4 Dynamic Steps: How do you succeed at content marketing in 2023

Have you ever wondered what content marketing will look like in 5 years? How about 10? How about 15, 20, or even 25?! Join me as we take a peek into the future and see how difficult (or easy) it would be to succeed at content marketing.

The year is 2022 and the world has drastically changed since 2018, which was only five short years ago! The internet has become an important part of our lives and we now spend more time online than we do offline. That’s right, MORE time online than offline! As a result, there is much more competition out there for attention spans. How do businesses compete with all the other distractions and noise out there? Great question… Content Marketing! How many marketers succeed at it, though? How many businesses get the content marketing formula correct? How do you know if your business will be successful in 2022?

Well, the world of content marketing has been “altered” a bit over the past few years, and in 2023, we finally decided to change how we measure success in content marketing:

• How many likes does your content get on social media sites (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and more.) – It is so much easier now that we can just click a button or swipe up instead of typing hard-coded letters into an input box!
• How much engagement does your content receive (comments and shares) – This number should be as high as possible when creating highly sharable blog posts, infographics, and videos!
• How many people link to your website – This number is not a very good indicator of success unless you have a lot of links or likes on platforms that do not use URLs.

Now that we have these new metrics in place, let’s take a look at the brands that had great content marketing strategies in 2018 and how they did it… How would businesses successfully market on the internet through content in 2022? How might they try to get more engagement on their sites? How might they get more shares from users on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.? How would they go about getting backlinks from other websites? These are all questions I will try to answer below by looking at current successful brands and what they do. Here are some answers to those questions. How might you successfully market with content online in 2022?

1. How might you go about getting more engagement on your website? – Pro Answer: Have great engagement starting the day it is published! Create engaging blog posts, infographics, and videos that users will love to share with their friends or ask for opinions on.
2. How might you get more likes on social media sites (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and more.)? – Pro Answer: Post images of your product/service/brand imagery next to quotes from influencers who are relevant to your brand. People love sharing these types of posts because they show what others think is cool/awesome/inspirational etc., so why wouldn’t they want to share it as well?
3. How might you go about getting backlinks from other websites? – Pro Answer: Link to relevant content that is published by other users on the internet. If a user sees your website linking to another website with very similar content, they’ll be more likely to think that it is a good site and will want to link to it as well!

Now let’s look at some brands that had great content marketing strategies in 2020 and how they performed. How do businesses like Puma successfully market their products or services online through content in 2022? How might they try to get more engagement on their sites? How might they get more shares from users on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest? How would they go about getting back from other websites? These are all questions I will try to answer below by looking at current successful brands and what they do.

Puma’s Content Marketing Strategy

Who is Puma you ask? They’re a shoe manufacturing company that has been around since 1948. In 2018, though, they decided to revamp their marketing strategy by creating amazing content on social media and linking it with their website. How did this work for them in 2018 and going into 2022? Well if we look at their engagement on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, we can all agree that it was great. How did Puma work for them in 2018 and going into 2023: They got people involved with their social media by posting images of people wearing the clothes that advertised products while also including quotes from influencers who were relevant to their brand or product.

Now ask yourself these questions:

How might you successfully market with content online in 2022 and how might you go about getting more engagement on your website?

Pro Answer: Have great engagement starting the day it is published! Create engaging blog posts, infographics, and videos that users will love to share with their friends or ask for opinions on.

How might you get more likes on social media sites (Facebook, Instagram Pinterest, and more) and How might you go about getting backlinks from other websites?

Pro Answer And Link to relevant content that is published by other users on the internet. If a user sees your website linking to another website with very similar content, they’ll be more likely to think that it is a good site and will want to link to it as well!

Here are the 4 steps to succeeding at content marketing in 2022:

Step 1. Optimize for mobile in 2022

Next, publish that content in a format that is mobile and optimized in 2022. How can you be sure it’s easy to read on any device? How will your audience find the content they need regardless of platform or device? How should you handle images and other media assets when few devices support them natively? How can you make sure your website (or blog) is mobile-friendly in 2022? How does Google feel about responsive layouts vs. dedicated mobile sites vs. using entirely separate domains for each device type today [in 2019] [in 2020] [in 2021] ?

Step 2. Analyze Your findings

Take the data collected during Step 1 and apply it to your marketing plan. How is this data going to help you achieve the goal defined in Step 1? How is this data going to improve your existing marketing activities? How can these findings provide an advantage over your competitors? How are these findings going to solve problems you have identified during research? What opportunities exist with this new set of information? How can you use these data points for future reporting/marketing analysis purposes? How do the answers to these questions fit into your overall goal which was defined in step 1?

Step 3. Develop solutions using insights from step 2

These findings need to be developed into solutions. How are these findings going to improve the betterment of customers? How can customers use these insights? How can you effectively communicate this information in the most efficient manner possible? How will your customers take advantage of this information immediately? How will customers benefit from using this new insight/information at a later date (i.e. post-purchase)? How do the answers to these questions fit into your overall goal which was defined in step 1?

Step 4. Successfully execute strategies developed during step 3

This is where the rubber hits the road. How are you going to incorporate what has been learned during Steps 2 and 3 into actual strategies for actionable items on a day-to-day basis? How do these strategies fit into your overall goal which was defined in step 1? How can you integrate these new strategies into regular functions such as marketing campaigns, website development, company goals etc.? How will the answers to these questions help you achieve the goals defined in Step 1? How do you stay on track and accomplish your goals so that your customers/website visitors continue to benefit from the insight provided by the information collected during research?

If we apply this formula to an example of a client who wants to increase sales leads we might come up with something like this:

Step 1:

Optimize for mobile = “How do our current sales lead generation strategy to compare with our competitors’ sales lead strategy via mobile devices?”

Step 2:

Analyze Your findings = “We did some research and found out that our overall lead generation strategy generated an average of 5.4 sales leads per month whereas our competitors generated an average of 8.3 sales leads per month. How will this new data point help us achieve the goal defined in Step 1?”

Step 3:

Develop solutions using insights from step 2 = “We can increase our lead generation efforts on social media platforms where we are currently underperforming, but these platforms do not offer an ROI on their own so we should also look to hire more full-time salespeople.”

Step 4:

Successfully execute strategies developed during step 3 = “I’m going to negotiate with my manager for additional funds to invest in developing a social media presence, I’ll also hire a consultant to help us implement the strategies we’ve developed during step 3. How will this new information help us achieve the goals defined in Step 1? How do we stay on track and accomplish our goals so that our customers/website visitors continue to benefit from the insight provided by the information collected during research?”

This formula can be adapted for B2B, B2C, SaaS, and eCommerce.  How does this formula answer the questions asked at the top of this article? How do you succeed at content marketing in 2022? By following steps 1-4 defined above you will successfully generate high-end results in 2022. How will this new information help with both the goal defined in Step 1 and your overall content marketing strategy? How will your customers/website visitors continue to benefit from the insight provided by the information collected during research?”

Congratulations! You now know how do you succeed at content marketing in 2022.