Ever wondered what the most challenging part of running any sort of marketing campaign is? Well, ask anyone from a marketing background, and most of them would say it's coming up with brand-new ideas.

As the world is going through the second wave of the pandemic, it's pretty apparent that content marketing is growing more quickly than ever. Lockdowns have drastically altered consumer habits across the globe, and businesses of all sizes have no other option but to adapt.

Unfortunately, many marketers start a content marketing campaign only to find out that it is not driving much traffic. Well, content marketing isn't as simple as it used to be, and with time, it has gone well beyond writing blogs or creating a simple video.

Excited to learn some of the best content marketing ideas to boost your content marketing strategy? Keep reading to find out why content marketing is important and how you can use it to grow traffic to your website. But before, let’s see what content marketing is all about.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is creating and distributing informative, relevant, and exciting content to build brand awareness, improve search engine rankings, and create audience interest. Businesses utilize content marketing to nurture leads and facilitate sales by using site analytics, keyword research, and targeted strategy recommendations.

Besides, the goal is to educate, entertain and inspire people to gain their trust and grow brand awareness. Content marketing may sound easy on paper but not so much in practice. So if you want to do the marketing yourself, you may need to take a content marketing course to help you understand the basics of marketing. Even when you plan to have a marketing agency working for you, having marketing knowledge is important as it helps you stay on top of your marketing strategy.

Why is Content Marketing Important?

  • Creating a suitable content strategy for your business and target audience is how you stay consistent with your brand image and make marketing efforts as productive as possible. 
  • It can prove helpful to educate your target audience and help them get all amped up for your business.
  • It's also a fantastic way to stay in touch and re-engage with your existing clients.
  • It is a scalable way to draw potential customers to your website, keeping each stage of the Buyer's journey in mind. 
  • When done well, content builds brand equity, and your brand turns out to be increasingly more significant over time as you keep on creating valuable content. 

33 Content Marketing Ideas to grow your Traffic

The digital space has now become a tightly contested marketing area of interest. Therefore, it's unquestionably crucial to understand the latest industry trends and to be able to identify the areas where you can possibly capitalize and improve.

Well, marketers are required to manage multiple content types and keep them up-to-date with fresh posts. And it can be tough at times. Your followers are craving new content, and you have to deliver consistently.

That's exactly why brands should have multiple marketing ideas in their back pocket. Therefore, we've broken down 33 content marketing ideas for businesses both big and small. These content marketing ideas are fair game for anyone looking to keep their feeds from ever-growing stale.

So, let’s dive in!

Use Search Trends for Inspiration

Look for trending topics on Google Trends or social media platforms. Find something relevant to your niche or business and write a post about it.

Be certain to post about it on the appropriate social media platforms, link back to your website, and include the relevant hashtags.

Offer a List of Benefits

Regardless of what trade you are in, you can always make a list of the advantages of doing or perhaps not doing something relevant to your business. 

Instead of highlighting the direct advantages of using your product or service, focus on why people need to use that product or service in the first place.

Often writing about your own business or system can seem complicated and time-consuming. However, by writing what you know, instead of who you are and what you do, you'll save some time and write more genuine content.

Predict Future Trends

You're the expert in your field.

You may not be sure about predicting trends in your industry; however, you are perhaps most likely to discover significantly more about what's coming down the road than your customers do.

Therefore, take out some time each month or perhaps every quarter to summarize what's going on in your industry and what the near future holds.

Follow-up on Future Trend Predictions

Have you ever written content on future trends?

Well, if it’s been over six months or a year, take some time out to revisit what you wrote and write a follow-up post.

You can focus on questions like what was correct? Where were you mistaken, and why?

Get Guest Bloggers

Look for other industry experts or business owners from various industries and invite them to write blog posts to publish on your blog page. 

They'll indeed acknowledge the exposure to your audience, and you'll likewise get exposure once they promote their post among their readers.

Once you attain some level of success, you'll most possibly end up with people showing interest in guest posting on your blog.

Create 101 Guides

Well, the number of beginners is always higher than the number of experts in any given field. And creating a 101 guide that teaches these beginners the basics to complete a specific task is indeed an excellent opportunity for you.

What's extraordinary about these 101 guides is that they are “evergreen content,” which implies that they will stay significant for a long time.

Show a Step-by-Step Demonstration

Whether you’re a developer creating a website or a motion graphic designer creating HUD videos, think about the areas of your business that your consumers could learn from.

And then, you can create a step-by-step demo in a short video to help them. 

Conduct a Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis is no longer optional. It's a healthy practice to keep an eye on your competitors to find out what they're doing and how to get ahead of them.

Of course, it can be time-consuming to check all your competitors. However, even checking a couple of competitors for their backlinks, speed, and search performance will give you enough understanding of your industry.

Combine old, outdated Posts

Look at your Google Analytics and track down a bunch of related blog posts that aren't getting any traffic and that are old, obsolete, or perhaps irrelevant.

Combine them into a single updated post with additional details or helpful info, add a couple of fresh examples, and repost.

Redirect the old URLs to the brand-new one, so Google recognizes what's going on, and you're good to go.

Recommend your top Products or Services

Not everyone is going to buy everything you offer. Some people might be interested in your products or services that they're not aware of at present. 

So, take some time to highlight your top-rated products, your highly-selling products, or perhaps your most popular services.

We, as consumers, have a tough time making buying decisions. However, knowing what is popular among other people often impacts our final selection.

Write a “did you know” Feature

Try not to underestimate what people do or don't know.

Look for intriguing or usually unknown facts, events, or individuals who may affect your industry or your organization. Any statement that begins with “Did you know” is bound to catch your readers' attention.

Conduct a Case Study

Did you recently help a client tackle a problem? Or are you currently trying out new in-house marketing activities? Well, why not document the entire process and turn it into a case study? 

You can interview a client that had a great experience and turn that into a case study. This will surely help you close deals with your future prospects. 

Follow the News

While you may get some leverage from trying to hop on trending stories, focusing on news relevant to your industry is also an excellent idea. If there have been any new advances or high-profile controversies, 

You can discuss new advances or high-profile controversies and relate them back to your business in some way.

Create Short Videos

Take out your cell phone, turn on the camera, set it to video mode, and hit the record button. Now, start telling your audience some practical tips or insights on what you are an expert in. Record for 3-5 minutes and then post it on YouTube or your website.

All you need is great content and a smartphone, and you’re good to go.

Answer Frequently Asked Questions

You may think that the most popular questions have already been answered.

However, there’s a real possibility you have a unique answer to even the most usual questions. Since your solutions are based on your individual experience and history, they’re worthy.

So look for what things do people often search for in your industry?

Start your Podcasts

A podcast is an outstanding way to build your authority and gain a strong following. Probably the most significant advantage of podcasting is that you will talk directly to your audience. 

Your podcast doesn't need to be an extended or a major creation. You can begin a short 10-15 minute weekly podcast where you share some tips, narrate a short story, or perhaps explain a thing or two.

Make Podcasts of your Blogs

Find a good mic and record a reading of some of your most excellent posts. Post the recordings as a podcast, or simply post the audio files on your blog for audiences to listen to or download. You can further use podcasts to promote your blogs on social media platforms.

Share industry best Practices

You can always help your audience do things better, safer, or more efficiently. So, take out some time to outline and highlight best industry practices that will definitely help your customers improve in those areas.

Conduct and share Interviews

By conducting interviews with industry experts, you can provide your audience a behind-the-scenes peek at the industry. 

You can go for an in-person interview, video conference, or even via email. You can do a few extended interviews as well as a series of shorter interviews.

Create Titles based on Emotional Keywords

The most excellent way to create captivating headlines is to target emotional keywords. This will supercharge your content to a whole new level. People will not just read it but also be excited to share it on social media or with friends.

To create high-converting titles, you can also include numbers or use data-driven headlines to share your own experiments and results.

List Essential Tools and Products

Think about what else your clients need? What products would assist them with improving their lives or perhaps their business? What might improve them at what they do or assist them with being productive, more reliable, or profitable? 

And keeping your buyer persona in mind, create a list of essential products or services, along with additional tips and added information.

Compare Multiple Products and Services

Who doesn't like charts and comparisons? After all, they are an excellent source of knowledge.

So, take time to review and compare various products and services that would be intriguing to your audience. Besides, you can also turn the whole review into an infographic.

Repurpose your old Content

Think about all the planning, effort, and the amount of time it takes to create any piece of content. It can be intimidating at times; however, you can always repurpose your content.

Repurposing your content adds new life to old or otherwise ignored posts and keeps your followers from getting tired of the same content shared over and over. You can think of new ways to promote your content beyond its original format, just to give it a fresh touch.

Use Skyscraper Technique

Sometimes, you don't really have to create something entirely new to get fruitful results from your content marketing campaigns. 

All you ought to do is follow the Skyscraper Technique and improve what's already been done. It is basically a method for making a more refined version of the content already out there. 

Here, the key is to find the top-ranking blog posts on Google for a particular keyword. Then, go through the blog post and look for sections that you can improve. Take note of these, and later write your adaptation of this content.

Update your old Posts

If one of your blog posts is doing exceptionally well, you can give this a boost by refreshing the data you've included and then republishing it. This way, you're increasing the lifetime value of your blog post and helping it rank even higher on Google simultaneously.

Create Infographics

Take data from a past poll, review, or data you’ve collected yourself and insert it into a well-designed infographic. Infographics get higher shares on social media than any other type of content. So, it’s apparently worth the cost.

Share Hacks or Tips and Tricks

It's all about hacks these days. There are growth hacks, marketing hacks, writing hacks, life hacks, and the list goes on and on.

And let's be honest, everyone loves hacks, shortcuts, tips, and tricks, or ways to get quick results to stay ahead in the competition without wasting any time.

Introduce an Email Series

Do you have an email marketing campaign? Well, if you do, leverage that to create an email series that goes out to your subscribers regularly.

For instance, you can break down a really long, informative blog post into a series of separate emails. Also referred to as “dripping” content, an email series is an excellent way to tempt visitors to subscribe to your newsletter.

Join Online Communities

More than ever, now is the best time to get associated with people who share the same values in the light of common challenges. You can join any community where users share their experiences, ask for advice, and look for answers actively! 

Find communities in your niche, be actively connected, and use them judiciously to distribute content to those looking for it. In any case, keep in mind the golden rule of communities: give, don’t only take.

Post Answers on Quora

Quora is a popular site to get answers to literally anything and everything. Use your blog posts to answer questions on Quora. 

However, instead of answering with an original reply, simply grab an existing blog post, and use a section of that in your answer. Then add the link to your original post, and voila, now the readers know where they can go to get more details.

Webinars and Live Videos

Webinars and live videos are among the best options to network, socialize with fellow experts, and gain knowledge. With the ongoing pandemic, this trend is definitely staying with us for quite some time. 

Nonetheless, don't make a webinar a one-person show; rather, co-host webinars and present it as a live discussion to offer more value.

Create Resources

Long-form content often gets thrown backstage since the human attention span is really short. However, it can be nice to provide a thorough, exhaustive resource that puts all the critical information into one, a clean package for customers who are actually interested in your services. 

This is especially useful for B2B businesses because it shows you have a lot to offer. You can create eBooks, white paper, reports, etc.

Know your Audience

Before you start creating successful, engaging, and great content, you need to know your audience very well. 

Keep in mind, the more you know about your readers, the more accurately you can put together excellent content, and the more productive your entire content marketing strategy will be.

Wrapping Up

Content marketing isn't just about putting out content or creating content for website. As the digital space becomes more cutthroat, you must consider better approaches to excite and offer valuable content to your clients. 

The ongoing consequences of the pandemic suggest that this industry is only going to get more competitive as time goes by. So any steps you can take to recognize areas of improvement or perhaps simply achieve a better understanding of your competitors' behavior could indeed prove valuable.

Keep testing different approaches and give each strategy a fair opportunity before giving up!

Also, contact us to apply more advance and inbound content marketing strategies for your business. We are happy to help you.

                                                                                                                           Editor– Divya Verma

Frequently Asked Questions

To boost website traffic without SEO, consider other strategies like display ads, referral marketing, affiliate marketing, and video promotion. These methods can attract more visitors and enhance brand recognition swiftly. Display ads showcase your site on other web pages, referral marketing gains visitors through recommendations, affiliate marketing uses partnerships for promotion, and video marketing engages users with multimedia content. These approaches don't rely heavily on search engine optimization and can quickly bring more people to your website.

The biggest source of visitors to a website is usually organic search. Organic search traffic is when someone finds your website through a search engine like Google. This is the most common way people discover websites because they use search engines a lot. So, when people search for something and click on a search result, that's called organic search traffic, and it's often the main way websites get visitors.

When you give a special name to a group of people who visit your website, it makes it easier to remember and find them later. This can be super useful when you want to create more groups of people for your website or other things. These groups take some time to get ready, especially if lots of people visit your website. So, having a good name helps you keep things organized and saves you time in the long run. Just remember, it might take a while for all the people to be in the group, especially if there are a lot of them.

Well, it's all about having interesting and useful stuff there. When you put unique and helpful information on your site, visitors like it. This content should match what people are looking for. When you do this, it makes visitors happy, and it also helps your website show up better in search engines like Google. So, good content not only helps your visitors but also makes your website more popular.