How Much Content Should I Be Producing for A Positive Return?
One question I get from a lot of content marketers, creators, brand owners and even companies utilising content marketing services is how much content they should produce to get good returns for their brands, as well as the best content strategy to employ.
One thing is clear: if you want to get ahead of the competition, you should get in touch with a content marketing agency – not only do they understand what makes great content, but they’ll boost the fortunes of your brand at the same time.
By the way, content is any material or resources that are created with the aim of building a community or loyalty towards a brand. Content can include video uploaded on YouTube, images created on Instagram, and the article you are reading right now.
Content is the number-one channel for driving conversations and also helping conversions towards a brand. While SEO, PPC, and other marketing or advert are all well and good, the content remains the most valuable way for any brand to stand out. It is kind of difficult to put a particular number to the number of blog posts, Instagram pictures or videos to produce per month, because content creation also depends on strategy, company size and industry. However, let’s take a look at some blogging data from HubSpot.
- B2B companies that publish blog posts more than 11 times in a month get three times the amount of traffic of companies that publish just one
- Companies that update their websites more than 10 times get more leads than companies that update it just four times
- B2C companies that create more than 16 pieces of content a month on their channels get more engagement than companies that only create five or fewer pieces.
One fact that we can deduce from this data is that publishing more gets you ahead of the pack. Content marketers have also found out that more than 80% of their publishing leads come from older posts, which shows that older posts can gain value over time. Companies experience a spike in their traffic when they attain a particular amount of content, maybe their 400th blog post or 10th YouTube video, especially when it’s done consistently. Consistent content helps you to maximise the value of your brand, as there are leads who are waiting to read your posts, watch videos or listen to podcasts at a particular time.
I had mentioned earlier that more is better, but more doesn’t do the job alone. Here are three things you can do to make your content achieve great results:
#1 Evergreen Content
Evergreen content can be repurposed. Blog posts from 10 years ago can be made into an e-book or turned into a script for an influencer interview or company podcast. Repurposing content can be a boost for SEO, as it leads to newer pieces of content on the same topic. The only caveat is to ensure that you add new value to the content. To use a culinary metaphor, you are not just reheating leftovers, but adding a new combination of spices to create a fresh meal.
The key to repurposing is to package older contents into different forms so it doesn’t feel like rehashed words. You can turn an explainer video into an e-book, blog post or newsletter. Reusing evergreen content will save you time, give you more content options and assured traffic – but make sure you improve upon the original content.
#2 Long-Form Content
Long-form content is not just about writing 4,000 words on WordPress or creating a lengthy podcast. Good long-form content requires research that will position you as a problem solver or educator to your audience. Nobody wants to read a 3,000-piece article and feel like they’ve just wasted 15 minutes of their life. Long-form content should always wow people. You should plan one long-form piece content twice a month (at least) to see a return in search engine performance.
When people read long-form content, they are of the opinion that this brand cares about me, to go to the trouble of writing a longer piece. Long-form content gets you more online visibility and gives you more credibility and trust as an industry expert.
#3 Model Success
In every industry, there are going to be the successful people that newcomers and industry experts admire. Look out for content creators who are already successful. Find the most successful content creators in your niche market and mimic their content strategy. Look out for when they post, what they post and which of their content is performing the best. You mustn’t copy their content, but you can get a feel of what makes them thick so you can replicate this for your content creation.
There is something successful content creators do right. Look for it and master it until it becomes second nature when it comes to creating your own content.
Content creation will not be the same for everyone, but it is obvious that there are some common themes. Content creation will depend on your brand goal, team size and experiences. And when you compare top-quality content with inferior content, you have your answer.