From the 80s-90s to the upcoming 2023 content marketing – what not had been considered to be the most optimal channel for branding and marketing. Over time, there had been a paradigm shift. And today, we are landing with our products in different sorts of digital media, traditional media, and many more. So how serious are we about content marketing strategies?
Throughout the last decade – the practice of content marketing in digital media has been going all around the globe. Everyone has been landing with unique content regarding its product services into digital media.
Now the next hot topic for the digital marketers is going to be 2023 content marketing. In this blog, today, we would have the ultimate guideline of content marketing in 2023.
So, for effective content marketing, what should be the guideline?
Now here’s the thing, mediums are being changed from time to time. But one thing remained the same and just taking different shapes like water in various mediums.
And that is content. Although, in the first place – we used to believe that content marketing means article and blog-writing only.
With the boom of digital marketing – now, content marketing in 2023 is not only confined to any blogs/articles. Now it also includes different sorts of visuals as well as still creatives too.
And it’s been found that 80% of the leads and potential branding is by content marketing. It has turned out to be a sustainable way of branding any sorts of products or services in the market. Today in this blog, we’ll try to portray the ultimate guidelines for content marketing in 2023.
1. Have an end goal. E.g., you want 250k followers by the end of 2023 😉
The first thing for content marketing in 2023 is to set up a goal in the first place. When it comes to content production, – there has to be a solid goal that makes us stand out. To set up a goal, we should follow the SMART strategy. SMART that stands for,
S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Attainable
R = Realistic
T = Time-Bound
Now let’s take an example. Suppose I have a company named Crashtag, which is a clothing service. Now how can I set up the goal? Suppose I’ve landed on the digital media. And now for marketing purposes, it should look something like this: “50,000 organic Facebook likes on the page within the next six months.” So, let’s start from the bottom.
By adding the phrase next six months, it’s pretty clear that it is time-bound. Now, let’s look at the realistic factor or not. Let’s take a look around other fashion-based facebook pages that started within a short period. It will show us whether it goes with reality or not.
If it’s realistic, then we have to take a look at whether the team in the social media would be able to produce such amount of content or not – if they’re able to do so, then it’s pretty much attainable. By mentioning 50,000 likes, we’re making our goal in a numerical figure. And finally, in a nutshell, making our time, figure realistic, attainable – we’ll be able to set up a perfect goal for a campaign.
2. Set the target market. Who will pay for all this effort?
After setting the goal, now we have to analyze the target market in a particular way. Following the ultimate guideline, we should divide it into four dimensions like geographic, demographic, and psychographic, and behavioral patterns for content marketing in 2023. And guess what – with the help of digital tools, we’re able to do so in such a precise manner that we can precisely target the people we want.
We must remember targeting a considerable number of people may not be wise at first glance. So, it’s way better to follow the niche market. But in case if the brand is well established, then targeting a considerable number of people may prove right, and we can, too, have a good return throughout the campaign.
3. Designing campaigns that bring the right audience
Now we’ve set up the target market for our products and services. So as per that, we’ve to design or come up with content marketing campaigns. For creating the battles, you should always have your big idea ready for the attack. The big idea of any marketing campaign refers to the reflection of all the campaigns delivering one core message.
For saying an example, “Tornado is an energy drink. Now since it’s an energy drink – I’ve set my mind that it would serve the teenagers in rural areas. I’ve set up a tagline BEAT THE HEAT, which indicates as standing out of the crowd. Now, if every video content, still contents, and physical contents are using this one core message, then it would be called the big idea of the campaigns.” So always remember, have one core message ready as per the demand of your targeted group. Following that, make the campaigns to engage the targeted group into the brand.
Content production is following a system. It’s a system that includes a proper schedule of the peak and non-peak hours, where the contents will be able to engage the audience effectively for content marketing purposes. We can also say it’s a creation of the information for the targeted group. There are some common goals of any content creation plan. Those are to build or raise awareness among your target audience, generate potential leads, and finally make a good number of sales.
4. Setting up a content production plan
Any content that we’re producing – we have to make sure it aligns with the campaign goals. After that, we’ve to set up the schedule of the content. Then we have to make sure it lands on the perfect time in the media. Not only that, when you’re scheduling – make sure you know the peak hours when the audience will engage more.
And finally, establishing a format for every content production should be part of the plan. Not only that, you should have some alternatives ready in terms of adverse situations. Otherwise, it’s going to backfire in a naughty manner, which may affect the leads and sales. This is one of the ultimate guidelines for 2023 content marketing.
5. Content Marketing and Distribution Process
1. Identifying relevant channels
When it comes to content distribution – it refers to the sharing, publishing, or promoting the contents within the most effective mediums. For distributing the materials, first of all, we need to analyze the most relevant channels where we can find the most number of our targeted group people. Then we need to make a checklist of what types of content we’ll be sharing in what kind of mediums.
Picking up the relevant channels for content marketing isn’t an easy job. It requires a deep insight regarding the relevancy of the channel with the targeted group. Although, young adults use the Facebook platform mostly. Instagram is a platform where people love to portray their fashion and lifestyle. It’s a platform for adults to follow the trends. So, you can say – it’s an excellent platform for building influence.
LinkedIn is more likely to use by industry professionals. So, choose your medium wisely and then go for content distribution in that particular medium so that you can have a positive return on your content investment. And if you’re TG is a bit diversified, make sure your content pattern looks different, but the message remains the same.
2. Creating different contents for different channels
It’s not essential to have the same shared Facebook content into Pinterest, LinkedIn, or Instagram. The social media platforms have also got massive diversification in terms of user behavior, geographic, and so on. So keeping that in mind, make sure when we produce your content for different channels – it can pick the TG that you’ve set for the marketing campaign. For example, LinkedIn is one of the best B2B Lead Generation platforms rather than B2C Leads.
3. Following the simple process
Finally, when you’re distributing content, make sure that the process should be in a smoother way for any audience. Like if they see the content, then they should have an immediate push to land on the Facebook page or website where they get to know about the service. Not only that, in 2023 – there will be a call to action reigning over the landing. So the process should something go like this:
Distribution> Landing> Call to action
In this way, it will be much more useful to have the leads that you’ve been expecting and have your return on the investment in content production.
4. 2023 content distribution channels
In 2023, the most used content distribution channel for any business/brand is going to be My Story, Instagram Story, Facebook Story, IG TV, & Snapchat. According to the content patterns, now we call most of the contents as bite content. A bite content refers to a short period where one can portray the latest materials.
If we take a look from the humanized perspective, then you can see – Once we used to upload photos and it used to get uploaded as the timeline photos. After that, the practice of mobile uploads reigned over social media. Then there was check-in and many more features, and now we’ve landed on the story feature of social media.
After the boom of snap chat – it somehow adds an effect on Facebook & Instagram for which now people are more likely to share photos on Facebook as just memory. The duration of daily content is now equal to snapping.
According to a report of marketing stories, within a second – approximately 4.9 Million Instagram stories are uploaded. Facebook is a little bit away from Instagram, but then again, there’s a potential number of people right there using this feature. Not only that, Facebook & Instagram business is about to get at least 60% of their leads from stories only.
Since the content sharing places have been more compressed, it has got much more comfortable for the users to share their stories. Apart from that, one more thing is going to replace Facebook & Instagram 1-minute videos. It’s none other than Instagram TV. Currently, it’s dominated by the young Instagram influencers, and the traffic in this feature is also admirable. With the innovation of content sharing platforms, it’s looking like people are accepting compressed and short content more than the materials with high-density knowledge.
5. Future of content production channel
The evolution in social media throughout the last decade indicates us that we’re more likely to adopt new technological stuff after every two years. There’s a possible chance this duration is going to be more shortened shortly, and we’re about to have a new sort of social media features once in a while.
So even after 2023 or at the end of 2023, probably we’re going to get some more mediums by which we can distribute our content and generate leads. Now it all depends on the density of traffic in each feature. There has been a significant reduction of Facebook and Instagram photos getting uploaded after the launch of my day feature on both platforms. So, there’s no such guarantee of any function lasting for a long-term duration. With the proper utilization of TG and Traffic in all social media features, we have to make our moves so that we can pull out some great campaigns involving content marketing in 2023.
6. Go Beyond Social Media
Although Digital Marketing has got different and many sub-dimensions, but still people are still confined to social media marketing only. Before moving to content marketing in 2023, I’d like to say social media is not only the platform to grow your business or expand your brand. There are other dimensions too. Like Google Adsense – where you can both show was written contents or visual contents, which has got much more lead than social media both in comparison to time, efficiency, and sustainability.
Since social media involves too many brands or businesses – it has gradually become overrated. Although having the most traffic drives any business to produce content for social media – but following a niche marketing strategy, you can have potential consumers for your business in other mediums too. Like, email marketing in particular, and one of the most effective mediums to have leads. This will be a supportive part of content marketing 2023.
Still, an impressive number of people are into website blogs and articles. Search Engine Optimization still has got much more efficiency than any other social media platform. So don’t take a risk by producing content for your social media platform only. Have your alternatives ready so that your business doesn’t slow down for depending on one media.
7. Determine KPIs
So, we’re good to go with everything but still remember the M in SMART strategy? How much will you be able to measure the performance or the progress of your campaign? So to know that you’re going right, there have to be some key progress indicators that will show you whether you went for the right approach or a wrong approach. So how it’s going to look like then?
Remember the example in determining the goal segment? The ultimate goal was to get 50000 organic likes on the Facebook page within the next six months. So, to know that you’re going right – you need to make it short both in terms of gains and time. Like – you want to have a minimum of 7000 organic Facebook likes within the first month. If you’re able to hit the corresponding numbers on your Facebook page, then it will be a crucial progress indicator that you’re going right.
You can even set KPI for different content. Not only that, without depending on the sales navigator, you can set your KPI based on people’s responses. For saying an example, you’ve shared content on Pinterest. Now, if you get 50 haha reacts, then it may not have your expected amount of sales, but people may still be able to connect with the brand, which means you’re going right in terms of intangible manner. This KPI for every content will make the entire content marketing campaign lucrative.
8. Aligning content and Content Marketing 2023
There’s a thing that I’d like to name as content relevancy. Let’s have a look at the series of numbers:
1,5,9,13,17,21,25,29,33,37,41….
You can see the numbers have got a difference of 4 with the immediate next name or previous number. Your content should be aligned with something like that. Don’t directly jump into a bigger one. Always make sure your recent content has got a touch of your previous content.
Not every time, you should post the same pattern of contents. In some content, you’d like to educate. In some, you’d like to entertain and finally in some you’d directly offer. So, don’t make the content routine obvious. Keeping the message, the same always change the pattern with the touch of your previous content. It would help those audiences who were consistently following for a long time and finally will become potential consumers.
9. Analyzing the performance of the contents
Finally, one task remains and probably the most crucial task since it determines whether audiences are going to convert as the consumers or not. It’s the performance of the content. A content’s performance not only relies on its quality but also relies on the way it influences the audience, the responsiveness with the audience, and finally, how it’s building its relationship with the audience. We all do understand the quality content. It’s pretty evident that if the content is good enough in terms of quality, then it will generate leads and sales.
After that, the responsiveness matters. Now you’ve shared content, but it’s not going to remain in the customer’s mindset for a long time. In the short span, you have to make sure that the customer takes a step, and meanwhile, you’re able to offer him/her your service. And finally, after providing the service, how you’re setting up a relationship with your customer.
If your customer appreciates your service, then he/she would go for it again, which makes a loyal consumer for your business. Apart from that, always follow the reaction of your audience over shared content. Make sure you fulfill the demand through your shared content. There are some tools by which you can check your conversion rate and judge how effectively your content is working out.
