Seven tips against content marketing burnout

Content marketing can also suffer from burnout. This generally happens when structures and content do not yield anything new. Even the best content becomes dull when it isn’t spiced up at some point.
What can you do about it? In order to guard against counterproductive burnout, we have compiled a few tips to freshen up your own content marketing.

1. Not merely texts

The following remains essential: Texts form the backbone of any content. However, content is not only text. Different types of media have proven successful in attracting attention. This is why it is important to resist relying exclusively on texts when communicating content. The mix determines the outcome. Colorful graphs and statistics, for example, attract particular attention.

Multimedia overkill is obviously counterproductive, but one ought to consider adding or supplementing content in the following formats:

• Graphs, statistics
• Videos
• Audios
• Interactive elements

With a bit of luck, good contents, such as those that include a diagram, will earn a position at the top of Google ranking – for example as a featured snippet. These are the highlighted boxes on the Google search results list – the coveted position zero in the SERPs (search engine results page).

2. Integrate social media

Social media is not a universe in its own right. The important thing is to place links and use the portals as catalyzers for your own content. A successful website integrates Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media portals. Good content is cross-platform. Share buttons, likes and comments are compulsory, but there are many other intelligent solutions for the distribution of content:

• Excerpts of an article on Facebook
• Short tips on Twitter
• Matching photos on Instagram

New content needs attention. The best place to get this attention is where the target group dwells. And these are mostly social media platforms.

3. Update blogs

If blogs are not regularly filled with new content they will eventually drop out of the top Google positions. And if a blog has not been given any new elements for several weeks, then it is time to act. A blog lives from updates.

Sure, blogging demands a lot of time and effort. In addition to the wording of an accurate article and the choice of subject matter to captivate the attention of the user it also involves a catchy headline that prompts the user to read the content. And it often takes more than a few seconds to find a suitable image. Success is based on a great deal of work. But investing in high quality blog posts is worth your while.

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4. Good style? That’s what style guides are for

Customers recognize companies based on their corporate design. They associate specific colors and color schemes, font types and design elements with a specific service provider. Brand awareness is especially important on an emotional level because it creates customer loyalty.

Corporate design is also quite relevant for content marketing. Customers quickly realize whether or not messages, choice of words or the type of presentation correspond with the familiar style, to the values or goals of a company. What does not fit is confusing.

Style guides for content have proven to be extremely helpful when they clearly regulate the following details:

• Tonality, choice of words
• Preferred links
• Spelling (for instance in the case of several valid versions)
• Preferred types of media

5. Special content with restricted access

Exceptional quality with high added value also ought to be labeled as such. The keywords in this context are gated asset and premium content.

• Whitepaper, e-books or templates are often offered in the form of gated asset. As a return for these services, users are asked to submit personal information, at the very least their email address.
• On the other hand, premium content is usually only available against a fee, which already suggests a high quality.

The fact that a website offers gated asset or premium content is a decisive factor in upgrading the image of the Internet presence. Modern content marketing therefore relies on high quality content that is not immediately accessible for every user.

6. Perfectionism is counterproductive

Everything doesn’t work out straight away. But on the Internet you will always come across the rule that is written in stone: Only well thought out and down to the smallest detail optimized content is worth being released. But perfection does not invite criticism or comments. If something is perfect from the very start then it has no prospect of moving with the times and adapting itself. This is particularly true for content in the times of social media.

Content must be consistent, error-free and clearly structured, but this does not mean that good content must deal exhaustively with every topic. Admittedly, having the courage to leave gaps pays off – and encourages creativity.

In addition, the policy of perfection also contradicts another important content marketing trend: the constant testing of content while these are already online.

7. Testing, testing, testing

Constant updates require a solid statistical foundation. What content works? Where do the difficulties in attention lie? What elements show good conversion rates? A/B testing has become a standard means of continuously optimizing content. As a result, campaigns gradually become increasingly successful.

By the way: A/B testing is more than mere statistics. As time goes by, someone who constantly tests content will get a feel for successful elements in content marketing. In addition, this insight may even spur creativity. And creativity is known to be the best remedy against burnout – also in content marketing.

Dieser Artikel wurde am 27.March 2019 von Jan Knupper geschrieben.

Jan Knupper