Many businesses make use of content marketing, but not all businesses do it correctly. If you’re not delivering valuable content and working it into an overall strategy, it’s possible that you’re just spinning your wheels.
If your content marketing strategy could use a refresh, check out these tips for revitalizing stale content.
Perform a Content Audit
Before you attempt to improve the content on your website, you need to know what you have. This will help you determine what’s working and what isn’t so that you can move forward with a full understanding of what changes you need to make.
A content audit involves checking all the content on your website and compiling it into a full list. This not only gives you a comprehensive list of your content to refer back to, but it also helps you tweak your content as needed to maximize its impact.
Adjust Your Link-Building Strategy
With so much content flooding the internet, many users are becoming more and more discerning about where they direct their attention. If your link-building strategies are outdated, it won’t be enough to convince users to visit your site.
Instead of focusing on outreach and asking for links, redirect your attention to creating content that stands out and attracts links on its own. To do this, you need clearly defined goals for your content that combine user interest and your business needs. This will allow you to create a data-backed strategy to guide content and link-building efforts around your objectives.
Of course, you also need content that people want to share. The content needs to be valuable, worthy of links and set up to be shared, which may include original research, compelling images and a strong hook, as well as an overall message that addresses a need or problem.
Consider Video Marketing
In general, video content attracts more attention and engagement than other types of content, so if you’re not using video marketing, you’re missing out.
Video marketing has massive potential, and though it’s not the cheapest marketing option, it’s easy to set up. Video has a high ROI and lets you connect more with your customer in a real, transparent way, thanks to its inherent intimacy. Many social media platforms offer a live video option as well, making it even easier to get your message out.
Find the Right Infographics
Infographics are a unique and interesting way to convey a message to your readers or customers in an easily digested and readable format. They’re also shared far more often than other types of content, which also means more traffic and backlinks, but only if you’re using the right subject matter.
Like other types of content, a standout infographic requires a goal and a target audience. It’s easy to create stunning visuals with a mediocre message, which means your infographic will likely be skimmed over and forgotten.
If you’re not sure where to start, repurposing your existing content into an infographic can save you some brainstorming and effort. You can either present the existing information in an infographic, repurpose just a small section with a lot of data, or use an infographic to recreate the same content from a different angle that will capture your readers’ attention.
Outsource Your Content
Outsourcing can be scary for many business owners, since it requires that you give up control of your brand voice and budget additional funds for a writer. This fresh view on your brand identity could be good for your brand, however, and give your content just the boost it needs.
Whether you want to outsource some of your content to a regular writer, or you want to include an occasional guest post from someone new, deviating from your normal brand voice may be all you need to get more attention. Just give the writer some general guidelines about your brand message and see what they come up with. Remember, the final edit is yours, so nothing will come across on your blog that you don’t approve.
Use Interactive Posts
Interactive posts are typically shorter than news posts or how-to articles, but they have virtually endless value for your readers and your brand. If you can make them evergreen, they’ll last even longer.
There are many types of interactive posts, but the most common are quizzes and calculators. A quiz asks users a series of questions and delivers a response based on the answers, which you’ve most likely seen on social media. These are the posts along the lines of “which animal were you in a past life?” and other quirky questions, which are highly shareable and tend to generate a lot of attention. Inject a little personality into a quiz that relates back to your brand and guide users back to your product or services.
A calculator requires user input for a number of different fields, which is then used to calculate an answer to a consumer question. Calculators are common in fields related to finance, such as mortgage calculators or payment calculators. If you have an application for a calculator, you can create content that’s not only highly engaging, but also solves a problem for your reader.
Alter Your Content Length
It may seem obvious, but altering the length of your content can have an incredible impact on your traffic and engagement. If you’ve been sticking with a strict word count, you’ll fall into a natural rhythm that can become repetitive and stale over time.
By alternating your content length, you’ll be forced to adjust your process and find new and creative ways to approach the same idea. That’s not to say that you can’t go back to your ideal word count, but try incorporating a few different lengths into your strategy and see how they perform.
Try Multi-Part Posts
If you have content ideas that aren’t suitable for a single blog post, you can separate it into sections that are like chapters in a book. Doing so will give you a fresh perspective on the topic and allow you to dive into detail that you may not be able to otherwise, as well as giving your readers something to look forward to.
Whenever you finish a section, post it, and as you move through the next sections, link them back to the previous sections to create a series of blog posts. Include statements about the next part of the series at the end to build anticipation in your readers.
Find New Subjects
Part of the challenge of content marketing is coming up with fresh ideas on a regular basis. Instead of slightly shifting the focus from your usual subjects, which will only get you the same results, choose a tangential subject that will still appeal to the same audience.
Doing this requires knowledge of your audience, however. It goes beyond thinking of what you want for your business directly and becomes more about what your audience may enjoy reading. Ultimately, providing this content for your readers will only help build brand loyalty and trust.
Bottom Line
There you have it! Hopefully, these tips gave you some direction for new and interesting content that can revitalize your content marketing strategy. While not every method of refreshing content marketing strategy will work for every business, you can use these ideas as inspiration for finding creative approaches to help your business stand out in the crowd.
