Effective content marketing is essential for modern marketers. With the internet saturated by blogs, videos, infographics and other means to attract the attention of consumers, it’s more important then ever to make sure that your quality content stands out from the crowd.

Don’t let your valuable content be ignored; here are 10 quick content marketing tips for you to exploit in 2019.

1. Develop a style

Stylistically consistent content is a must for marketers looking to establish a brand. It is important that things like grammar, punctuation and formatting are consistent across your content so that you develop a distinct brand identity.

A simple way to ensure stylistic consistency is to make a style guide. Create a document which contains all your stylistic decisions on the key issues and hand a copy out to your team. Whatever anyone’s stylistic preferences, the guide makes it easier to make decisions and stick to them.

2. Your job is to add value

When the majority of the internet is made up of blog posts, chances are that most of the topics you write about will have already been covered by other people. That’s okay – it means that your chosen topics have audience interest. But the internet is full of similar content so make sure you stand out.

As a successful content marketer, it is your job to add value. You can do this by writing from a unique perspective, adding original research, or presenting information in a more accessible way. It’s all about giving your audience a reason to choose your content above all the others.

3. Understand your audience

A golden rule of content marketing is knowing your audience. Make sure to define who your audience is so that you can tailor your content to suit them. It’s important to remember that different groups need information presented to them in unique ways. Consider making profiles of customers who you’d like to target in the future.

4. Learn SEO

There’s no escaping the importance of SEO to your content strategy. Unfortunately, search engines don’t appreciate the finer points of your content. So you must write with the algorithm in mind, as well as your customers. Do keyword research before you start and strategically target your keywords as you write. Yoast and Google have great SEO plugins to help you do this, and we wrote an article to help you get started.

5. Keep your content up to date

As time goes by, content becomes outdated. When your content does stop being accurate or relevant, be sure to revise it and repost. There’s no point in writing a whole new piece when your old content only needs a slight update.

If your outdated content can’t be salvaged, try to repurpose it to make new content. Old polls and blogs can find new life in a different context. Don’t let your hard work go to waste.

6. Blogs are written to be read

Despite the importance of SEO and keeping your content relevant, blogs are there to be read. Don’t make your blog posts too dense or complicated as your audience will not want to engage. You are trying to sell them something, after all. Don’t make them work for it.

Your audience wants to read something that is clear and concise with lots of white space on the page. Use short, simple sentences and avoid obscure vocabulary. Write with a conversational tone and remember that, when it comes to blogging, less is more.

7. Aim for evergreen content

Try to prioritise content which is “evergreen”. Evergreen content stays relevant and valuable for a long time after it is written. You’ll spend less time updating old blog posts and more time creating new quality content.

8. Know your topic

There are few things worse than an uniformed blogger. Why should anyone read your content if you don’t know what you’re talking about? Always research your topic before you start writing so that you have a working knowledge of the area and know the specialist terminology.

9. Keep learning content marketing

Content marketing is an ever evolving industry. There’s always more to learn. Talk to your friends and coworkers and see if they know any useful tips that you don’t. Study other people’s blog posts and discover what makes them effective.

10. Analyse and adapt

Publishing your content is only half the work. Use an analysis tool like Google Analytics to identify what was works in your blogs and what doesn’t. Knowing this will help you to maximise the success of your content strategy.

With these 10 tips in mind, you’re ready to up your content marketing game in 2019.

Excited? Time to start writing.

Written by Adam Rivers