How do you know what’s the right content strategy for you in this ever-changing digital marketing world?

Google has come a long way from ranking results which are just stuffed with keyword. Also, many brands have proven that ranking content strategy is not about ranking first on Google.

So many start-ups have been successful with email marketing, social media, video content etc. For example, Leadpages grew its subscriber list from 0 to 15,000 within a year mainly from email marketing and tons of helpful content.

There are numerous ways to create and distribute your content. By the time you start implementing your video marketing plan you hear that influencer marketing is the next big thing.

This is precisely why picking a strategy and sticking with it is difficult for most marketers.

Add to this that most topics and niches are overcrowded by now. You will find brands already ranking with great content no matter what your niche is.

So how do you succeed in this challenging scenario? You have to be up to date and ahead of your competition in content marketing.

This is why we have put together a recipe to build a content marketing strategy that’s perfect for 2018 in this blog. Here is what you need to include in your strategy.

Remember that strategy for each company may be different but these are the basic ingredients that must be there in your content strategy if you want to succeed today.

Write Insanely Helpful Content

How Google ranks results has changed over the years and will keep changing in future too. There is just one way to make sure that you are ranking for years to come in your niche. And that is to write high quality content that answers reader’s questions.

Think of the pain points your customers face in your industry and create content to solve their problems. The content must be twice as helpful as the number one ranking result.

Even if you are not focusing on search engine it is a good practice to benchmark against the best performing content and then surpass it.

If the number one result on Google gives ‘10 helpful ways to increase sales’? Write ‘21 helpful ways’ instead to attract users.

Is the top content unbeatably good? Shoot a simple video to make the same points and embed in your blog. People (especially millenials) prefer to watch information rather than read it.

Remember there is always something you can do to improve the content already out there.

Write Long Form Content

Longer blogs typically perform better. The sweet spot according to most studies is 2000- 2500 words. However, even posts of up to 4000 words are now doing better in many niches.

Since every topic is overcrowded with content, it is now time to go niche in your topic and write in-depth content. In short write to cover more in narrow topic rather than touching on various topics in your industry.

Write for ‘Best women’s trekking shoes for Himalayan treks’ instead of ‘trekking shoes for women’ and cover everything possible under the narrow topic.

This also makes sure you are targeting long form keywords. Also, readers who fall under your narrow target are more likely to subscribe since you answered exactly what they wanted.

Of course it goes without saying that this level of micro-targeting can only be possible if you have done an in-depth research on your target market.

Use Video Content

2017 has seen a huge jump in visual content consumption. Cisco estimates the video content traffic will be 80% of all internet traffic by 2019.

Given that 4x times more users prefer watching a video rather than reading about a product it makes sense to invest your efforts in video. Live streaming on social media is big today. So is infographics and recorded video for helpful content.

Podcast is also gaining momentum since it allows users to multi task or listen when they are driving. So, simply converting your existing content to video or audio could also get you lot of traffic.

Optimize for Mobile

According to Business to Community nearly 80% of Internet usage will be from mobile in 2018!

That is a huge portion which should flip the way you look at device usage. It primarily means that brands should now start building for mobile and then optimize the content for desktop.

Use AMP pages for better mobile experience, make apps and focus getting share of the mobile screen for a winning content marketing strategy in 2018.

Have a Driving Purpose

This is important in an age where the internet is overflowing with similar looking ‘me too’ content. Being original and having a purpose sets you apart to your target market immediately. People connect with brands that have a cause and value that matches their own.

This is evident in case of the younger population. According to AdWeek, 49% of millennial will seek out brands that align with causes. This is more than any other generation.

Let’s Wrap It Up

Going niche is the best strategy to capture audience that is bombarded with unnecessary information all the time. Give your audience something they looking for and in a format they prefer and you are bound to succeed. Writing long form content which is helpful essentially takes care of this.

Focus efforts on video and mobile screen since that is where most of population is consuming content in 2018