Content marketing has been huge in recent years and everything suggests we are going to see to very similar growth in 2019. But because of how effective it is, that means it becomes even harder for content marketers to distinguish themselves. The question now becomes, how do you make your business stand out with content marketing? Part of the answer is producing content that works best. But before you begin the creative process, you need to put together a strategy in order to get the most out of content marketing.
According to a survey by the Content Marketing Institute, a lack of strategy is one of the leading causes for the lack of success for content marketers. That is why establishing a good content marketing strategy will help you triumph content marketing in the year ahead. While the best strategy will be specific to your business, there are some common elements you need to consider:
- A list of goals: Are you looking to increase your brand awareness, or do you want to get more leads? Either way, you need to establish some clear objectives and then plan out what steps you need to take to reach them.
- Know Your Audience: You probably know what your audience pain-points and needs are but do you know what your audience wants to learn about? How about their content preferences? Answer these questions so that you can better tailor content to them.
- Plan Ahead: Now that you know what kind of content you will be creating, and to whom you are creating it for, the next step is to look ahead and schedule an annual editorial calendar. That way you can budget your time and resources, while also having content in your pipeline when you need it.
- Content Promotion: Knowing where and how you plan to promote your content will make your life a lot easier once you have published new content. It will also help you avoid cross-posting content or come across as too pushy. Set a content rotation so that you are not posting the same content too often on the same networks.
- Reporting: Without an ability to measure benchmarks, you will have a hard time being successful at content marketing. Make sure you have Google Analytics or some other way to capture results, and use the data to adjust your content mix where and as required.
Now let’s take a closer look at the 3 types of content that are going to get you the best results this coming year.
Video
One of the biggest content trends last year was video; and all evidence is suggesting that video will be a leading type of content in 2019 as well. Why wouldn’t it? According to a study by Hubspot, 97% of marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service. Largely driven by Facebook, Twitter and most recently LinkedIn shift to video, adding video to your content marketing campaigns will not only drive up engagement, but also increase the amount of time visitors spend on your website. Above all, creating and publishing videos has never been easier. Whether you want to create a quick video about a new product or service, or would like to promote a special event with a video to your social media followers, tools like Explainify and Biteable make adding video to your content marketing mix possible. If you are looking to take your video content marketing to the max, check out our 8 tips for creating better business videos.
Blogs
We really can’t say enough about why Blog’s and your business are a perfect match, but unlike Video’s which are usually hosted on 3rd party platforms like YouTube, Vimeo or Facebook, you actually OWN your blog. In addition, they are easy to use, are a round-the-clock communication channel and represent one of the best ways you can convey your brand’s personality as blogs typically are written in conversational tone. The biggest advantage of writing blog’s regularly is that they provide you with an opportunity to extend the shelf life of your content without paying for ads. For example, if you were to monitor relevant questions on social media, Quora or LinkedIn business groups, you can quickly reply to these inquiries with a sentence or two, and refer them back to your blog where they can read more about how you provide solutions to their problems. For more tips on blogging, have a look at our 4 tips to increase B2B traffic with your blog.
Webinars
Although not as popular as videos or blogs, expect webinars or online Q&A’s influence to increase in 2019 and beyond. While putting together a webinar or live Q&A is a lot more time consuming than almost every other type of content, they can become a channel of monetizing your expertise online. For example, if you recently put out a press release announcing assay results of a mining operation of yours, or have formed joint venture with another business, you can use a webinar or Q&A as a follow up to the press release, where you can discuss the important parts of the press release in simple English, respond to evolving or likely shareholder inquiries, but also attract potential investors to your brand. We should point out that RBL Communications has been providing providing publicly listed companies with executive interviews for 10 years, so if you would like to get started with webinars in 2019, be sure to reach out.
Final Thoughts
Because content marketing has been hugely successful in 2018, more businesses will have seen it’s effectiveness and integrate it as part of their marketing and communication campaigns in 2019. Whether you are trying content marketing for the first time, or have tried it in the past, you can still drive some amazing results from your campaigns by careful planning, offering more variety, and above all publishing quality content this year. If you are not sure where to begin with content marketing, feel free to let us know. We are always excited to learn about a new business and find the best ways we can deliver a content marketing strategy that will work for you.
That’s it for us. Now over to you. What kind of content do you feel will stand out in 2019? We would love to hear your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.
Happy New Year!
