How to Use Content Marketing to Skyrocket Your Business in 2020

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Have you ever wanted to get more out of your content marketing efforts but…

You’re not quite sure what to do or where to go for the best advice on how to get more results in the long run?

Tell me if this sounds familiar.

You’ve been creating content over the last 1-3 years. Every now and again (like twice a year), an image, post or video hits the jackpot.

However, you secretly wished that you can get a more consistent performance every month from your content.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a content marketing expert as part of your team?

Someone who would give you pointers on how to tweak or do content repurposing?

Right now, it is probably way out of your budget.

If only there was some way of getting into the mind of the experts. So that you can reap some gold nuggets of valuable marketing information.

It would be great to have a fireside chat with those who have been there and done that just to help you get to that next step.

The good news is that I had a virtual fireside chat with not just one but 17 content marketing experts on future trends.

We also discussed how you, as a small business, can get more out of your efforts to create content that gets results.

Disclaimer: The voices used during the podcast recording for each contributor are voice actors. This is the case to keep the content interesting as well as to reduce the possibility of monotone and voice fatigue. The recording is one hour in length.

Table of Contents

• What Everybody Ought to Know About Content Marketing
• Content Marketing Trends + Predictions
  • Will Visual + Interactive Content Ever Die?
  • Is Your Content Easy to Digest?
  • It Is Time to Talk More About User-Generated Content (UGC)
  • Word of Mouth Marketing Will Make a Comeback
  • Here’s the Unconventional Method That’ll Make You Likeable
  • Not That ‘V’ Word In Marketing Again?
  • Is Video Still Really Where It’s At?
  • Increase Consumer Spending by 500% Using This One Secret
  • 7 Million End Users Can’t Be All Wrong
  • The Secrets and Hard Facts About Voice In 2 Minutes
  • Video and Voice are Getting Bigger
  • The Truth About Optimizing for Voice
  • 3 Things About Messaging Apps You Probably Did Not Know
  • Break All The Rules Stop Being a Copycat
  • Behind the Scenes of an Instagram Marketing Expert
  • Customer Journey Mapping
  • Little Known Ways to Improve Your Customer Experience
  • Increase customer retention rate by 90% Using This
  • Adopt Full-Fledge Multimedia or Become Obsolete
• Another 6 Content Marketing Predictions
  • 3 Simple Tips for Using Questions and Answers to Get Ahead of the Competition
  • Want a Thriving Business? Focus on What’s Working Right Now
  • Have You Heard? Video Storytelling is the Best Way to Grow
  • How to Save Money by Repurposing Video
  • Make Your YouTube Dream a Reality
  • The Truth About Engagement in Less Than 2 Minutes
• 17 Known Factors That Can Impact Your Content Marketing Efforts
  • 1. Stephanie Calahan – Calahan Solution
  • 2. Ana – The She Approach
  • 3. Manu Muraro – Your Social Team
  • 4. Carly Bell – Mommy on Purpose
  • 5. Ann Smarty – SEO Smarty + Internet Marketing Ninjas
    • Example of Text Optimization
  • 6. David Leonhardt – President, THGM Writers
  • 7. Holly Sutton – Online Marketing Business Coach
    • More High-Quality Content
  • 8. Gina Horkey – Horkey Handbook
  • 9. Christoph Trappe – Chief Content Officer – The Authentic Storytelling Project
  • 10. Chelsea Clarke – Founder HerPaperRoute
  • 11. Mike Allton, Author, Speaker, Blogger – The Social Media Hat
  • 12. Melissa Megginson – Community Manager at TailwindApp
  • 13. Trena Little – YouTube Strategist
  • 14. Claire Brenner – Content Marketing Team Lead – G2.com
  • 15. Justina Ford – Brand Alignment Coach
  • 16. PJ Taei – Founder and President at Uscreen
  • 17. Gail Gardner – Founder at GrowMap
• The 17 Lessons You Learned From Content Marketing Experts
• Conclusion
• Announcements

What Everybody Ought to Know About Content Marketing

As small business owners, we are always concerned about what to expect for the next year or two when it comes to content marketing.

Common questions we may have include where we should invest and which strategy will bring us the biggest ROI.

If you are new to content marketing, let me first outline it in detail. As simplistic as the term may sound, it incorporates a wide variety of practices.

Areas under the umbrella of content marketing include:

1. Blogging
2. Podcasting
3. Search Engine Optimisation
4. Social media marketing
5. Paid Social (paying for ads on social platforms)
6. Paid Search (paying for Google Ads)
7. Content Curation
8. Pinterest marketing
9. Content syndication
10. Seeding

You need to realise that this list is not exhaustive but it gives you an idea of what the content marketing landscape looks like from a 10,000-foot view.

In the following paragraphs are summaries of trends combined with predictions from 17 content marketing experts.

Content Marketing Trends + Predictions

In order to understand the importance and practicality of the content marketing predictions from the 15+ experts, let’s look at them together with some statistics.

Will Visual + Interactive Content Ever Die?

Fifty-one per cent (51%) of marketers say that they are prioritizing visual assets as part of their content marketing strategy.

As you can see here people prefer content that engages more than one of their senses. This will help them consume the message thoroughly.

Stephanie Calahan is a content marketing expert with Calahan Solutions. She gave her predictions for the next few years about this kind of content.

Is Your Content Easy to Digest?

“Creating content that is easy to digest and easy to take action on will become increasingly important in the next few years.

Checklists, cheat sheets, templates, no-fluff ebooks and podcasts will all be at the top of the list.

Think of content that can be consumed in a short amount of time or while doing other things.

For example, a person can listen to a podcast while working out, driving, or even shopping for groceries.”

Stephanie LH Calahan is the founder of Calahan Solutions, Inc. and is the author of Guest Appearance Gold.

It Is Time to Talk More About User-Generated Content (UGC)

One of the tell-tale signs that your content marketing campaign is effective, is the engagement you receive on each piece of content.

In case you are not aware of it, UGC is basically content that is generated by your users. This can be in the form of comments, photos and/or even gifs.

Did you know that 90% of consumers say that authenticity is important to them? This is based on a recent survey conducted by Stackla.

In that same survey, 79% of people said that UGC highly impacted their purchasing decision.

Also, consumers found that UGC is 9.8x more impactful than influencer content.

Here is what Ana and Melissa, content marketing experts, have to say about UGC.

Word of Mouth Marketing Will Make a Comeback

“In a way, I think things will stay the same. High-quality content will continue to thrive, be shared and take off quicker.

With everyone having a voice, on whatever their platform of choice is, I believe that word of mouth marketing will make a comeback.

So connecting with your readers and your audience will become more important than ever.

We, as content creators, need to make a better job at refining our storytelling skills. By using that to market ourselves in an organic way, that will get people talking. Because what might change is how people consume content.

We’ve already seen it – the rise in video and video content. The increased demand for podcasts and other types of content that people can consume while going on with their busy lives.

So our content needs to be good enough to make them stop and pay attention.”

Ana is a Blog Strategist and Coach. She is also the Founder of The She Approach

Here’s the Unconventional Method That’ll Make You Likeable

“I predict that authenticity and showing the “rough edges” will continue to increase in importance.

Gone are the days of a perfectly polished online presence searching for “likes” on every post.

We can see this in how platforms like Facebook and Instagram are changing.

Currently, they are testing removing visible likes on the platforms so that only the content creator can see how many likes they receive.

They believe this will help people focus more on their connections and less of a competition.

There’s also increased importance on posting your unedited moments to Stories to better connect with your audience.

So don’t be afraid to show the less-than-perfect side of your life and business – your audience (and social networks) will love you for it!” 

Melissa Megginson – Community Manager and Resident Cat Lady at TailwindApp and Smart.bio tool Extraordinaire.

Not That ‘V’ Word In Marketing Again?

Moving on to video, more than 90% of people say that they discover new brands or products via YouTube, based on Google research.

Over 80% of people typically switch between online search and video when researching products to buy.

YouTube has seen a 110% YoY growth in watch time for videos focused on the ‘which to buy’ theme.

Holly, a content marketing expert has some practical advice to share with you around integrating video into your social media content plan.

Is Video Still Really Where It’s At?

“It might sound like a broken record but video is still where it’s at and it’s only going to get bigger. Video marketing is one of, if not the, most important marketing trends today and likely for the next 5-10 years.

One of the biggest reasons why is because video is a critical part of every stage in the customer journey. People might not watch a video with the intention of buying but they’re still open to discovery.

For 2020 and beyond, I’ll be encouraging all of my clients to discover how they can make video part of their content marketing strategy – and you should do the same.

If you’re intimidated by the prospect of creating video, don’t be! I’m not saying you have to start a YouTube channel. To witness higher engagement with your ideal client you can make a video or start a live broadcast on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Plus, video marketing makes it SO easy for you to reformat your content. Imagine that you’ve recorded a video for your YouTube channel.

Instead of just publishing it to YouTube, you could also get it transcribed and turn it into a blog post.

Upload the raw video with the transcription as subtitles to Facebook, rip the audio and use it as a podcast episode, use video thumbnails in your email marketing campaigns – there are SO many opportunities! 

I also believe that many more small business owners will go down the route of omnichannel marketing. This is an integrated approach to selling that provides a seamless experience to customers, regardless of the channel they are using to access your brand.

The key is automating as much of the process as possible to ensure that brand messaging is consistent across all mediums.

Focusing on an integrated marketing strategy can result in purchase frequency up to 250% higher. As well as 90% more customer retention, in addition to better engagement rate and higher order values.

It can be a challenge but taking advantage of the myriad of tools available in the market today means you’ll be able to deliver great service on all fronts.”

Holly is an Online Marketing & Business Coach who managed to scale her blog to 100,000 pageviews in less than 12 months.

Increase Consumer Spending by 500% Using This One Secret

According to an article on Intro to Digital, personalization of content will continue to expand over the next few years.

“Studies show that effective use of personalization can lead to a 500% increase in consumer spending”.

The best way to take advantage of this trend is to engage with your audience using platforms like social media.

Doing live video using Facebook and Instagram helps with engagement and the ability to glean feedback.

Companies with larger budgets can even go as far as to create tools to benefit the customer, like apps.

PJ Taei, Founder and President of Uscreen, has a lot of experience in the area of video platforms as it relates to content marketing. Let’s take a look at his view in this area.

7 Million End Users Can’t Be All Wrong

“We all know the consumption of video content has been on the steadiest rise over the past few years, so it’s no surprise to anyone that online video is now king. But what we don’t talk about enough is where online video itself is going. 

The future of content marketing lies in delivering content to consumers straight to their phones via branded apps that are native to the content sources, and not just distribution apps like Facebook and Reddit.

Yes, content aggregators will still continue to exist, but as the consumer habits and preferences shift towards apps, native apps serving a niche audience will become a must.

We already see it in our own data of 7 million end-users: the majority of video content is purchased on streaming websites. But after that, 60% of content consumption happens on native apps on phones, tablets, and TVs.

This tells us that content consumption habits and preferences are slowly but surely shifting, which makes offering native apps a winning content strategy.”

Within the next 3 years, you’ll see that all major content creators have their very own native apps where their communities of supporters and regular viewers go to consume their favorite content – whether that content is text-based or video. 

PJ Taei is the founder and president of Uscreen. It is an all-in-one video monetization and live-streaming platform. The platform empowers video entrepreneurs and creators to monetize their content and build thriving businesses around their videos.

The Secrets and Hard Facts About Voice In 2 Minutes

According to a recent Voicebot smart speaker study, 84% of people used their smart speaker to ask a question while 66% ask questions monthly.

Interestingly 43.8% used it to listen to the news at least once while 40.2% used it to call someone.

A surprising 26.1% used their smart speakers to make a purchase. While 15% of them make purchases using their smart speakers every month.

Carly Bell, a mom blogger and Chelsea Clarke both are content marketing experts and they have these insights to share with you regarding using voice.

Video and Voice are Getting Bigger

“I think that content marketing will be around as long as people have a need for information (which will be forever!) but I do think that it will continue to adapt and the way people process content will always be evolving.

Right now, we can see that video and voice are getting bigger and growing at an incredible rate. Savvy content marketers will be looking at how they can incorporate voice or video in their work.

It is probably time to think about starting a youtube channel or a podcast, or at the very least, doing regular facebook lives for your audience.”

Carly Bell is a mom blogger over at Mommy on Purpose. She has managed to generate a full-time 5-figure income from her blog. She is also a Pinterest marketing expert.

The Truth About Optimizing for Voice

“With Siri, Google Home, Alexa, and others becoming more and more a part of our daily lives, voice search is more important than ever, from a content marketing perspective. Are your blog posts optimized for voice search results?

If not, this is something to explore now and for years to come. All of these devices that process search results by voice command don’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

I am also predicting the importance of shoppable posts. Shoppable Instagram feeds and Pinterest pins are big business, that will continue to grow.

I think that as a content marketer, even if you don’t have any sort of physical product eCommerce shop, you should work your digital products, affiliate products, and even services into the shoppable post market that is thriving on social media.”

Chelsea Clarke is a content creator and blog flipper. She is also the founder of HerPaperRoute and the host of the HerPaperRoute podcast.

3 Things About Messaging Apps You Probably Did Not Know

Many marketing experts believe that the use of messaging apps in marketing campaigns is something on the rise.

The reason for this is that in the US alone there are over 107 million users of the Facebook Messenger app this is based on information from Statista.

Another 48.91 million users of Snapchat and a surprising 24.35 million users of WhatsApp.

Break All The Rules Stop Being a Copycat

“One thing that I think (and hope) we can expect to see are blogs aggressively focusing on differentiating their content.

The content marketing world is facing a massive “copycat content” problem – the gist is that we’ve become so keyword-focused, every search query is turning up similar headlines, listicles, examples, etc. (Animalz has a great article about this here).

Between this and the last couple of Google updates, content marketers need to start writing for humans again. 

What this will look like in practice varies, but here’s what I’m hoping for:

– Video and audio: These are the obvious answers as they’ve taken off a bit already, but there’s still a lot of room to grow in this regard. I expect more publications to start adding accompanying audio to their articles, experimenting with in-house video production, etc. 

– Original data: This is one of the best ways (if not the best) to make your content stand on its own, as it’s literally research exclusive to your own company. Original data pieces can also be a great link play for your off-site SEO efforts. 

– User-generated content: Look. I love content marketers. I am a content marketer. But at the end of the day, every piece could benefit from the insights of a thought leader in the space.

Using expert quotes throughout your articles – or even publishing entire guest posts from external writers – will add something that you wouldn’t have otherwise found in the search results. 

At the end of the day, this is what Google has always said: write the best content and you’ll be rewarded.

I think the three trends I mentioned, and a whole bunch more I didn’t (quizzes! Interactive content! AI!) will be a result of the shift as content marketers stop writing for Google and start writing for humans.”

Claire Brenner – Content Marketing Team Lead at G2.com.  Born and raised in the Chicago area, her brief stint in Ohio gave her a new appreciation for deep-dish pizza. However, it left her well-versed in Cincinnati-style chili and “cities” with a population fewer than 400,000

Behind the Scenes of an Instagram Marketing Expert

“My predictions are that only those who add value to their audience and are truly original will stand out.

Marketing is a space that is so busy and competitive. Instagram has over 1 billion accounts, we get more newsletters than we could possibly open, everyone has a blog, a podcast.

Everyone is talking about the same topics, telling the same stories and even using the same catchy phrases. People copy each other’s images, captions, thoughts. That is just a bunch of noise.

To make a difference and have a public that cares about what you say and sell. Brands will have to show their unique voices, personalities and point of view. And more importantly have content that adds value, that serves your public, not yourself.

This is already the trend but so many businesses don’t quite understand what this means and how to do it”

Manu Muraro, the Founder of Your Social Team, Instagram Expert and Trainer. Influencer Marketing Guru.

Customer Journey Mapping

In recent weeks, I have become keenly aware of the need for me to map out the buyer journey for my business more granularly.

While doing research for this post, I discovered a case study conducted by Altimeter where they interviewed various businesses on this same topic.

They learned that only 62% of companies surveyed confirmed that they have fully mapped the digital customer journeys.

While another 32% are currently involved in that process.

In that same study, 62% have also created what is known as a content customisation framework.

Interestingly, when asked which marketing channels these organisations found to be most effective. Approximately 69% said social media while 56% pointed to their company website.

Justina Ford, a Brand Alignment Coach, had this to say about mapping your customer journey.

Little Known Ways to Improve Your Customer Experience

“In the 2020s, customers are looking for relevant, authentic, and individualized content delivery.

If you haven’t started creating useful engaging content that solves a problem for your potential customers somebody else will.

And your customers will see them as an authority in your industry before they see you.

Conversational content like chatbots are going to continue to thrive. Use a chatbot tool like ManyChat. Where you can instantly deliver great customer service and deliver the individualized content they desire.

Instant feedback from potential customers versus waiting for them to fill out forms will make for awesome continued shifts in 2020.”

Justina Ford is a Mind and Body Practitioner as well as a Brand Alignment Coach. Learn more on her website at JustinaFord.com

Increase customer retention rate by 90% Using This

In an article by Camille Hughes of Intro to Digital, she talks about multimedia content being an absolute necessity.

“Video traffic accounts for about 80% of all consumer internet traffic. Videos that are about two minutes, generate the highest engagement levels.”

One interesting statistic that she highlights is that “companies that use several channels report a 90+% increase in retention rate”.

David Leonardt, President of THGM Writers, shares the same view and this is what he had to say on this topic.

Adopt Full-Fledge Multimedia or Become Obsolete

“We are in the midst of the biggest revolution in content marketing –
part-way there, but still a way to go. We are moving from text-only to
full-fledge multimedia.

At its most basic, this means supplementing text with images – not just “pamphlet images”, such as stock photography – but images that convey information. I use a lot of list images. Infographics are part of this.

We are by now also well into video, and I suspect that will continue to grow. The technology is there; it’s just a matter of finding time and changing habits.

This revolution will be complete, perhaps not for a few years, when live-streaming and webinars and other in-real-time multimedia sits side-by-side with text and images in the content marketing toolbox.

Live streaming is like putting engagement rocket boosters on regular video or GIFs.”

David Leonhardt is the President of THGM Writers. He is also a Distinguish Toastmaster and former consumer advocate.

Another 6 Content Marketing Predictions

To give you a bit of context each marketer was asked two important questions about content marketing for small businesses.

Here are 6 more answers to the first question.

3 Simple Tips for Using Questions and Answers to Get Ahead of the Competition

“With Google quickly turning into an answer engine (as opposed to a search engine), addressing questions and giving answers in your content is becoming a key to search engine visibility.

There’s going to be an explosion of brands building and marketing FAQs, knowledge bases and Q&A sections.

Best answers will gain more organic search visibility. Keyword research is turning into question research.

Answering questions will also create more visibility opportunities, including:

– Make your content more conversational (optimize it for voice search and conversational marketing)

– Get featured in Google more

– Let questions drive your content structure (use questions as your article subheadings). This will make your content more engaging and readable.”

Ann Smarty is the founder of SEO Smarty as well as the Community and Brand Manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas

Want a Thriving Business? Focus on What’s Working Right Now

“The online world changes too fast to spend time making predictions about what might or might not happen in 2-3 years.

Instead, focus on what’s working right now and adapt your current strategy to match.

There’s nothing wrong with experimenting but don’t go all-in on something until you know it has the potential to generate a return on your investment.

The basic rules will continue to apply — write for people, create high-quality content and pay attention to what Google likes or dislikes. If you’re doing these three things, you’ll be on the right track.”

Gina Horkey is a married, millennial mama to two precocious kiddos from Minnesota. Additionally, she’s the founder of Horkey HandBook, a website geared towards helping others find or become an awesome virtual assistant.

Have You Heard? Video Storytelling is the Best Way to Grow

“Virtual reality video storytelling will become mainstream. It’s easy enough now with cameras that fit in your pocket and easily are operated with your iPhone.

It’s an easy way to stand out and share stories that previously couldn’t be told in the same way.

Of course, the best virtual reality storytellers remember to also use the content from the video in other formats like stories, podcasts and more.”

Christoph Trappe is the author of two books, Get Customer Focused and Get Real: Telling Authentic Stories for Long-term Success. He is the host of the Business Story Telling Podcast and a Digital Branding Strategist. Chief Content Officer, The Authentic Story Telling Project.

How to Save Money by Repurposing Video

“While the past couple of years have seen tremendous growth and ubiquity when it comes to live video, I predict that 2020 will be all about repurposing video and creating a better video.

Brands have successfully shown the value in live video and demonstrated the positive impact it can have on a business’s bottom line.

But sustaining that growth, particularly as other brands get better at production and new tools offer amazing new features, is harder and harder.”

Mike Allton is an Author, Speaker and Blogger. He is also the founder over at The Social Media Hat.

Make Your YouTube Dream a Reality

“Video!  Video will continue to be king of content for businesses moving forward. 

Just in 2020 alone, 80% of internet traffic will be to video.

If you aren’t using video in your content marketing it will be really hard for you to stand out in a noisy world of content!”

Trena Little is a YouTube Strategist as well as an online course creator.

The Truth About Engagement in Less Than 2 Minutes

“I sincerely hope that we will all focus more on encouraging interaction in a smaller quantity of created content of extremely high quality.

Far more content is being created than can be read. And there is too much sharing and not enough actual clicking, reading, and discussing on most sites.

We all need to focus on increasing interaction instead of just churning out and promoting more content.

Most small businesses sell products or services. There is no reason they need to publish every single day. Their customers probably do not want to hear from them every day.

Don’t burn your customers out and cause them to start ignoring you. Put more thought into what you publish and email.

Do it less often but extremely well so they’re thrilled to read it – not moaning as they ignore or delete it unread.”

Gail Gardner is the Founder of GrowMap and a Small Business Marketing Strategist. She also acts as the Community Manager for the BizSugar Mastermind Community.

Disclaimer: The voices used during the podcast recording for each contributor are voice actors. This is the case to keep the content interesting as well as to reduce the possibility of monotone and voice fatigue. The recording is one hour in length.

17 Known Factors That Can Impact Your Content Marketing Efforts

As I mentioned previously, these content marketing experts were asked two important questions. In the first section, we looked at the content marketing predictions for the next few years.

Now they are giving you advice on how to get the most out of your content marketing efforts.

1. Stephanie Calahan – Calahan Solution

“Consistently spend 20% of your time creating content and 80% of your time getting it to your community through syndicating and repurposing. It is the best way for you to leverage your time and talent. 

Syndication is when you publish or broadcast (share) the same content simultaneously across a number of platforms.

This is without changing the original content. It is an easy way to get greater exposure and visibility to you and your skills/knowledge. (For example, t.v. shows that are aired nationally and on Netflix.) 

Repurposing is taking existing content and creating something new. For example, a blog post could become a video or 5-10 minute podcast episode or Facebook/Instagram live. 

Make it easy for them to find you! The more content you have online, the easier it is for someone to search and find something about you or by you.

When you share your content in multiple formats you open up more possibilities for people to consume it.”

2. Ana – The She Approach

“I strongly believe that the best way to get the most out of content marketing is to always have a next step mapped out in your content.

What action do you want your readers, listeners or followers to take after they’ve read your blog post, listened to your podcasts or scrolled past your new Instagram post?

What’s the next step? You need to figure that out and make sure your content serves a greater purpose.

Are you trying to get people on your email list (because you definitely should!)? Or maybe you’re looking to generate more sales for your products? 

Whatever it is, make it clear and make it easy to follow through with it!”

3. Manu Muraro – Your Social Team

“I am a business of one, so I try to get the most out of everything I do. When I create content, I use it for social media, newsletter, blog, a freebie, as opposed to be creating everything separately.

You also need to send out your messages a few times, so sharing cross-platform is always a good idea.”

4. Carly Bell – Mommy on Purpose

“Make your content multi-purpose! If you have a blog post that does well, it can become the content for a podcast or a youtube video. You can even share the content again in an email!

Repurposing your content can allow you to do half the work and get way more miles out of what you’ve already created.

This can reduce that “burn out” feeling from trying to be constantly coming up with more ideas.

It’s definitely a misconception to think that just because you’ve published is as a blog post, everyone on your email list has read it.

Likewise, a blog post made into a YouTube video can help you reach a whole NEW audience”

5. Ann Smarty – SEO Smarty + Internet Marketing Ninjas

“Turn your site into THE destination. High-quality content builds brand and loyalty making less dependent on investing in traffic and rankings.

In any niche, a solid content strategy drives return visits (which convert the best) and builds opt-in lists.

To create useful and in-depth content, embrace semantic analysis and intent optimization strategy. This simply means building content that gives your readers exactly what they were looking for.

Tools like Text Optimizer help you optimize content for search intent better. It is the semantic analysis tool that uses Google’s search snippets for your target query as the analysis source.

Each time you are working on an article, run the tool and follow the steps to optimize it better.”

Example of Text Optimization

“For example, here’s what you could include in your article if you were writing about [Games of Thrones] – or what people searching for the topic expect to read about:

Use the tips and the clues to make your editorial decisions and expand your context based on the tool’s suggestions. A Semantic analysis helps build better content by forcing you to cover related concepts and entities”

6. David Leonhardt – President, THGM Writers

“The best way for any business to benefit from content marketing is to sync it to what the target market is looking for when they are most hungry.

Of all my blog posts, the one that actually gives me direct customers is about ghostwriter contracts.

Anybody searching for that information is clearly at the stage where they plan to do more than kick tires (and in my niche, tire kickers are like ants at a donut shop).

I am sure that many of my blog posts and off-site content also draw potential customers to my sales pages. My tracking shows prospects contacting us when directly on that post, not even passing through sales pages.”

7. Holly Sutton – Online Marketing Business Coach

“Content marketing will always be such an important and effective business strategy – but it’s definitely getting a lot more competitive.

So instead of focusing purely on social sharing, you need to take an omnichannel approach – with a focus on search.

And it’s blogs that get the biggest results because Google is now pushing up content rather than single web pages.

Blogs are generating, on average, 60-62% of a site’s search traffic which means you have no choice but to keep creating content if you want to stay relevant.

When it comes to word count, there was a trend that the longer your blog post was, the better chance it had of ranking.

But actually, writing content that is too in-depth, such as guides, doesn’t necessarily guarantee higher rankings.”

More High-Quality Content

“So in other words, in order to get the most out of content marketing, it’s better for you to create more content than it is to create one super long blog post.

The more content you create (assuming it is high quality), the higher the chance you’ll have of attracting more visitors.

To get the most out of content marketing, you want to think of your blog as a funnel. At the top of the funnel, you want to attract as many people as possible.

The more people you attract, the more money you’ll actually end up generating. Blog > email list > customer – that’s the basic funnel that I teach my clients and that’s what you should aim for too.

To sum it up, you need to focus on creating video and audio-based content. Videos are taking off and podcasting will be next. I would also tell you to blog, but I’m hoping you already do ;)”

8. Gina Horkey – Horkey Handbook

“Become really good at repurposing content. Your readers spend time on different platforms and consume content in different ways.

That doesn’t mean you need to create original content for each platform. Instead, learn how to repurpose:

– Create PDFs from podcasts

– Create videos using your existing blog content

– Combine related blog posts into downloadable guides

– Convert blog posts into emails for your subscribers

There are dozens of ways to maximize the value and potential reach for every piece of content you create. The only caveat being that if your readers or customers aren’t on a particular platform, don’t waste your time.”

9. Christoph Trappe – Chief Content Officer – The Authentic Storytelling Project

“Telling our stories has become easier and easier. And the tools make it easy as well. Use content type that works best for you.

That could be blogging on your phone while traveling or recording podcasts using a host of podcasting apps on your phone that make that easy.

Videos have never been easier to produce as well. Take your pick and share the stories that help you move your business forward.”

10. Chelsea Clarke – Founder HerPaperRoute

“As a small business and blogger, you can get the most out of content marketing by involving your audience and customers in your brand.

Especially in any sort of ‘behind the scenes’ process. Involving your audience can be as simple as posting a Facebook post asking them to help you decide on a new image for your latest product.

Encouraging customers to become ambassadors of your brand and having them promote your content for you. Either by having them as affiliates or offering incentives.

Having a fleet of ambassadors doing the groundwork of promotion online praising your brand, content, and products can do wonders for a business if done right.”

11. Mike Allton, Author, Speaker, Blogger – The Social Media Hat

“Instead of ramping up quantity – going live more and more often – savvy brands are coming to this conclusion. They can get even more value out of their efforts by improving their broadcasts and turning that video content into multiple other types of content. Up to 26, in fact!

Which, as it turns out, is the single best way businesses can take advantage of content marketing. A single, one-hour live video broadcast can be repurposed and published in so many ways, including blog content of epic proportions.

Whether you go live once a week or once a month, every business can take advantage of free platforms and inexpensive tools. Using them to create extremely valuable content that can fuel their marketing for months.”

12. Melissa Megginson – Community Manager at TailwindApp

“Your audience is telling you what they are interested in seeing from you, you just need to be paying attention!

Analytics and insights need to be your best friend. On Instagram, make sure you’re regularly looking at your insights tab as well as individual post insights: 

This will tell you what to create more of, how your audience reacts to your content, and the best way to grow your business!”

13. Trena Little – YouTube Strategist

“I personally believe getting started on YouTube.  Since YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world and owned by Google.

Putting your time into YouTube is where you are going to get the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to content creation. 

What I really love with YouTube is using your YouTube videos to repurpose on multiple platforms like Facebook, IG TV and LinkedIn.

As business owners, we want to reach more people on the platforms they are already hanging out on, not growing a specific social media platform, but growing your business’s visibility on multiple platforms.”

14. Claire Brenner – Content Marketing Team Lead – G2.com

“The best way for small businesses to get the most out of content marketing is by writing content for their ideal customer. It seems obvious, but it’s so important and honestly overlooked.

Do this by asking your existing customers – how do you like to consume content? What do you typically read or listen to? What problems are you facing? – and writing content around that. 

Here’s why this matters. Say you’re a new e-commerce dress shop. Being small and up-and-coming, it will likely be a pretty long time before you rank on Google for the term “red holiday dress.” 

But, you can use content marketing and write blogs like “What to wear to a winter wedding in 2020” or “How to choose the right outfit for your next holiday party.” These are terms you probably can rank for.

And when potential customers land on these articles, your brand starts building rapport. (As an added bonus, since these readers are obviously looking for a dress, it’s a good bet you can link them to your main site). 

This leads right into the other piece of advice I give, which would be to start focused.

Instead of firing on all cylinders, your content team (or person) should start by building out one topic comprehensively through a series of blogs and articles. Once you establish authority there, your team can start branching out a bit more.”

15. Justina Ford – Brand Alignment Coach

“Video marketing will continue to soar in 2020.  But remember most users on social who prefer to consume their content through video don’t turn the volume on.

So using video transcription tools on platforms like FB and Instagram in 2020 will help content creators to get the most out of their video efforts.

As a blogger delivering your content in multiple formats will appeal to the many ways your audience prefers to consume content.

For example, record your content through zoom. Zoom splits that download into 2 files, video and audio. Transcribe the audio file and place that file through a tool like Temi for the written version of the audio content.

Use a tool like Zubtitle to get automated transcripts places on the video itself. Now you have visual (with text), audio, and written forms of your content.”

16. PJ Taei – Founder and President at Uscreen

“In a noisy online world, the single best way to succeed in content marketing is simply niching down. You can’t get far with content that seeks to attract the masses—general and diluted content just doesn’t work anymore. 

What you need to do is find your niche audience and create content just for them. 

This requires you to completely shift your focus and definition of content success. Just up until about 2-3 years ago, content success was measured by numbers like: how much monthly traffic your blog gets; how many Instagram followers you have; how many YouTube subscribers you have.

But it’s not like that anymore. These are all just vanity numbers that in reality mean very little. On top of that have become much harder to achieve in this oversaturated content space. 

Now, you have to focus on the quality of the audience you attract rather than the quantity. You should pay more attention to metrics like engagement rates, time-on-page, click-through rates, and conversion rates.

If you steadily focus on these metrics, your audience will inevitably grow over time and they will all be quality followers, readers and subscribers.”

17. Gail Gardner – Founder at GrowMap

“Content marketing can’t really be distilled down to a single best way. There are at least four aspects of content marketing:

– What your audience needs.

– Promoting it to grow (and retain) your audience.

– Keyword research and SEO-optimization to get your site to rank.

– Attracting organic links through the use of custom graphics. As well as current statistics, and quotable sound bites, especially from your founder, executives and experts.

But most of all, write for people. And not all people – your specific audience. Make them your priority and then add what you need to attract links and rank into that.”

The 17 Lessons You Learned From Content Marketing Experts

There is a lot of information to take in from reading through this post in one sitting. So I suggest that you bookmark it, share it on social media and even pin it to your Pinterest boards.

To help you capture each advice in a concise manner, here is a summarised version in terms of predictions.

1. Create high-quality content – Holly
2. Add value for your audience – Manu, Your Social Team
3. Ensure that your content is easy to digest and easy to take action – Stephanie
4. Word of mouth marketing is making a comeback – Ana, The She Approach
5. Video + voice are getting bigger – Carly Bell
6. Address questions comprehensively and give answers – Ann Smarty
7. Move to a full-fledge multimedia play – David
8. Video marketing will help you stand out – Trena
9. Focus on what’s already working now – Gina
10. Virtual reality video storytelling – Christoph
11. Voice search is fast becoming normal – Chelsea
12. Repurpose your live video in 26 formats – Mike Alton
13. Be authentic and show the rough edges – Melissa at Tailwind
14. Deliver content to consumer using apps – PJ
15. Avoid the copycat problem – Claire
16. Individualize content delivery – Justina
17. Create less content and focus on getting more interaction – Gail

The good news is that none of these predictions come as a big surprise and many of them don’t require rocket science to implement.

Conclusion

No matter where you are in your content marketing journey, there should be no need to do a ‘rip and replace’ of what you are currently doing.

In fact, it may require a little bit of tweaking and adjustment over time to your current strategy.

It is easy to conclude that video marketing, live streaming or even audio will be too difficult to implement in your business.

Instead, focus on what can be done on a small scale to change the way you currently produce content.

Over to you; How do you see these trends and predictions having an impact on your business?

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