Marketing strategists try all the tricks in the book to boost their product or service and rise above competitors. Content marketing is an effective tactic that can pay rich dividends. The path to content marketing success is to strike the right balance between marketability and creativity.
There are no set guidelines that guarantee success, but you need to make sure your content is easy to read, reputable, innovative, and fresh. To help you out, here are 10 effective content marketing tips:
1. Plan for the Long Term
No blog can become successful overnight. Content creation and blogging require plenty of time and hard work from writers, SEO specialists, and marketers. Once you start publishing content, let it breathe for some time before you start judging the results.
2. Revise Old Content
Repurposing old content is an excellent way to boost search engine ranking. Plus, content refurbishing can reduce content expenses. But, you need to ensure that the repurposed content still resonates your brand’s voice. If you find an older post that is not in line with your current company status, it’s best to remove it.
You can use apps like BuzzSumo to identify content that has performed well on social networks. If some of that popular content is older, repurpose it. You can read detailed reviews of BuzzSumo and other social media monitoring and marketing tools in a reputable B2B software directory.
3. Maintain Social Media Presence
Social media engagement has become mandatory for content marketing.
Consider the below stats:
- 94 percent of marketing content on social media is obtained from unique written content.
- 92 percent of marketing executives think social media is important for business operations.
- 78 percent of content marketing experts believe custom content is important for marketing.
- Around 70 percent of B2B marketing specialists use content across multiple channels including social networks.
These stats show that social networks are important for content marketing strategies.
Readers browse Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram for fresh and creative content. Track the comments and feedback you get on social media and engage these respondents to boost your brand.
4. Pay Attention to Your Audience
Listen to the complaints and queries of your customers and readers. This will help you create relevant content since feedback from your social media followers can give you fresh content ideas and concepts.
It may be difficult to handle all your social channels simultaneously. Use apps like Sprout Social to view and respond to complaints and questions from your audience. You can also utilize this solution’s keyword monitoring features to manage your strategy and engagement on social networks.
5. Be Clear about Your Messages
Long-winded and confusing content can be hard to understand and digest. If your messages are unclear, the audience will ignore them. Be concise and clear with your messages, and invest time and effort to develop relevant content that your audience will appreciate.
Don’t offer too may concepts and ideas at the same time. Do research on what content types and subject matters strike a chord with your target audience. Then, prepare appropriate content for these readers and be clear with your messages to get them to act.
6. Maintain a Consistent Voice
Make sure your content marketing efforts are consistent. Readers may find it jarring to find one article with an influencer’s tone followed by several nonchalant blog posts. For example, Groupon uses a steady brand voice across all its channels.
Consistent voice helps the audience to move seamlessly from post to post.
7. Keep Track of Your Competitors
You should keep track of your competitors’ activities and learn from their success. This will help you stay up to date with industry trends and understand why certain content is more successful.
We are not saying you should steal ideas from the competition. Rather, follow the activities and strategies of leaders and utilize their techniques to adjust and improve your brand’s content. The idea is to understand what strikes the right chord with readers—you can do this by monitoring company newsletters, social posts, and competitors’ blogs.
8. Use Visual Formatting
Listicle articles are popular because they are attractively formatted and easy to read. Visual elements can help to keep your audience hooked on your content. A report by Social Media Examiner revealed that 19 percent of companies think creative visual assets are important for content marketing.
To add attractiveness and readability to your articles, you should include pictures, surveys, quotes, and other elements. This can help break the monotony of bland text blocks that may bore readers. Even short articles can seem difficult to read if they don’t have visual elements.
Visual formatting makes readers stay on your site longer, click more links, and come back for more content. All this increases the chances of these readers buying your service or product.
9. Utilize the Services of Great Storytellers
Use creative strategies to make your content stand out from the crowd. Hire brilliant writers to give a unique perspective and voice to your content. These writers can ensure your blog’s voice is consistent with your overall brand image.
Tell interesting stories to engage your audience and attract their attention. This will get your readers to discuss your brand. Therefore, don’t hesitate to loosen your purse strings to hire the services of quality writers. They can help ensure your readers are enticed to read your posts thoroughly.
10. Focus on SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is important for your content marketing strategies. Previously, SEO was complicated and complex for marketers to implement. However, now SEO has become more accessible. However, you may still want to consider an SEO expert that will be able to implement opportunities strategies that you may not be able to identify on your own or through an automated software.
SEO helps make your online content more effective and gain visibility among the right audience. For effective SEO implementation, use robust keywords, add ALT text, include outbound links, and provide links to internal pages.
Author
Alex Hillsberg
Chief editor of review team at FinancesOnline Alex Hillsberg is an expert in the area of B2B and SaaS related products. He has worked for several B2B startups in the past and gathered a lot of first hand knowledge about the industry during that time.
