17 Actionable Content Marketing Tips

5 months ago 36

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Data from Ahrefs

The fig of websites linking to this post.

This post's estimated monthly integrated hunt traffic.

Struggling with your contented marketing?

Don’t worry. Below is simply a database of 17 tips that’ll amended your contented selling and assistance you get much visitors, leads, and sales. 

If you fertile for topics that radical are searching for, you tin get accordant hunt traffic. 

Here’s however to find these topics: 

  1. Go to Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer
  2. Enter a taxable applicable to your industry 
  3. Go to the Matching terms report 
Finding topics with hunt  postulation   potential, via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

You’ll spot 3+ cardinal imaginable topics you could target. Look done the database and prime retired those that are applicable to your website. 

If you make contented for the incorrect people, visitors won’t construe into customers oregon clients. 

For example, if a conversion complaint optimization (CRO) bureau writes astir CRO, they mightiness pull chap professionals alternatively than genuine leads. That’s wherefore it’s important to intelligibly specify your audience. 

If you already cognize who you’re targeting, marque definite to get it down successful penning and stock it with your full team. Otherwise, usage the template beneath to fig it retired for your business. 

3. Swipe competitors’ champion topics

If you cognize which of your competitors’ articles get the astir hunt traffic, you could replicate their success. 

Here’s however to find their champion topics: 

  1. Go to Ahrefs’ Site Explorer
  2. Enter a competitor’s domain 
  3. Go to the Top pages report 
Articles that get   the astir   hunt  postulation   connected  Beardbrand, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer

You’ll spot their apical pages by hunt postulation and the keyword that sends each leafage the astir traffic. 

For example, we tin spot that Beardbrand’s nonfiction connected beard styles gets an estimated 51K monthly hunt visits. The keyword sending it the astir postulation is “beard styles.” 

If we owned a competing ecommerce store, we could tackle this topic, too. 

4. Prioritize topics with concern value

Topics person precocious “business value” if you tin people notation your merchandise oregon work successful the content. You should prioritize these arsenic they’re astir apt to make income or leads. 

For example, here’s however we people topics astatine Ahrefs: 

How to people     concern  imaginable   for topics

We effort to prioritize topics that people 2 and above. 

Pairing concern worth with hunt postulation imaginable keeps america focused connected creating contented that actually drives growth.

5. Optimize for hunt intent

Search intent is the wherefore down a hunt query. If you privation to fertile precocious connected Google, you’ll request to match it. 

Since Google’s extremity is to supply users with the astir applicable hunt results, we tin look astatine the hunt motor results pages (SERPs) to fig retired hunt intent. 

For example, if we Google “best headphones”, here’s what we see: 

Search results for the query, "best headphones"

From the hunt results, it’s wide that radical are looking for an up-to-date database of the champion headphones connected the market. If you’re targeting this topic, it’s apt you’ll person to make thing similar.

6. Create a contented calendar

A contented calendar is simply a strategy for organizing, managing, and scheduling upcoming content. It keeps way of each publishing efforts and lists accusation such as: 

  • Topic
  • Author
  • Contributors
  • Status
  • Due date
Ahrefs' contented  calendar connected  Basecamp

This keeps everyone aligned and is the crushed wherefore we’ve been capable to people astatine slightest 2 blog posts a week for the past few years. 

7. Design shareable images

People often stock images that simplify analyzable topics. This gets your contented successful beforehand of much people. 

For example, our SEO checklist illustration got 1,000+ likes and 300+ reposts: 

We person in-house illustrators who make our images. But you don’t person to interruption the slope to plan one. The blog WaitButWhy uses hand-drawn cartoons and instrumentality figures and is inactive popular. 

A WaitButWhy hand-drawn illustration

This representation got 8,000+ likes, 1,700 reports, and reached 1.6 cardinal views connected Twitter. 

Imagine quality past were written successful a large 1,000-page book. Every leafage would screen 250 years. If we tore retired each the pages, it would look similar this.

The precise earliest imperishable settlements started astir leafage 760 and recorded past doesn’t commencement until astir leafage 775.

1/5 pic.twitter.com/Jr9o1FE7lG

— Tim Urban (@waitbutwhy) March 15, 2023

Tools similar Canva besides marque it casual to make shareable images. 

8. Promote contented crossed channels

If you don’t enactment your contented successful beforehand of radical who care, your recently published contented volition beryllium invisible. 

To beforehand our content, we: 

  • Include the champion posts of the week successful our newsletter 
  • Encourage each writer to stock what they’ve created connected their socials 
  • Reach retired to radical we notation successful our content 
  • Run ads connected platforms similar Facebook and Twitter 

You’ll person to bash astatine slightest this overmuch to get your contented out. If you person a caller site, even more. 

9. Repurpose top-performing content

Content repurposing is wherever you crook existing contented into different format. 

For example, we turned our guide to influencer marketing into a video. I besides turned my blog station connected the Skyscraper Technique into a X (Twitter) thread.

That way, the contented you’ve created doesn’t extremity aft hitting ‘publish.’ It goes the other mile to scope much radical without you having to make caller contented from scratch. 

10. Don’t sweat the word count

Our survey of 900 cardinal pages showed that the mean 10,000-word station gets little hunt postulation than the mean 2,000-word post. 

Put simply: Longer does not mean much integrated traffic. 

So… halt obsessing implicit connection count. No 1 wants to work longer content. Cover arsenic heavy arsenic needed, chopped retired the unimportant aspects, and get to the point. 

11. Keep your contented updated

When I updated my post connected escaped SEO tools, postulation shot up: 

The summation   successful  postulation   aft  an update to a blog post

Content tin spell “bad.” Information tin go outdated, your people keyword’s hunt intent tin change, and your rankings can drop. 

When that happens, you’ll person to update your content. 

The easiest mode to find retired which contented to refresh is to instal our escaped WordPress SEO plugin and tally an audit. The audit volition archer you which articles you should beryllium updating. 

Content audit results from Ahrefs' WordPress plugin

If your contented is precisely similar everyone else’s, past there’s nary crushed to click, read, share, oregon nexus to your contented implicit others. 

You privation your contented to basal out. And the champion mode to bash that is to stock an opinion. 

For example, our Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Tim Soulo wrote a rant astir atrocious email outreach a fewer years ago. It was incredibly fashionable and got 2,200 backlinks from 469 unsocial websites: 

Number of backlinks Tim's station  connected  outreach received

In fact, radical inactive notation the usher connected societal media today: 

In a satellite wherever everyone tin make contented freely via AI, having a beardown sentiment volition assistance differentiate your contented and marque it unique.

13. Publish antithetic contented types

You cannot expect each portion of contented you make to deed each your contented selling goals. You request a variety. 

Depending connected your goals, you’ll apt need: 

  • Search-optimized contented to get hunt traffic 
  • Linkbait to pull backlinks 
  • Sales enablement contented to assistance your income squad close deals 
  • Thought enactment contented to physique authorization successful your industry 

For example, contented designed to fertile isn’t the lone benignant of contented we create. We besides people data studies (for thought enactment and links), product updates (for retention), sentiment pieces (for thought leadership), and free tools (for pb generation). 

Content hubs are interlinked collections of contented astir a akin topic. For example, our beginner’s usher to SEO is simply a postulation of our champion guides: 

Our beginner's usher  to SEO is simply a contented  hub

Since our blog is displayed reverse chronologically, a hub leafage helps our readers observe our contented successful an organized manner. 

If you person tons of astonishing content, make hub pages to nexus them together. 

15. Use AI tools arsenic a contented partner

Your extremity arsenic a contented marketer is not to debar AI penning tools, but to play to their strengths. 

For example, you tin usage ChatGPT oregon our free AI penning tools to implicit menial tasks like: 

  • Brainstorm headlines and titles 
  • Come up with imaginable blog post ideas 
  • Expand nonfiction outlines 
  • Reword sentences
  • Whip up speedy conclusions 

This volition escaped up your clip to bash what matters: make a coagulated content strategy, interrogation subject-matter experts, inject idiosyncratic experiences, travel up with opinions, and more. 

16. Publish archetypal research

Journalists and bloggers are ever connected the lookout for information and statistic to backmost up their claims. That explains wherefore our astir linked-to pages are mostly probe studies: 

Our astir   linked-to pages are mostly   probe   studies

We’re fortunate due to the fact that we person tons of big data to enactment with. But anyone tin people archetypal research. You tin tally a canvass connected Twitter oregon LinkedIn, make a survey, oregon spouse with idiosyncratic who has entree to data. 

You could adjacent usage publically disposable information and make your ain methodology, similar what Asher & Lyric did erstwhile they ranked the champion countries to rise a family:

Asher Fergusson's methodology for their station  connected  the champion  countries to rise  children

Their station received a full of 322 backlinks from 201 referring domains: 

Number of backlinks that Asher Fergusson's station  connected  countries to rise  a household  got

17. Reach much radical with videos

There are plentifulness of reasons to make video content: 

  1. YouTube is the second astir fashionable hunt engine successful the world. 
  2. Not lone is video engaging and interactive, it helps to show your merchandise oregon work successful action. 

This is wherefore we’ve heavy invested successful creating YouTube contented since 2018. It has paid disconnected for us—we person 21+ cardinal beingness views and implicit 450,000 subscribers connected our channel:

Number of subscribers and beingness   views our YouTube transmission  got

Most importantly, it drives caller customers: 

YouTube sends america  a batch  of caller   leads and customers

If your contented selling absorption has lone been connected written content, it’s clip to see creating YouTube videos too. 

Final thoughts

I anticipation you’ve walked distant from this station with a fistful of actionable contented selling tips you tin use to your business. 

Did I miss retired connected immoderate chill contented selling tips? Let maine cognize connected X (Twitter).

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