How can I make 2022 my best year ever as a Content Marketing professional?
Our overarching theme for 2022 is “content and conversion” as it is clear that content is going to be the dominant marketing practice being deployed. But there is still a huge disconnect with how to do it efficiently and effectively in a way to secure more conversion.
So how can you as a content-focused marketing professional give yourself the best chance of having the best year ever?
Here’s some tips.
1. Set goals for content
If you haven’t already, set content goals, otherwise you’ll be starting off a journey without sat nav!
What do you want to achieve by the end of the year and reverse engineer back through the four quarters then the individual months.
You might want to align content with a particular audience or offering and set goals on increasing website visits, dwell time, sign ups, downloads and form fills. Be as clear as possible, especially if there is a direct correlation to resource utilisation (discovery calls, demos, visits) or spend.
SMART goals mean being really specific like adding 50 new email subscribers by the end of February.
2. Be realistic about what you can achieve
The best way to avoid a disappointing marketing year is to not take on too much. Doing a few significant things is better than shipping lots of very average projects just a box ticking exercise.
That’s why it’s important to project to the end of the year, work back, break down goals to smaller, more manageable targets and stick to your plan.
3. Rethink your to do list
It’s likely you’ve got a long list of things to create but are they truly linked to the organisation’s sales, growth and brand goals?
To have a great year in content marketing, you need to rethink your content marketing to do list and re-configure it to speak specifically to your goals. That way you’ll stay on target and do your best work.
Breaking your high level goals right down into specific actions to take, monthly, weekly and daily will ensure you’re always moving forward.
Want to create a new website? Break it down into pages. Want to write an ebook or buyers guide? Break it down into chapters and each segment within them. Want a month’s worth of social media posts. Start with day one.
4. Prepare ahead of time
A successful year is based on a consistent effort and application 52 times during that year.
Or each week. And the best way for each week to be successful and forward focused is by planning ahead.
Plan ahead by blocking time, ensuring you have the research, resources and outlines needed to then do the work when it is scheduled are sure fire ways to get the most important things done.
5. Spend time on SEO
If you’re writing web pages, blogs, landing pages and social media content, take time to really understand how SEO can help your digital content reach more people.
Use free resources like SearchEngineLand, Moz or Hubspot to get a full picture if you’re a newbie and use Google Webmaster Tools to inform your keyword focus, and content. And make sure new posts and pages are shared across your social media – including the often overlooked Google my Business listing.
6. Connect content to email marketing
Whereas having an eye on SEO will help you grow your website visibility, ranking and traffic, email marketing will help you build an opted-in subscription list to communicate and position timely content and offers to.
Email marketing helps content marketers build trust and authority.
Strong, regular email marketing – and not just a monthly newsletter but sharing web content as it publishes, creating new sign up and offer nurture sequences – consistently creates more sales ready leads for businesses.