The first days of 2019 are the time when you get a chance to look at your list of New Year’s resolutions and dive into the first one on your list.
Many people will head to a local gym and sign up for a membership. Others may buy a pack of nicotine patches to work towards their goal of quitting smoking. A line of people at the local department store are buying items like weight scales, food processors, whey protein containers and blenders to achieve their New Year’s resolution of health eating and weight loss.
What are the content goals listed with your other New Year’s resolutions? Here are several goals that you should include:
Keep a Close Eye on SEO
Never fall for the flawed reasoning that search engine optimization is any less important in 2019 than it was in 2018. If anything, it is even more important now than ever before – especially when you consider the flood of competitive content creators with their eyes set on your target market. Make sure that you pay close attention to the current ranking of your content and overall website among search engines. However, you should pay even more attention to the statistics related to your specific website.
Boost Engagement with Humor and Valuable Information
One of your goals for 2019 should be to expand the quality of your message with the goal of boosting your audience engagement levels. Consumers are always interested in adding a little entertainment to their information as well as a little information to their entertainment. You need to master both sides of that spectrum in moderation – sticking to a formula that works for your specific niche.
For instance, if your typical audience member comes to you for jokes and humor, then they will probably be repelled by a series of posts where you strive to “get serious for a moment” and completely remove the humor factor from the equation.
Repurpose Your Old Content for a Fresh Audience
When was the last time that you reviewed the content you created or curated in the early months of 2018? Go further back into the past – 2017, 2016, 2015, etc. – and ask yourself the same question. It is easy to become so focused on creating new content that we overlook the value of the old content. You may have even forgotten some of the topics that you covered and questions that you answered. However, chances are that there are still people searching for those topics and answers, right?
Find creative and clever ways to repurpose your old content to make it receptive and engaging for a fresh audience. Instead of simply reposting the same old links, perhaps you can turn the content into an infographic, video presentation or even a podcast. If you have enough valuable content, you could even consider turning it into an eBook that you can either sell for profit or give away as an incentive to boost your subscriber count.
Ramp Up Your Social Media Strategy
While you are concerned about your blog posts, articles and other forms of website content, remember to accommodate your social media strategy along the way. Studies have shown that more than 60 percent of B2B content marketing specialists have increased their social media use within the past year, according to Search Engine Watch. Therefore, a good question to ask is, “Have you?”
You may have taken a “minimum” approach to your social media usages in 2018 – only posting important updates, announcements of sales/promotions or maybe a sporadic seasonal message depending on the time of year. Perhaps this year is the perfect year to ramp it up to a “maximum” approach where you have a detailed strategy that will allow you to make the most of this online exposure.
Remember: Creating quality content is only part of the battle. You still must find an effective way to promote it and get your work noticed by your target audience.
Join or Create a Social Networking Group
You may have seen invites for various groups on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media platforms but ignored or overlooked them. Perhaps you did not fully understand the value that joining the right group can have on your content marketing. This does not mean that you need to go crazy and join an extensive list of groups “just because” – believing that the law of large numbers will play in your favor. On the contrary, you should focus on quality and not quantity when searching for the perfect group to join and essentially use as an online marketing tool for your online presence.
Your goal should be to find a quality group that matches your niche and target audience. If you cannot find an existing group that matches your market, there is nothing wrong with creating one. Either way, make sure that you spread the word to boost its membership. Doing so will have a direct effect on the exposure of your posts – which should be tailored to draw attention towards your website, content and the overall online presence of your brand.
Celebrate Your Content
The only problem with a New Year’s party is that it quickly comes to an end and does not come back around for another 365 days. You should never wait that long to celebrate your content, your online presence and the growing number of people who have read, viewed, commented on and shared your content since you first began your journey of content creation and marketing. Take the time to celebrate it all and then buckle down & get to work.
You have a new year ready and waiting for you and your content. You have a new list of New Year’s resolutions ready for your commitment and effort – especially when it comes to the content goals outlined above and any others that you may have added to your own list. Dive in and get started!