5 Content Marketing Resolutions for 2016

Every new year begins with resolutions, both large and small. Some people try to form more health-conscious habits while others try to move a step closer toward completing their bucket list.

Although most resolutions are restricted to individuals — a personal journey of growth — there are resolutions for professional fields.

That being said, let’s examine some Content Marketing Resolutions for 2016, which we at TalenAlexander have decided to follow.

1. Give Precedence to Quality Content

Last year, Google brought forth a number of updates, one of them being the quality update. The quality update was attributed to the fact that Google’s search-engine heavily stresses quality search query results — the chances of another ‘quality update’ this year is likely.

For this reason marketers should give precedence to producing quality content.

Now, you might have already started putting this into practice by removing spam content from your web pages, but additionally you need to focus on creating content that engages, entertains, educates, and informs your target audience.

In short, it should deliver immense value to them — the added bonus being a piece of content that can be curated and re-shared and redistributed throughout your network.

2. Learn and Unlearn

Twitter recently hinted at some very exciting news for content marketing.

The social media firm’s co-founder and chief executive, Jack Dorsey, indicated that Twitter might soon lift the limitation of 140-character limit for tweets. Not to mention, there is a report stating that an alternative product will now let users send messages of up to 10,000 characters!

Therefore, it’s imperative that content marketers are always ready for changes — think back to Google’s ‘quality update.’

In the case of Twitter and potential updates to the app looming on the horizon, you may need to completely overhaul your tweeting strategy to account for the increased character limit — this is only in the event Twitter puts these changes into play.

It may require unlearning prior Twitter strategies and procedures while adopting an updated social media strategy. Dynamism is the name of the game.

The practice of learning and unlearning should be adopted for other social networking platforms too, such as Facebook and YouTube, the latter of which where 360 degree videos are all the rage; the same holds true for virtual reality.

Marketers need to keep up with these (and other) current trends in order to stay abreast of the mediums our target audience prefers to consume content.

3. Stop Being a “Jack Of All Trades”

There are scores of content marketing platforms out there on the internet, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should leverage every one of them for your brand. Instead, you need a solid strategy in which to utilize these tools to connect with your audience and provide exposure for your product/service.

Choose the most appropriate content marketing platform(s) that will help you meet your goals. Trying to juggle between more platforms than you can handle will eventually mess up your entire content strategy and could potentially ruin your marketing campaign.

Don’t be a jack of all trades, but a master of one…or a few.

4. Evaluate Your Strategy

TalenAlexander strategically maintains a consistent web and mobile process across client projects, irrespective of the trends. We’ve found that the best way to do so is by documenting your strategy along with a thorough evaluation; you can routinely refer back to your strategy guide before taking your next step.

There isn’t a standard format or approach for documenting your strategy. It can be as simple as a rough outline of your marketing campagin along with a media rollout/editorial calendar — points of interest could include cultural events, global phenomena, holidays, current events, etc.

5. Give Jargon the Pink Slip

The ultimate goal of content marketing is to make a connection with your audience and build a brand identity.

But what happens when you fail to connection?

This usually happens when your content is full of buzzwords and industry specific jargon — which your target audience never heard before.

So we ask, are you guilty of this practice? If the answer is yes, then it’s about time you gave technical jargon the pink slip.

Embrace simplicity by speaking the language of your audience. Carefully sift through your content to make sure it retains quality information, but is digestible for your audience; this is a key factor in creating shareworthy content and reaching a wider segment of your target audience.

We’re fully set in 2016 and almost through the first month of this exciting new year. Hopefully you’ve stopped referring to the date as ‘2015’, but more importantly you have a whole year to implement these content marketing resolutions — let’s hope it doesn’t take all year though.

Have any other digital marketing resolutions in mind? Do us all a favor, and spread the love in the comments!