Staying Ahead of the Game: Top Content Marketing Strategies for 2023

Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash

Content marketing is a strategic approach to creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. The goal of content marketing is to drive profitable customer action by building trust and credibility with your audience.

Now we got a million-dollar question. That is,

Is this something very easy to manage or prepare a masterpiece content strategy for a business?

Our answer is Content marketing can be difficult if you do not know the proper guidelines.

Let me tell you the reason, why it’s difficult. Did you know that 63% of businesses don’t have a documented content marketing strategy? That’s according to the latest research from the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs. Just consider these numbers.

An enormous 98% of all marketers say written content is their most-used content type, yet one in three marketers admit their content writing is only “somewhat” or “not so” effective. This is because a large number of writers do not have proper know-how about the techniques. In other words, there’s a whole lot of content out there that isn’t doing what it should be.

How effective the content marketing is for my business?

Does content marketing match your business objective?

It’s no surprise that those companies who DO have a strategy are most likely to feel that their content marketing efforts are successful. Without a strategy, success or failure is just a matter of luck — and you risk all your efforts going to waste.

Effective content writing requires a combination of skills, including excellent writing and editing abilities, an understanding of the target audience, and the ability to effectively research and organize information. It also requires a strong understanding of SEO, as well-written content that includes relevant keywords can help improve a website’s search engine ranking.

That’s likely why a similar percentage (64%) say that learning how to build a content strategy is one of their greatest educational needs.

If you’re in that group and have been wondering how to create a content strategy for your business, we’re here to help.

As per the market experts, here are the 5 must-have strategies you can follow to develop a masterpiece in 2023-

#1: Develop a content marketing plan that outlines your goals, target audience, and the types of content you will create.

Photo by Kenny Kuo on Unsplash

Example: We provide [target audience] with [type of content] to help them [business goals].

Typical goals include:

• Improving revenue as a result of your content marketing strategy
• Making more sales and getting more high-quality leads, which will help you meet your revenue goals.
• Getting more traffic to your site, as the more traffic, there is, the greater the possibilities for meeting your other goals.
• Improving the perception of your business, so you gain influence and authority and are seen as a thought leader.
• SEO success, which leads to more traffic.
• Reduced marketing costs, as your content becomes more effective.
• Social media engagement can help with both traffic and authority.

#2: Creating high-quality, valuable, and relevant content that addresses the needs and interests of your target audience.

• Find the Questions Your Customers Ask

We mentioned earlier the need to create content around what your audience wants. One way to find that out is to use Buzzsumo’s Question Analyzer or Answer the Public.

Type a topic into the Answer the Public search box, and you’ll get a list of questions people have actually searched for on Google.

• Create the Content

Finally, start writing or creating your content. At this point, you’ll have to think about how to reflect your brand’s personality in the content you write.

You may want to be super-professional, very casual, or something in between. And you’ll have to manage the balance between showing your expertise and not patronizing your audience.

#3: Assess your current position utilizing SEO techniques

Photo by Merakist on Unsplash

• See How Your Content is Working

Next, it’s time to assess the usefulness of the content. You’ll be looking for metrics like:

• Whether there are a lot of inbound links to the content
• What the search engine ranking is for keywords associated with that piece of content
• If the content is widely shared

You’ll get some of this information from the SEMRush report above but can also find more by using other SEMRush tools, such as the site audit and position tracking tools.

That'll tell you:

• Which pieces of content are so effective that you don’t need to change them
• Which ones need some improvement or updating to meet your goals
• Which ones need to be removed or replaced

#4: Using social media and email marketing to promote and distribute your content to a wider audience.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

The next key part of your content strategy is distribution and marketing. That’s because you won’t get the results you want unless these are handled correctly. For example, you will likely:

• Set a schedule for sharing your content on social media, both immediately, and through a drip campaign via a tool like Missinglettr.
• Use email marketing to distribute your content to subscribers.
• Notify any influencers mentioned in your content to spread the word even wider.

Read the masterclass (used for global bio-pharmaceuticals company) on email marketing here.

#5: Measuring and analyzing the performance of your content to identify what is and isn’t working, and make necessary adjustments.

Web analytics, social media analytics, and email subscriber analytics will give you the data you need on your audience:

• Age
• Gender
• Education
• Income

You’ll also get insight into their key interests. To find this information in Google Analytics, go to Audience » Interests » Overview. You’ll see the market segments your web visitors fit into.

In addition to understanding the audience, content strategists must also be able to effectively research and organize information. This involves finding reliable sources of information and determining what is most relevant to the topic at hand. It also involves organizing the information in a logical and easy-to-follow manner, which can help to improve the reader’s understanding and retention of the material.

Photo by Brands&People on Unsplash

By monitoring your progress, you’ll be able to tweak your content marketing strategy at regular intervals, so it’s always up to date. That’s it! Now you know how to create a successful content marketing strategy from beginning to end.

Feel free to drop me a message, If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions.