In our recent post about year-end marketing spend, we also talked about looking towards 2023 to assess any gaps in your content marketing strategy and beginning the planning process for next year's content.
In this post, we're taking a closer look at some of the key elements that most marketers will be looking toward as the foundations of their 2023 content marketing deliverables.
Are you using several types of content marketing to execute your strategy? If not, it’s time you start. Maintaining a diverse content library boosts the overall ROI you’ll earn on your content. Plus, it makes you more competitive in a crowded online content landscape. QUICK TAKE
Blogs increase site visitors and views by more than 400%
Video content will account for 82% of all online traffic this year
Case studies are powerful because they show tangible results
People share infographics more than 3x as often as other content on social media
White papers are popular content to generate sales leads
Social media is a great amplifier of your content in other channels
(Source: HubSpot)
BLOGS
If you’re going to choose one type of content to start with, absolutely make it your company blog. Blogs are the foundation of every good content marketing strategy. They’re a driver of organic traffic and a platform for sharing your various other types of content, too.
Some quick stats that show the huge ROI of blogging: businesses with a blog on their website have on average 434% more indexed pages, 55% more visitors, and 97% more inbound links than sites without a blog.
Blogs are most effective when they’re extremely active. Research has found that publishing 11-16 times per month results in 3.5X the amount of organic traffic than blogs that publish less often.
(Source: HubSpot)
VIDEO CONTENT
Video is emerging as the future of online content. Cisco predicts that by the end of this year, 82% of all online traffic will be made up by video. Users prefer it over other types of web content and brands use it for customer engagement across platforms — It's TikTok, YouTube, social media posts and stories, videos embedded in blogs, client interviews and so much more that is keeping viewers engaged for longer periods daily.
And even though many brands often think that video content is beyond their content creation capabilities, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Partnering with the right creative production resource is easier than ever, and technology allows for fast, flexible and budget-friendly creation of short-form and long-form styles of video and motion content.
CASE STUDIES
A recent Qualtrics analysis reports that 93% of customers look for online reviews or other forms of social proof before they buy a product. Case studies that tell customer success stories are a powerful way to provide this kind of assurance for your potential customers.
Not only do case studies show brand value through real-world examples, but they also provide testimonials directly from your actual customers to boost trust between your products and your brand.
And there’s more good news: that same research shows that 83% of customers are willing to share the positive experiences they have with brands. This means that to build a library of case studies, all you need to do is ask your satisfied customers if they’re willing to participate. Some successful best practices for developing case study content include:
Featuring a diverse set of customers to relate to your various customer segments
Focusing on the problem solved or the need fulfilled by your product or service
Sharing clear, measurable results in the form of numbers or statistics including quotes and direct testimonials from your customer
INFOGRAPHICS
Infographics visually represent a set of data or other information about a particular topic. They’re especially useful for sharing complex information in a digestible format that's also visually interesting. They’re easy to share across channels - in fact, research shows they’re shared 3X more than any other type of content on social media.
(Source: HubSpot)
WHITEPAPERS
Whitepapers are content developed to highlight brand expertise on a topic. While they traditionally have been in-depth in nature and aimed at audiences that already have some level of knowledge on a topic, brands have adapted the format to a "light" version to cover topics in an introductory way and target more general audiences. In either form, they lend themselves well to be used as lead magnets, or high-value, downloadable content offered in exchange for user contact information.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media can serve a two-fold purpose in your content strategy: first, you can create original content through posts and stories. Second, you can amplify content from other channels by sharing it on your social media platform. Social media content is powerful because it seamlessly fits into natural buyer behavior — nearly two-thirds of American adults are already on social media, and 90% of people buy from brands they follow.
ONE MORE THING!
Yes... fresh content is essential, but don’t forget to update your existing content, too! For example, if you have several older blog posts that offer valuable advice on the same topic, consider refreshing them and releasing them as a series of white papers or case studies. Or think about line extensions you've done this year and make sure you're telling that product story.
NEED A PLACE TO START?
We just covered a lot of ground in terms of the type of content that is expected to yield impressive results in 2023. But if you're asking yourself, "How do I get it all done?" Contact us for a no-obligation consultation to discover the ways we help brands create content of all types and we'll help you jumpstart your 2023 planning!