Content marketing is the single biggest marketing trend that has taken the world by storm. With Covid-19 destroying businesses, you can still rely on content to move the needle.
Here are a few content marketing hacks you can use. These hacks would work for 2020 and beyond. Let’s get started:
Update popular blog posts
You may not know this. But, there’s a freshness component baked inside Google’s core algorithm. Even if you’re ranking on the topmost coveted spot for your target keyword, these rankings come down over time. What you can do is update those content pieces once or twice a year. There are many millions of blog posts getting published.
The number of bloggers and blogs is set to cross billions. The space is tight. There are hundreds of articles on every subject imaginable. So Google has little choice but to rank something that’s either the latest or the best piece of content on the subject there is.
When you’re updating the content here’s what to take care of:
a). Ensure all the links and resources are working. Update old resources to new ones that are recent under 2 years.
b). Update images and screenshots. Use the best possible ones.
c). Include recent examples rather than outdated ones.
d). Ensure that all long-winded points are whittled away to bulleted points. Use headers and images.
e). Make sure that your research, the stats you used are correct.
f). Add more information. Since you’re updating after 6 months to a year there will be new research, new insights, and other things you can include.
Try and be different
It’s easy to go with the flow because everybody is doing exactly that. Millions of blog posts all share the same insights and lines of thinking.
You need to stand out.
a). How? Think about the best blog posts in your industry.
b). What do they do?
It doesn’t only have to be about data-driven content. It can be the unique way you present data—say with data, research, podcasts, or videos.
Where is that you can present a unique line of thinking? What is it you do that’s so remarkable that people start talking about you?
Blogging is great and will remain great. But, video is quickly becoming mainstream. People are watching so much more video content. In the same way, webinars to are becoming more and more popular. According to research from TechResearchOnline, AI and VR are the next big opportunities for marketers. Many bloggers wanting to do Livestream videos are considering the Pearl Nano for streaming and recording benefits.
Also, the video gives you so many different platforms to share your content. Upload it to YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram.
That nets you an omnichannel way of talking about your content. If you repurpose content and post it in many places you’re getting people from that many places to check out your content. These are talking about you.
This process gives you an almighty hand. You can think of creating say a webinar first and then talk about the issues that came from it. What did people ask in the live chat? What did you forget to include? You can turn that into byte-sized videos or short blog posts or even blurbs for social media.
Think creatively. Each day you’re getting something you can post on a blog or social channels because you’re following a tried and tested formula.
Use user-generated content
User-generated content is another way you can generate a lot of traction for your brand. With user-generated content, you can boost your brand to the top. There are several ways to use user-generated content. You could host contests or ask people to create something. For instance, Starbucks frequently hosts cup design contests for the audience to be made part of the larger brand. It’s a great way to attract customers. Glossier frequently posts user-generated content on its Instagram page. They have an audience of over 1 million Instagram followers.
A/B test headlines
A/b testing headlines give you a set of ideas to choose from and stand out among your audience. Headlines are the secret sauce to getting more clicks, generating a higher number of shares, and sales for your brand.
There are several ways to stand out. Research shows that headlines with numbers tend to generate the highest levels of engagement.
Create link-worthy resources
You must recognize Shutterstock as the site you visit when you want some stock photos. Shutterstock created a good resource people can use: a creative trends report. People love data and if that’s in an easy to understand and spectacular format it gets shared even more.
So last time they posted it got 6 billion visits and thousands of social media shares, according to the Content Marketing Institute. When they posted a more creative resource this time including video and music it got shared over 10000 different times.
To create link-worthy resources think of the pressing problems of your audience. Next, find a creative angle to post that content.
Use a keyword research tool
A keyword research tool like SEMrush or Ahrefs enables you to reverse engineer strategies working for competitors. You see their top linked content, best backlinks, and top-performing content.
A keyword research tool also gives you several search terms and long-tail keywords to use. You see the search volume behind each keyword, their competition, and overarching trends.
Use guest blogging to your advantage
You can either write content on your blog or you can create relevant quality content for other blogs. Both techniques work. You can always build great high-quality links through guest blogging. However, don’t be myopically focused on getting links.
For guest blogging the best piece of advice I ever received is to leverage the tactic to build a sizable audience. If you improve rankings that’s a side benefit you should benefit. Guest blogging when done right helps you with natural rank increases. You get a higher number of mentions for your brand as people start seeing your name pop up everywhere.
The best thing that happens to you as a guest blogger is that your content reaches a fresh audience and they’re sometimes inspired enough to pay a visit to your blog.
To find out relevant blogs here’s what to do. In the first step key in your target keywords on to Google and find out the top-ranking blogs for that term.
Let’s say if yours is a blog focused on social media marketing you could search for that term.
Also, find out who’s going to purchase the service you’re offering. If you’re offering social media management your target audience is people reading small business marketing blogs.
Ranking well on Google isn’t the sole criteria to judge a site on.
You also want to see if people are going to share your post on social channels. Take a random post from their blog. Plug that into Buzzsumo to find out how many social shares it got. You can also do this at the domain level.
If the particular site receives a lot of traffic and shares that means you can expect the same for your post as well.
Also Read: Facebook vs Internet Marketing: Which Is Better
Conclusion
These are some of the best ways to generate traffic and traction with content marketing. Content marketing’s role is evolving by the day. It’s a great medium. So make use of it.
What do you think of our tips and tricks? Do let us know in the comments below.
