The 3 Pieces Of Premium Content You Can Create Today

As an inbound marketer, you can use premium content as a very effective lead generation tool. Your goal is to attract visitors to your website by offering them some type of relevant and helpful premium content (e.g., webinars, ebooks, white papers, etc.) in exchange for their contact information, which they will typically submit via a web form. Once they have submitted their information, you can then begin the process of leading them through the various phases of the conversion funnel.

The other important benefit of offering premium content is that it helps to educate potential leads regarding various the aspects of your business, and it gives them more of a well-rounded picture of why they can trust you to deliver the information – and ultimately the product – that can satisfactorily address their needs. 

Below are three pieces of premium content you most likely already have written that will attract more leads and boost conversion rates.

1. How-Tos

Take a few different elements of your business that you know through-and-through and develop some instructional materials (e.g., ebooklets, articles, videos, etc.) that show people how to do them in a clear and easy-to-follow manner. You may very likely have some of this content already created.

For example, if you are a web designer, you could create a handful of screencast videos that teach simple CSS tricks to help enhance the look and feel of a website. If you offer a particular product, you could develop a series of instructional videos to help people understand how to maximize the use of your product, including some essential “dos and don’ts” to help them avoid common mistakes. If you prefer to publish your how-tos in ebook form, be sure to include detailed step-by-step instructions and descriptive images in order to offer maximum clarity to your readers. Provide your audience with the most helpful material possible so you’ll position yourself as a subject matter expert, which increases the attractiveness of your material in their eyes.

2. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

FAQs offer a succinct and powerful way to engage and inform your audience in a manner that emphasizes their perspective instead of your own. You probably already know many frequently asked questions your customers ask, and may possibly have a section dedicated to them on your website. But the effectiveness of your premium content FAQs will boil down to how well you have researched the needs, wants, wishes and pain points of your target market to go beyond what you currently have available online.

The best way to do this is to scour the Web for the most common frustrations or questions people have that relate to your particular area of expertise. Make sure to peruse discussion boards, online forums and question-and-answer sites such as Quora, ChaCha and Yahoo Answers to see what types of questions people are asking the most about your particular topic. Use the hashtag search functions in Twitter and Facebook to see what people are tweeting or posting about as it pertains to your particular area of expertise. Pay special attention to the irate or disgruntled comments, as these will identify the pain points that you can address in your FAQs. Leave no stone unturned; make sure to use all of the information you find to craft a list of FAQs that will offer genuinely helpful answers to your prospects.

3. Facts and Figures (Infographics and White Papers)

Industry research is typically information that only insiders understand or have access to. Make these various stats and findings available to the public and uniquely position yourself as an authority in your field by compiling a set of facts, figures and industry statistics and arranging them in a helpful and easily understandable way. One of the most popular ways to do this is to use an infographic, which provides a pictorial representation of various statistical data. You can also assemble a special report, or white paper, to share your findings, breaking down the information into various sections that highlight the key aspects of your particular industry. Make sure to make this information useful, concise and as up-to-date as possible.

You can truly supercharge your business by leveraging the power of premium content offers. The three types of premium content listed above are relatively easy to create, but