With the New Year well underway, now is the perfect time to get your content marketing strategy on-point for 2024. The right tweaks and strategies will help you to stand out online and engage your target audience. So here are five important tasks to pop on your January to-do list.
- Update Existing Content
Google loves fresh, up-to-date and relevant content that it can present for any given search term. So the best thing you can do at the start of the year is to update old content. And that doesn’t just mean changing dates. Here’s what John Mueller from Google had to say on the matter.
Note the emphasis on ‘new content.’ The best way to update old articles is to give them a rejig and a rewrite including new facts, stats and updates for the year ahead. Try to find new quotes, new ideas and make the content as fresh as possible.
Top Tip: Look at which articles performed best in 2023 and update these for 2024 first. Knowing what resonates with your audience is of huge importance and will help you generate that much-needed social engagement.
- Create a Content Calendar for 2024
Creating a content calendar in January will help you produce articles, blogs, social media posts, offline content and more for upcoming events ahead of time. Be sure to note down important celebrations, religious festivals, national days of the year such as National ‘Love Your Pet Day’ and anything related to your specific industry. From there, you can start to brainstorm content ideas and allow time to create fun, interesting and engaging campaigns with all the relevant promotional and SEO efforts.
Top Tip: Use 2023 data to inform your new strategy. What content worked well? What generated the most likes, shares and overall engagement? Are your sales up at any time of the year? Why? Can you use this to your advantage from a content perspective?
- Develop New Content Themes and Topics
Top brands make content creation look easy. But the reality is, it’s a time consuming task that requires plenty of brain power. One of the best things to do at the start of a fresh year is to develop themes and topics that resonate with your audience and reflect your brand’s message. Start by looking at popular search terms and consumer pain points. Think about questions asked and look carefully at keyword phrases. High ranking content can be crafted from these.
A single idea can become the trunk of a content tree. From there, you can start to branch out with relevant content ideas to inform your strategy. Here’s an example:
Main content idea: “What is SEO?”
Secondary Ideas: “How to Refine Your SEO Strategy,” “Must Know SEO Tips for 2024,” “A Beginner’s Guide to SEO,” “Understanding Algorithms for Ranking Purposes” – and so on.
If you know consumers are asking about a certain topic, provide them with relevant knowledge and then expand on this. Such a strategy will make you a go-to brand for relevant information.
- Review Your Social Media Presence
Did you jump on every single new social platform going and then feel overwhelmed? Perhaps you did the opposite and failed to move with the times? Whatever the case, a New Year is the perfect time to review your social media presence. Think about the following:
- Where your audience hangs out – are you on the right platforms?
- Can you streamline your efforts? Would focussing on the most popular platform boost brand awareness, engagement and such like?
- Are you responsive enough? Are you using social listening tools to engage with audiences when your brand is mentioned?
- Are you posting regularly? Is your content unique? Can you up your efforts?
- Are you utilising all the latest tools? Do you need training or agency intervention?
- Get Set for Short-Term Videos
If you’ve already branched into the short-form video world, that’s great. For 2024 it’s all about snappy, to-the-point videos that communicate key messages quickly. From Instagram Reels to TikTok, there are many ways to share your content with your target audiences and you don’t need professional equipment. Consumers are loving rustic video right now. Simply make sure you include a call-to-action and that your videos are vertical not horizontal as these are preferred by algorithms. Video ideas include:
- Product teasers
- Product demonstrations
- Before and afters
- Tutorials
- Interviews
- Behind-the-scenes snippets
For help with your content marketing and social media strategy in 2024, contact Minerva Creative today.
