Of all the activities you do to attract customers, your digital marketing campaign should generate leads. Otherwise, you need to take a serious look at what’s working and what’s not.

One of the great things about content marketing involves the ability to position yourself as an authority, a designation that is sure to generate leads. It turns out, the way that you promote and present your content will have a significant impact on lead-generation success.

How it works

The basic tenet of content marketing is that consumers are willing to give up valuable information (their email, name, etc.) in exchange for valuable content (that businesses provide). As a result, consumers get information they need to solve a problem, and businesses get access to contact information, whereby they can nurture leads to eventually convert.

But it’s not so simple…

Nothing is easy when it comes to digital marketing, but there are steps you can take to increase the likelihood that your content marketing plans will generate leads. MECLABS has conducted studies to uncover the keys to content marketing and lead generation success. Here’s what they found:

1. Showcase the problem

Landing pages that work use images to clearly convey the problem that consumers have. Visuals are a great tool for clearly defining value propositions, and in this case, that holds true. In an instant, visitors to the page can quickly discover if they should spend more time on the page, or if it’s a waste of time. In this sense, the images you choose to put on the page will either entice or repel visitors.

The image should help to a story, and reveal to page visitors whether or not the product or service will help them in some way. Effective images also make a distinction between two factors: First, if the product or service is simply part of the customer’s life, or second (and better), if the product or service helps them make the customer’s life better in some way.

2. Think like a customer

As a business owner or marketer, it’s tempting to simply relay the benefits or advantages of your products and services. But for customers, this is no longer enough to convince them to spend their hard-earned dollars. While this method was once successful, it now positions companies as self-serving and the approach is irrelevant to consumers. Ultimately, it won’t help your business advance, nor generate leads.

Successful content must clearly outline how the customer experience improves. This kind of content makes a connection with the customer. In essence, the copy on your content marketing deliverables should be customer-centric, or all about the customer. Content should help customers find a solution to their problems and focus squarely on their needs. So instead of content that describes “5 ways to use our product” (company-centric), the copy will reveal “5 ways the product solves X problem” (customer-centric).

3. Is it worth it?

Every time a consumer gives up her name or shares his address, it’s associated with a cost. Therefore, the content that you’re offering must be equal — or above — in worth or value. While consumers aren’t paying any money for the content, they’re exchanging something of value, and businesses must consider this exchange when creating content marketing tools.

There is an actual effort that goes along with taking 5 seconds to fill out a sign-up form, and there’s also a level of anxiety that goes alongside uploading personal information to the internet. In order to generate leads, your content must prove worthy of consumers’ risking online safety and time.

The bottom line of generating leads boils down to this: Are you presenting a solution to a problem? Does your content deliver a better customer experience? And is the content worth the time and risk? If you can answer “yes” to these questions, your content marketing campaign is sure to generate leads.