content is not converting if you are not appealing to your personas’ heart. Content must entice the consumer, and deliver on its promises. Here is how.

5 Reasons Why Your Content Is Not Converting

What intrigued you most about the meta description, before you clicked through from Google search results, or from a social media page? Did I hit the bullseye when I said ‘your content is not converting because you are not appealing to your personas’ heart?’ Content must entice the consumer on, and deliver on its promises.

Let’s take two recent political events of which the ramifications are rolling on. Mind you, I am not being partisan: just observing the power of words to stir emotions.

Donald Trump and Nigel Farage won hands down in recent referendums and elections. Nobody expected Donald to trump Hilary. As and for Nigel, David Cameron thought he had No Brexit in the bag. Just how did two people sitting on the sidelines knock out their politically powerful opponents, and potentially change world politics?

The Answer Is in the Content of Their Speeches

Donald Trump and Nigel Farage sniped to the core of their nation’s emotions, by daring to get directly to the point. Just as I am doing now, by daring to tread on partisan ground to make my point. The two men understood the mood of their electorates. They understood their aspirations and their dreams: And they promised them the benefits that they wanted to hear.

By the time Clinton and Cameron set their pride aside and listened to their advisors, it was too late. They may have said your speech content is not converting the electorate, but there was no time left to turn the tide.

Farage and Trump were master salespersons who learned well from marketing guru Peter Drucker. He famously said, “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits them and sells itself.” He also said, and this is highly relevant when researching the personas of our markets, “my greatest strength … is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.”

5 Reasons Why Your Content is Not Converting Sales

Internet marketing content may fail to convert because (a) the website design is uninspiring, or (b) the content does not strike the consumer’s heart. It may also (c) fail because there is something wrong with your marketing strategy. We use Shopify screenshots to illustrate points because we love the crisp reports the leading ecommerce platform produces. However our tips work equally well with Magento, OpenCart, PrestaShop, WooCommerce, and Zen Cart applications to mention only a few.

We already published tips for making website designs more convincing. Let’s find out more about the five things you may be doing to drive leads away with your content.

First Possibility: People Visiting Your Website Don’t Trust You

Hilary Clinton and David Cameron toppled off their perches because their traditional supporters no longer trusted mainline politicians. Nobody in their right mind is going to spend money on Shopify, if they have the slightest concern the supplier will let them down.

  • Post relevant explainer videos and blogs that position you as a technical expert in your field
  • Personalize your webpage with brick-and-mortar content details, team photos, and a short bio about yourself
  • Respond to all comments on review sites, and regularly update positive feedback on your site

If your content is not converting, make your pages stickier with the power of Google Analytics and see your sales uptick.

Tip One: Do A/B Testing and Check Your Bounce Rates

Second Possibility: You Don’t Know Why You Are Selling To

I spun the conversation around a little. Less-successful Shopfiers I have met, know who they are selling to, but they don’t understand the connection. Donald Trump understands his constituency extremely well. Notice how he adapts to every audience. Your content must adapt to each segment of your audience.

Say you are selling, for arguments sake, a wide variety of products, including pet supplements and adult vapers. You have at least two sets of customers. You would be plain-bound crazy if you used the same call to action for both of them. You must pander to your audience including calls to action.

Constantly look for clues in your market’s behaviour. Which content is not persuading visitors to remain longer, and why?

Tip Two: Tailor Your Content to Your Audience

Third Possibility: Your Content SEO Sucks

Everything we write about conversion here is irrelevant if we have no one to convert. Most of your leads are going to come from social media and google. And users are going to use keywords to discover your content. Read case studies to learn the secrets insiders know. If you are using WordPress, let Yoast guide you to results like these. Green ;lights are good.

Tip Three: Pepper Your Content with Related Keywords

Fourth Possibility: Your Images are Lousy

We interpret the pictures first, and then the words. And we may ‘read the images’ a hundred times faster. Read this research to understand how images are the gateway to knowledge, and why pictures are worth a thousand words still.

  • Avoid low-resolution images and videos that create the wrong impression
  • Increase your credibility further by using visual content posted nowhere else
  • Make sure your graphics contribute powerfully to overall understanding
  • Add alt text to all your graphics to turbocharge your SEO and attract hits

Tip Four: Optimize Your Graphics for Greatest Impact

Fifth Possibility: Your Content Is Failing to Persuade

Videos, images, and other graphics attract, but words nail the facts down, convert, and inspire people to action. If your written content is not converting, then hire yourself a successful content writer to do the convincing for you. Your pages should be more than entertaining. They are the workhorse of your business.

Do you remember a fellow called Barack Obama who came from almost nowhere to be U.S. President twice? He built his campaign around these three words ‘Yes We Can’, and yes, you could have content that’s converting too.

Tip Five: Create Cracker Content That Sells

Watch this space for the third part of this series, when we explore how to market on the internet, as Obama did on social media for success like this. Imagine if you had a crowd this size waiting for you in cyberspace!