Does content marketing make you want to cry?
Four ways to put a smile back into your content marketing strategy
Have you ever felt as though content marketing might make you cry? For any business, whether a large corporate or a small company, bringing content to life in an original and engaging way is an ongoing challenge with no foreseeable end point.
Whatever the size of your content marketing team, trying to come up with a constant stream of new content marketing ideas can take its toll. Don’t let your content strategy become a drain on your company resources, inject some spark back into your content with our four suggested ways to re-energise your content marketing campaign…
#1 Throw out tried-and-tested formulae and think outside the box
When it comes to content marketing, it’s all too easy to stay in your comfort zone and stick to a tried-and-tested formula.
Straying from a writing recipe that has proved successful in the past might sound risky, but the chances are that the content that worked so well for you six months ago might already be old hat. Keep reinventing your content and add in an element of surprise.
Write about an unexpected subject or push the boundaries by coming up with content that your company is not usually known for. Not only will it breathe life back into your own writing and stop you weeping over woeful content, but it will wake up your slumbering audience and make them sit up and take notice again.
#2 Think like a consumer, not a content marketer
This might seem like a piece of obvious advice, but the pitfalls of constant immersion in the world of content marketing can be a loss of audience perspective.
Stop thinking like a content marketer for a minute and put yourself back into the position of consumer. After all, when you’re not writing or marketing content you are out there consuming it!
What do you most like to read about? What engages you as an audience and what are your biggest turn-offs? Plagiarism is content marketing poison but don’t be afraid to use other content as inspiration for your own original ideas. After all, all writing is a product of its environment.
Step out of your content marketing cubicle and connect with the real world again. It really can be a breath of fresh air!
#3 Don’t be despondent about old content, dig it out again!
While some content marketing ideas from the past few months or years might have passed their sell-by date, the opposite may, in fact, be true for some timeless content marketing ideas.
Recycling old content marketing ideas is not always a recipe for disaster; it might be just what you need to dry your tears and put a rocket under your content marketing campaign. Looking back at past successes can work wonders and boost your writing ego, as well as reminding you what once worked and why.
Revamping a piece of past content or revisiting an old campaign idea could put your content marketing campaign firmly back on the map.
#4 Turn your frown upside down with a content focus group
If you really feel you have lost touch with your business audience, why not arrange a fun and informal focus group to get feedback on content ideas and re-energise your content marketing strategy? After all, content marketing doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it needs audience air to help it breathe.
You could ask some of your previous clients or members of your target audience to give up an hour of their time for market research.
Throw in a free drink and some snacks and hey presto! An untapped resource for new ideas.
So dry your tears and dazzle your audience with your best content marketing smile. Positive energy equals positive results!
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