Preparing content that is of high quality is now more important than ever due to the increasing competition and demand for content writers. Almost everybody is able to produce content that is of good quality, but this is not longer sufficient.
How do you make your content better than your competition? The answer is 10X content. This is a term coined by Rand Fishkin of Moz which means content that is 10 times better than anything else you can find on search engines.
Although having better quality content than others might make it seem like you have a chance of appearing on the first page of Google, that is often not what happens.
There are two primary factors that affect a websites ranking: the quality of content, and the number of links pointing to it. In addition to meeting the first criteria for rankings, 10X content also has the ability to attract links from high authority websites.
In order to outrank your competition on Google, you need to produce content that is ten times better than what they are offering. Here are some tips on how to accomplish this.
What Is 10X Content?
If you want to rank for the keyword “best tools for content marketing,” you should check the pages that are ranking in the top three positions and study the information they contain.
You need to determine if you can create something that is significantly better than what is already available on the internet for the same keyword. If you can, then you should proceed with targeting that keyword. If you cannot, then it would be best to target a different keyword.
To create content that outperforms the competition, you need to create something ten times better. This means creating content with information that can’t be found elsewhere.
If your competitors have already created informative articles with all the information users might need, there’s no point in creating a new piece of content since you’ll just be repeating what’s already out there. This won’t be beneficial!
You can find opportunities to write better content than your competition by looking for areas where the quality of content is lacking. Perhaps the other articles don’t fully answer the question, or they answer the question but are poorly written. Maybe the articles are well written but haven’t been updated in a while. By creating a piece that can easily defeat your competitors, you can take advantage of these opportunities.
Factors For 10X Content
Even though most marketers use content marketing as part of their strategy, very few of them are actually successful at it. The reason is because the quality of the content is not very good.
It’s not just about writing down words, it’s about creating content that clearly explains and illustrates the topic you’re writing about in a way that’s easy to understand. But creating high quality content isn’t just about the words themselves, things like formatting, backlinks and how quickly the page loads are all important factors too.
How can you prepare content that is 10 times better than what is present on the web? Just follow the below factors:
Offer Great UX
Google regards user experience as a crucial element in ranking. A great UX comprises websites that load quickly, pages that are free of obstructive ads, and logical navigation.
Here are some tips that can help you optimize the overall user experience:
- Have a high-speed site. The ideal loading time should be between 2-3 seconds. Anything more than that and your site visitors will leave, leading to a high bounce rate.
Make subtle use of white space, which is a visual element that describes the parts of the page that are free of text or anything else, so that the important parts of your content can be seen and read easily. White space includes:
- Ample margins and short lines, with extra leading between lines
- Blocks of print indented off the left margin with headings outdented
- Short paragraphs, with space breaks between paragraphs
- Bulleted or numbered list structures where appropriate
- Headings and subheadings
- Use images and videos that are easy to load and work on any device. Images should be self-explanatory and must have alt text. Similarly, videos should be accompanied by a transcript.
- Add a visible search field so that the user can easily find the content of their choice. You don’t want the user to leave your site after he/she has finished reading the content, do you? A visible “next post’ link at the bottom of the article will allow the user to navigate to the next piece of content easily
- There should be no broken links within your content or in the navigation as it degrades the user experience and makes your blog look unattended.
- Keep the majority of your sentences and paragraphs on the short side, use larger, simple-to-read fonts, make good use of bullet points when listing three or more items, and get rid of unnecessary elements.
Ensure that Your Content Is of Excellent Quality
The design of your blog post or article is important, but the actual quality of writing and the substance of your piece should be even better. This is because low-quality content can lead to a high number of people leaving your website quickly (bounce rate) and low rankings.
Neil Patel believes that the quality of your content can have a significant impact on your website’s bounce rate.
For example, if the average bounce rate for a services business is 30-50%, this would not be cause for concern. However, if the average bounce rate is 50-60%, this is above average and would be cause for concern. If the average bounce rate is 70% or higher, this means that something is wrong.
Earn Your Backlinks
Links have always been an important part of the search engine algorithm for Google. However, after many people tried to improve their rank by buying links and filling the internet with spam, Google became better at telling the difference between link spam and links that are actually earned.
Guest blogging for the purpose of growing SEO is not recommended by Google, and many sites have been penalized for it. Therefore, it is important to create high-quality content to earn the backlinks needed to improve the rankings.
If you create high-quality content, people will see you as an expert on the topic and start linking back to your content. This will help you beat your competitors organically. The key is to create content that is helpful to the user.
The B2B Lead Generation Process
Generating b2b sales leads is only one element of the larger process.
If you want to increase sales, you need an intense lead generation process. Having a process in place helps to align marketing and sales teams, and provides reps with a proven framework to follow.
The steps involved in B2B lead generation are designed to turn potential customers into paying customers. This process begins with identifying potential customers, then nurturing those relationships through marketing and sales efforts. The final step is to convert the customer into a paying client.
Find B2B Sales Leads
Most B2B lead generation strategies start with finding contact information for potential customers.
The most common way to get contact information is to either source it in-house, have a third-party “lead gen” company generate it, or buy it from a lead database. Buying it from a lead database is not advisable for B2B lead generation.
Reaching Out to Leads
When a sales representative has a list of potential customers that they believe are high quality, they will reach out to those customers through cold outreach (such as by telephone or email), social media, or by responding to customer inquiries.
Qualifying & Prospecting High-Quality Leads
While measuring how likely leads are to buy, reps interact with leads.
They will do this by determining what stage the leads are in during the buying process.
Research & Awareness
The customer is aware that they need a solution or have a problem and begins to look into it further.
This is the stage where people become aware of a problem or need and begin to look for information on potential solutions. They’ll consume content like blog posts, whitepapers, and case studies.
Consideration
The lead knows exactly what they need and will detail their specific requirements before researching and talking to vendors.
Decision
After reviewing different vendors to see which best fit their needs, the buyer will have several meetings with them before making a final decision and checking in with other people who are involved in the process.
Executives will decide whether to focus on nurturing campaigns or book a call or demo based on what stage the lead is at.
Close Leads by Making a Sale
The prospect has chosen you as their vendor after multiple meetings and the deal is now done. They will be transferred to customer service for onboarding.
B2B Lead Generation Strategies That Work
The best way to increase sales is to develop a strategy that targets your specific industry, product, and buyer.
I cannot provide you with a small number of B2B lead generation strategies and then end the discussion.
Your sales and marketing teams will need to be open to trying new things, learning from their mistakes, and implementing new methods for getting B2B sales leads. This could involve trying out various strategies until something finally works.
Here are 19 B2B lead generation strategies that you can try.
Run A/B Tests on Key Pages
The WallMonkeys team used a heat map tool to see where visitors’ eyes landed first on their website. After receiving the results, they were confident that they could increase B2B sales leads by tweaking their homepage.
Theory put to test, a new background image and search bar were split-tested. This resulted in a 550 percent boost of conversions.
When WorkZone, a project management software, changed the color of its testimonial bar from black to white, it saw an increase of 34 percent in sign-ups on its submission form.
Changing the colors of the website to black and white generated more leads than using color.
Is there anything you can do to increase conversions on your website?
The only way to find out is to A/B split test.
Use Epic Content Campaigns
Snack Nation, an office snack supplier, had less than 100 monthly searches for its target keyword and was struggling to increase B2B sales leads.
In order to reach their ideal B2B leads, they created a post on “employee wellness”, which is a broader search term that their target buyers are likely to use.
They ensured that the post was high quality to generate leads.
Results of the “employee wellness” post:
- Snack Nation outdid competitors by featuring 121 ideas on “employee wellness.”
- They included a large number of contributions from other authorities in the industry.
- They also utilized an aggressive outreach strategy to get influencers to share their posts.
The post caused Snack Nation to be the top result on Google for their chosen keyword.
This post is still generating a lot of traffic and leads for them three years later.
Evergreen content can be a powerful tool for generating leads that last. This is illustrated by Snack Nation’s success story.
If you can create content that is better than your competitor’s content, do it.
Earn Your Buyers’ Trust With Social Proof
Social proof is an effective part of most B2B lead generation strategies.
People are more likely to buy a product/service if other people have purchased it before. This is because potential buyers may feel that if other people have bought the product/service, then it must be good.
The more social proof you can showcase on your site, the more likely it is that you will be able to gain trust and increase sales.
Adding social proof to your landing pages and homepage (such as reviews and testimonials) can help build trust with visitors. You can also share reviews on social media, and create case studies. Another way to build trust is to collect positive reviews on G2 Crowd.
Build a Free Tool to Generate B2B Sales Leads
I have seen many software and technology companies succeed by offering a free tool as part of their business-to-business lead generation strategy. This is an effective way to attract potential customers and get them interested in your product.
Offering a free tool works for B2B lead generation because:
- It allows leads to “try before they buy.”
- It gives you a solid opt-in offer that attracts high-quality leads into your sales funnel.
Use Quora Q&as to Generate More B2B Sales Leads
Content has always been used to educate buyers and answer their burning questions.
The challenge that most B2B marketers face is:
- Getting content in front of buyers.
- Finding questions that buyers are asking.
As long as you’re strategic about the questions you answer, you can attract potential customers and followers on Quora. Quora is a great platform for B2B lead generation. As a social Q&A site, Quora allows you to attract potential customers and followers by answering questions strategically.