Think Beyond Keywords: Develop Content that Captivates and Converts

Forget outdated blog posts, keyword-stuffing and forced hashtags. Content marketing has officially come of age and now it’s about strategy, depth and making genuine connections with your audience. Here are three strategies that you can use to make your content sing in this dynamic landscape:

• Stop chasing down keywords and stuffing them into your content. Keyword terms are no longer a thing, according to Masthead Media’s Amanda Pressner and a lot of other digital marketing experts who have their finger on the pulse of the industry. “As search engines have gotten smarter, they're relying a lot more on natural human language--not broad keyword terms--to determine what a person is really asking,” she writes in Inc. “That means brands [that] are researching high-volume keyword terms and then writing articles around those searches (best practice just a few years ago!) won't reap the same rewards they once did.”  
• Humanize your content and write in the spirit of your brand. If large language model-based AI machines can spit out articles of any length—and on any and every topic in a matter of moments—the question becomes: How can you stand out within all that mediocrity? The trick is to create content that’s unique to your brand and valuable to the people who are reading, watching and otherwise engaging with it. “That means offering insider perspectives from real people--your executives, researchers, and customers--as well as proprietary data that couldn't have come from anywhere else,” Pressner writes. “Oh, yes, and let's not forget your voice--even AI that's been trained isn't very good at writing in the spirit of your brand, so make sure it rings clear in everything you create.” 
• Don’t let your sales team’s intel go to waste. I remind my own clients all the time that their sales reps are probably the best idea-generators for content. They may not be part of the marketing team, but inside and outside sales reps know exactly what’s keeping their clients up at night, what mountains they’re trying to climb and the key pain points that they’re dealing with. If you can pick their brains, you’ll get some great article, blog and white paper ideas that you probably never even thought of. 

“Whether salespeople are connecting with new leads, nurturing leads who have been on the hook for a while, or catching up with current clients, their ears are always on the ground—learning what's working and what's not,” Intero Digital’s Kelsey Raymond writes in MarketingProfs. “So, check in regularly with the sales team to talk about what an ideal buyer's journey would look like and what types of sales enablement materials and assistance could support them.”

Stay tuned! Next month I'll be launching a new course, interactive content marketing calendar and enough ideas to carry through the next 12 months. It will help you transform your content strategy from frantic to focused, drive measurable ROI and maximize your marketing investment.