As of January 2024, there were an estimated 5.04 billion active user identities on social media. Roughly 66% of all people are online and over half the world is on social media, which means that businesses large and small are there too. Connecting directly with customers has never been more accessible and yet at the same time complex!
Content marketing represents both a huge opportunity and challenge for businesses to elevate their brand and connect with potential customers. At LeadPoint Digital, we’re here to help you cut through the noise and get results with our top 5 content marketing best practices.
5 Content Marketing Best Practices to Implement This Year
Social media changes at a breakneck speed and it’s tempting to take a scattershot approach to your content strategy. Rather than haphazardly chasing the next viral trend, the best way to create sustainable, results-oriented content marketing is through planning, user experience, and a healthy dose of data.
1. Create a Strategy
The first step in any marketing, regardless of the channels, is a solid strategy. To make a content strategy that works for you, get very clear about the goals. How often will you post and where will you publish? What sort of content makes sense for your business?
Next, clarify how your strategy will support your business goals. Maybe you want your efforts to drive traffic to your website, or generate more leads. Putting these needs down on paper will shape your approach in a way that makes sense for your business.
2. Understand Your Audience
Now that you understand how your content makes sense for you, it’s time to figure out how to connect with your customers. Take some time to put yourself in your customers shoes. Who are they and where do they hang out? What kind of media do they consume, and most importantly what pain points do they have that you’re positioned to address?
Next, it’s time to create a consistent voice for your company that connects. Choose a tone of voice that addresses their needs and reflects your brand personality and then stick with it.
3. Assess Your Existing Content
It’s likely that you’ve been at the content marketing game for a while and it’s important not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. If something’s working, incorporate into your strategy! One way to assess this is with a simple audit.
List all the channels you’re using like Facebook, YouTube, or email and then take stock of what’s successful and what’s not. The best barometer of success is analytics (more on that later) but you can also get a sense of what connects with your community through engagement. Be sure to note where people are people clicking and commenting the most and what posts did better than others.
4. Create Content that Adds Value
Creating content takes time, energy, and resources so the last thing you want to do is add to the noise. Instead, give your users valuable content. People tend to use the internet to do one of four things: know, go, do, or be entertained. Use insights you developed about your customers to determine why they show up on your channels.
This information can also be helpful in determining what format will be most effective. For example, if you’re talking to a primarily “know” crowd, then whitepapers, email newsletters, and informational posts might be valuable to your strategy. By contrast, a “go” crowd might want fast information about events, promotions, and locations.
5. Use Analytics to Measure Performance
When it comes to determining the success of your content marketing, data is key. Nearly all content platforms offer analytics that will give you critical information about how your content is performing. Analytics allow you to measure everything from post views to email open rates and more.
Now it’s time to circle back to your goals. Having hard numbers on hand will make it easy to see if your investment in content marketing is paying off. You can use this information to adjust and optimize your strategy so it only gets stronger over time.
Get An Expert Content Marketing Strategy with LeadPoint Digital
One of the fastest ways to get a return on your content marketing strategy is to work with a team of experts. At LeadPoint Digital, we’ve honed our approach to digital marketing so it stands the test of time and drives results for our clients. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you make the most of your content marketing, get in touch! We’d love to hear from you.
