As we step into the new year, it's time to reassess and revamp your content marketing strategy. While some things may have shifted, the core principles of successful content marketing remain unchanged.
With the ever-evolving landscape of content creation, it's more important than ever to stay on top of best practices. This will ensure that your brand stays relevant, and your content continues to drive organic traffic to your site.
In this article, we'll be taking a closer look at some of the tried and true techniques that every content marketer should be implementing, as well as some of the hottest new trends making waves in the content world.
So without further ado, let's dive into the seven must-follow best practices for content marketing in 2023.
1. Using The Customer’s Voice In Your Content
In content marketing, utilizing the voice of your customer is a tried and true best practice that should always be a top priority. It's crucial to understand what your target audience is searching for and create content that aligns with those searches.
If you don't have a deep understanding of your customer's needs and language, your content may never reach its intended audience, even if you have exactly what they're looking for.
Keyword research is a fundamental aspect of content creation, and an essential component of creating relevant content is using the phrases and terms that your audience actually uses in their searches. This will help ensure that your content is discovered and resonates with your target audience.
2- Leverage the Power of the Hub & Spoke Content Marketing Model
Google values websites that demonstrate expertise and authority in a particular subject area. To show your competence, you need to create a wealth of content on the topic.
The hub and spoke content marketing model is one of the most effective ways to accomplish this. By utilizing the voice of your customer and understanding their needs, you can write content that resonates with your target audience.
The hub and spoke model revolves around creating a central hub, which is typically one of your main business offerings or services. The spoke content consists of questions related to the hub and various stages of the buyer's journey that connect back to the hub.
By following this model, you can ensure that you're targeting users at various stages of their search and that Google recognizes your expertise in the topic. This can lead to improved organic traffic, higher keyword rankings, and increased conversions for your business.
3- Create Content that is Structured for Result Types
Gone are the days when Google was just a list of ten blue links. The search engine result pages are now cluttered with a variety of different result types.
To maximize the visibility of your content, you need to structure it in a way that Google will want to display it. Similar to researching keywords to find those with search volume, you also need to consider the result types that are popular and relevant to your content.
Short-form videos, for example, have become extremely popular in recent times. They typically range from 10 to 30 seconds, or up to 5 minutes in length. The rise of platforms such as TikTok and Instagram Reels has contributed to the popularity of short-form videos, and they're now appearing as a result type on Google.
When creating content for your website, it's essential to keep an eye on what's showing up on Google and what your competitors are doing. Visual content, such as images and infographics, can make your content more digestible and shareable on social media. It's also a great way to show up on Google Images, the second-largest search engine after Google's main search page.
Audio content, such as podcasts, is another popular way for people to consume content. To understand how Google thinks users are consuming content, take a look at what's appearing on Page 1 of Google. Then, evaluate whether you can create content for these mediums and tap into the growing trend of audio content.
4- Gauging the ROI of Your Content
Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of your content marketing efforts is crucial, but it's not always an easy task. Unlike paid media or email marketing, where key metrics like conversion rates and cost-per-click are readily available, tying ROI to SEO and organic channels can be more challenging.
To convince your team and stakeholders of the value of SEO and content marketing, it's essential to have a clear and defined way to measure the ROI of your content. Demonstrating how your content is driving results for the organization, such as bringing more traffic to your website and helping visitors convert, is the best way to build support for your efforts.
To ensure that you're accurately measuring the impact of your content, it's recommended to set up reporting systems before you start creating content. This could involve using an enterprise SEO platform or smaller tools to monitor the performance of your target keywords, track your organic traffic, and measure your organic conversions.
By consistently tracking and reporting on the ROI of your content, you'll be able to demonstrate the long-term value of your SEO and content marketing efforts, and show how they're bringing new visitors to your site and keeping them engaged over time.
5- AI-Generated Content: Separate Fact from Fiction
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been making headlines as the next big thing in content creation, but don't believe everything you hear. Despite the hype surrounding AI-generated content, it hasn't quite lived up to its promise as the next big disruptive technology.
That's not to say that AI won't have a lasting impact in the future. There are certainly valuable use cases for AI services in areas such as research, schema creation, and content ideation. However, relying on AI to entirely write your content is not recommended.
Google recently updated its E-A-T guidelines to include a new "E" for experience, demonstrating the company's continued focus on authoritative content. This update seems to be a direct shot at AI-generated content, as Google wants to ensure that users are getting accurate information from credible sources.
At the end of the day, it's important to remember that content should be written for people, not just for search engines.
In conclusion, content marketing remains an effective strategy for engaging with your target audience and building brand awareness in 2023. By incorporating these five best practices - focusing on your audience's needs, creating high-quality and valuable content, utilizing data and analytics, maximizing your content's reach, and continuously measuring and improving your results - you can effectively reach your marketing goals and drive success for your business.
