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7 Creative Ways To Revamp Your Content Marketing

This article is more than 7 years old.

“Put out content!” “Put out content!” This is the cry that you hear shouted from the rooftops of marketing thought-leaders all around the world. But between all the demands for blogs, YouTube videos, infographics, backlinks and more, it’s easy to engage in “content marketing” just so you can check it off the list.

But as anyone who knows anything about content marketing and what makes it successful can tell you, viewing the practice as an item to check off some list means you might as well not do it at all.

So to help you avoid losing your hair from stress, to prevent you from months of going down the wrong path, or to get you started in content marketing at all, here are seven creative ways to revamp your content marketing:

1. Start From Scratch

Throw out everything and re-evaluate. Rethink your KPIs, audience, content types, content calendar, distribution methods, and structure for tracking success. If you’re in the trenches day to day doing content marketing, it’s easy to get bogged down on your strategy. Keeping up with releasing content just to do it.

It’s incredible what new creative concepts can come together when you throw out your old structure and ways, and just start with a blank page. When I work with clients, sometimes what exactly what they need, as well as some of my best content strategizes, have come from a blank page.

2. Try Something No One Has Ever Done

When recrafting your plan, budget in some new content types that have never been done in your industry. Depending on your audience, who knows what content type or format or style it could be? But try to think of 10 totally new, innovative ways to produce content for your audience.

Of the 10, you might think of one that’s worth it. Put it in your content plan for 2017 and do it for 6 months. Measure the results, and try again. If you aim to innovate, you might strike gold!

3. Steal

Find the best content in your industry, and out-do it. Look at the content types and formats that are working and one-up the others.

Go harder than the competition. If listicles and infographics are working for your competitors, and are ranking high for your industry’s keywords, then go do them—and do them better. Distribute them more effectively.

4. In-House Video Content

Get some people in-house and make video remakes of all your content. Go back and update your blogs with these videos and publish them on YouTube. This can be done simply using iPhones or whatever equipment you might have at the company.

Don’t overthink it. Use a confident host or a group in your marketing department and deliver the content through video. Get creative, and follow the current video production trends and you’ll be fine.

This can look like speaking directly into camera and recording a few minute-long video version of the article you made, or getting creative and make something that’s more produced. But don’t allow production process to be your bottleneck. After all, amateurish in-house video can be tasteful if done and presented correctly.

5. Facebook Boosted Posts

If you’re just getting started in content marketing and you don’t have a big email list or a ton of organic web traffic, you’ll need a way to get your blogs and other content out in-front of your audience. The cheapest, most effective way to do this overnight is through Facebook boosted posts.

With Facebook ad targeting, you can create custom audiences that match your buyer-type, and by simply clicking “Boost Post” you can place your content in their newsfeed. Unlike an ad, your intention is not to get them to click back to your site, but simply to engage with the content.

Deliver enough good content consistently to a Facebook audience, and you will be able to growth hack your way to a solid Facebook following. The best part is, you can get started and test what works with just a dollar a day. Using this boost method, you’ll get an idea of what content type works, and you’ll be able to engage with real potential prospects and get their feedback on your content. Use these feedback and interaction on Facebook to help you pivot your content.

6. Go Live Or Create VR

Embrace the present and the future with live experiences and VR content. Blogs are great and aren’t going anywhere, but it’s important to dabble in new media formats. Facebook Live, while it’s not a groundbreaking invention, is a new format for many brands.

Try to think of some new, creative, even crazy ways to use Facebook Live. If that’s not your style, make an investment into producing a VR experience. This new format, while it is raw and untapped - it is the beginning of a new era. Start to embrace these new media trends, and see if you can be the first in your marketplace to use them effectively.

7. Stop Reading Lists About Content Marketing And Just Do

Get up. Get started and stop thinking about content marketing. Turn off the thought leaders, stop reading your daily trend emails and get to work. It’s great to learn from those who’ve done it and who teach content marketing, but you are your best teacher. Unplug and just take action for 6 months.

Create a plan, go to town, track your results and then emerge on the other side. Most never dive in because they are too calculated. These people spend more time reading about content marketing than actually doing it! So click off of the article, and come back in six months - let me know how you’re doing!