The new year is almost here, and in the world of content marketing, that means taking stock of what’s coming up for blogging in 2018. There are millions of blog posts published every day–so how can your business create a blog that stands out?
Let’s take a look at some trends to watch for in the coming year.
#1: More Strategy
You already know that creating a content calendar can help you keep fresh content on your site, but in a time when there is so much noise on the Internet, that fresh content had better also be really, really good. That means taking your blogging seriously, and that means creating a very intentional strategy.
Here are a few things to consider as you develop your content strategy for 2018:
- How often do you want to post a blog? 4 times per month is preferable, but if that sounds too intimidating, start with 2 times per month.
- Who are you writing to? Identify your audience and keep them in mind as you come up with…
- Engaging, informative blog topics. You need them! Don’t write blogs for the sake of writing blogs; write about things that your audience (see above) wants to know about.
- What’s going on in the world that relates to your topic or audience? Stay in the know about current events and days of observance, and tie them into your blog when you can.
#2: Longer, In-Depth Content
Content length is a huge factor in determining how well your blogs are received by your audience. This may come as a surprise, given that we seem to live in a tl;dr kind of world, but longer blog posts–we’re talking 2,500 words plus–generate nine times more leads than shorter blogs.
If you’re wondering how you’ll find time for that kind of writing commitment, the good news is that not all your blogs need to be that long–but a longer-form article here and there can do wonders for your engagement and web traffic.
Wondering how to get started? Try taking two or three shorter blogs that deal with a similar topic and put them together to form a longer blog.
#3: Video Integration
Listen: video is huge. YouTube has over 1.5 billion users. Each of them consumes about an hour of video content every single day. Video integration is one of the most effective ways to curate more engagement with your content. So how do you get started?
Look for an existing blog post that’s doing really well on your website. Create a video about the same topic, add it to YouTube, embed it in the blog, and voila–you’ve got video integration! Of course, there’s a lot more to it than that, but if you’re not sure how to begin the process, that’s a pretty simple way to get your toes wet.
Contact Uptick Marketing Today!
Here at Uptick, we specialize in digital marketing–and we’re always on top of the latest trends. Find out more about content marketing with Uptick today.
