Content Strategy

15 Content Experts Share Tips for a Successful Content Marketing Strategy in 2023

December 19, 2022 by Alek Irvin 1 Comment

Setting your 2023 marketing strategy? You’ll need to do more than just brush the dust off last year’s plan if you want to be successful.

We’re finishing up yet another year of extreme turbulence—Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Great Resignation, and the impending recession and its tech company layoffs, to name a few of the concerns. Meanwhile, brand communities are still learning how to connect and engage with each other amidst their remote and hybrid work worlds. Empathy will be critical for earning your community’s trust, and you’ll need to look at your tried-and-true strategies in entirely new ways.

Tips For Improving Your Content Marketing Strategy in 2023

To help you prepare your 2023 marketing strategy, we asked our #ContentChat community to reflect on the past year and share one lesson they learned or something they think every marketer should know.

Check out all of their tips below. What advice would you add? Tell us in the comments below or by using #ContentChat on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Tailor Your Content for the Format

“I learned that it’s important to write differently for blogs, YouTube videos, and podcasts. The commonality is that you need to have a hook in the beginning to catch people’s attention and strong CTAs at the end.

However, the difference among the three is the set up and middle part. For blogs, you can start with something general, then move to specifics. For videos, you need to shorten the general overview and get to the specific content as quickly as possible. For podcasts, if it’s solo, tell it as a short personal story, but not too long. Again, get to the specifics after your quick set-up. If it’s a podcast interview between two people, make it casual like a conversation. The podcast host needs to prepare the questions in advance, then improvise as it goes.

Although writing matters in blog posts, well-prepared scripts and show notes are key for videos and podcast recording.” – Pam Didner, B2B Marketing Consultant | Writer | Podcaster

Don’t Be Afraid to Stop Doing Things

“When I started hosting #ContentChat on Twitter in 2016, it was exciting to have 50 to a hundred content marketing professionals participating in each chat, sharing best practices and getting to know each other. But, over time, our community’s enthusiasm for public conversations on Twitter waned. Yet, the desire to stay connected and exchange best practices didn’t. That’s why in 2023 we are adding LinkedIn audio to our Content Chat mix, giving people who are no longer spending time on Twitter a way to participate in the conversations. We are investing time in nurturing our #ContentChat Discord community to provide a day-to-day home for content marketers looking for a supportive—and private—place to connect with each other.” – Erika Heald, founder of Erika Heald Marketing Consulting

Keep Refreshing Your Content

“The value of the content refresh just keeps growing. By now, most businesses doing content marketing have been doing it for years and have a ton of content built up. And at this point—no matter your industry—the last two years were packed with more volatility and change than any others in recent memory. That means the content library you built up got outdated fast.

In many cases, the bones of the old content are still good, but the details need updating to stay relevant. Plenty of businesses were doing regular content refreshes before the pandemic started, but the value of the practice has increased considerably in the last two years. Refreshes can produce impressive results with comparatively less work than creating new content. Keep creating original high-quality content, but shift some of your investment in 2023 to updating the stuff you already have.” – Kristen Hicks, freelance content marketing writer

Partner With The Right People Sooner When Creating Content

“Learning about content marketing is a continual process. In 2022, I didn’t learn anything new, per se; instead, I’ve discovered new ways on how we as content marketers can collaborate and integrate with other teams. Successful content requires full integration across the funnel, which means the what and why we produce content is as important as the how and with whom we produce it. I’ve learned that bringing the right people in earlier during the discovery/research phase of content helps us meet the audiences’s needs sooner in the creation process—ultimately streamlining production.

For example, my team was working with product marketing to create a series around workforce automation. Early on in the outlining process, we brought in an AE (Account Executive) to discuss our customer’s pains. We uncovered our content needed to very clear, with actionable step-by-step instructions v.s. a higher level ‘this is why you need this’ type of content. Our customers already knew they needed to fix their pain, but the complexity of HOW to solve it left them just doing nothing. It was up to us to simplify it for them. If we had asked the AE for feedback AFTER the plan was in place, they would have been reviewing a completely different storyline—one that would not resonate with our audiences.” – Amy Higgins, strategic, data-focused, content marketing leader

Creativity and Empathy Cannot Be Automated

“Invest in people, not platforms. Stay curious, but don’t get too distracted by the next new thing. As we’ve seen over and over again, a single person or company can break a platform or revenue model in a heartbeat. No matter how advanced AI may be or become, I’m convinced that creativity and empathy cannot be automated. Cultivate relationships and connect in ways that can’t be blown up on a whim.” – Carmen Hill, Content Strategist & Writer, Chill Content, LLC

Everyone’s Creating Content—Make Yours Stand Out

“Brands are now competing for eyeballs with the regular person on the street who is making their own content. Every man and his dog is creating content and posting it online. Some people have become so successful at it that they’ve quit their day jobs and become full-time YouTubers/TikTok/Instagram influencers. And these people, more often than not—are interesting! A brand has to compete with a lot of noise and more judgement and scrutiny from their audience. Nowadays everyone’s online. It can be a hairy experience to navigate for brands, which means content marketing must be done well and right.” – Caroline “Cazi” James, a global PR and brand specialist based in Los Angeles.

Help Your Readers Find Meaning In Their Lives and Work

“Content marketing in 2022 is a product of marketers re-evaluating what they want and need from the industry. With massive job moves, a refreshed sense for what is possible when it comes to the disruption of the status quo of work situations, and the (hypothetical) impending recession, it’s all about one thing: doing the right thing.

That may seem broad and sweeping, because it is. Content marketers have long been trying to build content to help people do their jobs better by playing matchmaker. But the people consuming their content are deep into a existential life review cycle that is asking them larger, more sweeping questions: are you doing the right thing for your family? your mental health? your body? your partnerships? your career?

After the pandemic in the early 1900s we saw the emergence of the Roaring ‘20s, and we’re looking to 2022 as the cultural impetus for the next Roaring 2020s. If content marketers are smart, they’ll take advantage of this fresh approach, this renewed sense of purpose, and start building content that help people find more meaning in their lives and work as the next year comes to crest.” – Maureen Jann, Advisor at NeoLuxe Marketing, 20 year marketing veteran, graduate from the school of failed startups, and curious soul

Take Video and Audio To The Next Level

“In 2022 I learned that more and more business people are realizing that they need to participate in the content creation process. However, they don’t know how to show up professionally—beyond appearing with the low video and audio quality that they’ve grown accustomed to on video conference calls. The notion that every company should be a media company means that the participants need media training, otherwise their professional brand can be tarnished.” – A. Lee Judge, founder/CMO, Content Monsta

Content Marketers Should Uncover Customer Needs

“This year, I moved from an editorial position at a B2B newsletter company to a much smaller organization that works with people and organizations seeking to strengthen their profiles on social media. Perhaps it’s just a personal revelation for me (vs. a ‘trend’), but I am struck by the challenge of helping busy people and purposeful organizations put themselves in the shoes of a potential customer or audience member. Content marketers can play a crucial role for these people by demonstrating (via metrics and anecdotal evidence) why it makes sense to spend time on strategy. And doing this is as much about people skills as it is about content marketing chops.” – Paula Kiger, Vice President of Special Projects at Digimentors

Build Relationships to Create Relevant Content

“Throughout 2020, I’ve realized this again and again: understanding your audience is way more important than nailing keywords. Because search is becoming crowded, focus on building relationships with your audience to learn what they struggle with and to share with them the content you create that solves their specific problem.” – Masooma Memon, freelance content marketer for SaaS

Reassess Your Social Media Plans

“Social media content marketing may seem like a low-hanging fruit, which it is. However, with increasing privacy concerns, a volatile social media landscape, and rise of niche communities, brands should focus more on using owned channels to market their content. As evident from the recent Twitter acquisition, social media has the potential to very quickly dilute a brand’s value and reputation, which takes years to build.” – Vasundhara Mohan, content manager, Boxwood Digital Marketing (a content advocate, strategist, and manager in a digital marketing agency)

Obsess Over The Reader Experience

“This year for me was all about obsessing over the reader experience. I poked holes in our current processes and found ways to strengthen quality. I published a book about my team’s approach to content style! I joined and participated in various communities where I benefitted from the knowledge of those with more experience than me.” – Maddy Osman, author & founder, The Blogsmith

Control Your Content Distribution

“With the Elonification of Twitter, and the possible banning of TikTok in the States, I learned more than ever that content marketers need to control the distribution of their content. That most likely means making email newsletters the center of the entire content strategy. Audience isn’t really audience unless it’s owned.” – Joe Pulizzi, Founder, The Tilt and Creator Economy Expo

Create New Content Experiences

“Content marketing is more than using traditional content types in the same old ways. Content marketing is about community. It is about new forms of content that we haven’t thought of before. Whether a college marching band forms your message at a football game (see Land O’ Lakes at a Purdue University game) or you create a branded online community for your customers, it is all content. It is what you do with it that makes it content marketing.” – Andi Robinson, Consultant, Hijinx Marketing

Focus On Satisfying Your Community Needs, Not Chasing Shiny Objects

“In 2022, I learned (or re-learned) that it’s all about the fundamentals, despite new technologies like Web3, NFTs, metaverse. Yes, stay on top of what new technologies can do for your marketing, but remember that it’s all about a deep understanding of your audience and staying focused on satisfying their needs. Take Google’s helpful content update. While it’s great that Google formalized how marketers can be ‘helpful,’ it’s all things we should have been doing from the beginning (i.e., for the past 10+ years).” – Dennis Shiao, founder of B2B marketing agency Attention Retention LLC

Upgrade Your Marketing Toolbox

Each of the above pieces of advice will help your brand reach and engage your community in more authentic ways. But here comes the next challenge—teams are increasingly expected to do more with less resources. So how can you handle all of your marketing priorities?

We love to use tools and templates that streamline our work and improve our business decision-making. Check out our 61 favorite marketing templates and tools for resources that will help with content marketing planning, content creation, executive thought leadership development, and more!

5 Steps to Audit Your Competitor’s Content To Improve Your Content Strategy

December 12, 2022 by Alek Irvin Leave a Comment

Content is vital for your company to attract, nurture, and retain customers—but your competitors are constantly vying for your customers’ attention with content, too.

Although you should never copy your competitors’ content strategy, it is essential for you to understand what they are saying, where, and the ways that they engage your shared audiences.

Let’s explore how to effectively audit your competitor content to refine your content marketing strategy and better meet your community’s needs, featuring insights from our friends Tod Cordill, principal of Moderno Strategies, and Melanie Graham, a writer and content marketing manager.

Why Is a Competitor Content Audit Necessary?

It can be difficult to pause your day-to-day content creation to audit your competitor’s content. Marketers often feel like an audit will take more time than it is worth—but you must remember how B2C and B2B buyers find products to fulfill their needs.

Tod explains that “many companies map ideal customer journeys that are used to define content to create and how to deliver the content to potential buyers. Especially with high-risk, high-cost buying decisions, these customer journeys are complex and can take many months. Buyers will read content from industry publications, conduct a variety of Google searches over time as they refine their needs, and consume content you create.”

Your company needs to address the myriad challenges and emotions that your customers face when seeking a new product or service. And the only way to provide unique value to them is to understand what other content is out there and what gaps exist so you can leave a lasting impression.

“If your content strategy is important to your company’s growth, you need to understand your competitors’ content,” Tod says.

What is a Content Competitor?

You should create a list of your content competitors to streamline your content audit, which brings us to a common starting question: What counts as a content competitor?

“There are two types of content competitors. The first type is business competitors that you compete against for customers,” Tod says. “The other type of competitor is other companies that rank for topics that you’d like your content to outrank. These content competitors might include equipment suppliers or technology providers, or companies similar to yours that compete in different regions or industry verticals.”

When Should You Conduct a Competitor Content Audit?

A member of your marketing team could spend time monitoring and analyzing competitor content daily, but that is likely an inefficient use of your team resources.

We recommend that you formally analyze your competitors’ content at least twice a year:

when you set your annual content marketing plan in December or January
when you refine that plan during your mid-year content marketing audit in June or July.

Use monitoring solutions and notification systems to alert you when new competitor content posts. Google Alerts, Feedly, and social media features like Twitter Lists can all help you keep an eye on competitor content without spending significant team resources. Melanie says that LinkedIn Competitor Analytics and Semrush competitor website analytics tools have been beneficial for her when conducting a competitor audit, and Tod recommends Market Muse.

How To Audit Your Competitor’s Content and What to Look For

You’ll want to keep your competitor content audit quick but thorough enough to identify new opportunities for your content strategy. One of the biggest challenges in this process is staying focused and not going too deep on any individual competitor’s content (unless that company merits a standalone audit).

Follow the below five steps to perform a streamlined and effective competitor content audit:

Step 1: Identify Your Content Competitors

First up: whose content will you audit? Create a list of your top three to five direct business competitors. Then, perform a keyword analysis using an SEO tool like Semrush to identify other brands that rank high for your primary keywords and topics to round out your audit.

Step 2: Build a Content Audit Template

Your competitor list will guide your research, but you need a place to collect the data to inform your audit.

Our free competitor content audit spreadsheet is a perfect base to capture your audit details, and you should customize the template to fit your need.

Step 3: Perform Your Audit

Start your competitor content audit by visiting your competitors’ blogs. Look for both those publications hosted on their website and through platforms like Medium. Next, briefly skim your competitor’s social media channels to see if there are other content sources or third-party content streams that they actively contribute to, which can include podcasts and video series.

Look out for the following content strategy elements when reviewing competitor content, and note any relevant details in your audit spreadsheet:

Domain Authority: This metric, which Moz, Semrush, and others have their own algorithms for assigning, predicts how likely a site’s content is to be found in a search. It considers social mentions of the site’s content, the frequency of people clicking through from paid and organic searches and consuming the content, the number of backlinks, and other factors.
Backlinks: What content does your competitor link to within their content? And who is linking to the content they create? Are these sources ones that you should build a relationship with? How can you create similar backlink-worthy content? Again, tools like Semrush and Ahrefs can make this process a breeze.
CTAs: “What kind of calls-to-action do your competitors use on their blog posts, social media posts, and website? How do these CTAs differ from yours? How can you make yours more compelling?” Melanie recommends you ask each of these questions when reviewing competitor content.
Distribution Channels: Where does your competitor share its content, and on which channel(s) are its followers most engaged? This information can help you understand which channels may help connect your brand with prospective community members.
Funnel Stage: Is most of the content fulfilling top-of-funnel awareness generation needs? Or does the competitor have a robust catalog of content that helps existing customers get the most out of the product or service? Again, your SEO tool may help with this, like how Semrush provides buyer intent signals on keyword topics, including informational, transactional, commercial, or navigational.
Keywords: What topics do they cover? Monitor headlines and subheads—Melanie says you should look for keywords that may suggest the competitor’s priority topics. She shares more advice below to help you understand how to get your content to rank higher in SERPs.
Lead Generation Assets: What gated content exists? How is the competitor attempting to drive leads and get prospects into the funnel?
Publishing Frequency: Your competitors’ content cadence will significantly impact your ideal strategy. “Looking at posting frequency across competitors can help you gauge audience expectations and opportunities for new content,” Melanie says. “You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to create content, sometimes you just need to put a new tire on the wheel! If they post infrequently, for example, maybe your blog can offer a fresh take on a topic they wrote about a while ago.” BuzzSumo can provide a report that shows the average publishing cadence by month, and the engagement levels by post and by post types and days published.
Structured elements: “Structured elements like headings, subheads, and lists on a web page are easy to scan for the reader and also provide important cues to Google about what the content is about. Pay particular attention to these on pages that appear high in search results,” Tod advises.
Thought Leaders and Bylines: What thought leaders or experts are credited for writing the content? What is their title? These details can help you develop differentiated thought leadership platforms for your spokespeople with comparable roles. If their CMS uses an author field, you can grab this data quickly with BuzzSumo.
Content Types: “Analyze what content mediums your competitors use to highlight potential gaps you can fill,” Melanie advises. “Does your competitor primarily create short blog posts and listicles, or are they focused on in-depth guides and white papers? Each audience member has different content consumption preferences and may gravitate toward your fresh approach.” Tod adds: “Don’t forget to review PDF documents that are linked from web pages. Google now crawls ungated PDF documents and displays them in search results.”
Visual Assets: What images or videos accompany your competitor’s content? Are they custom or generic stock visuals? Is there a consistent brand across these assets?

Step 4: Conduct a Keyword Gap Analysis

Thank you to Melanie for sharing her intel for this entire section!

“If organic search traffic is a major part of your content strategy (and chances are, it is), then you’ll want to make sure you’re doing a keyword gap analysis as part of your competitor content audit.

What’s a keyword gap analysis? Essentially, it looks at which keywords your competitors rank for that your website doesn’t. It can also tell you which keywords you both rank for and which website ranks higher. Platforms like Semrush and Ahrefs have built-in keyword gap analysis tools where you can monitor a few competitor websites vs. your own.

A keyword gap analysis can show you gaps in your content strategy—what questions or topics are your competitors writing about where you could offer a fresh take? It can also highlight optimization opportunities for existing content. Perhaps revamping an old blog post will give it a lift that outpaces your competitor in the SERP.”

Step 5: Analyze Your Findings to Refine Your Strategy

After collecting the details about your competitor’s content we explored above, analyze that information to see how your team can differentiate itself and engage your shared audiences more effectively.

Take a few hours to review your findings and filter by the key areas we discussed above to identify specific areas of opportunity. For example:

Filter your spreadsheet by “Asset Type” to see what type of content your competitors are creating and if you’re missing any key asset types (such as long-form ebooks or research reports).
Filter by each competitor and their publishing dates (or run a BuzzSumo report) to understand if you publish content frequently enough.
Filter by funnel stage and keywords to inform potential upcoming topics you should explore.
Filter by byline to see if you should diversify your thought leadership roster or if there are specific subject matter experts you should tap to help with content.

To bring up an earlier point: The purpose is not to copy your competitor’s strategies. Instead, your analysis should reveal new ideas and competitive insights to help you differentiate and improve your content strategy.

Refine Your Content Marketing Strategy With Competitive Insights

A competitor content audit is an effective way to learn how to engage your ideal community members and customers better. Use our competitor content audit spreadsheet to conduct your audit at least once a year—it’s the best way to get ahead of your competitors and use content to your full advantage.

Brands often find it helpful to have a third party conduct a content analysis to get a complete picture of their content marketing potential. We’ve partnered with countless brands to analyze their content strategy and develop content marketing plans that will help them better reach their target buyers with the right message in the right place. So if you’re looking for help with auditing competitive content, reach out to us so we can start a conversation.

How to Complete a Marketing SWOT Analysis for Smarter 2021 Planning

December 9, 2020 by Alek Irvin Leave a Comment

When marketing tactics are falling flat, teams have various ways to investigate why they cannot meet their goals. Social media account, blog, and other channel-specific audits are invaluable for informing targeted adjustments. Still, there is one incredibly valuable—although resource-intense—way to explore how each of these and much more is factoring into the team’s success: a marketing SWOT analysis.

A marketing SWOT analysis is the most effective way to understand your holistic marketing program’s results and identify ways to increase the likelihood of meeting your goals (and staying in business). The process is thorough and can be daunting for those unfamiliar with the steps. Still, there are several ways to stay focused during your analysis so that it can drive meaningful results instead of trapping your team in an endless analysis paralysis loop of evaluation and brainstorming.

What is a (Marketing) SWOT Analysis?

Simply put, a SWOT analysis is a framework that your marketing team can use to assess your team’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT).

Strengths and weaknesses generally involve internal factors that your team controls, whereas opportunities and threats are external factors, like general market conditions and your competitive landscape.

The SWOT framework helps inform many business planning processes—and you’ll almost always want a cross-departmental team to inform the analysis—but we’re going to focus just on marketing applications here.

We recommend that you conduct a formal SWOT analysis at least once a year. You can complete more frequent mini-analyses to help you stay ahead of the trends. This also allows you to pivot sooner rather than later if there is evidence that your strategy may underperform.

Why Should Your Team Conduct a Marketing SWOT Analysis?

This strategic process ensures that your team is taking a full look at the factors that could impact your success, both internal and external. During the analysis, your marketing team will get a 360 look at your organization and leverage insights from other departments to ensure you’ve considered all angles and priorities.

Here are just a few ways that a marketing SWOT analysis can benefit your team:

Hard data is better than assumptions. Teams should not build a year-long program simply based on someone’s gut feeling or because “this is how we’ve always done it.” The SWOT analysis will gather data to either reinforce or challenge assumptions, allowing your team to make informed decisions.
Organizational alignment drives efficiencies. Because the SWOT analysis involves members from your entire organization, teams can become better aligned on their priorities and understand what each group is focused on and creating.
Overcome creative hurdles. If your team feels stuck on what to do next or how to approach a new campaign, a SWOT analysis can often fast-track your brainstorming and find a more viable solution to drive the desired results.

4 Steps To Start A Smart Guest Blogger Program

May 22, 2019 by Erika Heald Leave a Comment

Blogs are increasingly important to companies for lead generation and nurturing. HubSpot even found that 55% of marketers say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority.

With growing content needs, marketers may be inclined to invite guest bloggers to contribute content, thinking it will save time and fill a content gap. Although guest bloggers are a great option that can yield tremendous value for your brand, they are not right for every blog, and they can be more resource-intensive than you think.

If you’ve been considering a guest blogger program, use these four steps as the foundation to assess if your blog is ready for guests, and how to get your guest blogger program off to a good start:

Taking a Library Collection Development Approach to Building Your Content Library

May 13, 2018 by Lewis Sievers Leave a Comment

Editor’s note: While many content marketers take a somewhat haphazard approach to content development, the most successful have a content plan that helps them meet their audience needs. This is something many content marketers struggle with, so we brought in a library professional to give you a different perspective on the process.

Collection development is the purchasing and maintenance of library materials. It chiefly concerns ordering new and replacement materials as well as repairing or discarding items that have become damaged or no longer have a place in the collection.

This can be physical materials such as books, DVDs, magazines etc., but can also refer to the library’s digital collection of e-books, databases or other subscription services the library provides. Multiple factors are considered when developing a library collection and include:

Budget.
Available space for physical materials.
The informational needs of the community.