These days, it can be hard to stand out from the ever-expanding crowd of blogs and websites – some of which are directly related to your own niche and focused on producing similar material. Developing consistently fresh and engaging content that is relevant to your market can be a challenge for any business owner or marketing manager. Beyond luck and good fortune, are there any actionable steps you can take to keep your content fresh and engaging and capture the attention of your audience over and over again?
While it may take some work, there are particular content strategies you can implement that will pay off in the long run. It can be difficult to maintain engagement, but the tips outlined below can provide a solid starting point for any business that needs to try something new or improve on your existing strategies. And, it can definitely pay off since 72% of marketers say that content marketing increases engagement.
Ways to Keep Your Content Fresh and Engaging
Let’s take a look at a few ways that you can ensure that the content you create is always fresh and engaging.
Have a Clear and Defined Plan
Part of the problem with many content marketing strategies is that they lack a clear direction or any real framework. The first step you should take to make your content fresh and engaging is to know what type of content you are producing and why. This naturally takes some preparation. You need to know your audience and write with them in mind.
There are several ways to do this effectively. For one, powerful tools like SurveyMonkey can be used to directly ask your audience questions related to your content. Or, you can dimply interview them for improvement opportunities. Considering their answers can lead to ideas for future posts and can allow you to change aspects of your content that are not working.
As an aside, your content marketing plan should also have a framework for how your outreach strategies integrate with your plans for conversion. Generating fresh and engaging content is one thing but knowing how to turn that interest into sales and profit is quite another.
Use Google Trends to Observe Popular Keywords
Business owners or marketing directors should already know that the advent of Google Analytics and other tools has changed the content marketing game forever. Google Trends, in particular, is a useful tool for generating fresh content because it allows you to search for the keywords and terms that are becoming more popular with users. Better still, the data can be sorted by region to narrow down the terms to those most active in your area.
By taking popular queries as starting points, you can be sure that generating content that relates to these terms will be more likely to attract new interest. Depending on your niche, it may not always be possible to cater your content directly to keywords that are relevant to your business. However, with a little patience and some exploration of this useful tool you can be sure that it can help you to take great strides forward in producing fresh and needed content.
Write Original Content in an Active Voice
On a more fundamental level, it is worth repeating that your content should be original and written in an active voice. It can be tempting to write “copycat” articles or lists that can be found on any number of other sites or blogs but it is less likely that people will read your content if they have seen or read something highly similar before. Don’t let your hard work go to waste simply because you are focusing on the same old topics as your competition.
To make sure that your content is fresh and engaging, write from your own experience. Personal stories or even customer stories and testimonials can engender engagement and interest in your site and keep people coming back for more.
Regarding the use of the active voice, it is a simple technique that can make a big difference. Saying “the content was read by your audience” sounds a lot more tedious than “your audience reads the content.” Be clear and precise and remember that the optimal article length for optimization is just under two thousand words. Writing in the passive voice is one of he major issues with blogs, especially in professional industries. Don’t let this be your issue!
Post Your Content on Social Media Platforms
Social media can be another useful tool to ensure that your content is kept fresh and engaging. Or, if you know your content is working, it is an excellent medium to ensure your work reaches your market. Ideally, you want to establish trust and reliability with your audience and social media is an excellent means of doing so.
It is often considered bad practice to use platforms like Twitter and Facebook to aggressively sell products. Rather, use them to engage with your audience and to derive suggestions for new content ideas. Posting videos, images, and infographics are also time-tested ways of making heavier content more attractive. Be informative but remember to distill your communications into social-media-friendly jargon.
Be Patient and Experiment
Generating fresh and engaging content time and time again can be tedious, but it is well worth the effort. Content creation is one of the most effective SEO techniques you can implement. The numbers don’t lie: websites with quality blogs have 434% more indexed pages than websites without such content.
However, it can take time to know if what you are doing is working. Track your traffic using Google Analytics and always keep an ear at what your audience is saying. Implement some of the steps outlined here and be patient, and you should see that your content takes on a more fresh and engaging quality that will encourage more business. For help with your content marketing strategy get in touch with our dedicated team at Mikesell Digital Consulting and let us help you maximize your results.
