10 Content Marketing Tips To Boost Your Next Campaigns
Coming up with content marketing ideas is the remedy and nightmare of marketers. Why is that? Because, even though a well-structured content marketing campaign may benefit the business tremendously, if done wrong, it may lead to the exact opposite outcome.
Worry not, though, because there are several content marketing ideas that can save the day. Specifically, we tried to focus on tips and ideas that fit every company size. That said, you can implement many of these even in small business content marketing, without the need for an extensive marketing team by your side.
Let us kick off the discussion with some general rules that apply in content marketing and can help your business grow organically.
General Rules In Content Marketing
Content marketing may vary from industry to industry and medium to medium. However, there are some rules which stay consistent and accompany the journey of your business into the marketing world. Specifically, the rules mentioned below ensure that your content marketing strategy remains relevant, consistent, and always follows your brand outlines.
In a nutshell, while building your content plan, make sure that you:
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Stay Relevant
Does the attention of your audience sound appealing? Then, make sure that your content is relevant to their needs. Making sure that you are in the right conversation that supports your expertise will increase your chances of acquiring high-quality potential leads.
To do so, start building content that focuses on topics of your industry. In this way, you will showcase your expertise to your target audience, increase your thought leadership, and create a feeling of trust. Eventually, this method might be the key to filling up your marketing funnels with potential qualified leads.
Lastly, relevance pays off by increasing your SEO performance. In detail, Google crawlers will easily categorize your website if the content matches the overall theme of your business. In a nutshell, you want to write about things you know and your audience is interested in.
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Stay Consistent
Multiple content marketing ideas require consistency. In general, the internet is a chaotic place. Thousands of websites aim to grab the attention of your potential customers leading to a Colosseum arena. To keep your audience and thrive against your competition, you need to maintain the interest of your business.
Is there a better way to achieve this than creating appealing content consistently? Maybe yes, maybe no. The undebatable fact is that consistency is vital in content marketing. A tip would be to check your capacity and then decide the frequency of your content marketing plan in each of your channels. Ensuring that you do not post randomly will create a pattern with fruitful outcomes for your overall content marketing.
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Stay Unique
We mentioned before that you need to stay relevant and keep the conversation going with your content. However, you need to also bring your uniqueness to the table. For instance, how is your brand contributing to the industry? What new do you have to offer? Build content that aligns with your brand and make it known to the public.
This rule will help you stand out and improve your brand awareness. After all, you want your audience to remember your brand when they see your content and become familiar with it.
10 Content Marketing Ideas To Inspire Your Future Campaigns
Now that we have settled the general rules on content marketing, let's present some useful tips to answer the question, "What should I do next?".
In general, people tend to believe that impressive ideas come out of nowhere and when you least expect them. However, in content marketing, this tactic might lead to a waste of resources and valuable time. Therefore, to minimize the risk, you might want to consider the following options.
1. Join The Conversation
Directly applying the rule "stay relevant," we insist that you join the conversation. That said, you might want to look at what your competition is writing about and what the industry is interested in before your next campaign.
There are multiple ways to uncover the effective content of your competition. You can perform a competition analysis report to see what type of content works best for your competitors and apply it to your future campaign. Feel free to check out our 360 Inbound Marketing Solution, which includes an SEO report on both you and your competition. After all, if it works for them, there is a solid chance that it would work for your business as well.
2. Utilize User-Generated Content
Throughout your multiple channels, there is the opportunity to utilize user-generated content (UGC). In general, UGC as a content marketing idea works wonders in the decision-making process since your potential customers are looking for proof that your service works as intended. Such content can be photos of other customers with the product, reviews, or even comments.
There are several ways to acquire user-generated content. For example, encourage your community to express their opinion about your products on social media. Then, use the feedback in your next content marketing campaign as a piece of content. In this way, you keep your audience active and your business grows.
3. Comparison Pages
Among the content marketing ideas we tend to see is the use of comparison pages. As the name indicates, comparison pages are pages that compare your product directly to your competitors. This type of content can be valuable since it targets an audience that is at the decision stage of their journey.
Such pages can perform equally well in your SEO strategy. There are certain cases in which comparison keywords show a relatively high search volume. With the use of comparison pages, you can target such types of keywords and increase your organic traffic alongside your sales.
4. Repurpose Your Content
Running out of ideas for your next marketing campaign? Well, you might already have the content of your next campaign without even knowing it! This content marketing idea refers to repurposing your content. In simple terms, you might want to consider using a successful piece of long-form content on other channels that you use. However, this tactic requires editing since each medium has its unique perks.
Let's imagine that you ran a research that performed well on LinkedIn. This research can be turned into viable content on other social media as well. Moreover, some information derived from it can be fruitful for your email newsletters or even case studies, too. Make sure that you do not let your efforts go to waste. Maximize your successful content by distributing it on other channels and see your content marketing thrive!
5. Focus On Your Product Or Service
When it comes to content marketing ideas, sometimes simplicity is key. Focusing on your product or service is always a safe route to follow when looking for your next content marketing campaign. This type of content can be used on every marketing channel, attract new audiences, and help potential customers in their buying stage.
Product-based content generally includes information about your product or service. Such content might include descriptions, use cases, and how-to-use articles. This type of content marketing idea focuses on the last stages of your marketing funnel and may have an impact on your sales as well.
6. Listen To Your Audience
A major yet common mistake in content marketing is to think of channels as a monologue. In particular, some companies address their audience by only describing their services and highlighting their benefits. This move may lead to the demolition of the trust you were trying to build.
Therefore, it might be worth taking some time and investing in listening to your audience. What do they need? What problems do they face? Answering such questions might serve your new content marketing campaign on a platter.
7. Utilize Gated Assets
Trade has been a part of human evolution since its first stages. It has not abandoned us in the internet era. People are up to trade when they want to get something. In marketing, users are keen to provide a website with information like email addresses in order to access some interesting piece of content. In marketing, such content is called a gated asset.
Gated assets could be any type of content that requires something from the user to be accessed. In general, businesses utilize gated assets to acquire valuable information from the users and generate leads.
8. Keep Up With Trends In Your Industry
Among the content marketing ideas to inspire your next campaign is to keep an eye on trends in your industry. Even though it might seem simple, it requires time, effort, and sometimes a dedicated marketing team to react timely. Trends in your industry can be found in multiple ways. Some of the most common ones are the following.
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Utilize Social Listening
Trends can be commonly found on social media. Usually, social media is the medium that makes an event a "trend." Therefore, it is wise to be on the lookout and utilize social listening to get ahead of your competitors. From another perspective, it is worth mentioning that social media increase your SEO rankings.
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Find Industry-Related Blogs
You can always uncover potential trends before they even reach social media platforms. Even better, you can make them trends if you are being creative! In general, being up to date with industry-related blogs can provide you with more than enough inspiration for your next content marketing campaign.
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Check On Your Competition
Maybe you were not fast enough this time. That is fine! You can always do a more creative job than your competition and still utilize the trend. Checking on competition might uncover valuable inspiration for your next campaign.
9. Conduct A Content Gap Analysis
As we mentioned above, you should join the conversation but also stand out. The safe route to achieving this is by mentioning something that others have not. To do so, you can perform a content gap analysis, which can provide you with valuable information on what your competitors are missing.
SEO reports often include a content gap analysis. In terms of SEO, such reports may provide valuable information on keywords that your competitors miss and you can create content to rank on them. Moreover, such keywords may uncover interesting subjects which can potentially increase your organic traffic.
10. Seasonal Content Marketing Ideas
Content marketing ideas may also derive from seasonal events too. Actually, there is a whole section called "seasonal marketing" focusing on this. The term "seasonal" does not only refer to seasons and public holidays but also specific periods depending on your industry. For example, seasonal marketing can occur at time periods of the year in which you know that your business thrives.
Make sure that you have included seasonal marketing in your content marketing calendar. When you run out of ideas for your next campaign, the season might provide them to you.
Key Takeaway
Being creative in content marketing can often be challenging. Ideas are hard to come by and time is always pressing. That is why having a toolbox of content marketing ideas can be handy. In a time of need, feel free to refer back to this article and save the day.
It is worth mentioning that the above-mentioned content marketing ideas are not the only ones existing in the marketing stratosphere. There are multiple ways to get inspired for the next campaign depending on your industry, environment, and time. However, these presented ideas can apply to multiple types of industries of any size. Therefore, make sure to implement them accordingly and measure content marketing performance on a regular basis.
Don't forget to stay relevant, consistent, and unique! Provide the right fuel to your content marketing campaign and enjoy the fruitful outcome.
