17 Actionable Content Marketing Tips 2023
With so much content available on every search query, majority of readers only skim through your content.
So in order to grab their attention, you need to make your content stand out.
And to achieve that, producing great content is just not enough.
That’s only half of the job.
To cut through the noise, you need to market yourself.
These content marketing tips include various strategies that can help you produce quality content and increase traffic on your website.
It will help in improving user experience that will make them revisit your website again.
Why is content marketing important ?
To market great content is as important as to produce it.
Here are a few essential points to note:
Longer stay time on website:
Great content = increased time site.
When users get benefitted from your content, they will connect with it and visit your site more frequently.
According to Hubspot, content marketing is a top priority for 53% of marketers.
Increased social media interactions:
If users like your content, they would want to follow you across various platforms.
Above is a research by CognitiveSEO that shows how higher rankings impact the social media shares.
Establishing trust:
When people consume your content more and more, you build trust in them.
Very soon, they will start typing their search query + your website’s name in the search bar.
It will help you make a good reputation in your industry.
More and better leads:
When your site receives high traffic, the chances of conversion increase.
As per crazyegg, for every 100 visitors, you can expect only two customers.
It clearly states how tough it is to convert visitors into customers.
But as you get better at marketing your content, you will be able to generate more leads.
Better visibility:
Better content will get you more visits to the website.
This can establish your authority in your niche.
Seeing this, more and more people are improving their content marketing budget.
As per Brafton:
Content marketing is ranked as the top 5 ranking strategies in 2021.
As per caliston.co.uk, it has gotten cheaper with time and is the most cost-effective marketing strategy.
Now that you know the importance, let’s dive into some quick and actionable content marketing tips to add magic to your content:
Here are the tips-
1. Write the engaging introduction
An introduction is one of the most crucial parts of any blog you publish.
To write a good introduction, you must know what your target audience is seeking.
It would be best if you sounded convincing enough to indicate to the users that their problems will be answered by the end of their reading.
It is a blog that I recently wrote on White Hat SEO vs. Black Hat SEO.
Firstly, I have discussed what the topic is about.
Secondly, I have mentioned the explicit purpose of writing this blog, including how it will help you choose the strategies that don’t go against Google and why not go extreme with SEO strategies.
Thirdly, I have mentioned the topics to be covered in the blog, explaining both types of SEO. Additionally, I have also discussed Grey Hat SEO.
2. In-depth guides
In-depth guides give users everything about the topic.
They often talk about step-by-step instructions, examples, and explanations of concepts.
How about an example here:
I recently published an in-depth guide on zero-click searches:
This not only ranks on Google’s first page but also brings hundreds of searchers to my website.
Further reading: there is an excellent BuzzSumo study explaining how you improve content marketing with the length of content.
3. Write about trending topics
Make sure what you write is in demand.
SEO is evolving every day and new trends keep coming. So, you need to constantly lookout for the topics that are trending.
You may find your right keyword that has less competition and good traffic but is it trending?
It may also happen that a keyword has traffic but is not in demand recently.
An ideal tool to find if your keyword is trending or not is Google Trends.
Let me tell you my approach before selecting the keyword. After choosing my keyword, “content marketing,” I went to Google Trends to see if the topic was in demand.
As you can see, from October 2021 onwards, the graph shows an upward pattern and is currently in demand.
Another keyword that I considered was “Content Promotion.”
I hit Semrush and found this data:
As you can see, the keyword has a good amount of traffic on it, and the keyword difficulty is also moderate.
After this, I went to Google Trends to see if it was trending and found this:
Surprising right?
This graph is steeply falling, and it means that the topic doesn’t have a high search.
Who would want to go for such a topic?
After seeing this, I instantly dropped the keyword and went on with “content marketing.”
4. Use Keywords in URL
According to Google, URL structure is also a ranking factor.
If your page is ranking, visitors will see its URL before even clicking on the page.
A well-structured URL gives a clear indication of what the page is about.
It is always good to use the primary keyword in the URL of your page.
Also, If another website links to your page, the link itself will serve as the anchor text.
5. Find untapped keywords (Use Google keyword planner)
Google Keyword Planner is Google’s tool to help you with keyword research.
And you know what the best part is?
It is free!!
Surprising right?
This graph is steeply falling, and it means that the topic doesn’t have a high search.
Who would want to go for such a topic?
After seeing this, I instantly dropped the keyword and went on with “content marketing.”
I searched for the same keyword, “content marketing,” and above are its results.
It gives related keywords options, traffic, competition analysis, their cost, etc. You can also download a sheet right from the tool.
6. Write Emotional Headlines
Writing powerful Headlines is an essential part of SEO.
Even before the URL, headlines grab visitors’ attention and create an impression of your page.
By making an emotional connection with your audience, you try to establish their trust.
As per the report, “The Power of a Good Headline,” 8 of 10 people read the headline before clicking on-page.
You can use CoSchedule’s Headline Studio to analyze how good your headline is.
I entered my heading as “Keyword Research for SEO,” and it showed the heading score and the SEO score.
As you can see, the tool comes up with many suggestions.
You can click on the right-hand side to open the word bank and lookup for suggestions.
7. Brand Keywords
Finding it hard to rank on your niche keywords?
Well, we have a solution for you!
Using the right Brand keyword is a foolproof technique to come on the first page of Google.
Brand keywords are the keywords that include a domain name or its close variations.
For example: brand keywords around adschoolmaster.com can be:
- Adschoolmaster
- Adschoolmaster blog
- Adschoolmaster seo course
I have used my website’s name here, but you can also produce content on someone else’s brand.
For example, you can write a blog on a tool that you have used regularly with your in-depth analysis and share your experience as a user.
Yes! You saw that right!
A great tool like KParser has just a keyword difficulty of 27%.
So, what are you waiting for?
Look out for brands in your industry with low keyword difficulty and produce excellent content.
But there’s one slight downside to it!
You may not hit the number 1 spot as this can already be reserved by the brand.
8. Meta Descriptions
A meta description summarizes your page on Google’s results page before a visitor clicks on the page.
It is only for the users and does not affect your ranking.
Your description should be between 50-160 characters.
If you exceed this word limit, search engines will truncate it.
Your meta description should include three points: a brief about the topic, benefits, and features.
Tip: You can highlight (bold) your target keyword in the description so that readers can instantly get an idea about your content.
9. Spy and Reverse Engineer Your Competition
Go to: https://detailed.com/links/
It gives backlink analysis for links that drive traffic on a website.
Select your niche and search the website you want the results for.
It will give you the list of all the page URLs that drive the most traffic and rank for the website.
It means that people like these pages.
Another important thing is to know which content is highly shared among people on various social media platforms.
You can use Buzzsumo for the same.
I searched for Neil Patel’s website, and these are the results.
It shows the number of shares on the given platforms and also the total engagement.
Highly shared content is grabbing people’s attention.
You can take hints from here and come up with even better content.
Easy enough?
Wait, I have one more reverse formula that works, and it’s even more accessible.
You can directly search for the pages that drive the highest traffic on a website.
I hit Semrush and looked up Neil Patel’s website again under the “traffic analysis” section.
After this, you can go to pages/visits, and you will see the top pages that generate massive traffic for them.
Another point that I have observed over time is that tools create the most backlinks.
Think about it!
Most of the time, you include some data; it comes from a tool, right?
Neil Patel has proved it with his own tool Ubersuggest.
You can see the number of backlinks from the data that he gets solely from Ubersuggest.
That is the magic of coming up with your tool!
So, are you making one?
10. Tell Relevant Stories
Stories always work! It’s not ancient but an evergreen phenomenon.
Nobody likes to go through the content that has only boring data in it.
As per Mailchimp, people remember stories 22x more than facts and figures, which can boost your conversion rates.
I too, tried this!
In my YouTube video, I mentioned how I initially made mistakes while learning keyword research, and it resulted in higher engagement.
You can also share your experiences with various clients, training learnings if you train people, and mention someone else’s stories relevant to your industry.
11. Write Longer Headlines
As we have discussed earlier, headings should send a clear message to the readers.
According to a Buzzsumo study, longer headlines will drive more engagement on social media.
As you can see from the graph, the best headline length is 15 words.
12. Edit Videos
A viewer only likes a video when they have an uninterrupted experience with it.
This makes editing a crucial part of the process.
Make sure you cut down all the fillers, repeated lines, parts when you get off the topic, etc.
You can also break down stretchy parts into small segments, add visual effects and transitions.
13. Comparison Posts
The posts that use comparison keywords can work fantastic for you.
There is comparatively less competition on such keywords because of their specific nature, making them easy to rank for.
I tried it too, and it worked! I wrote a blog on SEO vs. PPC. If you find the topic exciting, go ahead and read it:
https://www.adschoolmaster.com/seo-vs-ppc/
Here’s the data on it:
As you can see, it is driving hundreds of people weekly.
14. Evaluate with Data
A content that is backed with data will be perceived as authentic by your readers.
The more genuine your resource, the more trustworthy you will sound.
For example: if you want to prove that SEO can not be replaced by paid marketing, mention the click share to organic search results on Google.
But, sometimes, you need to do proper research to build an in-depth understanding.
A good data-driven blog has well-organized key points backed and a fair conclusion at last.
Such blogs create a high chance of being linked out by other bloggers, especially journalists who actively publish original research.
Let me show an example here:
I did a roundup post on Facebook statistics and trends:
This post on how many people use Facebook in 2023 has been up only for a few days. But look at the kind of traction it’s bringing to my website:
15. Repurpose Your Content
Repurposing or recycling content is a common practice these days.
It is like giving different forms to the same content. This will help it to leverage on various platforms.
I tried it too!
I made a Youtube video on “keyword research.” Much later, I thought of coming up with a blog on the same topic.
I used my Youtube content as a referring point. I just made many changes to the content and came up with a new blog.
And you know what? It is one of the best blogs I have come up with.
The video just made my task so much easier. The only thing I had to do was to build on it more.
Here are the results:
You can see the traffic for the blog post. I would credit this more than half to my Youtube video that came before the blog.
16. Create Quizzes
In 2023, interactive material will replace static content.
Interactive information not only engages users and makes learning fun, but it is a great memorable way to answer the queries of the user.
Here’s an example:
SEO is mainstream for my website. Hence I created a SEO Quiz:
With this: I’m not only answering the popular SEO questions; but it keeps users glued to my site for longer and helps my site grow with a dozens of new subscribers everyday.
17. Social Media Shares
You can leverage social media platforms like Facebook to reach a wider audience.
You can do paid marketing to boost your posts on the Facebook page.
I did it for my blog post on “keyword research”
Takeaway
That’s all I got for the time being.
These content marketing techniques are boosting user experience and generating traffic to my website.
It’s your time now. Which of the content marketing tips will you put into practice? Comment below and let me know!
One Response
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