Earned & Owned
Let’s face it—when it comes to creating and marketing content, we’re all busy. Your brand is constantly in a state of creating, editing and publishing, and by the time you’re marketing your content, you’re already working on your next piece or campaign.
No matter how rapidly you’re putting content into your brand’s feed, it’s important to never treat your content with a post-it-and-forget it attitude.
Fortunately, I have some quick tips that can help: this blog post will touch on 10 ways to instantly boost your content marketing game (each in under 10 minutes).
This is basic and crucial to the success of your content. Whether you’re creating a quick blog post or a full-on resource page, a little keyword research goes a long way.
Not only will you be able to see how well your content is estimated to perform against your competitors, but you can also use it to find alternative avenues for you to explore.
If you’re new to the world of keyword research, here are a number of helpful tools to help you get started:
I recommend doing keyword research before you create new content, as well as when you’re considering revamping your old content for better results.
As a segway, make sure your keyword is in your headline! Having your keyword in your H1 will work wonders for how well a search engine can crawl and index your page.
It also helps your human visitors know what to expect from your content.
But a great headline requires more than your keyword—it also needs to stand out.
When creating a new piece of content, I like to use CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer to get another perspective on my headlines. What sounds great initially may end up being….well, #basic. This tool helps you see what you can improve and how to improve it.
Let’s take this piece for example: the first headline I came up with was the concept “10 Content Marketing Hacks in 10 Minutes.” Punchy, direct, but perhaps lackluster. Let’s see what CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer thinks.
Well, it’s not great, but the length and character usage are! Now with this information, I’m going to try crafting a different headline: “10 Content Marketing Hacks You Have to See to Believe.”
As you can see, the overall score we got was 66. We can improve by using more powerful and emotional words and by keeping an eye on our word count.
With this in mind, let’s think of one more. Let’s give “How to Become a Better Content Marketer in 10 Minutes” a whirl.
Much better! It’s not perfect, but it is a vast improvement from what we started with.
Headlines take practice, so working on these for 10 minutes a day will help you significantly in thinking up headlines for new content or for refreshing older content.
If you have a piece of content that’s performing well, don’t put it on the backburner. Even if it’s on the first page of Google, Google has the tendency to prefer things that are shiny and new, so make sure to take a few minutes every so often to update your content.
Here are a few ways to do this:
Another important thing to keep in mind is to do this regularly. Include revamps and updates on your current content calendar—it’s a task that only takes 10 minutes, but it can make a huge difference in page and site performance.
Another great way to refresh and update older content is by creating a video.
Today, it’s all about the visuals, and luckily, most of us have the technology we need to make great-quality video content. So pull out those smartphones, it’s time to make some movie magic!
Camera-shy? No worries. You can also screen record what you’re doing on your computer, which is great for
Keep in mind that you can use your fresh video content for a bunch of different channels (not just your blog or your YouTube channel)—but more on this later.
I know what you’re thinking: a video in 10 minutes? Well, why not? It can be as simple as an Instagram Story promoting an upcoming product launch—just create something! Not only will it keep your audience engaged, but it’ll serve as good practice for when you have to shoot something with more production effort.
No matter what content you’ve created, you can always get more mileage out of it. Be sure to explore how your content can live on different channels.
Just by creating one piece of content, you can end up with multiple uses. For example, one blog post can be the start of a script for a more in-depth video. That video can be split into clips for your Instagram posts. Those same clips could be used for social media ads, and so on.
Posting to different channels is one way to get more out of your content, but along with that, you’ll want to make it more shareable.
Making your content more shareable is two-fold: you want to keep it in mind while you’re creating the content and after you’ve published it. While writing, designing or filming, keep this question in mind: “would my target audience want to share this?”
If your answer is yes, then you’re well on your way. If it’s no, then you may want to reconsider your concept.
As for publishing, one way to make sharing easier is with a “tweet this” WordPress extension. This is a great option for blog posts, making it easy for readers to share snippets of information.
You’ll also want to have your share buttons ready and in-reach for your visitors—but you may need to fool around with your placement first!
I mean, why not? If it’s currently living at the bottom of your blog page, move it to the bottom. Try making it sticky—there is no one-size-fits-all for this, you just have to try it out!
This is a simple test you can run to see what you can do to boost your engagement; plus it only takes a few minutes to set up!
Nothing tanks the validity of you’re content, like completely avoidable typos.
…See what I mean?
We are so fortunate to live in an age when we have tons of helpful tools for writing copy. One extension that’s a must is Grammarly. It’s great for catching little things here and there, but it doesn’t replace the benefit of reading something over again.
This can be in your updating process or in your creation process. Adding even just 100 more words can refresh and boost the value of your content.
But this doesn’t need to stop at copy—it can be for images, videos, infographics—anything that heightens the experience of your content.
That being said, don’t create content just for the sake of creating content; you want to make sure that it truly adds value to your existing piece.
This is a great thing to add to your daily routine. It’s not anyone’s most favorite thing to do, but taking 10 minutes a day to either research or reach out to these opportunities will make a huge difference for your content, your page and your brand overall.
Start with the websites you frequent yourself, then branch out to other similar sites.
That about wraps it up! By now, you have 10 different ways to improve your content marketing in a matter of minutes.
For more reading on boosting your content marketing, check out my posts on how to build your perfect content strategy and how to build a content calendar on Airtable (for free).
[Updated on June 26th, 2023]
Enhance your content marketing skills by researching your target audience, creating valuable and engaging content, optimizing for SEO, and analyzing data to refine your strategies.
Implement successful content marketing strategies by defining clear goals, understanding your audience, conducting keyword research, utilizing various content formats, and promoting your content across multiple channels.
Storytelling is crucial in content marketing as it helps create emotional connections with your audience, making your content more relatable, memorable, and shareable.
SEO plays a vital role in content marketing by optimizing your content to rank higher in search engine results, increasing visibility, driving organic traffic, and improving overall online presence.
Measure the success of your content marketing by tracking key metrics such as website traffic, engagement levels, conversion rates, social media shares, and backlinks to evaluate the effectiveness of your strategies.
