10 Content Marketing Best Practices

Are you just publishing content or creating them to truly build your brand?

Let’s be real. There’s a big difference between churning out content to meet deadlines and creating content that genuinely resonates with your audience. We are sure, you might be pumping out articles, blogs, and posts regularly hitting all the right keywords. But if your content isn’t engaging, fostering loyalty, or driving meaningful connections, what’s the point?

Every piece you create should be a building block in your brand's story:  informing, inspiring, and making an impact. If it’s not, it’s time to rethink your approach to content marketing best practices.

In this blog, we’ll explore the content marketing best practices that will help you strengthen every pillar of your brand and go beyond merely filling your content calendar.

Content Marketing Best Practices

To push your content marketing from routine to remarkable, it's essential to embrace strategies that go beyond filling your calendar with keyword-driven content. The below 11 content marketing best practices are crafted to help you shift from merely producing content to creating impactful brand-building experiences that can transform your content marketing approach.

1. Prioritize Audience-Centric Content

Creating audience-centric content means stepping into the brains of your audience to truly understand their motivation, worries, and daily challenges. Ideate your content to answer the questions:

1. What are they struggling with?
2. What excites them?
3. What do they care about most?

This helps to tailor your content to their specific needs and emotional triggers. Use tools like SEMrush, Google Analytics, and Hotjar to build detailed buyer personas that reflect both demographic and psychographic data, helping you segment your content effectively.

When your content answers the 'why,' 'what,' and 'how' that matter to your audience, it builds trust, boosts engagement, and positions your brand as a trusted resource. Audience-centric content creation is a mindset shift strategy in content marketing for startups best practices that lead to stronger connections and foster long-term loyalty.

2. Optimize for User Intent, Not Just Keywords

SEO has evolved beyond keywords and backlinks. Today, the content marketing best practices focus on user intent, the real reason behind a search query: What is the user looking to achieve? Every piece of content you produce should align with your broader business strategy and address user intent, not just hit the right keywords.

Steps to Align Content with User Intent:

1. Identify User Intent:

• Determine what problem the user is trying to solve or what goal they aim to achieve.
• Understand whether their intent is informational (seeking knowledge), navigational (finding specific pages), or transactional (ready to make a purchase).

2. Conduct Keyword Research:

• Use tools like Moz, Ahrefs, or Google Keyword Planner to identify relevant keywords and phrases your target audience is searching for.
• Focus on keywords that align with the identified user intent.

3. Analyze Competitor Content:

• Study the content that ranks well for your target keywords.
• Identify the type of content your competitors are creating, the user intent they target, and any gaps you can fill.

4. Gather User Insights: Use surveys, social media polls, and tools like AnswerThePublic to directly ask your audience what content they find helpful and what their pain points are.

5. Choose the Right Content Type: Match your content type to the user intent. The user intent can be of the following types.

• Informational Intent: Create blog posts, articles, or guides
• Navigational Intent: Develop category pages, product pages, or sitemaps
• Transactional Intent: Design landing pages, product pages, or checkout pages

6. Strategically Place Keywords: Integrate keywords naturally within the content, ensuring they align with the user's search intent without overstuffing.

7. Optimize Content Length: Tailor the content length to the user’s needs. Focus on short, concise content for quick answers and longer, detailed content for in-depth information.

8. Create Purposeful Content: Ensure that each piece of content is designed to answer specific user questions or solve their problems, effectively guiding them through their decision-making process.

For instance,

Imagine you’re creating content for a CRM SaaS company. Instead of just targeting the keyword “best CRM software,” consider the user’s intent. Are they a small business looking to streamline customer communication? A sales team needing better lead tracking? Or a marketing manager seeking to automate outreach? By understanding these intents, you can create targeted content like “Top CRM Features for Small Businesses to Improve Customer Communication” or “How Sales Teams Can Leverage CRM for Better Lead Management.”

By focusing on user intent, your content will improve search engine rankings and attract high-quality traffic that is more likely to convert because it directly answers the reader’s ask.

3. High-Quality, Value-Driven Content

High-quality content remains a staple of content marketing best practices, but it's about more than just good writing. It's about delivering real value by answering your audience's questions, solving their problems, or entertaining them in a relevant way, and you'll turn casual visitors into loyal customers.

Quick Checklist for Creating High-Value Content:

• Actionable: Does it offer immediate value or benefits?
• Relevant: Is it aligned with your audience’s current needs?
• Engaging: Does it hold attention from start to finish?

Prioritize your pillar content; those comprehensive, in-depth pieces that anchor your entire strategy. These aren’t just blogs or articles; they’re resources your audience can rely on.

How to Get Your Pillar Content?

• Use tools like BuzzSumo to uncover trending topics and understand what your audience is talking about right now. Identify gaps in the current content landscape that your pillar pieces can fill.
• Before hitting publish, run your content through tools like BypassGPT and Grammarly to ensure it’s professional, clear, engaging, and SEO-friendly. High-quality content doesn’t just inform, it impresses.
• Surround your pillar content with related blog posts, videos, or infographics that dive deeper into specific subtopics. This not only boosts SEO but also keeps your audience engaged within your content ecosystem.
• Turn your pillar content into a dynamic experience. Incorporate quizzes, downloadable resources, or even a comment section where readers can ask questions and interact with your brand.

Mastering the nuances of creating consistent, engaging content; whether to educate, inform, or entertain, builds credibility and trust. This drives your audience to share, bookmark, and return, making your content integral to marketing success. For deeper insights, explore the eBook.

For example, imagine your CRM SaaS company has identified that small businesses struggle with CRM adoption. Instead of a one-off blog post, you could create an interactive “CRM Success Toolkit”, a collection of resources including a step-by-step adoption guide, an ROI calculator, and video tutorials. Then, continuously update and expand this toolkit based on user feedback and performance analytics.

4. Storytelling Marketing

Storytelling is one of the best content marketing best practices. It engages audiences on a deeper level. Unlike plain information, stories evoke emotions, build connections, and set your brand apart in a crowded market.

Power of Storytelling

• Emotional Engagement: Stories resonate with people’s emotions, making your content more relatable and impactful.
• Brand Differentiation: A compelling narrative helps distinguish your brand and humanize your company.
• Connection Building: Well-crafted stories captivate your audience, driving sustained engagement and ensuring your message resonates and endures.

Key Elements of an Effective Storytelling Marketing Content

1. Know Your Audience: Tailor your narrative to resonate with their needs and emotions.
2. Create a Relatable Story: Include a clear protagonist, conflict, and solution that aligns with your brand.
3. Evoke Emotion: Connect on an emotional level to make your content memorable.
4. Keep It Simple: Use clear, straightforward language and avoid jargon.
5. Be Consistent: Ensure your story is uniform across all channels.
6. Engage Your Audience: Encourage participation and interaction with your story.
7. Refine Continuously: Adapt and improve your narrative based on feedback and results.

Imagine you’re a CRM SaaS company targeting small business owners. Instead of just listing features, share the story of XYZ, a small business owner who struggled with customer relationship management as her business grew. Her story can reflect common challenges faced by many small business owners, making your content relatable and emotionally engaging. By focusing on this real-world scenario, your CRM changes from a tool to a transformative solution.

5. Measure Success with Data-Driven Metrics

Success in content marketing isn't static; it’s a dynamic, ongoing process. Rather than just setting baselines, think of your metrics as the foundation for a continuous feedback loop. This loop helps you not only measure success but also innovate and adapt in real time.

Rethink Your Baselines:

• Start with Purpose: Instead of focusing solely on traffic or engagement, ask: What business outcome are we driving toward? Is it brand awareness, lead generation, or customer retention?
• Iterative Learning: Your initial metrics like traffic, engagement, and conversion rates should evolve. Treat them as checkpoints in an ongoing journey, rather than fixed goals.

Strategic Experimentation:

• Data as a Catalyst for Innovation: Use tools like Google Analytics not only for tracking but also to spot unexpected trends.

For example, if a blog post suddenly spikes in traffic, dig deeper. Why did this resonate now? How can you replicate or amplify this success?

• Adapt Quickly: If Google Search Console shows a drop in visibility, don’t just adjust keywords, consider shifting your content format or timing. This adaptability turns every data point into an opportunity for rapid experimentation, in line with content marketing best practices.
• Look Beyond the Obvious: Tools like Corefactors, Kissmetrics, and SEMrush can provide deeper insights into your customer journey. However, to fully embrace content marketing best practices, go further by examining what customer behaviors are surprising. Can you innovate based on those insights?

Embrace a Feedback-Driven Culture:

• Move Beyond Assumptions: Instead of assuming what content works, constantly test and iterate based on real-time data for best content marketing best practices.
• Shift Your Strategy in Real Time: Allow your content strategy to be fluid, making adjustments as soon as new data emerges.
• Foster a Culture of Curiosity: Encourage your team to ask why behind every data point. This leads to deeper insights and more innovative content strategies.

6. SEO into the Advanced

Basic SEO is essential, but to truly stand out, you need to dive into advanced techniques. This includes optimizing for voice search, ensuring fast load times, and using schema markup to enhance your visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Content writing best practices emphasize the importance of these advanced SEO strategies to help you attract more organic traffic, and engage an audience that’s more likely to convert.

For instance, with the rise of voice search, it’s crucial to create content that answers the long-tail, conversational queries people use when speaking to their devices. Tools like AnswerThePublic can help you identify these questions, allowing you to tailor your content to meet this growing demand.

Yoast SEO for WordPress is an excellent tool for optimizing your content, covering everything from schema markup to readability. It ensures that your content isn’t just technically sound but also easy for users to digest, adhering to content writing best practices. And when it comes to technical SEO, Screaming Frog is invaluable. It helps you conduct thorough site audits, identifying areas for improvement so that your site is always in peak condition.

7. Adapting to Algorithm Changes

Search engines constantly tweak their algorithms and it is non-negotiable to change according to them to keep your content ranked and discovered.

To keep your finger on the pulse, it’s a good idea to subscribe to updates from trusted sources like the Search Engine Journal and the Moz Blog. These resources will keep you informed about the latest algorithm shifts. Additionally, tools like Ahrefs offer insights into how these changes might impact your content and rankings, helping you adjust your strategy.

However, staying informed is just the beginning. The real key is quick adaptation—whether it’s optimizing for mobile-first indexing or voice search, being agile ensures your content remains optimized and continues to attract organic traffic.

8. Multi-Channel Promotion

Creating exceptional content is only half the equation, ensuring its effective promotion is equally crucial. One of the key content marketing best practices involves leveraging various channels such as social media, email marketing, paid campaigns, and ads to place your content before the right audience.

By strategically promoting your content across multiple platforms, you not only enhance its visibility but also boost engagement and overall impact. This multi-channel approach is vital for maximizing the return on your content investment.

Utilize tools like Buffer and Hootsuite for seamless social media management, and Mailchimp for crafting targeted email campaigns, ensuring your content achieves its fullest potential.

9. Utilizing User-Generated Content (UGC)

User-generated content (UGC), including reviews, social media posts, and testimonials, serves as a compelling form of social proof, injecting fresh and diverse content into your marketing mix. It also plays a crucial role in cultivating community and trust among your audience, making it a potent tool for building trust.

Tools like Yotpo enable the efficient collection and display of user-generated content, while platforms like TINT excel at curating UGC from social media channels and integrating it into your website or marketing campaigns. Leveraging these tools can amplify the impact of UGC, turning customer voices into powerful endorsements that resonate across your audience.

10. Optimize for Mobile

Optimizing your content for mobile is not an option but a mandate. With the majority of users consuming content on smartphones and tablets, ensuring your content is mobile-friendly is a crucial content marketing best practice.

Mobile optimization involves more than just responsive design; it requires considering the entire mobile user experience. This includes faster loading times, easily navigable layouts, and content that is concise yet impactful on smaller screens. Additionally, your content should be designed with mobile-first indexing in mind, ensuring that search engines prioritize your mobile-optimized content.

By focusing on mobile optimization, you not only enhance user experience but also improve your content's search engine rankings, engagement rates, and overall effectiveness. This strategy ensures that your content reaches its full potential, no matter the device your audience uses, making it a key element in any successful content marketing strategy.

Transforming Best Practices to Results

It's time to stop simply ticking off boxes on your content calendar and start creating experiences that truly resonate, engage, and convert. Your content can have the potential to be more than just words on a page; it can be the catalyst for building an unbreakable connection with your audience, driving growth, and solidifying your brand's place in the market.

But remember, the journey doesn’t end here. The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and so should your content marketing best practices. Let’s turn your content into your brand’s most powerful asset.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)