If you look at all the recent Google updates right from snippet feature to NLP inclusion, they all point to one direction and that is to cater reliable and user-friendly platforms to their end-users. No matter if they are searching for a brand or generally inquiring about a product or searching for a place nearby their location, having relevant and quality content is essential to feature on the top of SERPs. So, if you are an organization trying to leverage the power of content in 2022, below are the skills and tools that would determine the success of your content marketing efforts.
8 Content skills and tools that are essential for successful content marketing in 2022:
- Original content creation:
If you are looking for long-term rankings and actual traction from your customers, having relevant original information is essential. Try and analyze the questions that are asked by the potential target audience and create informative blogs, articles, infographics, and other such collaterals to address the subject. Also, the key is to keep the blog informative and create a subtle call to action after you have delivered the value of your product or service.
- Domain understanding and industry nuances:
Whether you wish to create the content marketing strategy or you wish to generate content for the brand, you must understand the industry and its nuances first. It is essential to capture the industry jargon, tone, and approach of the industry. To do that you first have to identify the informative platforms and channels where the industry experts and consumers communicate and conduct detailed secondary research. Try and identify the topics that are currently trending, create a list of keywords and jargon that are unique for the industry, and create a user persona by analyzing the user communications.
- Integration of the AIDA model:
Hardcore sales efforts will not help you generate long-term results for your content. To ensure that you have an effective brand content marketing strategy, integrate the AIDA model into your content marketing strategy. AIDA model starts for Awareness, Information, Desire, and Action. The first step is to make your potential audience aware of your brand; the second step is to deliver integral information about your products and your services. The third step is to give apt reasons to the customers as to why they must procure your services and products with your USPs and create a desire to accumulate your brand offerings. Lastly, the fourth step is to integrate a strong and impactful Call to Action for conversion.
- SEO content writing efficiency:
One important aspect of content marketing is integrating targeted keywords into the content that you generate. No matter whether you are generating web content for your digital platform or social media platforms or content marketing platforms, you must integrate effective long tail, primary, and LSI keywords into the content to get maximum traction for the content that you generate. But, to make sure that your audience has a seamless experience, ensure that the content marketing keywords are included as naturally as possible. (I hope you got my point there!)
- Data analytical skills:
Data is the new fuel of this digital world. To make informed decisions and to get optimum returns on your efforts and investment, your content strategy must be based on facts and actual consumer insights. This can only be done with the help of efficient data analytics.
For instance, Google Analytics code integrated into your website can help you understand customer behavior on your platform. Right from customer journeys to visits and interactions on your content, everything can be analyzed and used to formulate a good content marketing strategy. One can also identify where the brand is getting its traffic from and identify where your customers engage the most with a heat map study.
- Identifying right promotional channels:
One of the biggest aspects of content marketing is to identify the channels and platforms that would help you reach your potential customers. Although it is advisable to have omnichannel marketing but to do that cost-effectively, one must be able to identify, prioritize and allocate content efforts based on the returns that are expected from the platforms.
For small businesses that are trying to establish their presence in the digital world with limited resources, this task becomes more important as you have to choose which platforms to target based on the available budget and content resources. Thus, with the help of the data analysis, one must create a list of platforms with priorities mentioned and determine the ideal budget and resources that they would require for effective content marketing.
- Content planning and scheduling tools:
It is rightly said that marketing is all about delivering the right product to the right people at right time and at the right place. Similarly, to deliver the right content to the right people at the right time, you must have essential skills and knowledge of content planning and scheduling tools. For instance, there are many different types of content calendars available for understanding and planning content. Right from the festival calendar to the events calendar, one can easily plan content well in advance with these calendars. Apart from that, to reach your audience at the right place and time, you can use content scheduling tools for social media as well as your digital platforms.