8 minute read.
Content is king and when it comes to owning and operating a website, having creative content ideas for that website really allows your to stand out from the ocean of others on the Internet. Gone are the days of simple pictures and descriptions, because that’s just boring.
Nowadays, people want to be engaged in your content, they want an experience before even considering if they should go ahead and purchase anything from your website.
Your visitors want to be informed and in multiple formats. There are many other websites out there selling similar products or services and providing equivalent information. So, in order to get visitors to your site and drive them down the funnel, you have to be creative, cunning and provide an experience like no other to your targeted audience.
What are some creative content ideas you can steal and use on your own website? Here we compiled seven, starting with user-generated or user-made content.
1. User-Generated Video Content
The results are in and video on your website or blog is a must. Video is the number one way to consume content in 2018. In fact, Forbes predicts that Internet video traffic will be over 80% of all consumer traffic by 2021. Not to mention that Facebook alone has over a half a billion people watching videos on the daily basis.
People love creating, watching and sharing videos, because it’s easier and more convenient than ever with smart phones, tablets, web cameras, Facebook Live, Instagram, YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
While you might not have the time or resources to pump out frequent video content, your customers and target audience does. And best of all, they love doing it!
So How Do You Exploit This To Everyone’s Benefit?
Encourage your users to generate video content and incentivize them into uploading this content directly to your website or a social platform where a feed can display and filter them in real-time.
Doing this will lead to a database of free content, built by your own users, for your target audience. When visitors see this, they will know that your website, brand, product and/or service is viable and trustworthy.
Videos are exceptional ways to display products and services, as well as, extend reach. You should take full advantage of this creative content idea of user-generated video content so you can turn customers into advocates and inform additional potential customers.
2. User-Made Instagram Posts
Instagram is one of the most powerful social media platforms on earth, first known for their wide array of neat photo filters. Instagram allows pictures, videos, text, and #hashtags to be shared which makes this media platform a gift to anyone selling products or promoting brands online.
Not only is Instagram great for posting your own content on your business’s profile page, but you can also use it to engage with users and encourage them to post their user-made content about your business using your selected hashtag. Instagram posts can be fed to your website in real-time with the ability to set filters.
User-made content like Instagram posts are important for your website and business, because it helps build a loyal fan base, extends your reach to other audiences, develops trust, and generates lots of useful content for free.
This creative content idea is fantastic for video testimonials, pictures of people using your products, or showing off your services. It’s a win, win situation with Instagram. You should definitely utilize this platform and see your website grow while keeping your customers happy and engaged.
3. Video Modeling Content & YouTube
As mentioned above, video content is the new king in online consumption and where does most of the world go to consume video content? That’s right, YouTube! YouTube has over 1 Billion daily users. That’s a lot of video being watched, so if you want to grow your company and its website, you need to have a presence on YouTube.
Video modeling content is where you model your products or hire professionals to model them on video. This type of content idea is not only creative and under utilized, it really boosts sales and product knowledge. You can include a 360-degree view, how-to explanation, actual product review, pointing out features, and other modeling ideas.
This adds legitimacy and provides a look and feel that you just can’t get from a picture. Let them know exactly what they are getting so they’re content when they make their purchase and use it. This reduces returns and negative feedback.
How To Start?
- Create a YouTube channel.
- Upload a video to your channel.
- Link the video to your most relevant web page(s).
- Link your website to your channel.
- Make sure you optimize each video’s title, description and tags.
- Embed videos and/or implement a live YouTube feed on your website.
- Then watch as the number of visitors, views and sales increase day after day.
It’s not as easy as it seems though, it takes a lot of practice to get it right and you have to be consistent. Consistency is key when it comes to the Internet. Remember you’re competing with an ocean of other websites and companies, so you have to be focused, disciplined and active when it comes to your online marketing and content creation.
4. Major Influencers
Influencers are people who have a substantial online following in your market or markets similar to yours. Influencers get followed, because people think they are “cool” or “respected” and their audience pays close attention to what these influencers are doing.
Their followers are paying attention to what they are wearing, eating, driving, and where they’re going, trying, and basically everything else. This is the major reason why influencers are so important to marketing your website and made number four on our creative content idea list.
If an influencer tells his or her followers that you have the new hot products or the best service in town, you’ll reach a new audience and gain a new stream of traffic to your website. Giving you a chance to turn this newfound traffic into leads and ultimately sales.
5. Enticing Product Descriptions
A little bit of creativity goes a long way, and this is certainly true when it comes to selling products online. It’s easy to just describe something as is, but to create an image in someone’s head or to invoke an emotion is harder. You’re never just selling a product; you’re selling an experience.
The verbiage on your website matters and needs to be enticing. For example, if you own a restaurant and you have amazing steak dinners, let your audience know how amazing this steak dinner really is. Use words like “sizzling” or “mouth-watering” to describe your steak. This type of verbiage gets taste buds going and arouses a positive, irresistible reaction before even tasting it.
Or when you add a little humor and make someone laugh or giggle, it sticks with that person and makes them think about your product over others.
If you nail this creative content idea, people will come back for more, share it with their friends, and increase sales because their emotion and craving of that experience will override their impulses.
6. Simple Tutorials
Simple tutorials are a great way to talk to your audience and explain your products to them. When someone sees a detailed explanation on how-to use a product or complete a task using your product, they gain an understanding of how useful it is and the benefits to them.
You should implement these creative content tutorials on your website to improve your shopper’s experience and nudge them closer to choosing your product. Guiding the user and allowing them to learn, turns a one-time buyer into a lifetime customer and advocate.
This is the long-term goal. Competition is steep online, so you want your website to be a resource for your customers or potential customers, not just somewhere to get sold and pushed around.
7. Buyers Guides Combined With CTAs
Educating your target audience produces a smarter buyer, which in return, generates a better happier customer that won’t jump on Yelp and hate all over your brand, service or product.
You need to nurture your website visitors with these buying guides and take them from the awareness stage to the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey. Strategically placing calls to action (CTAs) within these buyer guides will accomplish this.
After all, your content is meant to educate your consumer and the CTA is meant to provide the next step through the sale funnel. So the combination of the two are essential in order to generate leads on your landing pages and convert more website sales.
Use These Creative Content Ideas & Watch Your Website Blossom
Marketing your business online is not easy, but hands down a necessity today. If done successfully, the rewards can be astronomical and the consistent growth of your company will continue long-term.
Take Amazon.com for example which started off as a website selling books online and is now the largest retail store in the world. It’s essential to be creative, consistent and to think outside of the box, so start applying these creative content ideas to your website and content strategy today to start seeing real results.
If you’ve found this information valuable, then you’ll want to check out the ultimate content marketing resource compiled of tips, tools, examples and more.