The 7 Best Content Marketing Tips Right Now

I scream, you scream, we all scream for content! Now, to be fair, sometimes that screaming is from the excitement of reading something great, and sometimes that screaming is for the amount of content needed as part of a marketing strategy.

If you’re a marketing professional, you are keenly aware of the need to produce content in all kinds of shapes and sizes for your email blasts, your blog posts, and all those social media channels.

And you want all of it to be read, enjoyed, and shared with enthusiasm by your customers and potential customers. So, how do you increase your odds of that happening? We have some of our best content marketing tips here just for you.

The #1 way to get people to read your content is to share something undeniably worthwhile to them. You should always aim to give them something that either inspires, entertains, or educates.

And how can you possibly do that without knowing your audience well? You can’t. That’s why good old-fashioned audience discovery is needed first.

This is actually one of our favorite services to provide our clients at Linea, because it’s a lot of fun to survey and speak with their customers. The details from these conversations turn into the data that help drive important marketing decisions.

If you’re doing audience discovery research in-house, here are the kinds of things you should be exploring about them:

• Where do they live and work?
• What phase of their life are they in (student, early career, parent, midlife, etc.)?
• What are their current challenges?
• What brings them joy?

With details like this about them, you’ll be in a much better position to create content that connects and keeps them reading.

You should always be watching your competition closely, and specifically noting where they’re really getting it right. Since you share a target audience, it’s basically free research to review the content topics that are performing well for them.

Social media channels will show you likes, comments, and shares, and SEO tools can show you your competitors’ best performing website pages.

Add the same or similar topics to your content calendar, with plans to add your own brand spin on them or develop them more in-depth.

It wouldn’t be a solid list of content marketing tips with mention of SEO. Online copy like your blog posts will reach more people when optimized for search, so writing with target keywords in mind should be one of your steps in developing all written content.

With that being said, however, don’t feel like you have to include target keywords. The point is merely to consider them every time you sit down to write. If it turns out your message is outside of them, that’s OK too.

The best way to connect with your target audience is to acknowledge their pain point or issue before you offer your product or service up as a solution.

Go even further than acknowledging it, by explaining it in the level of detail that gets them nodding their head. If you’re in touch with where they’re starting, you’ll better demonstrate your understanding and expertise in the matter.

Then, be sure to explain the resolution just as detailed and specific, since that’s where the connection really grows, and real engagement begins.

This tactic actually makes writing a lot easier, and honestly more fun!

Unless your brand requires a formality in tone (e.g. you probably don’t want a casual divorce lawyer), you’ll be surprised how much better your email blasts and blog posts will perform when the tone is friendly and conversational.

People buy from people. So if it’s reasonable for your brand, consider letting people get to know your team personally.

This is how you keep up with all your content needs! Every piece of content you write should be assessed for whether it can be re-formatted for use in another marketing area.

For example, a new blog post on your website could be:

• Teased in your next email newsletter, with a link to read the post in full on your website.
• Announced and linked in your Instagram Stories.
• Posted to your brand’s LinkedIn page.

Just be sure to adjust the content, so it makes sense for each separate platform.  Using different images for each platform is another best practice to follow, since your most loyal customers may be following you in multiple places.

Content marketing does not end at the point of distribution. In fact, you’re only halfway done. You need to check back on the content within a day, a week, and a month to measure how it’s performing.

For website content, review analytics and click-through rates from places you promoted it, like your email blasts and social media channels.

For social content, track your likes and comments against the benchmark for your brand’s posts.

For email blasts, observe your open rate and click-through rate by link. Again, compare these across your brand’s typical benchmarks.

Topics and formats of underperforming content should be noted for future consideration. Share this information across all your marketing team, so everyone can benefit from the data.

And don’t forget about older content. Regularly look at the traffic for your older blog posts to uncover which topics have done best. If posts are out-to-date but still driving interest, take the time to freshen them up.

If these content marketing tips have you ready to up your content game, let us know! Our strategists can help you determine content topics, create content schedules, and write content in all the marketing formats you need.