Top 6 Content Marketing Techniques in 2024

Did you know that the content marketing industry will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 16% by the end of the year? If you are a marketer, you need to jump in on this trend. In addition to conventional marketing, content marketing techniques can also be used to promote a brand.

So, why is content marketing gaining popularity among marketers in the first place?

Because content marketing techniques are remarkably effective when you want to boost your engagement rate. While creating content, a brand has the chance to tell their story. If it is done correctly, it can help the brand connect with their target audience.

In this article, we will first explain the definition of content marketing. And then list various content marketing techniques you can implement.

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What is Content Marketing?

Begin we look at the best techniques for content marketing, you need to grasp the basic concept. Content marketing is essentially a marketing plan that involves content creation and distribution.

The idea behind content marketing techniques is to attract the target audience to the brand through online content.

Aside from bringing in audiences, various content marketing techniques can also be used to maintain relationships with an audience.

It can also increase loyalty to the brand when the content provides something of value to the readers or listeners. How? By educating, inspiring, or entertaining them.

When it comes to digital mediums, content marketing has many forms. This includes blog posts, case studies, videos, podcasts, infographics, and others.

No matter which content marketing technique or form you choose, you need to adjust it to your audience’s preferences. Otherwise, the content will fail to serve its purpose.

While creating content, you need to consider several important aspects, such as the primary purpose of the content, the benefit it provides, and the target audience for the content. That’s why it’s crucial to understand various content marketing techniques.

They can also help to optimize the effectiveness of the content. Therefore, we will show the best options and practices below. These are the best content marketing techniques you can use.

What Are Some of the Best Content Marketing Techniques?

All of the content marketing techniques listed below have the same purpose – to increase the effectiveness of your content marketing campaign.

So, without further ado, here is the list of best content marketing techniques for 2020!

Content Marketing Technique #1: Practice Personalization

When it comes to content marketing techniques, you can’t ignore personalization. After all, it’s a strategy that allows you to deliver relevant content to your audience. With the help of personalization, you can design highly targeted landing pages, call-to-action buttons, and more.

For this content marketing technique, you need to first segment your target audience. Because it’s impossible to satisfy everyone, right?

So, how does segmentation impact a content marketing campaign?

Simple, it can give you a clear path to your destination. If you already know the kind of audience who will enjoy your content, you can tailor your content according to their tastes.

With segmentation, you can ensure that your message will suit the tastes of your target audience.

For this content marketing technique to work well, you have to know your audience’s personas. So, what exactly is a persona? It is an inherent characteristic of a particular audience segment. Usually, it consists of demographic and psychographic aspects.

These are some questions you might refer in order to segment your audience based on their persona:

• What are the personal characteristics of your target audience? (age, gender, race, etc.)
• What is the personality of your target audience? (introvert/extrovert, thinker/impulsive)
• What are the interests of your target audience?
• What problems does your target audience have?
• What kind of content will be able to solve their problems?
• What kind of content is often enjoyed by your target audience?

By answering these questions, you can get some revelations that will help you create the right content for your target audience.

After discovering your target audience’s personas, you have to show that your brand cares for their needs. Because if you’re able to empathize with them, it will be easier for them to relate with your brand.

You will be regarded as their problem solver. It’s a simple content marketing tactic that can make your campaign more organized as well.

Content Marketing Technique #2: See What Works For Your Competitors

Comparing your competitors’ content marketing strategies with your own will give you the chance to outmaneuver them. Moreover, it can provide some insights into your competitors’ distinct advantages. If you’re smart, you need to learn from their hits and misses.

So, how can you conduct a competitor analysis?

This content marketing technique requires you to first make a list of your competitors. That’s just the starting point.

The easiest way to do this is by running a quick Google search. Type the main keyword for your topic or niche and see which sites occupy the top positions on the search engine results page.

Here’s an example of top results for the keyword “content marketing techniques.”

Image via Google

You can also try to use marketing tools like SEMrush. With the help of these tools, you will be able to get a peek into your competitors’ overall strategies.

With this content marketing technique, you can even get insights into the link building activities on your competitors’ most popular content.

Marketing tools can even provide you with a list of their backlinks and top anchor texts.

What’s more?

Furthermore, these tools can help you find your competitor’s high performing keywords, which could potentially attract more traffic. You may want to target those keywords to make your ad spending more effective.

This content marketing technique is an effective way to get better results from your pay-per-click ads.

Aside from harnessing keywords, you can also utilize your domain name to compete with your competitor’s content.

This content marketing technique is simple. If you have a domain name that is relevant to your content and what the audience searches for, your content can possibly get higher rankings in the search engine results page. There is a list of best domain generators which you can refer to here: Hostinger.

Content Marketing Technique #3: Pay Attention to Your Headlines

Are your headlines eye-catching?

No matter how good your content is, nobody will see it if it’s not attractive enough to get clicked. So, when you create content, you should pay special attention to your headlines. It can be the ultimate deciding factor in arousing the interest of readers in your content.

Take a look at one of the Ahrefs blog headline. It draws attention, doesn’t it?

Image via Ahrefs

So, what is the best way to create a great headline? Firstly, you need to know who your target audience is. That way, you can match it to their needs. Planning is vital to the success of this content marketing technique.

Then, you can start writing headlines with these considerations:

• Is it specific enough when conveying your message?
• Does it describe the solution to the audience?
• Is it unique enough to attract the attention of audiences?
• Does it generate a sense of urgency?
• Is it easy to understand from the audience’s point of view?

If you have answered all of those questions, you can visualize the characteristics of the right headline for your target audience.

Conducting keyword research can be helpful for this content marketing technique. It will help you to find some keywords that your target audience often searches for, and combine them with copywriting frameworks.

One of the most popular keyword research tools is the Google Keyword Planner. You can just type the topic of your content into the tool, and it will show you some of the most popular keywords related to it.

Afterward, you can add the most relevant keyword with the highest traffic into your headline.

If you want to make sure that your headline is truly engaging, you can use headline testing.

What is headline testing?

It is a method where two (or more) variations of a headline are made for one topic and then compared in order to find out which headline performs better.

From this testing, you can also check some valuable metrics, such as the number of shares and the conversion rate.

The first step of headline testing is creating the headline’s variations. The number of variations is up to you. Then you could run the test on an A/B testing tool.

Basically, the tool will compare the performance through the amount of traffic from each headline. When a headline is appointed as a winner, all traffic will be redirected to the headline that performs the best.

Content Marketing Technique #4: Tap Into the Potential of Visual Elements

One of the best content marketing techniques is to include more visual elements in your campaign. Visuals can convey valuable information to the target audience in an interesting manner. Usually, content creators use images, infographics, or videos as the main visual elements in their content.

However, you can’t arbitrarily post an image and then claim it as good visual content. Each visual element you put must be relevant to the target audience. Apart from relevance, you need to make sure that the visuals are of high-quality. Avoid bad, pixelated images or poorly sized pictures.

Still on the fence about using this content marketing technique?

Consider this. 69% of marketers said that visual elements were very important for their marketing strategies. In fact, a majority of the respondents said that more than 80% of businesses rely on visuals as a part of their marketing efforts.

So, by harnessing visual elements, your content will be easier to grasp. Moreover, you can put additional information into your visual elements. If this technique is done well, it could make your content more appealing to read or watch.

And the best part?

The best part is that there are a lot of online platforms like Canva, PicMonkey, and Piktochart that can make this process easy for you. You can also repurpose some of your old content into GIFs or infographics to create new content.

Still don’t think you have the time to produce engaging visuals?

If you think you still don’t have the time to produce engaging visuals, you can use infographics that are available for free online. I use this content marketing technique to make my content more compelling. Many articles on my website contain insightful data, which is represented through pie-charts and graphs.

Content Marketing Technique #5: Harness the Power of Influencer Marketing

Most of the content marketing techniques that we have discussed till now focus on the process of content creation.

But that’s not all.

You also need to focus on marketing your content so that it can help you boost your brand awareness, visibility, and even sales.

Influencer marketing is a great way to ensure that your content reaches your target audience quickly. For this, you need to invest some time into finding the right influencers in your niche.

Ideally, you should collaborate with an influencer who shares the same values as your brand. That way, the promotion seems genuine.

With influencer marketing, you can shine a spotlight on your brand and reach your target audience more easily. Typically, influencers have thousands or even millions of followers who await their recommendations. This content marketing technique is all about harnessing the power of their influence.

So, how can you promote your brand, product or services through influencer marketing?

You can get as creative as you want. You can create sponsored posts on social media or on a website. Alternatively, you can also create videos, podcasts, GIFs, or do social media takeovers.

Herdez Traditions used this content marketing technique to promote their Guacamole Salsa. They partnered with Skyler Bouchard Oppenheim, a well-known influencer in the food industry. The post reached more than 2000 people with many of them commenting that they wanted to try the salsa.

Image via Instagram

Content Marketing Technique #6: Focus on Local SEO

Are you leveraging local SEO?

You should.

46% of all Google searches are related to people looking for local information. What’s more, 69% of users look up local businesses at least once per month.

Hence it’s important to tailor your content and headlines to comply with local internet searches.

Sometimes, the people you are trying to reach may search for things related to a specific neighborhood. For instance, “bicycle shop Manhattan” and “bicycle Chicago” are keywords that represent the search for local places. This content marketing technique is all about leveraging local search terms.

However, please keep in mind that the local keywords in your content must be aligned with where you live or the location of your brand.

Why?

Because it would give your brand a better sense of credibility. You would be considered an expert in your own area.

Once again, you can use marketing analytics software such as SEMrush or Ahrefs to research popular local keywords. The metrics commonly used to measure are the average search per month and the competition metric.

You might decide to enter a bloodbath competition to rank for high traffic keywords, or you might enter a medium competition to seize a medium traffic keyword. It’s up to your content marketing policy.

Based on this, you can create local content for your website. In addition to this, you should work on getting more local citations and reviews to build your brand reputation.

FAQs

Ready to Up Your Content Marketing Game?

Content marketing is important for improving your brand awareness, but it’s more important to apply it effectively. Content marketing techniques can help you increase your content’s effectiveness.

But you have to know your audience well, tailor your content around them, and solve their problems. Make sure that your content is unique compared to your competitor’s and make it compelling by adding visual elements and in-depth information.

So, which content marketing techniques do you think are the most compatible with your brand? Let us know in the comment section below.

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