Happy New Year! We hope your 2017 is off to a fantastic start so far. But while you might have made some personal New Year’s resolutions, what about your content marketing?
If you haven’t already, now is a great time to set your goals for the year and try some new campaign ideas to gain even more traction. Adopting some new habits and plotting your course now can help you achieve bigger and better results in 2017.
Here are a few ways you can step up your content marketing game:
1. Set A Schedule and Stick to It
Creating a content schedule is a lot like putting together a workout plan – you’re not going to see the results you want if you have too many “cheat days.” Commit to posting at least once a week because the more you post, the more visibility, credibility and SEO juice you’ll earn. Just make sure you’re still creating unique, high-quality content each and every time!
2. Step Outside Your Comfort Zone
The world of content marketing is always evolving and a strategy that worked for you last year may not reap the same rewards in 2017. Maybe it’s time to add a couple of infographics to your content-marketing arsenal or perhaps you could create a free ebook to entice new subscribers. Let your creative juices flow and you’ll either see good results or you can learn what doesn’t work as well for your market.
3. Promote, Promote, Promote
Creating quality content is only half the battle – you also need to be promoting it because what good is a new blog post if nobody reads it? Make a schedule of when you’re going to promote new content for each of your social channels – Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and more. Whether you use automated systems to schedule your social media activity or do it manually, the key is to be consistent. If you find you have a gap, bring back some of your most successful content and promote it again.
4. Write Longer Blog Posts
Many make New Year’s resolutions that involve weight loss, but content is something you don’t want to trim down. In fact, your content may need to start bulking up. Longer content has many advantages including ranking better in search engine results. According to a study by SerpIQ, the average length of a first-page search result on Google is 2000 words.
Longer blog posts also get shared more and they provide more material for reusing and repurposing in the future. Be sure that your longer posts still deliver the same level of value as your shorter ones and don’t add filler just to meet a certain word count.
5. Keep an Eye On the Numbers
If you’re looking to boost your content’s performance this year, the first thing you need to do is determine which areas may need improvement. Tracking certain key performance indicators (KPIs) will help you identify any areas of weakness and allow you to plan a more effective strategy. A few important KPIs include:
- Traffic
- Social shares
- Average views per post
- Number of subscribers
- Average number of comments
Jumping into 2017
The beginning of a new year is a perfect time to give your content marketing strategy a tune-up. Even a few small changes can make a big difference for your business. With resolutions like these in mind, you’ll be off to a great start in 2017!