Your business website has an engaging home page, seamless navigation, gorgeous graphics, and a prolific, informative blog. Congratulations, you’re off to a great start! Your site is probably raising awareness of your brand and helping to build your reputation as an industry leader—but it could be doing much more. By incorporating higher value downloadable content, such as eBooks, helpful infographics, coupons, free trials, guides, or instructional videos, you gain the opportunity to further engage visitors with your business, generate leads and nurture them through the sales process, and even further enhance your site’s visibility in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
While your blog is an ideal place to share a lot of information about your products, services, industry, and related topics with your audience, it is a less effective place for capturing visitors’ contact information so you can keep in touch with them. If, however, at the end of a blog post, readers can choose get more in-depth information by downloading a free eBook or guide, set up a free consultation, or take advantage of a free trial, then those who are most interested in your business have reason to stay on your website and provide their contact information in order to claim these free benefits.
For example, if your business builds custom homes, your blog should contain plenty of articles that are helpful to people in the early stages of researching their options. For those who are thinking more seriously about beginning a custom home project, however, a downloadable resource such as a detailed guide of your process, an overview of financing options, or a catalog of basic floor plans and finishes can provide a higher value, giving these prospects good reason to give you their basic contact information.
Offering a series of downloadable pieces allows you to provide multiple layers of information that your prospective customers need before making a purchase decision. In the example above, the three types of downloadable resources mentioned can be delivered in a logical progression to help the company’s leads arrive at their final purchase decision. Maybe the first is a video of the owner describing their design-build process, the second an eBook, and the third a PDF catalog. However you decide to deliver the information your leads need, make sure to include a call to action guiding them to the next step, like “Download our catalog to start browsing floor plans!” or “Contact us for a free consultation!”
Every page of content that you add to your website has the potential to make your company appear more prominently in search engine results. While “gated” content (content for which visitors must complete a form in order to access) is not indexed by Google, your landing page (the page that contains the form) will be. When a visitor to your website page or a follower on one of your social media platforms clicks a link to download one of your offers, that link should direct them to a landing page, which describes the offer they’re about to accept and provides a form for them to fill out in exchange. Appropriate use of keywords and a URL to describe the offered content will enable the landing page to come up in relevant search engine results, making your brand more visible online.
Are you ready to start adding downloadable content to your website? Blue Frog Marketing can help! Our team of experienced web designers, writers, graphic designers, and marketing strategists can create beautiful, professional quality downloadable content for your website. Want to learn more about how to turn your site into a highly effective employee for your company? Click below to download our free eBook!
Blue Frog Marketing is headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, with an additional office in Huron, Ohio. We serve clients across the U.S. and beyond with comprehensive online marketing strategies as well as a wide range of in-house print services.