According to a latest study by the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is going to be bigger than ever this year. Businesses are keener to develop original, relevant and interesting content to attract people to their brands rather than repurposing someone else's content. However, content marketing continues to be quite tricky and mysterious for most businesses.
True success with content marketing, as with all other forms of marketing, comes when the brand is original and interesting and produces unique content. This is why many brands are struggling so much with content marketing, especially if they have joined the bandwagon much later than others. However, as the New Year begins, here are some content marketing tips and techniques that will help you get a grip in 2014.
Make sure to create mobile content marketing strategies
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There is no doubt about the fact that these days, people prefer surfing the web, on the go, from their mobile devices rather than desktop devices. People don't want to wait to reach their homes or offices to get online and to read online content and want to be able to do so from their smartphones and tablets. This is why, your company needs to focus on building mobile content and mobile content marketing should be an important part of the overall content marketing strategy.
The urgency to create mobile friendly content is greater this year as Google has launched its Hummingbird algorithms. As a result, you need to make sure that your content is formatted properly so that it can be viewed with ease on mobile devices. Make sure your content is to the point and broken up properly to facilitate easier reading on small screens. Remove content like large and high quality images and large videos that may take a long time to download on mobile devices.
Less is more
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This may sound contrary to what most brands think about content marketing - churn out as much content as you can. We don't mean less in terms of the number of articles or infographics published by the brand but the amount of content in each piece. Consumer preferences are changing and there is a great demand for minimalistic, simple, to-the-point and thought provoking content pieces. Think of the Oreo ads and how they usually publish very creative images that are accompanied with a line of textual content that packs a punch.
Top brands like Google also prefer simplistic content and the fact that Pinterest is so popular with its clean and uncluttered look shows that people do not want flashy, in-your-face and chaotic content. Make sure you are getting your message across with beautiful, simple imagery and small content pieces that get your audience thinking.
Make use of SlideShare and Google+
Facebook and Twitter have been done to death by content marketers when it comes to publishing and marketing their content. Most content marketers seem to forget that people are always looking for something new. Although Facebook and Twitter are still great content marketing channels, they are overcrowded. On the other hand, Google+ and SlideShare are not only immensely popular, but are also highly regarded. These two websites are often trusted far more by those looking for content and content from these sites are also shared a lot. As SlideShare invariably forces users to publish content in the form of creative presentations, the content is built for easy consumption. Smart brands often create very attractive and informative slides on SlideShare with excellent media and textual content and as a result their slides get shared on other social media networks.
Google+ may not have been able to make much of a dent in the popularity but it has become the hub for those sharing beautiful and original content. Make sure that your brand not only has a Google+ page but that it also uploads great content for this page.
Don't forget about retargeting
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It is a known fact that only about 2% of web traffic truly converts during the first visit. Most people are just looking around are not willing to engage further with the brand. Often times, people also make mental notes about coming back but it is quite likely that they forget about it altogether. So how can you make sure that your brand is always on their minds? The answer is retargeting.
Retargeting is becoming increasingly popular and very easy to accomplish because of browser cookies. Instead of spamming potential customers and website visitors with emails when they subscribe to your mailing list, use retargeting so that they continue to see your ads when they have moved on from your website. This technique works very well for e-commerce websites and the constant exposure to the brand gives people the feeling that they have known the brand for a long time.
However, you need to make sure that the ads that you are using in your retargeting campaigns are not spammy or of low quality. This trend is picking up steam this year so make sure you are one of its early users.
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