The year 2020 is upon us. The question is: how are you going to plan your content marketing efforts?
The importance of content has been on the rise in the previous years, and the trend is more than likely to continue. With more and more companies generating tons of blog posts, white papers, and case studies, it’s getting harder and harder to keep up and remain one step ahead of competition. So, how are you going to tackle your content marketing strategy in 2020?
We’re here to help you out. We’ve asked a couple of content marketing experts about their thoughts. Here are five of their best content marketing tips for 2020.
Compare Your Product to the Competition
"Content marketing has to provide a return on investment (ROI). Hence, you should also concentrate on articles that are read by people who're already further down the funnel. A good strategy is to focus on blog posts about alternatives to your competitors.
— Max Benz, CEO and Co-Founder at suitApp
No product is an island. Your company exists in a sea of alternatives. Every potential user is faced with a choice: should they choose your product, or maybe turn to competition instead? This is a crucial moment in the customer’s journey, so why not give them a helping hand and prepare a comparison of available alternatives? You can be almost sure that there is a demand for this type of content already. First of all, start with creating a list of competitors. Next, you will need a keyword research tool. You can stick to a free solution, like Ubersuggest, or turn to a more advanced done, such as Senuto. Use the tool to check phrases like:
- competitor’s name alternative
- alternative to competitor’s name
- competitor’s name
It’s best to prioritize phrases with the biggest search volume. Keep in mind, however, that these are long-tail keywords, which means you’re targeting a very specific group. In this case, even 30 searches per month can be promising.
The final step? Invest some of your time to research the topic properly and write in-depth comparisons. Focus on the unique selling points of your product, but also be sure to make these pieces informative. This is the only way to answer the visitor’s needs and convince them that you’re the best alternative indeed. You might want to create a series of blog posts, like Kontentino did, or come up with dedicated landing pages, like Cloudtalk.
Repurpose Your Content into Videos
Content marketing experts around the globe agree on one thing in particular: video content is going to be huge in 2020.
"Did you know that YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, right after Google? This explains why you should not only concentrate on creating written content, but also on other media. At first, you might be feeling a bit unconfident about videos. Luckily, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, you can use your existing blog posts and turn them into YouTube videos."
— Lisa Dietrich, Co-Founder at Let's be crazy
"I’m seeing a continued shift towards video and live streaming content. These formats seem to be taking a more prominent position, especially with younger customers, so make sure to include/increase them for 2020."
— Nikola Baldikov, Digital Marketing Manager at Brosix
So, how do you start your YouTube journey? And is it even worth it if you don’t have a camera or a charismatic speaker to record? Of course it is! All you need is a simple video maker designed for marketers, such as Biteable. No need to create anything from scratch. Instead, you can use ready-made templates to give your blog post a new life – and a new audience, too.
Revise and Improve
Content marketing is fast-paced and constantly changing. What has done wonders for you in 2019 doesn’t necessarily have to work in 2020. Google search algorithm updates, such as BERT, are one of the many reasons why you should never stop improving your content. Marketing professionals know it from their own experience.
"We use content marketing as one of our top methods to achieve growth and acquire new customers. My motto? Always keep improving. About two months ago, Chanty was affected by a smaller algorithm update that hit us hard: we lost about 20% of organic traffic for our most popular articles, as well as losing keyword rankings for them. We managed to recover some of that traffic back, but never to the numbers we had before. The lesson? Never rely on content fully because one major Google algorithm update could ruin years of effort. At the same time, always be ready to improve your existing content and adapt to new changes and challenges."
— Sylwester Karnuszewicz, Content Specialist at Landingi
Inspiration for content improvement:
When you’ve seen the same article a million times already, it might be hard to come up with further improvements. You can avoid such constraints through pillar pages. The idea is to come up with one main topic (e.g. Messenger chatbots or conversational marketing) and keep building new articles that link to it. With every new article, you can add new paragraphs to the main article (pillar page), too.
Optimize for Voice Search
Apart from traditional SEO and graphical user interfaces, another crucial factor has been on the rise recently. If you’re not creating your content with voice assistants in mind, it’s high time you started taking them seriously. Marketing experts are well aware of this:
"A content marketing strategy I would recommend to all marketers, but particularly those in the retail industry, is to optimize for voice search. Just about every article about e-commerce which I have read in the past few months has mentioned at some point the rise of usage in voice assistants like Alexa and Siri. Some articles state that as much as 50% of all online searches will be voice-based by the end of 2020. Content marketers should start to include more examples of conversational language which their customers are using to search. By doing this you're ensuring that your content is the first snippet that appears following their voice search, much like traditional SEO practices. Adding long-tail keywords, as well as including locations and landmarks in your content are a great way to gain a boost in voice-search traffic in 2020."
— Ben Culpin, Content Marketer at WakeUpData
Voice search inspiration:
When you switch to a conversational writing style, ranking for voice will come naturally for you. In voice search, users tend to ask questions, just like they’re talking to another person.
Get Smart with Content Distribution
"Creating high-quality content is only half the job done. Making sure it reaches the target audience will make all the difference. Having an effective content distribution and promotion strategy will be a key factor in 2020. Try content distribution channels and see which ones work for you best. Collaboration with other content writers to get a shoutout will also help this cause."
— Muhammad Wasiq Naeem, Chief Operating Officer at ContentStudio.io
Inspiration for content distribution:
Keep testing different content distribution channels! You can try Quuu Promote, Scoop.it, Zest, LinkedIn groups, Facebook communities and many more. The possibilities are huge!
Key Takeaways for Your 2020 Content Marketing Strategy
There is the single most important takeaway that can be drawn from these expert quotes. The key characteristic of good content marketing is constant improvement. It’s crucial to remain open for new channels and opportunities. Who knows, maybe conversational marketing will turn out to be the game changer for you in 2020?
Now that you're caught up on Content Marketing trends for 2020, why not check out Marketing Automation trends? Read more here: Top 8 Marketing Automation Trends for 2021
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