Content marketing is hot, hot, hot. 

More brands than ever before — from mortgage companies to law firms to eCommerce stores  — are using this marketing strategy to reach their audience, build authority, and move to the top of the search engines. 

And that’s just the start.

So, what is content marketing? Content Marketing Institute defines it as follows:

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

While content marketing takes on many different forms, there’s really only one thing that matters — settling on a strategy that allows you to create and share “good content.”

What is Good Content?

The word “good” means something different to everyone, but when referring to content it should meet these criteria:

• Unique
• Actionable
• Answers the reader’s question(s)
• Concise and to the point
• Accurate and precise

When you check all these boxes, you’re left with a piece of content — no matter what kind it is — that attracts, engages, and hopefully generates leads.

Content Marketing Tips for 2022 and Beyond

There’s no shortage of digital marketing tips you can use to boost your performance in 2022 and beyond. Content creation is nothing to stress over but it does take some thought. The more you practice, the more successful marketing strategies you’ll find that work for you.

Below are 25 tips for marketers and businesses that can be applied anywhere, regardless of size, industry, past performance, or goals. 

1. Start a Company Blog

A company blog is a place to share your knowledge, ask questions, provide company updates, and so much more. You don’t have to update it daily with fresh content. Find a publishing schedule that works for you and stick to it.

You could start by simply documenting processes that pertain to your industry. If you don’t have the time to consistently create high-quality content, turn to other members of your team and freelancers to assist you. 

2. Get Active on Social Media

Choose a few platforms that make sense for your business and go all-in on social media advertising. Top options include Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.

And remember this at all times: social media isn’t just a place for sharing content and ideas. It’s a place for engaging with your audience. Interact with your followers, show them that your business has real people behind it. 

Social media marketing can provide a whole new online community full of potential customers.

3. Experiment with Video Content

We’ll make this one simple. 

Visit InVideo for 100+ video marketing statistics that show why it should be a big part of your marketing plan. 

Here’s one example:

Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to 10% when reading it in the text.

What do you think about that?

Video content doesn’t need to be an over-the-top production. You can just as easily provide valuable content on a Facebook Live discussion or Instagram Reel.

4. Build an Email List

An email list is valuable for many reasons, including the fact that you own it. It’s yours to do with what you want. Nobody else owns it and no one can take it away from you. 

Add this to the fact that email marketing remains a highly effective way of reaching your audience and it’s easy to see why it’s so popular. 

It’s relatively cheap and easy to set up with programs such as MailChimp and it keeps you connected with your audience in an interactive way. 

5. Give Direct Mail a Try

Direct mail may not be your first choice of marketing strategies, but it can pay off with the right approach. Take as much time as necessary to choose the right format, settle on copy and visuals, and make a prospect list. 

Most importantly, run the numbers and set a budget. Remember the goal is to see a return on investment. 

6. Pin Down Your Target Audience

If you don’t know your target market, your messaging may not be as accurate as you would like. This results in spending time and money on marketing efforts that don’t have nearly as high of a chance of generating results. 

Start by compiling data from your existing customer base. Figure out who they are, where they hang out online, what their problems are, and what solutions you can provide them. 

Use this data to create content for your prospective customers.

7. Update Old Blog Posts

Creating high-quality, targeted blog content is a great way to generate traffic and interest in your brand. But don’t forget that blog content doesn’t remain relevant forever. Your competitors are also publishing regularly.

Revisit old blog posts with the idea of updating them with fresh content, new internal and external links, and additional insights. 

8. Repurpose Content on Multiple Channels

Take a blog post, for example. It’s good that you’re publishing it for the world to see, but don’t stop there. Repurpose it for social media posts, infographics, direct mail, and more. 

Take the content of the article and briefly summarize it in a fun way for video content. This will save you time and help your content reach your full potential audience. 

9. Find Guest Authors for Your Blog

These can be industry insiders, writers from other blogs, or other authoritative sources on the topic. 

There are three primary reasons to do this:

• Guest authors bring an audience — It’s a great way to reach a new audience without having to do any work on your part. 
• Guest authors bring a fresh point of view
• It saves you time — A post written by a guest author is a post that you don’t have to write yourself. 

10. Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly

You want your audience to be able to comfortably view your content regardless of their mobile devices. Mobile marketing is more important than ever before. It’s good from a user experience point of view, while also helping with your search engine rankings.

Tip: Test the design yourself. Chances are that your customers will feel the same pain points that you do. 

11. Optimize Existing On-Page Content for Search Engines

When updating existing content — such as web pages and blog posts — do so with search engines in mind. A few basic changes — such as adding internal links and updating old passages — can have a big impact on your rankings. 

You can also create lead magnets, or downloadables, to feature in your blogs. Include a lead path, such as a progressive form, that allows the user to easily contact you or set up an appointment. 

12. Find the Right Tools

You don’t have to do everything yourself. 

There are hundreds of tools to help, such as those for keyword research, social media scheduling, and creating infographics. If there’s something you need help with, there’s probably a tool (sometimes a free tool) to assist. 

13. Update Website Copy

Don’t focus so much time updating old blog content that you forget about your website copy. Review every landing page of your website with an eye toward providing quality guidance for your target audience. And don’t forget to optimize for Google along the way. 

Again, your experience will likely be similar to your customers. If you are put off by copy on a landing page, whether that means it’s confusing or vague, your visitors will be too. 

14. Create Infographics 

An infographic is a graphic visual representation of information, statistics, data, or anything else you can think of. The goal is to quickly present information in a visually appealing, clear, and concise manner. 

Infographics can then easily be included in a blog post, shared in your email newsletter, or shared on social media.

15. Optimize Your Headlines (then optimize again)

A bit of traditional advertising, a catchy headline is just as important in digital marketing than print.

Do you know this quote by David Ogilvy?

On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.

You can have the best “body content” for your topic, but it doesn’t do you any good if your headline comes up short. Optimize your headlines for readers. Concise and engaging is what you’re going for. 

16. Set Realistic Goals

How will you know if you’re achieving success if you don’t set realistic goals? 

Set a handful of short and long-term goals associated with your content marketing strategy. And of course, have a system in place for carefully tracking your progress. 

Free tools, such as Google Analytics, can help you monitor your web traffic, bounce rate, and more. 

17. Answer Blog Post Comments

Don’t ignore comments on your blog posts. 

Don’t read them and forget to respond, especially if it’s an unhappy customer. That’s your chance to set the record straight and work on your customer retention.

Get into the habit of answering questions, addressing concerns, and providing more value here. It’s a good way to keep readers on your page and to entice them to come back in the near future. 

18. Stop Selling, Start Informing

It’s tempting to use content marketing as a sales technique. 

Yes, it’s a good way to generate leads and online sales. But that’s only true if you create the right type of content. 

When you inform, as opposed to selling, you’ll naturally generate new business. You’ll solve problems for your customers before they even turn to Google to solve them. 

19. Stay on Topic

If you have a blog about cooking, don’t stray off topic by touching on your political beliefs or your son’s sports team. Not only is relevant content important to engaging your audience, but it’s a big deal when it comes to achieving desirable search engine rankings. 

20. Hire a Professional

Let’s face it: you may not have the time in your schedule to manage an advanced content marketing strategy. And even if you do, it may not be how you want to spend your time. 

For instance, if you have a small law firm, you only have so much time for legal content marketing. The majority of your time is focused on your clients. Fortunately, you can hire an outside agency or professional to manage every aspect of your plan. 

21. Target High, Medium, and Low Traffic Keywords

Everyone wants to rank for high traffic keywords, but don’t put all your eggs in one basket. It’s just as important to target medium and low traffic keywords with less competition. Long-tail keywords often have the highest conversion rates. 

22. Write Guest Posts 

There are many benefits of guest posting on other blogs. To start, it’s a great way to build high-quality backlinks to your website. While you’re doing so, you can also establish yourself as a leader in your space. 

23. Keep Tabs on Your Competition

You have enough on your plate, so you don’t want to spend hours every day tracking what your competitors are doing. However, it’s good practice to keep tabs on them. One example is knowing which keywords their websites rank for and how much traffic they receive. 

24. Examine Your Website’s Analytics

Set an interval that works for you and then examine your website’s analytics carefully. You can do this every day, once per week, or once per month. Do so with the idea of determining if your website is growing, stagnant, or losing traffic. 

25. Phase Out Anything That isn’t Working

After a full sprint of your marketing plan, you won’t want to make the same mistakes on your next go.

Once you know what is and isn’t working, it’s time to make some hard decisions.

More specifically, you should phase out anything that isn’t working.

You only have so much time, money, and manpower at your disposal. Don’t waste resources on tactics that aren’t generating results. 

Conclusion

Don’t feel pressured to implement all of these content marketing tips today. 

Review them, decide which ones make the most sense, and slowly integrate them with the rest of your digital marketing strategy.

Contact Kaleidico online for help creating a content marketing strategy, revamping what you already have, or getting started with white label content marketing for your agency. 

Our team of marketing professionals is available to show you the way.

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