What you put out for content in 2019 is going to have a drastic effect on the success or failure of your marketing goals this year. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from 2018, it’s that the majority of sales happen before your customer has ever spoken with someone from your company. They’re making decisions based on the content you’re providing and the various forms in which you distribute that content.
In order to seriously rock your content in 2019, take our advice and follow these 5 tips:
1. Get to Know Your Audience
Raise your hand if you’ve ever put out content simply by guessing what your consumers would want to know about. Or if you’ve ever put out content based on what you want to know about.
Knowing your audience is key to rocking your content in 2019. Get inside their heads. Figure out what they’re looking for. What they want to learn about, what they need and why they need it. Survey your email list to gather stats that will help you tailor your content to them. After all, they’re already devoted enough to you to be on your subscriber list, so they’re a perfect place to start in gathering preferences! You can survey your current social media followers as well.
Once you have insight into what your audience preferences are, now you can build content based on what they’re looking for. But don’t forget to include targeted keywords in every piece of content you write in 2019! Without that boost from major search engines, your content will have trouble being discovered by those that haven’t made it to your subscriber list yet.
2. Make Your Content Readable AKA Put it in Layman’s Terms
Use Yoast SEO for your blog? Ever notice how it’s now looking for shorter words and smaller sentence structures? The times are changing for content in 2019.
Even if you don’t have Yoast SEO, the main point is this: Writing your content as though it’s the thesis for your major in college isn’t going to win you any points with Google anymore. While quality content (which includes being somewhat lengthy) is of utter importance, readability is the master here. And when you pair both length and readability together? You get a combination that seriously rocks.
When creating your content for 2019, think of how you would explain what you’re about to write to a close friend of yours that has zero concept of your topic. Break things down. Write in smaller sentences. Use words that just about everybody will understand the meaning of without having to open a new tab just for a definition search. Hint: If your sentence is the length of a paragraph, delete delete delete and rework it.
3. Don’t Make Stuff Up. Cite Your Sources.
Notice how our blogs at Connections Marketing never mention stats without citing the sources of those bits of information? It’s a little thing we like to call integrity. But in today’s world, there’s a whole lot of information being put out on the internet as ‘fact’ without being backed up by proof.
It’s incredibly important to give credit where credit is due, but it’s not just about doing the right thing. The more you cite your sources and give credible proof of the information you’re providing, the more your audience will trust that what you’re saying isn’t just you blowing up the numbers to look good. Let’s do the math on this one:
The more your audience trusts you —> the more they share your content —> the more eyes on your content —> the larger your audience grows.
So do yourself and the original source of your information a favor. Cite your sources.
4. Develop a Content Calendar for the Year NOW
Have you ever sat down to write a blog post only to hear crickets? Creating new content is no easy task, and keeping it original is even harder. That’s why having a content calendar is key in making sure your content rocks in 2019.
Your content calendar should include the following:
- What you’re going to write about (it seriously helps to go ahead and get that blog title down now)
- When you’re going to publish it (list physical dates for publishing – and if you schedule your blog posts ahead of time, list the physical date you’ll be scheduling those posts as well)
- How you’ll promote it (newsletter, social media, press release, another website, etc)
Having a content calendar will remove the time-consuming brainstorming sessions. It will also assist you in creating more meaningful content that inspires engagement and will eliminate pumping out content for the sake of getting it out there. That kind of content rarely does well.
Need a kickstart in creating a calendar for content in the coming months? Look back at what you published in 2018. What worked well? What shared well? What content drove traffic? Sales?
5. Repurpose Your Content in 2019 for Distribution on Multiple Platforms & Growing Your Audience
You will be putting a lot of time and energy into creating content this year, and why should that time and energy be wasted on just a blog post? Repurposing your content will bring your brand more visibility, more followers, more subscribers on your email list and more paying customers.
There are several ways you can repurpose that quality content. Here are a few:
Turn Your Content into Videos
That 1,000-word blog post? That can become MULTIPLE videos. Videos can be distributed across social media, featured on YouTube, or included in marketing emails in order to drive people to your website.
Our favorite platform to create videos out of repurposed blog content in 2019? Lumen5. Bonus: It’s FREE. They do have a paid version, but the free version is quite robust, and the video quality is impressive.
Create Free PDFs to Build Your Email List
Keep growing that email list by turning your top blog posts into PDFs and offering them on social media for free. Dress up your PDF a bit to make it visually appealing, set up the form to collect names and email addresses, and have the PDF automatically delivered to their inbox as soon as they submit the form.
You don’t have to run ads for these, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt, either. After all, you’re trying to attract new subscribers, and those already following you on social media may be on your email list as well.
Turn Your Content into an Infographic
Visual information is easy to digest while also stimulating to the eyes of the audience. Take the extra time to turn your blog post into an infographic and use it to build your email list in the same way the free PDF does.
The great thing about using both an infographic and PDF to build your email list? You can do BOTH at the same time and build your list twice as fast!
Need help designing an infographic?
Expand on Your Content in 2019 an eBook or White Paper
While this option may take a bit more time, the payoff in the end can be incredible. Why? Because you’re offering quality information in a larger format than a blog post – the very thing that every other company in your industry is doing. Creating eBooks or white papers sets you apart from the competition. It gives you a leg up.
When turning your content into an eBook or white paper, it’s important to make sure you’re only doing it with your most popular content. After all, why would you spend the extra time and energy creating content that your audience isn’t interested in?
If you go the white paper route, create the name/email capturing form and send it out for free. If you choose to create an eBook (which doesn’t have to be a lengthy novel, by the way), you could go one of two ways:
- Start out giving it for free to see if you have a solid, positive response. If it does well, distribute your eBook for $5.99 or less. Typically, when it’s around the $3 mark, you’re able to generate a good return as most will feel that paying such a small amount is worth whatever information they receive on a topic they’re interested in. BONUS: This can create more quality leads because you’re capturing the contact information of the people that are extremely interested in what you’re offering.
- Keep it free to pull in even those that aren’t willing to drop a few bucks, thus growing your email list that much more.
Are you ready now to seriously rock your content in 2019? Follow these tips and watch as your business grows over this next year.
If you’d like help in creating content that drives traffic this year, let us know! Our team of professional content creators are skilled in SEO and providing results. Contact us today to learn more.