If you blog, post on social media, and regularly update your website's SEO, you already have a content marketing strategy. Whether this is intentional or not, to stay alive in the marketing game, you need to set a goal and regularly find innovative ways to make your content shine brighter than the rest. Your content is more than a sales technique as it bridges the gap between your business and the consumer allowing them to get to know you on a deeper level. Building trust and customer relationships is developed by businesses with a strong content marketing strategy that constantly seek innovative ways to advance and highlight their efforts. 

Go Beyond Traditional Blogging

It's well known that content is king. Valuable information is key to generate more traffic and enhance your SEO efforts. However, this doesn't mean that we can't all go above and beyond to bring in more elements that make business blogs really shine. Blogs are clever tools in content creation as the business is able to provide interesting and informative information that people are looking for without those people feeling obligated or overwhelmed as they would with a traditional advertising pitch. So, how can you turn a traditional blog post into a unique element that advances your brand? 

• Infographics: Infographics are both visual and informative. These are great to use for the "skimmers," which want valuable information but don't have the time to read a full article. Infographics are not only useful for displaying statistics but they also add color and visual appeal  to the traditional blog. 
• GIFs/Videos: Videos are a great addition to provide an instructional element. For example, if you are writing a blog about a specific product and want to highlight how your product works better than the rest, a video is a great way to do so. On the other hand, maybe you just want something to add a little whimsy to your blog post. Don't waste the space with an unrelated video but instead utilize a GIF. GIFs go beyond an image but is clearly smaller than a video. These add a little depth to the blog post  and help break up the information with an interesting element (Source). 

How I Feel On Mondays!

• Call To Actions: Your call to action buttons are a vitally important part of your website.  A great CTA button can direct users, get them to take a desired action, improve conversion rates, and ultimately improve your lead generation. Let your users take action when they are happy with the information they read and utilizing CTAs will allow you to achieve that. 

Improve Interaction With Clickable Components

Your content strategy should include ways to implement clickable components. Clickable elements throughout your content allows the user to further interact with your business. Add a link to a blog post, guide, another page or even a funny post on social media. The link should be related to the text but provide different information that takes a deeper dive into the content the individual is interested in. Additionally adding a clickable image such as a call to action or social media icon makes the links more appealing . 

Don't Be Afraid To Try Something New

The best way to spice up your content marketing strategy is to try new things. What may work for other businesses may not work for yours but it's worth giving it a try, especially if your content marketing seems to be falling a little flat. The following are some new and innovative techniques to try: 

• Host a meetup:  Sitting in your cubicle all day can lead you to create boring content. Try a meetup. Get real people to meet you and learn more about you and the business in a relaxed and conversational atmosphere. Meetups bring the static nature of an online content form into the dynamic interaction of human beings (Source). 
• Podcasts: Because podcasting is arguably one of the fastest-growing mediums for content marketers, it’s time that you jumped onto the bandwagon. By launching a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly show that contains interviews and industry insights, you’ll be able to increase a loyal fan base (Source). 
• Utilize Slideshare:  Use your website’s analytics to find your most popular post. This will probably work best if it’s a list post, but it doesn’t have to be. Turn that into a PowerPoint presentation and post to Slideshare (Source). 
• Photo Contests On Social Media: Photo contests are great for a number for reasons – they’re relatively easy to enter (anyone with Instagram and a few spare seconds can submit), and they also provide sponsors with a great form of user-generated content that can be reused and implemented elsewhere (Source). 

Content Should Be Visible On All Platforms

One of the most important elements, especially in a tech savvy era, is to ensure that your content is visible on all media platforms such as laptops/desktops, tablets and mobile. That's why a responsive website design is not just an opportunity but a neccessity to reach mass audiences and grow your business. With different technology coming out everyday, your business can't ignore the best ROI comes from fully integrated marketing programs. Instead of creating different websites to work on various devices, a responsive website allows you to have the same system function effectively on each. A huge benefit of responsive designed websites is they are specifically coded for screen size, not device. No matter the screen size someone is viewing your website, it will still have the proper look and feel for that device.  As new devices, like TVs, computers, tablets, or mobile phones, emerge in the future, your responsive site will be able to adapt, and still retain it's original design. This means, ignoring mobile screens as well as other devices is just not an option from a modern marketing standpoint. When it comes to catering to normal desktop computers and mobile devices, you need to be proactive. If you aren't, you are really just hurting yourself by limiting your website and it's usability. 

ImageWorks | Content Marketing Strategy 

Our Web copy is written, from the ground up, to be "search engine friendly. So it not only sings with the right sales messages, but it will get indexed by the search engines — like Google and Yahoo! That means a fresh new batch of prospects will find your website when they're looking for information about your industry's products and service. In short: Our professional copywriters blend sales-motivating copy with search-engine optimized (SEO) keywords and phrases. So your Web site will be found on the Web — and then motivate your customers to take action.