High-quality content marketing is very much alive and effective. Right?
Well, 83% of marketers experience success in building brand awareness. 77% use content to build trust. And 72% use it to educate prospects.
But those numbers get dicey when you ask how successful marketers are at driving revenue and sales with content…only 42%.
Yikes.
When people ask, “Is content marketing dead?” They’re asking because it’s failing to drive the goals businesses really care about: revenue.
You can create content, rank, and drive lots of traffic to your site, but that’s no guarantee that it’ll drive qualified leads and sales to your business.
The key to doing that is to write high-quality content around the problems your prospects have.
We’ll show you how to do that with 16 strategies.
The Old Approach to Content Creation Is Dead
There was a time when businesses would outsource content creation to mills that cranked out 1000-word articles for $30 bucks a pop. (In fact, some businesses still do this.)
The “skyscraper technique” is a slightly better approach. It involves reviewing the top-ranking posts to identify subtopics, and then writing posts that cover all those topics.
The problem with this approach is that you end up with similar content to what’s ranking. If you do manage to rank, your content doesn’t really stand out.
You see (and experience this) all the time when you search for something, read five posts, and feel like you’re no closer to an answer.
Those posts get great traffic, but their ability to convert is questionable.
This approach to content creation is dying. And three factors are speeding up that death.
Customers Have Higher Expectations
Your customers consume information in a variety of formats every day. Businesses compete for their attention constantly. And they’re getting better and better at it.
Now, more than ever, your customers expect more.
To be successful, you need to focus on providing value. Your content, at the very least, needs to reduce pain points, objections, and anxieties with actionable advice.
Even better, if you can make it visually appealing or stimulating.
When your audience finds value in your content they haven’t seen on other websites, you’ll win their trust. And they’ll remember you.
If you don’t do that, they’ll forget you. (No matter how many times they visit your website.)
There’s More Competition
Outranking competitors is challenging. Search engines favor established brands and media over small companies and scrappy new websites.
The smaller your online presence, the harder you’ll need to work to stand out. This makes it difficult for small businesses to rank for popular terms.
Newer websites (and websites that haven’t invested in building an online presence) don’t have the backlinks and content to stand out. That’s because many companies know that SEO can bring a significant return on investment.
That’s why SEO is vital for many small businesses.
The Bar Is Higher with AI-Generated Content
This isn’t a vindication of AI-generated content.
Most of it is crap. It talks in circles, comes packed full of errors, and blends together insights from other posts. And while some say it helps with brainstorming or reduces “blank page anxiety”, editing it is more trouble than it’s worth.
That said…
AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Copy.ai, Lex, and Jasper will make general content creation cheap and easy.
But this is a double-edged sword.
Businesses will be able to rapidly create tons of generic content around keywords. And so will all of their competitors.
Whether or not Google thinks AI content is bad (they don’t), doesn’t matter. What matters is that everyone will be doing it. And if your business follows suit, you’ll have a very hard time standing out in a very crowded room.
All this means that if you want to be successful with content marketing, you need a strategic approach.
Here’s how to do that.
How to Ensure Your Content Thrives in 2023
Garbage content won’t cut it. But if your articles add value and actionable advice, you’re poised for success.
Uniqueness can give your business an advantage over your competitors. And creativity can help you engage your audience better.
All of this can improve your success while helping you create superior content that’s:
- Unique
- Well-researched and data-driven
- Based on expertise and experience
- Personalized for your readers
- Community-building/user-generated
- Challenging paradigms and belief systems
- Entertaining
- Relevant and niched for your audience
- Capable of boosting conversions
With superior content, you’ll avoid the pitfall of creating generic nonsense that doesn’t stand out from other businesses.
Ready to knock the proverbial socks off your audience in 2023?
Let’s go!
1. Avoid Cheap, Generic Content
If companies need to cut costs, marketing budgets are one of the first things they reduce.
Companies sometimes shift toward lower-cost resources like AI content tools and offshore content creators. They hope that churning out numerous, cheap posts will grow brand awareness and drive results.
That’s rarely the case.
With content, quality is better than quantity.
It’s far better to spend more time on a single piece of impactful content than to adhere to a made-up publishing schedule (like trying to publish one post a week).
What ends up happening is the opposite. They create lots of content that doesn’t drive results.
Remember, your content is a reflection of your business. It should mirror the quality of your products and services. It should reveal your personality, vision, mission, and values—the soul of your business.
Cheap, generic content won’t do this for you.
Instead, better to think more strategically with your approach to SEO during a recession or budget cuts. Spend more time trying to create something unique.
Your customers won’t forget it.
2. Establish a Unique Point of View
Creating bold and original content is crucial to engaging your target audience and leaving an impact.
Share your point of view or introduce a unique perspective (as long as it aligns with your values).
Avoid a “one-size-fits-all” perspective. Content that doesn’t take a stand or offer an opinion is easily forgettable.
You can find opportunities by researching your competitors’ content. Using tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush, you can identify what topics they cover, which posts have traction, and where the gaps are.
After, create content that underscores your approach to problems. Don’t be afraid to take a stand.
For example, argue that a standard approach to business problems is the “old way” of doing business. Then explain why the “new way” is better and how that relates to the service your business provides.
3. Leverage Data and Use Evidence
People love data. Businesses love data. Search engines love data. Everyone loves data.
You should always use data in your posts to back up your views. This helps establish trust and protects your brand (especially if you’re offering contrarian views.)
Simple Ways to Get Data and Evidence:
- Speak with your sales team to find client insights.
- Read client reviews from your business and competitors.
- Share results from client projects.
- Conduct a roundtable targeting experts in a particular industry.
- Reach out to leaders for quotes.
- Interview experts in your vertical.
- Curate the leading facts and figures on a stats page.
- Find primary sources for your content.
Running your own survey is a great way to collect data.
But these can be hit or miss.
And they typically require a significant investment. If you want to run a survey and create a unique report, consider the risk before starting.
4. Make It Interesting
When creating content, wear the journalist hat. Investigate your readers’ interests, motivations, and aspirations. Then connect your brand story.
Offer unique and meaningful insights using your experience. Weave your company’s mission, vision, values, and goals into your content.
Highlight how your offering can help solve your audience’s pain point.
Use visuals and infographics to keep it interesting and explain complex topics. This works especially well if your content is text heavy.
If on-brand, use memes or GIFs to entertain. You can also use GIFs to highlight technical features readers may need help visualizing.
5. Create Discussion
Many content creators steer clear of any controversy. In an effort not to offend anyone, businesses water down their content.
The end result is boring and forgettable.
Debatable topics are great for engagement. Don’t shy away from them.
At the same time, don’t be contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. Your view should be backed by data and match your company values.
Success may be as easy as finding a top-rated post on a competitor’s site and creating content around an opposing opinion.
Audiences want to feel a connection with the content and its creators. Materials that are overly cautious and too diplomatic won’t accomplish that.
You can do this by posting your views as blogs on your site, guest posts at major publications, or LinkedIn posts.
Just be sure to have the data and experience to back up your views.
6. Share Expert Insights
The most valuable content provides expert insights and actionable tips. That’s why thought leadership is so powerful.
Don’t hold back.
Share your expert insights. Work with other subject-matter experts (SMEs) in your business to better inform your audience.
If you outsource your writing to an agency or freelancer, you still need to review the content and add feedback. That doesn’t mean grammatically editing a piece. It means reviewing the content to ensure that the piece is insightful.
Your expertise comes out in the details. It comes from your unique experience and skill set. And it’s not something other businesses or AI can replicate.
Often, you can quickly transform generic content into thought leadership with a few unique expert insights.
7. Solve Real Problems
People use search engines to find solutions to problems. Be the one to genuinely help them with those problems, and traffic will transform into customers.
You can do this by creating:
- How-to guides with actionable steps
- Templates that streamline processes
- Checklists that ensure accuracy
- Tools that put your audiences’ frustrations and fears to rest
By addressing real customer problems, content marketing can build trust and credibility with your target audience. And people work with brands they trust.
Plus, people are more likely to share helpful assets. This can exponentially increase your content’s impact.
8. Create Sales Enablement Content
Sales enablement content refers to the content your sales team uses to address the concerns and questions prospects may have during the sales cycle. It can also nurture and engage existing clients, highlighting the value your business provides.
Sales enablement is a powerful content marketing strategy because it reduces friction in the sales process, making it easier for prospects to convert.
And because it’s tied to real pain points, it offers inherent value.
Even better, it makes your sales team’s lives easier. Rather than individually address every concern, they can share assets that put fears to rest. Conversion rates increase as buyers build more trust, knowing you’ve helped others in similar situations succeed.
9. Publish Thought-Leadership
Thought-leadership pieces demonstrate your knowledge of a subject matter and position your company spokespersons as industry experts.
To do this successfully, you should brainstorm ideas for thought-provoking topics that your company can own.
These pieces are less about capitalizing on high-volume keywords and more about targeting niche topics that showcase expertise.
Thought-leadership content should:
- Challenge readers on existing beliefs.
- Provide fresh information based on your own data.
- Prompt your readers to think creatively and innovatively.
- Move the industry forward.
Thought leadership is NOT your run-of-the-mill blog post. Avoid trying to position listicles, how-to guides, etc., as thought leadership. It’ll miss the mark.
10. Use Stories
Your target audience may forget the precise details of your content, but they’ll remember you for how you made them feel if the story is compelling.
Storytelling helps you engage and connect with audiences on an emotional level. It makes your content less dry and more relatable. And it adds authenticity and personality to your brand.
Stories make your prospects feel seen.
They demonstrate that you understand them at a deeper level. Additionally, it shows you can better understand their journey and what’s needed to help them grow.
There’s a lot of content out there. Using stories helps make your content more memorable so prospects will remember it long after they leave your website.
11. Choose Topics Carefully
The right topic attracts the right audience and increases engagement. A poorly chosen topic can result in low to no organic traffic and little return on investment.
Stary by creating a mindmap. Focus on general topics and then flesh them out into granular ones. You want to balance highly niched topics and broad subject areas.
Casting a wide net might make it hard for you to rank or own a niche. It can also confuse prospects as they may not know what you do or where your expertise lies.
Focusing only on niche topics can throttle your potential traffic and brand awareness. It may also take more work to come up with fresh and innovative topics down the line.
12. Stop Over-Relying on SEO Tools
Google says they prioritize content written for humans, not search engines. That said, most top-ranking content is SEO garbage.
You’ve seen it: unnecessarily long posts that pack tons of irrelevant information into them with the hopes of ranking for numerous keywords.
What works for SEO may not work best for the prospect. And the prospect is your priority. Your content marketing efforts should always start with the audience, not keywords.
While SEO tools help your website rank, overreliance on them can be counterproductive.
Your prospects are sick of “SEO content.” They want answers. They want content that speaks to them—in their language.
SEO tools can limit creativity and lead to a hyper-focus on keyword optimization.
This leads to content creators focusing more on how many keywords a post should have rather than creating valuable and engaging content.
Remember: the tool is not the rule.
13. Learn From Your Audience
Asking your clients is one of the easiest and simplest methods to understand their problems. Yet, only 42% of B2B marketers do this.
Become your audience’s go-to source of information by knowing their pain points, challenges, objections, fears, and anxieties.
Dive into the research:
- Read reviews (yours and competitors).
- Speak with your sales team.
- Pull sales call notes.
- Review relevant forums and groups.
- Ask your clients directly.
- Reach out to clients of competitors.
- Run short surveys during the cancelation process (if you offer a product).
You can also leverage user-generated content. Send out a newsletter asking for content ideas. Or, you can create a pop-up modal that asks users what content topics interest them.
Diving into analytics data can shed some light on which types of content drive more conversions and longer time on the page.
14. Take Risks
Taking calculated risks can help you create memorable content while differentiating yourself from competitors.
Risks You Can Take with Content:
- Experimenting with new formats
- Exploring controversial or sensitive topics
- Using humor or adding more personality to posts
- Considering other creative elements (infographics, images, design, UX changes, etc.)
However, it’s important to understand your audience. Risks should be calculated. Use data to determine what tactics you should test.
Also, you should consider the potential consequences of risk and have a plan to manage any negative consequences.
Risk-taking doesn’t have to be scary. It can be as simple as investing time and resources into an infographic or adding a meme to a blog post.
15. Be Ready for Change
Markets shift constantly. You need to be ready to jump in on trending topics and ideas. Otherwise, you’ll miss out on opportunities.
Creating a post around the right topic at the right time with the right message can launch your business into the spotlight. You can generate buzz, earn backlinks, and drive leads.
Your content calendar should be flexible, so your team can adjust to trending or priority topics as needed.
16. Determine Whether or Not SEO Is Worth IT
Some businesses rush into SEO just because “everyone’s doing it!” But it’s not the best play. Before you invest in SEO, you need to determine whether or not it’s right for your business.
That can be hard to do.
You can look at competitor websites and see if they’re producing content. But without the right tools, you can’t know whether or not it’s producing results.
That’s why we offer a free traffic projection analysis.
Using our traffic projection tool, we pull your site data and keyword data from your competitors. And we use that data to determine your total addressable market while sharing four reliable projections on growth potential from SEO channels.
Curious about what kind of results you can get?
Sign up for our free traffic projection below.
