10 Cool Content Hacks – Lots of Impact for Very Little Effort
If we’re honest, anyone who wants to win at the game of content marketing can never really take their foot off the gas. If you really want to blow away the competition, dig deep and check out some of our content hacks – up your game, and you might just surprise yourself with the results!
1. Use automation tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, CoSchedule & MeetEdgar
Automation tools are mission-critical when it comes to saving time posting your content. Using Hootsuite, Buffer, MeetEdgar and others, means you can plan your posts in advance, and manage different social media channels at the same time. Which of these tools is right for you? You can find an overview of various social media options here. In addition to social media, CoSchedule can also be used as an editorial planning tool. Even better, when you publish a blog post, the associated social media teasers can be added automatically. It’s a win-win.
2. Review your meta descriptions to improve your click rates.
There’s no doubt about it; your meta descriptions have an enormous influence on your click rates, and therefore on your site traffic. You can learn a lot by taking a careful look at these short texts. If you happen to notice low click rates in the Google Search, you should think about giving your meta descriptions a new coat of polish. Are you including the focus keyword, and does your content meet the user agenda? If not, you need to optimise. A useful tool for testing your meta descriptions is the Sistrix SERP snippet generator.
3. Recycle your old content as an infographic or presentation.
This idea is not exactly revolutionary, but its potential is often overlooked. Think about reusing any content you have previously created, such as a YouTube video or a PowerPoint presentation. Sometimes it works in your favour to turn a blog article into an infographic. You can find some suggestions about tools for creating awesome infographics without a lot of design knowledge here. Another plus for you: Using different content formats also creates the opportunity to reach new users via those different channels. Awesome, right?
No need to worry about repetitive sharing of content. Why? Good content remains relevant and valuable for your users far longer than you may think. Due to the daily flood of information and social media algorithms, it’s quite possible many of your users didn’t even notice your post the first time around. Since your users tend to be active on social media at different times, you should never just post it once. Make sure you pay attention to your analytics to know just when your audience is most active, and on which platforms.
5. Outsource some of your content to concentrate on implementing your strategic plan.
Outsourcing buys you time to concentrate on those strategic tasks which are essential for your business –especially the ones you are particularly good at. And if you work with experienced authors, you’ll benefit from an increase in the quality of your content. Furthermore, that also gives you a virtually unlimited content capacity, because you can hire as many authors as you need.
6. Learn from the competition: Use successful articles to create something even better.
A simple but effective answer to finding a topic is not to reinvent the wheel. Take a look at those in your industry who produce particularly successful content. Specifically, conduct a bit of research, and check out any articles your competition has produced that seem to work particularly well and have achieved large numbers of shares and comments. Then consider how (and whether) you could create something new and even better on that same topic.
7. Answer questions on your topic (without research) and let your expert knowledge shine through.
Make topic planning a lot easier: Simply answer frequently asked questions about your field, and score big points with your own expert knowledge. Of course, one benefit is that you are very familiar with the topic, and so can really help your users with expert knowledge and tips. Tools such as Answer the Public or Buzzsumo can help you find out which questions about your subject matter are of most interest to your users. Google Trends, or a chat with your sales and customer service teams, can also provide some good input here.
8. Interview industry experts and generate even more valuable content and backlinks.
An engaging interview with an expert can generate a lot of traffic and engagement. All you have to do is come up with a few good questions – the interviewee does the heavy lifting for you. If you want to make it even easier for yourself, just simply conduct the interview in a video format, or even as a Q&A. That will save you a lot of tedious transcription work. But if you want to capture a really successful interview, then you need to be well prepared. You can find some tips for conducting and writing interviews here.
With some guest articles, you can bring your platform into the conversation without having to write anything yourself. Many experts will be happy if you let them use your blog to have their say. And if they inform their own followers about the guest article on your platform, you can generate additional traffic and gain new users in the process. However, in order to attract good guest authors, you must also be a good networker. Get ready to make some new friends.
10. Lean into the power of emotions because content that tugs at heartstrings is your friend.
Why does some content catch on rapidly while the rest fizzles away? Studies repeatedly underscore the value and importance of evoking emotions for the success of social media content. This also applies to content marketing. So, if your content surprises your users, makes them laugh, cry, or otherwise entertains them, it’s all the more likely they’ll be sharing your content with other users too.
Content marketing is not for the timid. It’s time to level up!
As you can see, content marketing isn’t really for the card-carrying sloth. Get moving and get results. You can save a lot of time, and make your life a lot easier, if you focus and organise your priorities. Social media posts and topic planning, in particular, are really fruitful areas to look at if you want to get back some really valuable time. We hope our content hacks will make your everyday content marketing easier and much more fruitful in the coming year.
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