Content is a very important element of online marketing. So, in 2022, you need to be consistently publishing high-quality content and blog posts — it can help your customers, increase your conversions, and even boost your search engine optimization (SEO)!
In this article, we’re going to outline how you can create a great content strategy for 2022. Let’s get started.
Analyze the content you’ve previously published
Before you create any content or launch a new digital marketing strategy, you should take stock of what you already have on your website. The best way to do this is through a content audit!
A content audit involves collecting and analyzing the content on your blog or knowledge base. This can then help you determine what content to create, update, re-write, or delete.
Before starting your audit, set your content goals. Are you trying to increase sales? Educate your audience? Grow awareness? Keep your aims in mind when analyzing your content.
Now, you need to create a spreadsheet of all the content on your website. Metrics you might want to keep track of include your content’s rankings on relevant search engine results pages, its comments, likes, or the amount of traffic it brings to your website, depending on what your goals are!
Next, it’s time to make a plan. Look at what content is performing the best. You might find that your audience is particularly interested in how-to guides, for instance. This means that you need to create more of this type of content so you can have happier customers!
Conduct content audits on a regular basis, at least a few times per year. This will help you stay on track so you can reach your goals.
Choose which content types you’ll focus on
Be sure to prioritize quality over quantity when it comes to your content. So, instead of trying to do everything and stretch yourself too thin, you should focus on creating content that you know your customers will definitely engage with.
Let’s take a look at some of the different types of content that might work for your website.
Ultimate guides
Ultimate guides outline everything a reader needs to know about a given topic. When creating an ultimate guide, you should aim to put together a piece of content that’s better than anything else out there — beginners and experts alike should be able to read it and learn something.
To come up with ideas for your own ultimate guides, think about what topics in your industry you know inside and out. These are the subjects that will make for great ultimate guides.
Timely blog posts
Timely blog posts are posts about your industry that tie to a current event or holiday. For instance, if you sell toys, you might write a guide on the best toys to give your younger family members for Christmas.
Think about what subjects in your industry tie to industry events, news, or holidays. These can make for great timely blog posts!
How-to guides
How-to guides outline to the reader how to do something related to your field. They should make the process simple and clear to the reader!
To come up with ideas for how-to guides, think about what types of questions your ideal customers have that are related to your field, products, or services. You could outline how to maintain your products or how to get started in your industry, for instance.
Buying guides
Buying guides help a customer determine what products or services are right for their needs. They outline everything someone would want to know about a particular category of products or services, helping the reader determine what will make the best investment for them.
If you want to help your customers make better purchases,, consider outlining what a consumer should consider before buying, then outline all of this information in an article. This will help your customers make the best purchase for their needs!
Come up with content ideas using keyword research
To come up with content ideas, you should conduct some keyword research. Keywords are the words and phrases that people plug into search engines in order to find content like yours. If you base your articles on these keywords, you can generate more leads!
To find the keywords you need to be targeting, start by heading to a tool like Google Keyword Planner with a list of words and phrases related to your business. Plug them into the planner, and Google will provide you with a list of keywords based on their competitiveness — or how hard they are to rank for — and their average monthly search volumes. Many of these keywords will work as content topics on their own, or you can also use them as inspiration!
Always consider search intent when conducting keyword research. Your content will likely aim to inform readers about different topics and answer their questions — in other words, you should only target informational keywords in your content. These keywords will often be formatted with “how” or “why” phrasing, so they’re relatively easy to identify in a list.
You can weave them into your titles, headers, and body copy in order to ensure your content ranks highly on the best search engine results pages (SERPs).
Prioritize addressing customer questions and problems
By addressing your customers’ questions and pain points with your website content, you can show that you really understand your target audience. This will help you drive more leads to your website and secure more sales!
To identify your customers’ pain points, start by checking in with your customer service team. See if there are any questions they frequently get asked. If you can address these questions in your content, your customers will feel understood and be more likely to purchase.
You can also conduct some question keyword research. Head to a tool like AnswerThePublic with a list of words and phrases related to your business. Plug these words into the tool and it will provide you with a list of questions people are asking on these topics. If you answer these questions in your content, you’ll help draw relevant traffic to your website.
Let’s take a look at a few examples of websites that address customer pain points and questions in their content as inspiration.
ScrapingBee, a website data gathering service provider, has an article on golang web scraping that addresses customer pain points well. In the article, they outline why someone might need to use web scraping, how to implement it with Go, how to build scrapers, and more.
This is a great article — it outlines everything a reader would need to know about using this program for web scraping. This means it can address customer pain points, building trust with the reader and making them more likely to spend money with the company.
Think about what complex processes you could outline for your readers. Writing articles on these subjects can help you address customer pain points, build trust with your prospective customers, and encourage them to buy from you!
Musician Authority, a website specializing in helping people to learn how to play instruments, has a series of great guides on their blog. Again, these do a great job of addressing customer pain points! For instance, their article on ukuleles for beginners outlines what to look for in a ukulele, the different brands and styles available, and the advantages of each. People wanting to get started with this instrument might not know where to begin, but this article can help them make a purchasing decision, thus solving their pain points.
Consider writing guides like this that help people to get started with your products or services. These types of guides can address a lot of pain points for newbies in your field, and readers will be more likely to want to purchase from you down the road!
Finally, at Loganix, we have a great guide that addresses pain points, as well. In our SEO glossary, we define different SEO terms in a way that’s simple and easy to understand. Because we’re an SEO agency, this can help a lot of beginners in our field. SEO can be confusing and complicated, but this guide can help people better understand different terms, solving our customers’ pain points.
If you work in a field that has a lot of jargon or complicated terms, consider creating a guide or glossary that customers can refer to. This will provide prospective customers with a great impression of your business and is likely to generate sales.
Plan everything ahead of time with a content calendar
A content calendar outlines all of the content you plan to publish over the course of the next year. By creating one, you can greatly improve your marketing strategy!
Content calendars are very important — they can give you an overview of what you’re going to be publishing at any given time, and this means that you can help diversify your content.
A calendar tool or even a simple spreadsheet can help you keep track of your content marketing strategy. Be sure to at least include the date, topic, and title of your posts in your calendar — this will help give you a better overall view of what you’ll be publishing in the near future.
Be sure to publish both evergreen and timely content throughout the course of the year. Evergreen content will always be relevant, while timely content is related to events, holidays, or the news. Having evergreen content is a long-term play that can attract people to your website at any time, while timely content shows your audience that you’re up to date with the trends they’re interested in right now. Having both will help you attract different types of people to your website!
Summary
Content marketing should be a big part of your 2022 strategy! In this article, we outlined how you can use content audits, calendars, and more to draw in new traffic and ultimately make more sales.
Need more help? Check out the TechDee blog. They have articles on brand awareness, making sales, and more.
Author bio & headshot:
Aaron Haynes is the CEO of Loganix, an SEO fulfillment partner that supports marketing agencies and professionals. The company specializes in helping businesses to improve their online visibility and ultimately make more sales. The Loganix blog has a lot more information and advice, so make sure you check it out if you found this article helpful.