Written By: Ashley Wilson
Do you post on Facebook? Do you write blogs? Do you deliver messages to clients via email or social media channels? Whether or not you realize it, you are probably practicing content marketing for your business and it can only get better with proper planning.
Content marketing is critical to boosting sales and building brand awareness for any business. It helps you develop a specific voice and identity for your brand. Strategic content development is an effective way to deliver important information to a target audience — in a way that they will pay attention to.
If you have been practicing content marketing for some time, but aren’t seeing the results you would like, it’s time to revive your content marketing strategy. Here are 3 essential ideas to help you revive your content marketing:
1. Bring Your Older Content Back to Life
When you develop a piece of content, you put hard work, time, and research to produce quality content. Over time, however, that quality content can lose its value as people forget about it in favor of newer content.
One way to revamp your content marketing is to bring your older content back to life. It will save you the time of having to create entirely new content, but still, have a positive effect on your marketing efforts.
Look into your older content and ask yourself some questions. Is it still relevant today? Is there any new information I can add to this to add value to my audience? How can I bring my audience’s attention back to this content? Then get to work on revamping the information.
Once you have identified the content’s current value, bring attention to it. Send out a new email to clients or repost the blog on social media. Let your audience know the content is still helpful and valuable to them.
2. Step Into Your Readers’ Shoes
It’s very easy to get sucked into the trap of creating content just for content’s sake. Instead, think about what will interest your readers. What will add value to your audience’s life? Take a moment to step into the shoes of your reader before you spend the time to develop new content.
If you’re not sure exactly what your audience wants to read or learn about, ask them! We live in a wonderful time when it is easier than it ever has been before to get feedback from your customers. Set up a poll on social media or launch a survey. Listen to what customers are saying in reviews and sales interactions.
Even better, organize in-person focus groups to talk directly to customers and build new relationships. Encourage customers to talk candidly about what their interests are and what they want to learn about your company.
Compile all the information to help you build a content marketing strategy that is certain to interest and add value to your audience.
3. Spice Up Your Content with Visuals
Once you have the meat and bones of your content developed, it is time to spice it up with some visuals. With so many messages coming at one consumer in any given day, you need a way to grab attention and set your content apart. Visuals can be that sparkly item that draws readers in.
There are a variety of ways to add infographics and images to your content. One is to take photos or design content yourself. This is the best way to build a brand identity and cohesiveness across your content marketing, but it is also time-consuming and can be expensive.
Another route is to capitalize on all the free tools available to business owners for adding visual elements to content. Free and easy-to-use online design tools can be used to create compelling images and posts. You may have seen a lot of businesses with text overlay over photos on social media lately. There’s a good chance those marketers are using similar tools to design visuals for their content.
If you want photographs, but don’t have access to a skilled photographer, there are plenty of royalty-free images available online. Try Pixabay or Pexels to find quality images that artists are willing to share. You can also use a paid service like Shutterstock or iStock if you need more options.
All in all, with some thought and precision, you can develop a content marketing strategy that will engage readers and improve your brand image. It just takes a few simple ideas to revive your strategy with updated old content, feedback from your readers, and quality visuals.
Author bio: Ashley Wilson is a freelance writer interested in business, marketing, and tech topics. She has been known to reference Harry Potter quotes in casual conversation and enjoys baking homemade treats for her husband and their two felines, Lady and Gaga. You can get in touch with Ashley via Twitter.
