We’re nearing the end of the year – time to start thinking about your 2022 marketing plans! Granted it’s been a weird couple of years. Now that things are finally beginning to resemble something like normal again, content marketing strategy for 2022 will undoubtedly be on your mind.
Here are 10 tips to help you nail your content marketing strategy for 2022:
1. Look at the past years’ results
Get into the habit of finding out where your customers come from. Where did they find you? Do they regularly engage with any of your social platforms? Do they tend to buy as a result of your email marketing? Do they react to your blog posts?
Note any marketing activities that have brought a lot of interest and those that have failed to resonate with your audience. This will give you a massive clue as to what you need to focus your energy on going forward – don’t be afraid to ditch anything that doesn’t work.
2. Be more personal
Ditch the corporate speak – people buy from people. Work on creating content that speaks your customers’ language. Don’t be afraid to show your personality, and give your brand a voice – and a face.
3. Increase your article length
Having a regular blog can do wonders for increasing your SEO, and building your online visibility. As a result, over time, you’ll see more organic traffic coming to your website. Blogging is a hugely competitive area – and over the past few years, we’ve seen blog posts become much more valuable and increase in quality and length.
If your blogs tend to be on the shorter side, then not only is your competition much fiercer, but it’s much harder for Google to rank your content. Posting longer-form content provides you with the opportunity to be much more detailed, therefore offering more value to your readers and increasing your chances of Google ranking your content above that of your competitors.
4. Create a content calendar
If you’re a ‘post when I feel like it’ kind of person, then this will be an absolute game-changer. It’s so much easier to be consistent with your content if you know what you’re going to post and when you’re going to post it. This applies to socials and blogging – open that Google calendar and get planning!
5. Set goals
If you don’t set goals in your content marketing strategy, how will you measure your progress? Goal setting helps you to see how things are progressing, and it holds you accountable. You can be pretty specific in the goals you set – but remember to be a little flexible, too, so that you don’t get disheartened.
Some good starting points are:
- How many email subscribers do you want to gain in the next 3 months.
- Frequency of social posts.
- How many people are reading your blog posts.
Goals are a personal thing, and they might look very different for you. Work out what you need to do to measure your success.
6. Do a content audit
Go through your past content and think about where there might be gaps. Are the majority of your blog posts about one subject? Is there something you could be writing about that your audience might find valuable? Try categorising your posts to see where you could make changes in what you’re offering.
It’s also a good idea to look at keywords while you do this exercise – you might find that there are certain words or phrases that come up that are getting you found via search engines more than others. Take note of those for your future posts.
7. Implement video marketing
There are loads of options for video content now, and so many brands are creating regular videos via social especially. Think about how you can use your existing content to create video tutorials and news updates. People love watching a video, and it could give you a new audience – and a new way for people to share your content!
8. Make it shareable
To get as many people reading your content as possible, it needs to be shareable. Create content that resonates with the people you’re trying to reach by talking about topics that hit people emotionally or are answering a hot question. Use tools like Reddit to see what people are asking that you could answer in an article (you could then directly respond to that question with a link to your blog post and get even more new people to your website!).
9. Adapt for mobile
This is a simple thing that many people tend to overlook – but a lot of people now use mobile devices to read online content. So see how your website, blog, and newsletter look on your phone. Does it cut off the edges? Is the text way too small? To stop your readers from being put off, make sure it looks just as good on a phone screen as it does on a desktop.
10. Keep in touch with past clients
OK, so we’re all about expanding our reach and grabbing loads of new customers, right? But hang on – what about those old customers that haven’t been back for a while?
The people who have bought from you before are gold because they already know and trust you. And that can help you in a couple of ways.
Firstly, they’re highly likely to buy from you again. Secondly, if you can get them to give you a review or recommendation, then other people can see how great your products and services are.
Get back in touch with some of those old customers and clients. Set up an email newsletter to remind them of your existence. Encourage them to follow you on social. Let them know of your newest products. Ask them for feedback.
Bonus tip: Repurpose your content
OK, so I recognise that putting all of these new ideas into practice may seem overwhelming – and it might take you a bit of extra time. So, for my bonus tip, I’m giving you something easy to do.
Use. Content. You’ve. Already. Created.
Here’s a little secret: a lot of the content you create will only be seen by a small proportion of your total audience. For example, did you know that the latest stats show that Facebook posts are on average only seen by about 5% of your followers. By repurposing your content in a different format, you will be showing it to a fresh audience who likely haven’t seen it before. Mind-blowing, right?
The same can be said about your blog posts. Since you wrote that really popular one in 2019, your audience has likely changed. So re-post it, and see what you get.
I hope you feel inspired to try some of these for your 2022. Maybe you can think of some others to include in your content marketing strategy for 2022. Feel free to comment and let me know how you get on!
About me: I’m Emma a copywriter and content manager based in Harrow, London. I have a passion for writing and for creating amazing content for brands that have a strong sustainable, social and ethical mindset.
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