I've had the pleasure of leading many content teams, and I learned a few useful tips along the way. Creating content for the sake of creating content is never the way to go, and I've seen many companies blindly create content with little engagement and overall impact on their brand.
Through all my years leading content management for companies, here are the three best tips for helping you build a better content marketing strategy in 2020.
1. Writers who know and work in your industry are way more effective than any other writer.
The world doesn't need another blog, and it doesn't need another fluff article. So, if you're going to write content, you want it to be good.
Well, here lies the problem: Writers will often interview their source to get the content, and then write it up. What happens is the main points come across, but then all of the great content gets missed in the details because the writer doesn't know the industry as well as the person they are interviewing does. You end up with content produced that takes time from many people to write, only for it to be published with little fanfare.
Instead of hiring five or six general writers, focus on two outstanding writers who can write in-depth posts on the subject.
2. Short-form content on LinkedIn works great.
On LinkedIn, you have the option of writing a status message style post instead of a full-blown article. It's mostly just like Twitter, but with more characters allowed. LinkedIn, at the moment, gives you 1300 characters, which is just enough to get your point across.
The reason I love this so much is that the engagement rates are high, and it prevents people from writing 800-word blog posts that can honestly be said in two paragraphs.
I've noticed that executives barely like, comment or share the posts on LinkedIn, but they're very engaged with the platform as a reader. Basically, they're lurkers.
This means that you might not get the likes you want, but if you ever meet your connections in real life, you can rest assured that they have read your content. From what I've seen, these executives will tell you that as soon as they meet you.
Creating short-form content on LinkedIn is an underutilized approach in many content marketing strategies; however, I do expect more people to adopt this style of content creation.
3. Distribution is just as much of the work
The distribution of content is probably the most misunderstood and under-prioritized aspect of a content marketing strategy. Most companies spend all-time trying to figure out what to write about, but nobody bothers to ask how more people are going to read it.
Writing and posting on social media won't generate nearly the impact you'll need to make it successful. You do it mainly because it's the easiest thing to do. After every piece of content is created, that is worth sharing, my recommendation is to share it with people that can help you distribute your message.
This includes creators of relevant email newsletters, podcasts websites, and also LinkedIn and Twitter influencers. If you send them a quick message via email or the platform and let them know it's relevant to what they're doing, this increases your chance of them sharing your content. You should be creating this list of potential sharers before you publish the content, so it's ready to go.
This way you have multiple channels to get your content the moment it's published without sending a single dime on paid ads. Content marketing is the way to go, and if you follow these tips above, you will build a great community of people who love your work.
BYROBBIE ABED, AUTHOR, WRITER,
FOUNDER OF FIREMEIBEGYOU.COM
@ROBBIEAB