In spite of the odds, content is continuing to be one of the key aspects of digital marketing, but the methods for enforcing these marketing measures are changing very fast.
During the year of 2016, businesses which achieved success will be those that are able to understand the constant dynamic shift of content and create strategies that can provide new changes.
The content marketing method is becoming more valuable than ever before and the companies who had big investments in this kind of marketing are having huge returns.
What is really good news is the fact that, no matter what your size is, or what resources you have available, there are many targeted strategies that you can use to your advantage. Your content marketing campaign can be scaled as you see fit and can be adapted to any budget you may have.
If you want to make 2016 one of your most successful content marketing years, then you should use these important tips and tricks. You must find a way to incorporate these methods into your strategy and find out why most successful companies say that content marketing is the business aspect that offers the highest returns. Not having a content marketing strategy for your business is like not having a quality web host for your website.
1. Focus on visual content
We live in a world that focuses a lot on visual aspects. This is a fact that applies also to content marketing, so you should look to make the most of it. Digital technology is developing very fast and it gives marketers the opportunity to send out a message using videos, compelling images or infographics in order to effectively advertise online.
It is a known fact that 94 % of content that has visual enhancements gets more views in total, compared to text-based content. This is why you should always incorporate some visual elements in posts, articles or tweets you put out there.
2. Invest in social
Some of the top social media platforms which are being used today are Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. There has been an increase in users on Google+ and SlideShare, however it is likely that marketers will most likely put their time and money into the top three networks mentioned above.
The reason for this is the potential these networks have for targeting and engaging audiences.
Some other social media platforms like Snapchat and Vine are also becoming stronger each day and so is their marketing value. You should try making the most out of social media by using the profiles to focus on customer engagement and promote content efficiently with the targeted audience of each social platform.
3. Implement testing
The year 2016 will be all about testing – people will test everything. Testing software has achieved a huge boom on the market and it has enabled many professional marketers and entrepreneurs to adjust and test almost any aspect of their digital marketing campaign.
This is something you should try to use to your advantage and the best way to do this is to implement a split testing tool while at the same time trying out various different titles, call to actions and images, so you can see which perform best.
Content marketing is all about knowing what has the best effect, and this is why you should test your current material.
4. Re-purposing content
It is very hard to create and publish a huge amount of fresh material every day unless you have a huge team with many content writers. So what can you do? In order to make the most out of the value of the content you have published, you should look for ways to re-purpose it and use it in the future.
For example, you can pull out key aspects from the article and tweet them for a couple of days. Or you can create a blog and use it to post long blog posts which can be launching points for that entire blog. No matter the way you choose to do this, re-purposing your material will definitively extend the life time of your valuable content.
5. Segmenting
One of the things that has become very important in 2015 and it is likely to be valuable in the future is micro-segmentation. Because the internet is becoming more and more saturated, small companies and brands alike can only look to stand out from the rest by targeting a niche community or specializing in a much-segmented part of the market.
You can do this by using long tail keywords, connecting with the market through social media or by linking up with some industry blogs.
Your most definite focus for 2016 should be the same as in the past – distributing and creating high-quality content. But, as the time goes by, changes will happen and you will need to recognise them in order to tweak your strategy a bit.
The author is highly qualified and writes blog posts weekly.
