5 Tips To Improve Your Online Content Strategy

Content has been king for a long time, and that’s not likely to change. In today’s digital-first environment, business owners must be dynamic content creators along with being powerhouses in their fields. 

If you’re wracking your brain when it comes to revamping your content strategy, don’t waste precious time lamenting. Instead, consider adding these five facets to your online content strategy to make your efforts valuable to your customers and your bottom line. 

1. Create Content Your Readers Will Share Organically

No matter what business goals you hope to achieve with it, your content has to provide value. If your content aims to benefit you more than your audience, potential customers will see right through it, and you’ll obliterate any chance of earning their trust. So eschew self-promotion and focus your efforts on answering your visitors’ questions and addressing their pain points. 

Offer solutions to common problems in a clear, engaging way. Research top-shared social media topics on sites like BuzzSumo to see what categories are performing well. Focus on popular topics that your organization can truly speak to, increasing your relevance, reach and expertise. Make sharing easy by providing social sharing links throughout your content.

2. Develop Content That Educates

Content ranks high when it’s relevant and useful. When users search for answers, they’re looking for content that helps them resolve an issue or learn something new. To draw traffic and earn business, make sure that your content delivers on its promise. Research similar high-ranking articles and reverse-engineer your content to be better than what’s out there today. 

Avoid clickbait-style promises that fall short on their delivery. Instead, lean into real business problems and offer sage advice that educates readers on how they can overcome their challenges. When your content is helpful, it stands a better chance of being used as a reference by others. 

3. Incorporate High-Ranking Content Components

Copy length matters. If you’re hoping to top the SERPs, you need to pay attention to your word count. Currently, content that runs to 2,500 words ranks highest on major search engines. But it’s not just about having a lot of verbiage. You need to tell your audience things they need and want to know in a form that’s easy to consume. 

Creating content that is valuable, not just lengthy, is the point here. Keep users engaged by writing sentences of 20 words or fewer. Structure your piece to deliver high-impact content first, in the event your reader bows out after one screen. Yet provide the necessary level of useful detail, in an easily navigable way, to engage those who want to dig deeper. Your time-on-site metrics will soar — and hopefully your conversion rate will follow.

4. Use Guest Posting to Earn Third-Party Validation

Your company website isn’t the only place where you should publish content. You’re already creating valuable content on your blog, so distributing that knowledge via other sites and trusted media platforms is a no-brainer. You’ll attract and build an audience while establishing trust by providing high-quality information.

Reach out to relevant sites and blogs in your industry and create a relationship that provides value to both sides. Partnering with authoritative websites and other high-ranking content sources will lend credibility to your content. It’s all well and good to declare your own expertise, but getting a trusted outlet’s seal of approval will validate your claims. 

Become familiar with the content submission guidelines at various sites to ensure you have the right fit. Then link to your content hub in guest posts you place on other sites. Cultivate relationships where needed to increase the likelihood of prime content placement and promotion. 

5. Recycle Existing Content to Increase Your Reach

You’ve dedicated hours of research, writing and editing to create the perfect blog post. But is that the end of the road? If you’re a strategic content creator, it isn’t. 

Popular creators like Gary Vaynerchuk have long preached the value of “content arbitrage.” Using this approach, you do the work once and revise it for every platform and format you can imagine. So refashion your content for other mediums to increase your impact. Once you’ve got your copy, use it to create videos, lists, social media posts, podcasts and more. 

Your audience members may prefer certain methods of communication over others. By providing different formats optimized for each segment, you can improve your reach and your authority. Remember to leverage each content component, including video and social media captions, providing links wherever possible to improve page rank. Encourage your leaders to share your content through their channels and use it as a resource as they conduct business. 

Treat Content Strategy as a Key Component of Your Business Strategy

Your business strategy and content strategy should work hand in hand. Make a practice of strategizing your content plans for each month by developing an editorial calendar. This calendar will guide your content production and distribution, which should align with relevant product launches and promotions. Using this approach, your team can create and distribute content that gets maximum results for your business.