The holiday season is a special time of year. Many of us spend time with friends and family, give thanks for the things we have, and share gifts with our loved ones. But when you run a business, the holiday season is likely the busiest time of the year for you. Planning in advance and creating a holiday content marketing strategy can help take some of the stress out of the holiday season for your business.
Quality holiday content marketing can help you connect with your audience, appeal to new customers, and increase your brand awareness.
If you are unsure where to begin with your holiday content, this guide can help you get started.
What Are the Benefits of Having a Holiday Content Marketing Strategy?
If you’ve never put together a holiday content strategy or tracked the analytics of your holiday content, you might not realize that there are a number of benefits for your business. Here are a few:
1. Increases Demand for Your Products and Services
Consumers spend more during the holiday season than any other time of year. This naturally leads to an increased demand for products and services. With consumers in an active buying stage, this is an ideal time to roll out time-sensitive offers. These deals also work well with Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions and give customers an increased sense of urgency or a fear of missing out (FOMO).
With the right holiday content marketing strategy, you can showcase high-value products and cater to customers who are ready to buy or could be ready more quickly.
2. Improves Brand Awareness
With clever, memorable content during the holidays, you can give your brand awareness a boost. By creating customer-focused, engaging content for each holiday between Halloween and New Year’s Day, you can find a new target audience and build your loyal following.
3. Unleashes Your Creativity
Customers respond best to creative, relatable content. The holiday season is the perfect time of year to show off the more personable side of your business. This type of content presents the chance to add some fun to your brand image.
While you might not use this relaxed type of content any other time of year, the holidays give you more freedom to try new strategies and new content types. The addition of personality may earn you new customers and brand fans. So, don’t be afraid to take some risks. With so much holiday content out there, you don’t want to get lost in uninspired content.
4. Grows Your Business
With a creative holiday content marketing strategy, you can potentially attract and retain new customers. This makes the holiday season the ideal time for business growth. In addition, keep an eye on the performance of your content during the holiday season and then implement some of the strategies that perform well in other parts of the year. This will be especially important if you discover a new strategy for your content.
5. Offers Opportunities for New Product Launches
The holiday season gives many businesses the unique opportunity to release new products and services. That’s why you’ll often see big tech innovations come out near the holidays. Plus, many consumers enjoy holiday-themed products. If this is something your business can offer, consider releasing some limited-time products. Promote these new products on social media and through your other holiday content.
Customers who are drawn in by your fresh products might be enticed to stay and buy other non-holiday products. You’ll find this is true if the new product performs well for them.
12 Content Marketing Strategies to Try During the Holiday Season
Since most folks celebrate something during the winter holiday season, not having a content strategy for the holidays really isn’t an option. Take advantage of the buzz and popularity with a few different strategies. Here are 12 specific actions you can take to improve your holiday-themed content.
1. Start Early
You might still feel the lingering heat of the summer, even if the leaves have already started changing color. No matter what season it is, you can never start planning too early for your holiday content.
Do some market research to see what people are interested in this year, check out your competition’s content, you can even start planting hints of your upcoming content months in advance. It’s important to carve out plenty of time to craft creative, engaging content that will help you stand out from your competition, especially if your sales pick up in Q4.
2. Capitalize on Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Consumers and businesses have long been conditioned to expect great deals and compelling offers during the holiday season. If it’s difficult for you to give customers a significant discount, think of a way to add value to your products or services. For example, if you are a B2B business, you could offer a free consultation with the purchase of a corresponding service.
Use the first tip and start teasing your Black Friday/Cyber Monday offers in advance through email marketing. This will build anticipation. Then make your deal even more enticing by offering it for a limited time. It’s a great idea to include a countdown timer on the offer page to increase the FOMO.
You could even take the opposite route like outdoor brand REI did with its #OptOutside campaign. It closed all its stores on Black Friday and encouraged people to head outside. Even though it was a controversial choice, it got people talking about the brand and made them a little more human.
3. Be Inclusive
While the holiday season is packed full of traditions, you should consider moving beyond the norm to be more inclusive with your content. Many customers will quickly turn away from a brand if they feel its messaging excludes certain groups.
Target did a great job of creating inclusive content with its 2021 holiday ad.
To be more inclusive with your holiday content, consider:
Staying neutral: Instead of focusing on and naming specific holidays, focus your content on themes of spending time with loved ones, the change of seasons, and the upcoming new year.
Highlighting diversity: With the incredible diversity in the United States, your brand has a great opportunity to include those who usually feel left out. Instead of marketing gifts “for him” and “for her,” find a more neutral way to categorize your products. You can also highlight lesser-known world holidays that many people celebrate in the United States.
Relieving stress: While some people are filled with “comfort and joy” during the holidays, others find it to be the most stressful time of the year. Whether it’s family issues or just the stress of planning, many folks find the holidays challenging. Your brand can offer holiday content that recognizes these difficult feelings while offering a bit of a break. Use humor, showcase your charitable giving, and show appreciation to your customers to help brighten their mood during the holidays.
4. Continue Offering Value
While some of your holiday content marketing might focus on your limited-time deals and promotions, you should continue offering the same level of valuable content you usually do. If you all share for weeks on end how to get the latest deals from your brand, you’ll find customers might start ignoring your content.
You can still produce value-rich content that deepens your relationship with your current customers and draws in new ones. Find a balance between value-driven and promotional content to maintain and build on the trust you worked hard to establish.
5. Get Personal
You spend most of the year maintaining the professional image of your brand. The holiday season gives you an opportunity to get more personal and show your customers who you really are. This is a great time of year to showcase your employees or show off the fun you have at your holiday office parties.
Consider creative content ideas like:
Having employees write letters to Santa
Sharing pictures of your holiday decorating content
Your CEO recording a personal message for your customers
Creating an online cookbook of holiday recipes
6. Share Some Humor
Many people don’t feel the holiday cheer because of family difficulties, seasonal depression, and the overall stress of the season. To brighten their spirits, consider sharing some holiday humor. Google did this exceptionally well in 2018 when it invited Macaulay Culkin to give a glimpse into adult Kevin McCallister’s life with the hilarious “Home Alone Again” campaign.
In the video, there are numerous updated shots of adult Kevin reenacting classic Home Alone scenes, but this time, with the help of modern Google aids.
While your brand might not have the same resources as Google, you can still create funny holiday content. Consider:
Awkward family photos in Christmas sweaters
Song parodies
A letter from your new CEO, Santa, and the changes he is making
A holiday content for your customers
7. Give Back to Your Community
While many of us share gifts with our loved ones during the holidays, there are people who do not have the money or resources to do so. Focus on the season of giving and share how your business is giving back.
There are countless opportunities for businesses to give back to their communities. If you don’t have one already, consider starting a charitable giving campaign or promoting regular volunteer hours with your employees. You can also partner with local nonprofit organizations to find specific ways you can help. Try to find a group that aligns with your values. Perhaps there is a local homeless shelter in need of blankets or a food bank struggling to meet the needs of the community.
Share your charitable efforts in your content and invite your customers and readers to participate in their own way. Be sure your charitable activities and the message you share are authentic.
8. Look Back at Your Year
Whether you love or hate the “year in review,” it is a great way to connect with your audience and show how your brand has grown. To make your year-in-review message resonate, consider these tips:
Use visuals: Reading thousands of words of straight text can be tiresome. Break up your content with pictures, infographics, or even videos.
Focus on your customers: While the review is about your business, it is really about your customers. How did your customers affect your brand this year? Do they influence product changes? Find ways to make them feel recognized and appreciated.
Tell a story: While you are focusing on highlights from the past year, make sure you are telling a cohesive story. Lead your readers through an exciting year and invite them to continue their journey with you next year.
Spotify has become a master of this strategy with its “wrapped” concept. It showcases the best and most popular audio content from the past year.
9. Have an Omnichannel Content Strategy
You don’t have to start from scratch with your holiday content marketing strategy. There may be topics you can repurpose either from previous years or from one platform to another. For example, let’s say you had a popular blog post. You can take that blog and break it into multiple Instagram posts or even a marketing email. You could even expand on a popular topic and produce an e-book.
A diverse, omnichannel content strategy will organically lead customers from one platform to the next while telling a complete story. This is a valuable strategy to use all year, not just during the holidays.
10. Start a Tradition
Do you have a product or service that could be slightly modified to fit the season? If so, this is a good time to start a holiday tradition that your customers look forward to every year. For example, every year Starbucks releases red cups for the holidays. These cups signal the return of some of their seasonal drinks and for some people, it can be a hotly debated topic, especially when they changed to a two-tone design.
11. Start a “12 Days” or “24 Days” Campaign
Many businesses capitalize on feelings of anticipation and play on the classic “12 Days of Christmas” song with a “12 Days” campaign. What you do or offer during those 12 days will depend on your business. Perhaps you release a new limited-time deal each day or host a customer giveaway. You could even put a charitable spin on it and make a new charitable donation each day.
One way to up the ante is by tying your donation to the amount of audience feedback you get. These types of promotions can be very compelling. One study from Deloitte showed that 81% of consumers expect to be influenced by holiday promotions.
Another option is to use the theme of a 24-day advent calendar. Did you know the first chocolate-filled advent calendar was invented by Cadbury in 1958 (thank you, Cadbury!). Since then, many people love the anticipation of opening a new door each day and getting a treat. Offer your customers a daily surprise for 24 days, and you will likely get a positive response.
12. Create a Holiday Content Calendar
Once you have your list of holiday content marketing strategies, you should organize it into a calendar. With a content calendar, you space out certain types of content and schedule when you will publish each piece.
You also need to consider the time it takes to write, produce, and edit each piece of content. Include these dates in your calendar, too.
Get Quality Holiday Content Crafted by Experts
You might be good at running your business, but not so good at writing killer content. That’s okay. You need a professional content writing agency that knows how to create high-ranking content without sacrificing quality. When you choose Express Writers, that is exactly what you’ll get. We’re ready to help you implement your holiday content marketing strategy.
Our team of writers is the best in the industry. We offer a wide variety of package options, whether you want a one-time blog or a full suite of custom content.
Does your brand have a content strategy in place for the year ahead? If not, it’s time to make a change!
A content strategy encourages you to have a purpose behind the content you’re posting, while also helping you reach your business goals. Plus, it’ll help you stay consistent. When your content is already planned out, there’s no need to question what to post next.
So, you may be wondering… How do I create an effective content strategy? Well, we have some answers for you in this #ContentWritingChat recap.
#ContentWritingChat Recap: Developing a Content Strategy in 2022
Today, we'll be chatting all about developing an effective content strategy for 2022. 📝 pic.twitter.com/HZfBrVKt6B
— Express Writers | Your Content Writing Partner (@ExpWriters) February 1, 2022
To ensure 2022 is a success for your brand, it’s time to take your content seriously. For this month’s community chat, we went over some key elements of crafting a content strategy.
Q1: What are the primary benefits of having a content strategy for your brand?
A1. The primary benefit would be that having a content strategy allows you to consistently create quality aligned with the values of your brand and you can build a credible reputation with your audience that should keep them coming back. #contentwritingchat
As Andrew pointed out, it’s all about consistency. Having a content strategy allows you to be consistent in your posting frequency, but it also helps you to be consistent in creating content that’s aligned with your brand. What you publish online should be a reflection of your brand’s mission and its values.
A1: The main benefit of having a content strategy is consistency. When you have your content planned out, you'll know what you need to be posting. No scrambling to come up with ideas or complaining you don't know what to post. #ContentWritingChat
With a strategy in place, your content will be all planned out. This means you’ll never have to wonder what to post about, nor will you be scrambling for ideas at the last minute.
A1. Having a content schedule increases the chances that you’ll consistently add value for your audience. I’m all for inspiration, though I’ve found it’s more likely to happen when you’re not worried about filling space or meeting deadlines. #ContentWritingChat
Dana feels inspiration is more likely to strike when you aren’t worried about filling a content calendar or meeting deadlines. So, don’t be afraid to plan ahead to create more consistency in your posting schedule.
Q2: Creating a content strategy starts with knowing your goals. How can you ensure the content you publish online will help you achieve big things?
A2: Start with your audience goals, then look at your goals (your goals should be a sub set of audience goals) Make the match and use connect as a channel to get the message across #ContentWritingChat
— Kushlani De Silva #fitmarketing (@kushlani_ds) February 1, 2022
You definitely want to keep your goals in mind when it comes to planning out your content. You can use your goals to shape the kind of content you’re publishing in terms of formats, topics, etc.
A2. Identify what topics are interesting to the target audience as well as identifying pain-points that they may be concerned about and want to learn about. The content would be informative, build credibility and tie into business objectives #contentwritingchat
It always goes back to finding ways you can serve your audience. Create content based on what’s interesting to them and what will address their pain points.
Q3: Where do you get fresh content ideas that will appeal to your audience?
a3 i follow content creators that really inspire me to get fresh ideas.
⚠️ we don't have to invent the wheel, we just need to associate things, create new connections#contentwritingchat
Sometimes it’s as simple as seeing what your favorite creators are talking about. That can help generate tons of new ideas!
A3: Social Media, articles, and as of late challenges cited by clients. Best way to appeal to your audience is to learn about what they want to learn/do #ContentWritingChat
— Kushlani De Silva #fitmarketing (@kushlani_ds) February 1, 2022
Kushlani finds that scrolling social media, reading articles, and talking to her clients about challenges can be a great source of inspiration for her content strategy.
Andrew turns to research studies, polls, and the latest news to help him generate content ideas.
A3. I’m a voracious reader, watch all kinds of films & TV shows, do online chats, talk with people. And I’m a big believer in asking your audience what they’d like-it’s usually the easiest way to find out. #ContentWritingChat
Dana said watching all different genres of TV and movies is helpful for her when she needs to get the creative juices flowing. And of course, you can’t go wrong with simply asking your audience what they’d like to see from you. They’ll share their thoughts.
Q4: How do you decide if it’s worthwhile to invest in a new content format? Do you follow the trends or stick to what you know?
A4: When it comes to choosing your content formats, go for something that appeals to your audience and showcases your strengths. However, you shouldn't be afraid to test out something new! #ContentWritingChat
The content formats you choose should fit two main requirements: it should showcase your strengths and appeal to your target audience. This will increase your odds for success.
a4 i keep an 👀 eye on the trends and i'm available to try out new formats. it helps me to think of social media as a lab where you can try, measure and stick to what works #contentwritingchat
Joana sees the value in experimenting with trends. After all, you never know when something may take off for your brand and perform really well.
A4: it’s a good thing to try a new idea/ trend. Especially if things you have been doing all along is showing a declining trend in engagement. But before you go with the flow evaluate to see if it meets your objectives. #contentwritingchat
It’s also smart to consider how something fits into your budget. Do you have the money to invest in pursuing these new content ideas?
Q5: How does distribution play a role in your content strategy? What ways do you spread the word about the content you’ve created?
A5. Content distribution is an integral part of the process. Social media, email marketing, messaging to personal and LinkedIn contacts that may find it interesting, also employee advocacy, if applicable. #contentwritingchat
Social media and email marketing are common distribution tactics to include in your content strategy. That’s because they’ve been shown to be effective at generating traffic. Other tactics Andrew relies on are personally messaging his LinkedIn contacts that may benefit from his content and employee advocacy.
A5. I’m creating an author website to have more control over content distribution. My plan is to have an email newsletter & also share posts over social media. #ContentWritingChat
Dana plans to focus on social media and email marketing for her distribution plan as well.
A5: Bad distribution can kill good content. Distribution is influenced by
The type and kind of content Audience consumption patterns Content goals Distribution goals #ContentWritingChat
— Kushlani De Silva #fitmarketing (@kushlani_ds) February 1, 2022
Kushlani’s advice is to consider the type of content, your audience consumption, content goals, and distribution goals before fleshing out your distribution strategy.
Q6: How often do you check your analytics to measure the results of your content strategy? And when do you make changes if something isn’t working?
a6 i check analytics twice a month and make decisions about changes every 3 months. i need to let things "breathe", try this and that, see what happens, consider context… and then make decisions. #contentwritingchat
Joana checks her analytics regularly, twice a month in fact. However, she waits three months before making changes. This allows ample time to see how your content is performing.
A6. Typically check analytics weekly on each post, along with social media metrics to monitor how the posts are performing. Having automated analytics reports from @hootsuite is helpful. I typically change promotional copy and post times to help promotion. #contentwritingchat
Andrew checks his analytics weekly and receives automated reports from Hootsuite to assist with this.
A6: as often as you need to based on the type of content. Some content are meant to be longer term (case studies) Change/ boost/ repost when you see a drop in conversions but this too depends on the type and objective of the content #contentwritingchat
You may even find that you want to give certain types of content more time before you start diving into the analytics of a post.
Q7: Accessibility is crucial to ensure everyone can enjoy your content. What changes can you make in your content strategy to accommodate those who may be visually impaired or hearing impaired?
A7: Always add captions to your videos, alt text for images, and transcripts for podcasts. #ContentWritingChat
Captions, alt text, and transcripts are crucial when creating accessible content.
A7: a simple strategy to convert some major pieces like converting case studies in to videos (with captions and voice over) will ensure this #contentwritingchat
Taking one piece of content and making it available in different formats can be very effective. As Asangi said, you can turn a case study into a video and also include captions to make it accessible.
A7. This is an issue that is extremely important to me, and one I’m working to address on my website. It’s particularly tricky given the move toward video & audio. Even on social media, I add description before I post a gif or photo. #ContentWritingChat
Besides relying on her brain, Joana uses paper and pen, a content calendar, and a social media scheduler to be a content pro.
Want to join us for the next #ContentWritingChat? Mark your calendars for the first Tuesday of every month at 10 AM Central. Then, follow @ExpWriters for all the latest!
There’s just no veiling this fact, folks: Content has been king for a while now.
Bill Gates forecasted this all the way back in 1996. In 2013, Entrepreneur told us to ditch the cold call sales technique and invest in blogs and Twitter instead. Notable sources like Copyblogger forecasted 2013 would be the year of the writer.
About half a million new pages are created and published daily.
That’s a lot of web content to sift through, and Google is there to make sure specific pages get to the top.
That begs the question: How is content impacting it all?
How Is Content Setting the Trends?
So how exactly is content setting the trends for how Google looks at, ranks, and values their indexable pages? Worthy question. Let’s take a dive through that sea! ?
[bctt tweet=”About half a million new web pages are published daily. That’s a lot of content to sift through, and Google is there to make sure specific pages get to the top. ? @JuliaEMcCoy asks: How is content setting the trends?” username=””]
1. People Want Relevancy
They want topics relevant to their likes, as well as topics that flow with current trends.
If you’re still busy waxing eloquent on how amazing Brave was while everyone else is going on about Frozen, you’re like the person who wears socks with their sandals. Relevant topics are the only way you are going to gain and maintain readership.
This might seem a little frustrating, especially if your topic doesn’t seem to be the most relevant out there, but finding ways to make it mesh with its surroundings will help immensely. You can use some SEO copywriting tips such as creating an eye-catching title, having a strong start to your content and having a strong call to action. This will help readers feel your topic is relevant, get you further up on that Google search page, and, in the end, get you more readers.
2. People Want Content
Content is important to the average web browser and internet user.
Information — literally on any topic under the sun — is all around us and out there for the curious. We can google any topic or question and get an answer in seconds.
In today’s information explosion, good, trustworthy content matters. It satisfies our curiosity, answers our questions, alleviates our fears, and eases our pain.
Readers like to get information quickly, but they also want to know they’re receiving it from a knowledgeable source. If your content is too short, people may suspect you’re not as knowledgeable as you seem, especially in the age of article regurgitation.
It seems everyone is an expert on spitting out the informational bare bones, but not many are experts in delving into the juicy meat of a subject. “But what about those casual browsers?” you ask. By offering a heartier wealth of information, you have the potential to turn those casual readers into intent readers, hungry for more information.
3. People Love In-Depth Discussions
You’re used to hearing that you need to have short and concise blogs to attract more readers, but the reality is Google ranks blogs with higher word counts and quality content. This is because they believe people are more likely to stick with an article that’s longer than the short, concise article we’ve all been told is important.
People want to see that lengthy post. They may not read every single word, but they’ll believe you are the authority on your topic if the post is longer. That might seem strange, but think about how you feel when you search for an article. Do you prefer a site that seems much more knowledgeable, with lengthy descriptions, or one that barely gives any discussion on the topic?
4. Quality Is Mega-Important in the Game of Google
While long, in-depth content is a factor in ranking with Google, another important factor is the quality of your content. If all you do is write specifically for the search engine and sacrifice quality in hopes of getting more viewership, you’ll find that you rank a lot lower than you initially thought you would. Google wants to make sure the content they rank is quality, something that is filled with interesting and engaging information.
Whatever your niche, make your content incredibly valuable to people interested in your product or topic. Give facts that aren’t too well known, try to stay away from the generic, overdone articles. Find ways to implement relevant pop culture references to connect what you are discussing with something that the majority of people love. If you are a little confused as to what’s relevant, just pop onto Facebook, wade through all the Buzzfeed quizzes and find the stuff people are posting about.
When it comes to finding your site at the top of a Google search, the more quality blogs, or content, you have is important. It is another part of the new Google algorithm, according to Jeff Quipp over at the Huffington Post. You also want to be seen as an authority on your topic.
In the game of Google, you rank, or you lose. There is no middle ground. Well, OK, it isn’t as intense as Game of Thrones says it is, but close enough. You want your page to rank in order to get those readers. Readers don’t like to sift through page after page to find what they are looking for, so eventually they will give up the further down the search page they go.
If Google sees you as an authority in your field, they will rank you higher than those whom they do not deem to be experts. By combining quality content with Google authorship, your page will surely find itself ranking high.
6. Blogging Is Important for Gaining (and Keeping) Customers
According to a Conductor report, consumers are 131% more likely to buy from a brand after they read that brand’s content. In fact, most people are introduced to a new company via the company’s blog. It’s a great way to find out more information regarding the product they’re interested in while also feeling that they have more of a connection with you and your business.
People still do crave connection. Only, they now crave it from more than just friends and family, but also from the companies where they shop. (It’s a good feeling when a company seems to be talking specifically to you.) People are more likely to purchase a product or use a service if they feel that connection.
7. People Love to Get Personal
As we said, people like to feel connected to companies with which they do business. You can make customers feel like they know you by providing information about yourself and the people who run your business. Before you go and make a generic “about” page, think about your target audience and write your information accordingly.
For example, by focusing on the community of nerds and geeks, a small group called Geek Girl Pen Pals has been attempting (successfully) to get people back into the art of letter writing. They write their information in a way that suits their target audience. The people who use this site feel connected to the leaders by reading their information, reading blog posts on the site, and following them on social media. Get a little personal with people and you will see your site rank higher in the searches, gain new customers, and keep your existing ones.
3 Tips to Conquer Google’s Algorithm with Content
You may find yourself rethinking your content strategy due to Google’s search algorithm, and we’re here to give you a few final tips on how to make your content relevant for Google:
1. Assess and Analyze What Users Search For
Assessing and analyzing what people are searching for will help you create relevant content that will rank on Google. Find the keywords people use when searching for topics in your field. Once you’ve figured out which keywords (and their synonyms) to use, it is time to figure out which type of post people are more likely to look for when searching your topic.
A few of these “favorite” type of posts include:
How-to’s: People like to read articles that explain how to use something, how to create something, or how to do something new. Pinterest has made this even more popular.
“Top __” lists: You know these lists. The ones you see on Buzzfeed, or AFI’s Top 100 Movies of All Time. We all enjoy these lists. They’re a great way to learn about new topics or to feel validated in our behaviors (see the “Top Things About Being an Introvert/Extrovert” articles, like this one from Time).
FAQs: We know there are particular questions everyone has about a product or topic, so why not create a FAQ for your company’s blog? It’s a great way to get people to read more about your business and get answers to their specific questions.
What other types of content should you be creating? Get the lowdown in our FREE Master List of Copywriting Services.
2. Assess the Look & Usability of Your Website
After getting those readers to come and read your content, you need to make sure to keep them.
Make sure your site isn’t filled with clashing colors, tiny type, and instant play music or instant play commercials. We know, you really like Pharrell’s Happy, and it totally works for your product, but people do not want to be sitting in the library and have a peppy song unexpectedly blare from their device. Even if your site reflects your brand colors, make sure it won’t stress out the eyes OR the ears.
3. Get Social
Lastly, getting social will help your site rank and bring in more readers.
Get social media buttons on each post, directing people to your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Having social sharing buttons is another great way to attract more people and help you outside of Google’s new search requirements. People who find your article are more likely to share said article if they have an available social sharing button to use. It is a quicker and easier way to share something they enjoy than copy-and-pasting your link.
It’s Time to Double-Down on Content
Now that you have read the various ways to improve your content and meet some of Google’s latest updates, it is time to go and implement them. Changing your content and content strategy to fit Google’s algorithm will not only help you rank higher, but will help you get more readers and keep those readers long-term.
Why are you still reading? Get out there and make your content + website the best they can be.
And although you believe what the experts are saying, you wonder: why?
Why does content work? What’s the science behind it? Should you start your own content marketing campaign?
Let’s dig into the data to find out!
Why Does Content Work? Plus, 39 Reasons You Should Invest in Content – Table of Contents
What Kind of Content Works?
1. Content with a Strategy
2. High-Quality Content
3. Consistent Content
Why Does Content Work? 40 Reasons to Invest in Content Marketing
Does Content Work? How to Move Forward with Your Marketing Goals
[bctt tweet=”Why does content work? What’s the science behind it? Should you start your own content marketing campaign? Dig into the data with @JuliaEMcCoy via the Write Blog ” username=”ExpWriters”]
What Kind of Content Works?
Before we dive into why content marketing works, it’s important to point out that not all content works.
You can’t just get on your keyboard and type up a frenzy of random blogs to publish online. Doing this is a waste of time, energy, and even money.
So, what kind of content should you be producing? Here are three things to aim for.
1. Content with a Strategy
Approaching content marketing without content strategy is like going on a trip without a destination.
No matter how many miles you travel, you’ll never reach your goal because you don’t know exactly what your goal is.
To keep your content from going in circles, you need to develop a content strategy.
This is your master plan and blueprint. It’ll guide you on what type of content to create, the target audience to create it for, where to publish it and how often, and all the details that’ll make your content unique, purposeful, and powerful.
2. High-Quality Content
When publishing content, remember that quality trumps quantity every single time.
And when I say quality, it’s not just making sure your blogs are free of grammatical errors.
It’s superb content. Share-worthy content. Content that gets your audience hooked.
So, if you’re tempted to click publish on the mediocre blog you wrote, just stop. Publishing a day or two late is better than damaging your online authority with low-quality content.
3. Consistent Content
That being said, try your best to stick to a regular schedule.
Your readers will lose interest if you publish content randomly and inconsistently.
[bctt tweet=”What kind of content should you be producing? 3 things to aim for: 1) Content with a strategy 2) High-quality content 3) Consistent content ⌚” username=”ExpWriters”]
Why Does Content Work? 40 Reasons to Invest in Content Marketing
Let’s start with exactly why content works, then explore statistics that’ll get you excited about content marketing.
1. Why Does Content Work?
Content works because of what the buyer’s journey is like today.
Buyers nowadays can’t be bullied into an old-fashioned sales funnel.
They don’t like feeling “sold,” or “closed.”
Instead, they want to feel powerful. They want to be in control during every step they take towards the solution they’re looking for.
So no, you can’t put your audience into a rigid, linear sales funnel.
What you can do is offer them value.
For instance, let’s say your potential client wants to feel attractive and confident with a flashy white smile.
If you’re selling teeth whitening products, you can do two things:
Bombard your prospect with paid ads, or
Teach your prospect how to whiten his teeth through quality content.
As you’ve guessed, your prospect will respond positively to your brand if you choose the second option.
He’ll see you as an authority in your industry. He’ll trust you. He’ll consider your expert advice and feel attracted to your product.
That’s how content marketing works.
[bctt tweet=”Buyers nowadays can’t be bullied into an old-fashioned sales funnel. They don’t like feeling sold or closed. Instead, they want to feel powerful. ” username=”ExpWriters”]
2. Your Audience is Constantly Online
In the U.S. alone, 81% of people go online on a daily basis. Of this number, 28% are online constantly, and 45% go online more than once a day.
3. The Number of Internet Users is Growing Each Year
Today, there are 4.54 billion internet users worldwide. That’s more than half the total population of the world!
4. There Are Six Billion Searches on Google Per Day
That’s 230 million searches every hour, and two trillion searches per year.
5. Google Is the Number One Place People Go When Searching for a New Product or Brand
Every single day, hundreds of millions of people go to Google to perform shopping-related searches.
6. People Are Spending More and More Time on the Internet
The Philippines leads the pack on total time spent on the internet with a whopping nine hours and forty-five minutes per day. Worldwide, it’s six hours and forty-three minutes per day (the same number with the U.S.).
7. 90% of B2B Marketers Use Content as Part of Their Strategy
The brands using content for marketing aren’t all small. In fact, hugely successful brands like Toshiba, Cisco, and Marriott all take advantage of content marketing.
8. A Huge Chunk of Marketers are Investing in Content Marketing
It’s not just B2B marketers, it’s B2C marketers as well. 70% of all marketers now invest in content marketing.
9. 3/4 of All People Who Use the Internet Read Blogs Regularly
That’s 3.4 billion people who’d potentially be interested in reading content you publish.
10. 55% of Marketers say Blogging is a Top Inbound Marketing Priority
While outbound marketing pushes your messages at people who aren’t interested in your brand, inbound marketing works like a magnet. It draws in prospects who are actively looking for your product or service.
Since more than half of marketers consider blogging a top inbound marketing priority, why not jump in?
11. If You Increase Your Blog Posts by 100%, You’ll Get a 300% Increase in Traffic
Let’s say you have 100 blogs and 2,000 daily visitors. If you increase the number of blogs on your website to 200, you’ll get a total of 6,000 daily visitors.
12. Companies with More than 400 Blog Posts Enjoy Three Times more Leads than Companies with Fewer than 100 Blog Posts
Consistent blogging with quality content and keywords improves your SERP ranking and brings in more leads. It also alerts Google’s web crawlers to your site and keeps your readers entertained and engaged.
13. Companies that Publish 16 or More Blog Posts Per Month Enjoy 3.5x More Traffic than Companies that Publish Less than Four Times a Month
If your goal is to increase organic traffic, publish as much optimized content as you can (sticking to amazing quality, of course).
If your goal is brand awareness, keep your content diverse, valuable, and useful while sticking to a consistent publishing schedule.
14. 70 Million New Blog Posts Appear on WordPress Blogs Every Month
These blog posts generate around 77 million comments from 409 million monthly internet users.
And that’s just WordPress! An alternative is Tumblr, which has 450 million blogs.
15. Longer Blog Posts Get More Shares
Blog posts above 3,000 words get the most online shares.
16. Marketers Who Use Blogging as a Strategy are 13x More Likely to Enjoy Satisfying ROI
Blogging as a part of your overall strategy will drive more ROI – by an amazing 13x!
17. 40% of Your Traffic is Driven by Only 10% of Your Blogs
Not every one of your blogs helps generate traffic. If you can focus on what’s right in the blogs that fall within the 10% that bring in quality traffic, your website will quickly become a success.
18. 64% of B2B Marketers Outsource Their Blogging
Blogging consistently is tough, which is why it’s a great idea to invest in hiring skilled expert writers to create content for you.
19. Users Share Content They’re Impressed With
As an example, take this infographic from Demand Metric. It got 7, 937 shares and 452 pins.
20. 72% of Marketers Say Content Increases Engagement with Prospects
Successful content educates, entertains, and helps prospects gain their needs and desires. The more value they get from content, the deeper the connection they feel with a brand.
[bctt tweet=”72% of marketers say content increases engagement with prospects, via @optinmonster. That’s because successful content educates, entertains, and helps prospects gain their needs and desires. ” username=”ExpWriters”]
21. 72% of Marketers Also Report Content Marketing Has Increased Leads
Content marketing, done consistently and with quality and a user-focus at heart, equals more leads. See our case study on ranking through content.
22. 61% of Buyers Are More Likely to Purchase from a Brand after Reading its Unique Content
In fact, prospects read 3 to 5 blogs before approaching a company’s sales personnel. Create more blogs, brands! You may not have to “sell” as hard.
[bctt tweet=”Prospects read 3 to 5 blogs before approaching a company’s sales personnel. Create more blogs, brands! ✏ You may not have to sell as hard.” username=”ExpWriters”]
23. 34% of Consumers Will Make an Unplanned Purchase When They Read Personalized Content from a Brand
Personalized content is content that’s created around specific needs, beliefs, and desires. It also addresses a prospect based on where he is on the buyer’s journey.
Personalized content is extremely effective. In fact…
24. …90% of Consumers Appreciate Personalized Content
Creating generic content is one of the biggest reasons brands don’t get conversions.
25. Traditional Advertising Is No Longer Working Like It Used To
Direct mail and TV advertisements used to work wonders for brands. Today, they’re largely ignored.
[bctt tweet=”One of the major reasons content works: Direct mail and TV ads are largely ignored today. Gaining trust is more important than grabbing attention. ✅ ” username=”ExpWriters”]
26. Although Online Advertising is More Successful than Offline Advertising, Businesses Using Paid Advertising Are Struggling Because of Ad Blockers
27. $35 Billion Worth of Paid Ads is Lost Every Year Because People No Longer See Ads
Users cite diverse reasons for using ad blockers. Some say they don’t want to be annoyed with irrelevant ads. Others say ads drain the battery life of their phones.
The result is a huge loss per year on money spent for paid ads.
The Chromium Blog recently announced that it will soon remove disruptive ads from videos to ensure Google Chrome users enjoy a better online experience.
These ads include non-skippable ads that play before video content, mid-roll ads that interrupt a viewer’s enjoyment of content, and ads that partially block a video.
29. Branded Video Content is Becoming the Powerful Alternative to Paid Video Ads
In fact, 87% of content marketers use video for marketing.
30. Video Content in Emails Can Channel Traffic to Your Website
When you create compelling video and add it to your email content, you’ll increase your click-through rate by 300%.
31. Video Content about Products Increases Purchase Intent by 144%…
32. …Which is Why Video Content is the Number One Form of Content Used by Content Marketers
34. An Attractive Website with Unique Content Will Increase Your Chances of Getting Recommendations from Users
On the other hand, an unattractive website will turn people away. 57% of internet users say they won’t recommend a brand that gave them a bad user experience online.
35. Email Content Helps with Customer Retention
91% of shoppers who buy from a brand say they want to hear from the company via email.
36. No, Email is Not Dying
Think social media is for the young and email is for the older generation?
Nope.
Actually, 73% of millennials say they want to read email content from brands.
[bctt tweet=”73% of millennials say they want to read email content from brands, via @hubspot. Email is not dying! ♥” username=”ExpWriters”]
37. Content Marketing is Cheaper than Paid Advertising
Even if you pay for content creation, you’ll still save up to 62% compared to paying for ads.
39. The Number of People Listening to Podcast Content is Growing
If you don’t have a podcast yet, here’s great incentive to start one. Podcast listening has grown by 200%!
Also, Google recently announced its intention to index podcast content. This means your podcasts can turn up in the search engine results, leading users to your blog or website.
[bctt tweet=”A majority of B2B marketers rate their content marketing success higher today than one year ago, via @contentmarketinginstitute. Content works because we’re FINALLY figuring out how to do it successfully. ” username=”ExpWriters”]
Does Content Work? How to Move Forward with Your Marketing Goals
There’s a huge chasm between marketing the way it was 50 years ago and marketing today.
Today, buyers are in control. They make the rules, and oftentimes break them. Their resistance to the traditional sales funnel is sky high.
So, does content work to break down your prospect’s walls? Absolutely. Content works because instead of asking, you’re giving. Instead of pushing advertisements into people’s faces, you’re building value-rich material and attracting people to your brand.
In today’s blog, I’ll give you a sneak peek into my original concept and answer questions including:
Why is a content house important?
How do I build my own profitable content house?
Is there anything to avoid when building my content house?
Ready to dive in? Let’s go. ⬇️
[bctt tweet=”@JuliaEMcCoy has a sneak peek on the Write Blog at an original concept from her content strategy course: the content house. Why is a content house important? How do you build your own content house? Learn more ” username=”ExpWriters”]
How to Build an ROI Foundation with a Content House (Plus, How to Get Your Own House Started) – Table of Contents
What to Avoid When Building Your Content House
What Exactly is a Content House?
How to Create a Solid Content House in Three Steps
1. The Foundation of Your Content House: Knowing Your Audience and Creating a List of Long-Tail Keywords
2. The Walls of Your Content House: Quality, Consistent Content and Optimized Web Pages
3. The Roof of Your Content House: Measuring Success (And Failure)
What to Avoid When Building Your Content House
What you shouldn’t do when creating a content house is build it on someone else’s property. Facts here, family.
Think of it like real estate.
You get a lease on a piece of land and lay the foundation for a house. Slowly, you work on the house until it’s strong and beautiful. You furnish the house to make it unique.
But what happens when the landowner decides to end your lease?
You guessed it.
Your house comes crashing down. All those years of persistent effort to build it boil down to nothing.
Today, it’s tempting to focus effort on building a content house on someone else’s property. For instance, there’s social media. Since there are 3.8 billion social media users, why not create a ton of content for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter?
Or why not focus on guest blogging to gain credibility, leads, and higher ROI for your brand?
The answer is the same for all: These platforms don’t belong to you. And since they don’t, you never can be sure they won’t change in the future, leaving you to scramble for another platform to start from scratch.
[bctt tweet=”What you shouldn’t do when creating a content house is build it on someone else’s property. #contentstrategy ” username=”ExpWriters”]
As an example, consider what happened with HuffPost. In January of 2018, HuffPost announced it would close its contributors’ platform. This came as a shock to the 100,000 writers who owned accounts on HuffPost.
As a contributor myself, I lost my HuffPost login overnight. Did I panic? Weep because I lost years of hard work building content on the platform?
No. Far from it!
My hard work was safe. In fact, Express Writers lost no traffic with the close of my HuffPost contributor account.
Why?
Because I had a solid content house built on the right platform: my own website.
What Exactly is a Content House?
Your content house is your presence online. It’s filled with consistent, quality content created to fulfill, enrich, and educate your audience.
Of course, your content house needs real estate to rest on. This real estate is your website. You need to have your own domain first, and then to focus on building it up like a house with content your audience can use to improve their lives.
When you start with this and treat social media marketing and guest blogging as secondary, you’re on your way to achieving huge ROI for your brand.
[bctt tweet=”What is a #contenthouse? It’s your presence online. It’s filled with consistent, quality content created to fulfill, enrich, and educate your audience. #contentstrategy” username=”ExpWriters”]
How to Create a Solid Content House in 3 Steps
To build a content house, you need to start with your foundation: knowing your audience and researching long-tail keywords. Then, you need build upwards from there, crafting quality content and optimizing your pages with keywords. Finally, attach metrics to your house to track how well it’s doing and find out which elements need to change and what content needs to be updated.
Let’s get into each of these steps one by one.
1. The Foundation of Your Content House: Knowing Your Audience and Creating a List of Long-Tail Keywords
Before you start writing anything, you need to know who you’re addressing and what you’ll write. Without these two key elements, your content will be flat, generic, and useless.
A. Who to Address When Crafting Content
The main goal of your content is to enrich people’s lives. Your readers should see you as an authority in your industry, and trust that you have what it takes to solve their problems and help them reach their dreams.
The problem is, what are these people’s problems and dreams?
If you don’t know your audience on a personal level, it’s impossible to reach out and help them better their lives.
So, the first step you should take when building your content house is to find out exactly who your audience is.
You can start with a tool like Google Analytics. This tool helps you track your site visitors and gain information such as their age, gender, and location.
Next, you want to get to know them on a deeper level. The best way to do this is to interview them. Ask them what they desire and what roadblocks stand in the way of their dreams. Then, come up with a list of ways your brand can help them.
The final step is to create buyer personas. Creating personas means grouping relevant buyer information into avatars you can speak to directly in all your marketing efforts.
Whenever you sit down to write for your content house, pull up a buyer persona and talk directly to him/her. Explain how your solution will lead to unlocking their dreams and goals.
B. What to Write for Your Content House
This is where SEO blends in with making your audience’s lives better.
You already know your audience’s goals and desires, so the next step is picking the right topic for every piece of content you write.
First, put together a list of long-tail keywords for your content.
For example, if you’re a dentist doing content marketing to increase your clinic’s ROI, here are three topics you could write about in your blog:
Teeth whitening
Sedation dentistry
Healthy teeth
The next step is to come up with long-tail keywords to use in each piece of content you produce. You can use tools like SEMrush and KWFinder to help you find low-competition keywords with high search volume.
For instance, long-tail keywords for the above topics would be:
Safe teeth whitening procedures for teens
Sedation dentistry for people with high blood pressure
Organic solutions for healthy teeth
When you create a list of long-tail keywords, you’ll be able to:
Drive the right traffic to your site
Compete better for the keywords you use
Create unique content that speaks directly to a specific prospect
2. The Walls of Your House: Quality, Consistent Content and Optimized Web Pages
The walls of your content house are the most visible aspect of the entire structure. They’re the element that tells Google and users: There’s an awesome house right here!
[bctt tweet=”The walls of your #contenthouse = quality content + optimized web pages. They’re the most visible aspect of the entire structure. They tell Google and users: There’s an awesome content house right here! ” username=”ExpWriters”]
A. How to Build Quality Content for Your House
Building a house isn’t about piling on as much material as possible as fast as you can. It’s about finding the right materials, and then building the walls slowly and surely so the house lasts.
The same is true with a content house. You don’t publish blog after blog, throwing content at a wall and hoping quality and relevance comes out.
But also, you don’t publish one superb blog and then wait months until the muse strikes again with another dazzling idea.
The secret to a solid content house includes three things: consistency, quality, and quantity.
Stick to a publishing schedule for your blogs. It helps to create an editorial calendar so you never panic about what to write and when to publish it.
Creating long-form blogs (over 2,000 words) twice a week is an excellent practice to follow.
Remember, it’s not only about how many blogs you publish. In the end, it’s also about how these blogs are relevant, helpful, and trustworthy in your readers’ eyes.
B. Create Optimized Pages for Your Content House
You’ve already come up with a list of long-tail keywords to use in your content.
The next step is using them throughout the pages of your site. When you use them naturally and consistently, you’ll get Google to notice you.
For deeper learning on the content house concept, the Content Strategy & Marketing Course should be your destination. Enroll and get the knowledge to grow your brand with content.
3. The Roof of Your Content House: Measuring Success (And Failure)
The roof of your content house is there to protect you. Your roof shows you what’s working and what’s not.
To build your roof, learn the important content marketing KPIs to keep track of. For instance, you can attach metrics like bounce rate to your site. Bounce rate is the amount of people leaving your site without clicking through to other pages. If more than 70% of people are bouncing, it’s an indicator that you need to do something to improve your content.
Remember, you need to track all the content on your site. Only then will your roof protect you from having a sloppy site that doesn’t do credit to your brand.
How a Content House Can Increase Your ROI
The goal of your content house is to show people they can trust your brand.
But when you build your house on someone else’s property, it only takes a minute for all your hard work to disappear down the drain.
Instead of taking this huge risk, focus your energy on building your own content on your own platform.
When you build a solid house, people will know where to find you. They’ll gain value from you consistently, and learn to trust you. In a short while, they’ll become your loyal customers, which ultimately increases your brand’s ROI.
