5 New (or Improved) Content Marketing Tactics for 2023

Intro

Content marketing has been a staple of most businesses' online strategies for over a decade. But while the practice has remained mostly intact, the processes that make it effective constantly evolve.

In this article, we'll take a look at some of the best tools and techniques to use in content marketing for 2023. Key takeaways will be driven by customer expectations and how they’re shifting, and will include the use of new content marketing tools and apps. From podcasting to AI-driven copywriting, there are plenty of ways that you can supercharge your digital presence this year by tapping into the latest content marketing trends.

Let's get started!

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a form of digital marketing focused on creating and distributing social, written, and visual material online. Unlike other marketing tactics, it doesn't take an overtly promotional approach with its message or medium; instead the focus is on providing the target audience with valuable and relevant information.

Businesses use content marketing to increase website traffic, build trusting relationships with audiences, as well as establish brand authority to potential customers who find them online.

(Source: Envato Elements)

Why Is Content Marketing Important?

Content marketing has become an invaluable practice for businesses and brands of all kinds. Its value spans across industries and is essential to remaining competitive in the digital age.

Here's an overview of the benefits of content marketing:

• It can increase website traffic and generate leads
• It offers helpful information that resonates with customers and their interests
• It builds trust, credibility, and market authority
• It enables businesses to stay at the top of customers' minds via continual and consistent communication
• It helps establish customer loyalty through helpful and valuable content
• It's an effective way to build relationships with customers and prospects

How to Do Content Marketing

Content marketing can look very different depending on your product or service, your target customer, and your goals. However, the process of getting started is is fairly consistent regardless of your content marketing strategy.

1. Choose Your Channels

First things first, where will you distribute your content? Choose one or two platforms that your audience is likely to engage with. This could be anything from Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, or Facebook to a company blog or podcast stream.

2. Plan Your Content

Next comes planning the substance of what you'll be sharing. Content marketing is all about delivering value to audiences, so aim to keep the subject matter relevant, helpful, and informative. To plan effectively, you’ll need to understand your customers, their pain points, interests, and what matters to them most.

3. Create Materials

This is the time to get your content materials together. Depending on what topics, channels and formats you’ve selected, this could include writing blog posts, filming videos, recording audio, and more.

4. Post and Analyze

Don't publish everything you've created at once; the benefits of content marketing are best achieved with consistency and patience. It's best to start with regular, weekly uploads and then track the results. Use analytics tools to measure performance based on your KPIs (e.g. traffic, reach, engagement, conversions), and adjust your strategy as required.

5 Content Marketing Tactics for 2023

Beyond following the basic steps of the process, content marketing efforts can be taken to the next level by implementing more advanced tactics. We're seeing a number of exciting content marketing trends emerge for 2023, each of which is worth considering as part of your strategy.

1. Focus on Video Content

The explosive popularity of TikTok has ushered in a new era of online video content and made it a must-have component of any content marketing strategy. Make sure to include videos in your content plan, whether they're DIY or professionally produced.

Luckily, the more video content has become popular, the more tools, templates, and resources have become available to help people create it. There are free and paid options to explore, making this highly-relevant content format accessiblefor businesses big and small.

(Source: Envato Elements)

2. Prioritize Authenticity

In a world of social media filters and highlight reels, people are more thirsty for authenticity than ever. But this, of course, brings a very reasonable question: what does authenticity look like in a world of brand-driven content marketing?

Depending on your medium, many things.

In every case, however, it should tie back to the same key concept of being honest in how you speak to audiences. Aim to strike a conversational tone that takes the work out of reading an article or watching a video. People want helpful information, but not at the expense of their limited energy.

Framing your content in a simple and straightforward manner will make it easier for them to approach what you have to say with a receiving mind.

3. Start Podcasting

Unlike radio, podcasts are a uniquely accessible platform that virtually anyone can use to get their message out there. You don't need a large budget or even any fancy equipment to get started, just a microphone, computer, and something interesting to say.

In this respect, marketers can podcast about many great and helpful topics as part of their content strategy. Think about what you would discuss in a conventional blog post, then turn it into a conversation. The result will likely be far more appealing to audiences, not to mention easier to access via multiple listening platforms and websites.

(Source: Envato Elements)

4. Make Room for AI

There's no denying the impact that Artificial Intelligence is having on marketing in 2023. From the viral release of ChatGPT to personalization, everyone is finding their own way to leverage the technology's capabilities.

But AI gets so much more advanced than ChatGPT. While this tool was designed for conversational purposes, a sea of content-specific solutions can elevate your content output.

AI writing tools such as Rytr, HiveMind, Writesonic, and Writer.com help marketers put pen to page and come up with everything from email subject lines to full blog articles. SEMRush also recently released a new tool designed to streamline the content optimization process from start to finish, including keyword research, outlines, and optimization.

AI isn’t limited to words, either; OpenAI's DALL-E model can generate unique and creative images with nothing more than a text prompt, making it a great option if you want to up your visual game too.

(Source: Open AI)

Whatever route you decide to go, just know that AI should be a part of your content strategy in one way or another in 2023. With everyone hopping on the trend, those who adopt this technology early can enjoy the greatest competitive advantage going forward.

5. Mobile-optimized Content

We've reached a point in human history where smartphones are now the main type of device used to access the internet. So why wouldn't you want your content to be as accessible to them as possible?

A large number of businesses have yet to make their websites fully responsive. As of 2022, desktop users make up only 66% of online audiences, while over 92% access the internet via mobile phones.

If you work in content marketing, forget what you know about desktop-first strategies and begin to think mobile even before the creative process begins. How will readers interact with your post on their smartphones? How can you keep them engaged while they are scrolling through it?

Incorporating simple design elements such as whitespace, bullet points, and larger fonts can go a long way in this respect.

(Source: Envato Elements)

What's Not Changing In Content Marketing?

Despite the many changes we're seeing in the world of content marketing, some things have been and will always remain the same. Sure, fancy tools and new strategies are great, but they'll never deliver full value without the tried and true best practices that have gotten us here:

• Quality content is still king. No matter how advanced AI tools become, no one will ever be able to substitute the power of a well-crafted piece of content that resonates with the target audience.
• Research is still essential. You can't know what you're writing or talking about unless you first put in the effort to learn more about the subject matter.
• Distribution is still important. You can have the best post out there, but if no one knows it exists, what use is it?
• Engagement still matters. You have to interact with your readers and build relationships with them to succeed.

Content Marketing Tools

The great thing about content marketing is that there's no shortage of tools out there to help you streamline the process. Here are a few examples:

Yoast

Launched in 2010, Yoast is a WordPress plugin that enhances website SEO. Its features include an easy-to-use analytics dashboard, a snippet preview that shows how your content will appear in Google searches, and automatic readability checks.

(Source: Yoast)

Hubspot

Hubspot is a comprehensive suite of tools designed to help you manage the entire content marketing process, from research and creation to distribution and engagement. It enables you to create comprehensive campaigns that can be tracked and optimized for maximum ROI.

(Source: Hubspot)

Envato Elements

Envato Elements is a great resource for stock photos, video templates, and audio files. It's also useful when it comes to web design and WordPress. You can find thousands of unique templates, designs and themes to download, all at a fixed monthly subscription fee.

(Source: Envato Elements)

Also Asked

Also Asked gives content marketers insights into customers' questions about their industry. It can provide you with ideas for content topics and help inform your SEO strategy.

(Source: Also Asked)

Wrapping Up

The world of content marketing can be tricky to navigate, especially since trends and technologies seem to change in the blink of an eye. But with the right tools and strategies, you can easily stay afloat in this ever-evolving landscape.

Online tools are a great place to turn for creative resources of all kinds - check them out today and take the next step in your content marketing journey!