Not so long ago, 2023 seemed far in the future. However, we’re now here. If you want success with content marketing, it’s helpful to know its best practices. I’ve worked in the world of content marketing for a little over 10 years.
Whether you’re new to content marketing or a seasoned pro looking to up their game, I’ve got the tips to help you out. Here’s a list of proven list of content marketing best practices.
Table of Contents
1. Know Who You’re Making Content For
No matter whether your business offers products, services, or both, it’s always crucial to know your target audience. A target audience is the people, companies, or organizations that consume (read, listen to, or watch) your company’s content.
A critical part of successfully following the best practices for content marketing means knowing the pain points, needs, and wants of new and current customers. When you know these things, it’s easier to make vital connections with an audience which often results in sales. The way to create these winning content marketing communications is by knowing your audience.
Fortunately, there are many ways to find and engage with your target audience. Some of the most effective methods include:
- Create buyer personas that include their pain points, interests, and more
- Get feedback from potential, new, and established customers
- Find your target audience by staying active on online forums and social media
2. Break New Ground on Established or New Topics
When discussing content marketing best practices, the topics you choose are extremely important. However, some companies can feel like they’re going through the same topics over and over. But things don’t have to be that way.
Why not use this opportunity to come up with something brand-new? This strategy can involve covering completely new topics or creating a new viewpoint or angle on an established topic.
Look through the content you have now, competitors’ content, and other leaders in your company’s chosen industry. Chances are, you’ll spark creative ideas that you can build out with new content.
Admittedly, this type of content marketing best practices isn’t the easiest or fastest solution. However, following through with this strategy can lead to incredible outcomes. When your business is the only one covering a topic (at least until your competitors catch on), this article or post can gain a lot of traction, views, and shares.
3. Understand SEO (or Someone Who Does)
When you put in the time and work to create content, you want to ensure your target audience sees it. A vital factor in making this happen is by utilizing search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is the process of creating high-quality content that ranks well within search engine results.
People typically fall into three camps when it comes to SEO: they know and love it, they have no idea what it is, or they don’t want to understand it.
If you’re on a tight budget, consider dipping your feet into the pool of SEO. You might enjoy optimizing your company’s content. However, when it comes to content marketing best practices, you can always hire someone or partner with a company offering the services you need.
4. Give Your Content Goals
Other vital aspects of content marketing best practices are goals. Creating content is great. But it’s crucial for your content to also have goals. The exact goals you choose depend on your business and what it needs to accomplish.
Some common goals for companies are:
- Gaining more customers
- Expanding brand awareness
- Attracting new or better business partners
- Retaining more customers
- Getting the word out about a new product or service
Generally, it’s good to have at least a few content goals. By doing that, you’re not creating a bunch of content around a single topic. As you continue posting your goal-related content, track it with your chosen metrics to monitor if it’s helping or hindering your original goals.
5. Make Funnels for Your Content
Content funnels might sound strange, but they can be extremely effective. I included this concept on this list of content marketing best practices because I’ve personally seen it work wonders for companies.
These funnels are typically broken up into four main stages: Awareness, consideration, and decision. Awareness-type content will be at the top of your funnel. In this stage, your content is about making your target audience aware of your business. Consideration-type content is best when a target audience compares your company with other businesses. Lastly, decision-based content dives deeper into topics to position your brand as the clear choice for its readers.
6. Perform a Content Audit
Not all parts of a great content marketing strategy must involve brand-new content. Chances are, your business venture has plenty of content it has already created. If your current content isn’t performing well, it’s time for a content audit.
Understandably, no business owner enjoys thinking about an audit. Don’t worry! A content audit doesn’t involve combing through finances or speaking with the IRS. Instead, I’m talking about auditing your content to have it perform as well as possible.
While you may hear different things about content marketing best practices, I’m a supporter of not touching any content that’s currently performing well. If your content is well-written and isn’t performing well, check out when it was first posted. Sometimes, even the best content can take months of sharing before it begins gaining traction in search engines.
The types of content I’d focus on auditing and changing are pieces that:
- Are at least six months old
- Aren’t achieving high search engine rankings
- Seem to be low-effort articles
I hope that this look at content marketing best practices helps you and your business. Having this type of plan to rely on can be a major factor in improving your company’s content performance. For more tips about content marketing, visit my website at contentmarketinglife.com.
Alex Eagleton is a copywriter and digital marketer passionate about helping companies connect with customers. Throughout the past decade, he’s worked with companies including Referral Rock, Connecteam, and Ramsey Solutions. He’s a versatile writer who understands how to align with companies, truly matching their voices and tones.
When he’s not writing, he enjoys spending time with his dogs, reading, and playing guitar.
You can reach him by emailing alex@contentmarketinglife.com.