17+ Insanely Actionable Content Marketing Hacks

If you are struggling with Content Marketing, you probably think it is strenuous, rather hellish to be more accurate. Well, that’s not all wrong but not entirely true.

Content marketing lead generation is not child’s play. Uh-un, it isn’t for sure! But, if that’s what you think of it, content marketing mistakes and their repercussions will have your cautious mode turned on very soon.

However, there are easier versions of its definition. Those versions are made up of hacks – Content Marketing hacks. The best part of these hacks is that top Content marketers have practiced and recommended them, so they are close to fail-proof. 

Let’s take a look at what we are going to get you into today – content marketing best practices with proven results in 2020:

Content Marketing hacks 

You might find 101 content marketing tips across the internet, but they might not be ideal solutions for your business. Therefore, we have compiled a list of more than 17 Content marketing hacks that you can practice yourself to witness the ease and see a striking difference in the results. Before getting started, rest assured that these tricks are the essence of the best content marketing books.

1- Directing content to the right audience hits straight

Creating content for everyone (literally everyone) gets you nowhere except probably at the peak of some traffic graphs. But how useful is that random traffic for you? On the contrary, how valuable would less but high-quality traffic be? 

That’s your “business goal” summed up. See the difference?

Here’s the deal:

Create the content that your target audience is looking for. 

And, for that, you’d have to understand your target audience first.

Start with your audience research. Do surveys; all kinds of them. Get into their shoes, and get hold of their mindset. 

Understand their interests, likes, and needs, the language they speak, and the content they read. 

Make a detailed persona of your ideal client.

Use your knowledge about them to show them how well you understand their pain points. Provide highly targeted solutions to their relevant problems and VIOLA. 

Your results would be your reward.

After setting the direction of your content, let’s take a look at the type of content it should be.

2- Evergreen content is a big savior

Evergreen content comes with many benefits. For instance,

• This one-shot keeps knocking down your competitors for a long time if played well.
• You have a long-term invitation for your prospects to keep coming and benefiting from your content.
• Evergreen content saves your time off of not having to produce seasonal content instead of it.

Now that’s a totally understandable Win-Win, and THERE’S NO CATCH.

Decided the kind of topic you want? 

Great! Let’s get to how detailed you should go. 

3- Comprehensive content scores better

Ever wonder why most of the marketing professionals and influencers come up with giant blog posts? Have you ever noticed a pattern in top-ranking blog posts, no matter what the industry is?

The pattern is ‘details’. 

Top ranking blogs are all-inclusive, and so they rule out the reader’s need to check other posts to find the answers they are looking for. 

As Brian Dean suggested in his 2016-based research: 

“The more in detail you have covered a topic, the more are your chances to rank higher.”

Just for a reminder, getting them interested in your product/service begins with getting them involved in your *Valuable Free Content*. 

Alright, now that you have decided to dig into the details, what do you want to achieve out of this?

4- Going viral is desirable

No matter how dreary and worn out your industry is (apologies if it is still dear to you), there would be an update or news to get everyone excited once in a while. Smart marketers create content on such topics just as the update is out, so their high-value content answers queries before people start searching for them.

Your content is also likely to go viral when it speaks the target audience’s language and provides a solution to their (relevant) problems.

(Yes, we are not suggesting a football making company to talk about ‘how to keep your sugar surge to it’s minimal in winters’. ‘The best foot-kicking tricks to dodge the goalkeeper’ would, however, be a valuable and exciting read for the targeted readers in their niche.)  

Content marketing storytelling makes it to the top of the list when it comes to ideas to go viral.

Get that?

Fantastic!

From now on, you’d keep that goal in mind for the new content. However, what about the older content you did not have any such plans for?

5- Updating the Most Popular content pays off big time

The blog posts winning audience appreciation are super important and respectable for any business. They have tremendous hidden potentials too. They are your superheroes. Update them from time to time.

Want to run a back check? That’s actually a great idea!

Update your most high-performing blog posts quite often (more often than the others) and see the extent of stretch on your progress graphs.

You want to keep updating your old posts because you don’t want them to lose their popularity.

But, how does that help with keeping the popularity intact?

Now, this might sound crazy, but Google has a thing for the new posts (you can dig into the topic in Neil Patel’s blog here). If it doesn’t, previously ranked posts would stay up there forever; new ones won’t get a chance forever. There would be no competition and no improvement, only outdated content, and worn out information. Google would lose its searches to other search engines. 

But, why would you think that Google could get this far to see such a day?

Google would do everything possible to stay atop the other search engines. Therefore, content creators would have to keep doing their best to remain fresh if they want to stay up in the top results. 

The next content marketing hack is actually thought to be relevant, fruitful, and delivering for years down the road.

6- Video Content is a big hit

Video marketing is considered the most crucial marketing weapon, NOW more than ever before. Should you ask *Why*, there’s a whole list of reasons:

Your chances of grabbing attention are much higher through a video than they are with a still image or a block of words. Psychologically, videos have a better position to create trust levels; this trust yields sales and growth for you. In non-human terms, Google has already picked sides with the video content over the other types.

Reminder: your content marketing through video content is the most effective when you incorporate storytelling into it.

So, a content marketing strategy for 2020 and beyond would be considered spot on if it focuses more on the video content. 

What else can make your content more popular, more useful?

Let’s see:

7- Infographics and other visual aids strike fast

A HubSpot Visual Content Marketing stats guide claims that Infographics have the potential to increase your web traffic by 12%, which is HUGE!

CoSchedule states that their recent infographic on Content hacking received 10X more shares compared to other content types. This is no less impressive, either. 

For instance, a content marketing infographic of these actionable techniques would increase the effect of this post manifold.

(Wait! Did we just get an idea? Oh, great! Let us work on getting you some quality content marketing infographics soon.)

The best part is that these results are not popular-brands specific. You, too, are welcome to join the club.

Infographics are valuable, but they are an effort from scratch. Sometimes, short cuts yield equally benefitting results too. We have another such example here:

8- Repurposing content is the newest trend

Success in today’s competitive environment calls for a lot of content creation. However, time is a luxury that most businesses and marketers can’t afford.

Repurposing is an incredible hack best suited for 2020 and on. It also happens to be an incredible way out in the given scenario for busy marketers out there.

You can read more about the Content Sprout Method in our blog to find more ideas on repurposing content.

What else can you do to grab their attention right from the start? 

Well, there are a number of things, but this one is particularly handy.

9- Make headlines clickable and shareable; A/B test them

The importance of the headlines is stale news that still sells hot. Readers’ attention span is decreasing fast, but the good news is that it is still big enough to get them to your headlines. However, whether or not they read them depends on the quality of your headlines.

Certain ingredients spice up the headlines, making them more readable & clickable.

Let’s dive into them:

• Pointing out the challenge your audience is facing
• Offering a solution
• Promising benefits within the headline
• Asking questions to get them interested
• Calling them to take action
• Touching their emotions with the use of Power words
• Using between 8-12 words. A HubSpot blog post claims that the headlines that get maximum engagements ideally have this length.
• Using numbers. Neil Patel explains that headlines with numbers have significantly higher click-through rates. 
  • Odd numbers have an even better standing when used in the headlines.

Combine a few ingredients, make a few headlines, and test them individually to see which ones are more sticky. Stick to the ones with more clicks and engagements as they are more likely to get your content more reads and views.

Why?

Because views and reads might ultimately lead to conversions and profits. How else can you hook them to your content to increase views and reads?

Here’s how:

10- Headline analyzers win big

A headline is a sneak peek into your content and tells the audience what they are heading to. Let them lead the viewer into your content like a pied-piper. 

You’re already exhausting yourself with the above-mentioned ingredients. “What else could you do?”, you’d find yourself asking.

Nothing much. Just give headline analyzers a shot.

Several headline analyzers (both free and paid) are available to help you create the blind following effect.

Most analyzers judge your headlines on their scale, give a score, and recommend changes to make it the one that drags followers blindfolded.

You can read more about several headline-analyzing tools in our blog post series on Content Marketing tools.

Let’s continue giving our audience a priority with more content marketing tips for them.

Also read: 

The Ultimate List Of Content Marketing Tools And Resources

The Ultimate List Of Content Marketing Tools And Resources – III

11- AIDA/AIDEA is a planted win

AIDA (or AIDEA) mode of advertising suggests that you mold your content (visual aspects, writing, and everything) with the ultimate objective in mind before creating the content.

It works by creating the content that attracts the audience at first encounter and develops a keen interest to move along. As the audience follows, it makes them want to have your product or service, proves their apprehensions unfounded with evidence, and leads to the desired action. (Your desired action could range from a comment to a sale, depending on your content marketing goal.)

As long as you are not asking them to buy your product upfront yet creating a strong desire to be your clients, you are going the right way.

Now that you have got them interested, how can you give a boost to this interest? Here’s a branded content marketing hack for that too:

12- Internal linking leads the way

Internal linking is a massive thing with massive benefits. When you link your content to each other internally, you are making way for the readers to stay on your site for long, as they keep navigating through it.

Not only is this helping your audience with what they need but also increasing your dwell time and decreasing your bounce rate. You have a great structure to boost, which makes crawling and indexing of your site easier.

This is essentially where the difference between content marketing vs. traditional marketing lies.

Image source: WikiWeb

But that’s something helpful on your website. What about your off-site efforts? How frequent or intense should they be?

Let’s take a look:

13- 7-rule email marketing strategy still sears 

Neil Patel openly endorses this marketing technique for Email marketing. The 7-rule method suggests that you follow your target audience into their inboxes loaded with value for a minimum of 7 days. Start providing them value the day they sign up with you. Send them your best educational material and create offers that benefit them.

Continue over the next couple of days until you have positioned yourself as an expert in their minds who they are ready to pay to get value from. Now is the right time to pitch them. While you do so, rest assured you have a high chance of scoring a good response.

How else can you reach your targets, other than through email marketing?

14- Guest blogging is the way to go

You are guest blogging when you create purpose-written, publishing-worthy, value-loaded blog posts for other names in your industry.

It might sound crazy to those not familiar with the idea of guest blogging. Why would you want to write for others, probably your competitors, instead of writing for yourself?

Well, collaborations have a history of reaping immeasurable benefits.

When you are writing for another website in your industry with a good name and following, you’re introducing yourself to a newer, fresher audience. Hitting the spot right in that blog post, be sure to have that audience return to your site.

If a site with high authority and page rank links to you without a no-follow link (which is called a do-follow link), it actually passes the authority to your site as well. This would be a meaningful gesture as it would help you rank better. And guest blogging is a practical way to win that link. 

Guest blogging introduces you to a new set of audience. Well, that’s amazing. If you think there should be more such ways to reach a new audience, SURPRISE, SURPRISE. The next content marketing hack is just for you.

15- Content round-up is a smart approach

Here’s the tip that many content marketing books won’t share with you despite this tip’s high success level.

Round-ups are just an aggregate of ideas on a topic. You can search for popular opinions on a topic and log them up as a round-up. Alternatively, you can contact experts in a field for their views on a topic, making it an expert round-up.

Either way, they are an excellent addition to your content and offer promising benefits.

Round-ups add to your authority level and give your audience a variety of views on the subject from top content marketing platforms. 

Expert round-ups go a step further in increasing your audience range and authority level. If your content clicks to them and you go the extra mile for the outreach the right way, you can have access to the audience and followers of those individuals as well. 

If you understand, this is GRAND.

How else can your content hit the right spot?

Here’s how:

16- Free value for them creates value for you

Content Marketing is all about sharing value in whatever form possible. You can read in our guide how sharing free content helps Content Marketers make big out of this habit.

FREE Courses are a big step in branding yourself as an authority & they pay off big time.

The more your name grows with free content initially, the better you can ultimately cash it by converting followers into your paying clients.

Also read:

15 Rookie Digital Marketing Courses For Small Business Owners

And we have saved the best for the last: How do you get them to their toes and do what you want?

Here’s how:

17- Calling to action draws actions

When you provide great value and the audience benefits from it a good deal, they are indebted to you. If they are, they’d want to reciprocate your action, as per one of Dr. Cialdini’s Principles of Persuasion, i.e., reciprocity. This is the best time to ask them to do what you want.

You could ask them for engagements to increase your social proof. You could ask them for their email ids and other credentials or ask them to buy your product or services if you have gone that far in the relationship. 

And, now is the time for the bonus hack to close our content marketing checklist.

Bonus Hack

What are your ultimate content marketing objectives? How do you measure the success of your efforts? 

As best we understand, the most accurate answer would be leads, sales, and revenue. 

For these objectives, you need a complete content marketing workflow that calls for speed. The need for speed is the greatest when it comes to your site. 

As per research at backlinko, the sites that load fast rank better.

Where does this fork lead?

The global content marketing landscape is weirdly clear yet hugely complicated. You need a good understanding of the whole process to get things done better. You’d need an integrated content marketing approach to lead the way. As a beginner, it all might get a little overwhelming. It might sound challenging to apply all the hacks initially, so you’d prefer to find a Content Marketing & optimization expert, a digital marketer, a content marketing strategist, or an SEO expert to do it for you.

There’s really nothing wrong with that. As you’d go, you’d really find this option better converting, thus more budget-friendly.

But, if you don’t have that kind of budget initially, we have already got you covered with this and many other value-loaded posts. As you begin to practice, things would start falling in place in your content marketing framework. You’d begin to experience the ease from there.

What’s up, next

Measuring your content marketing efforts after the application of these tips would prove them to be highly results-oriented. But, don’t take our words for it. Let your content marketing analytics speak to you once you apply the tips.

If you are not totally naive at Content marketing, feel free to skip the next paragraph.

If you haven’t already, master Content Marketing with these actionable content marketing hacks for small businesses that have delivered results for big and small businesses before you. But, if you are like many other business owners – out of time or energy to manage all these activities for your business yourself – you’ll find some of the best b2b content marketing experts at Canz Marketing.

Being into Content Marketing, the chances that you have experienced many of these content marketing best practices already are high. What are the findings of your content marketing audit yet? Which ones of the tips have delivered the best results for you? Which of these tips does your content marketing campaign consists of?

What content Marketing hacks do you wish to apply next?

Let us know in the comments. 🙂