Think about the very first cell phone you’ve ever owned. For me, I had the Motorola i60c with direct connect (the only way I had caller ID until two phones later). No matter when a cell phone became a necessity in your life, chances are it’s obsolete compared to what’s on the market today. The same can be said for content marketing strategies; what was once the most efficient way to gain more attention (through digital and traditional mediums) can quickly become outdated.
Don’t let your content marketing stay in the “flip phone stages.” Learn what content marketing strategies are now outdated and what you can do to revive this kind of content.
Keyword Stuffing
Back in the early days of the Internet, keyword stuffing was an easy way to get found through search engines. By stuffing the same keyword multiple times into every single element of a web page (and adding white-text keywords into a white background), your page could dominate a specific keyword. Now, this spammy SEO trick will get your page flagged by search engines and move your page down the search engine results pages (SERPs).
This black hat tactic just makes you and your content look awful; what’s worse is that it makes your content sound robotic and showing your readers you only care about getting to the front page of Google and not providing them with useful information.
Instead of keyword stuffing, try writing content for topics that have a high search and are relevant to your field/industry. Also, write for humans first, not search engines. If your content is comprehensive and offers insightful knowledge to your readers, the content will gain more attention from viewers and ultimately boost its ranking. This is not to say to ignore keywords altogether; simply write your content first and add the keywords in all the right places once the draft is complete.
Clickbait Headlines
How many times have you been tempted to click on a headline such as, “8 Selfies The Caused Death – We’re Shocked about Number 4!” or “The Principal Held a Mandatory Assembly About Bullying – You Won’t Believe What Happens After 5 Minutes!” There were a lot of sites out there publishing these kinds of headlines, which drove in millions of views and became a trend for marketers alike. What started out as a hot trend quickly fizzled once readers noticed that these articles were not producing what they promised.
If you jumped on the bandwagon and wrote a few articles with clickbait headlines, revise them to offer a clear benefit that the reader will gain from viewing it. Don’t promise them a life-changing experience – meet a specific need and fulfill that promise.
Short Blog Posts
Blogging is an ongoing effort you can take to boost your website’s SEO, and when you live in a time where fresh content is getting dumped onto the web every minute, you may think your readers want short, bite-sized posts that’s easy to scan. This thought was right a few years ago, but more experts have proven that long-form content shows greater results regarding long-term search engine visibility, performance, and traffic.
Aim to write posts between 1,500-3,000 words. By doing this, these posts will have a better chance at generating leads, attract backlinks, boost your credibility, and repurpose the content into other marketing materials.
One thing to note: This point is more applicable to B2B companies. B2C businesses should aim for more visual posts or shorter posts, but write to meet the needs/desires of your audience/industry.
Content Without a Story
Storytelling and narratives have been hardwired into our brains since childhood, and brands have started using this in their favor more and more. For years, there was this unwritten rule that to be perceived as a professional business, you needed to separate your business and personal content from your website. Now, there is a shift of readers becoming tired of the corporate talk and marketers writing more narratively.
Why this sudden shift? This style of content cuts through the clutter, gives more transparency, and makes your brand more relevant to consumers. Because of this, try writing content that tells a story. It might be a good idea to try this on your About page or History page first, which are naturally written in a narrative style, and then experiment with storytelling blogs.
Content marketing is something that’s always changing, so it’s something worth keeping yourself up to date about. By implementing these tactics, you’ll take your content from “flip phone” status to “iPhone X.”
To learn more about content marketing, get ahold of us today.
