27 Jul 10 Easy Content Marketing Ideas You Can Do Anytime
If “doing marketing” always falls to the bottom of your to-do list, I have an idea for you. Actually, I have ten easy content marketing ideas that you can tackle anytime.
These are all content marketing things that I do, so I know they are impactful. None take very long. And once you get in the habit of doing some or all of them – and then stick with them – they will pay off handsomely in the long run.
Let’s take a look.
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Create an email welcome series
An email welcome series is a type of email lead nurturing campaign. It’s meant to introduce new leads to your brand and is typically triggered when someone signs up for your newsletter.
The beauty of a welcome series is how short the emails are – and how few you actually need to write. Here’s what yours might look like:
Email 1 – thanks for signing up for our newsletter, welcome to the community, here’s the info you can expect to get in our newsletter.
Email 2 – where to connect on social media and/or in person.
Email 3 – here are other free resources we offer (like one-pagers).
Email 4 – share an FAQ, offer a free consultation.
And even better – once you write the copy and set it up on your email marketing platform of choice, it runs on its own.
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Plan a hub-and-spoke blog series
Want an easy way to generate blog post ideas? The hub-and-spoke approach is a big timesaver.
Choose one broad topic under your area of expertise and write an overview of that topic. That’s your hub blog post.
The spoke blog posts are born out of the subtopics in your overview blog post.
For example, I could write a blog post on creating a content marketing strategy. The subtopics in that post might include:
- How to analyze your competitors without going down a rabbit hole
- How to objectively look at your current marketing efforts
- How to choose the right content marketing channels for your brand
- What content to create and where to share it
Now I have four new topics to blog about.
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Organize content marketing ideas in a calendar
I love my content calendar for one big reason: it keeps all my blog post ideas in one place instead of floating in and out of my memory.
Content calendars can include your newsletter (send date, topics), and your social media posts (copy, image, post date).
My content calendar just covers my blog posts. It’s set up in Google Sheets and is pretty basic:
- Month/week
- Blog topic category (tied to my services)
- Blog post topic (not the title, just the topic)
- Publish date
- Status (I only use one – “done”)
- Shared on LinkedIn
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Commit to a monthly newsletter
I keep mentioning email marketing, so let’s talk about that next.
I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to send a newsletter on a regular basis. Even if people don’t read it, they have to at least glance at the subject line before deciding whether to open or delete it. Already you are staying top of mind.
But the best thing about a newsletter is the minimum time commitment. You’re creating content for your blog and social media – reuse it! Copy has to be short, so once again, you’re not taking much time out of your day to create the newsletter.
For mine, I include intros to my latest blog posts (with a read more button), one video from my Five Business Rules series with Nicole Krug, and a funny meme. That’s it.
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Rewrite old blog posts
Guess what? This blog post is based on an old one that I saw and was like, yeah, that needs to be updated.
Case in point: One of the tips was to advertise online. I don’t, and I don’t advise other people to either, as it has a very low ROI.
It doesn’t necessarily take less time to update an old blog post, but at least you already have the topic.
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A/B test email subject lines
I sometimes wonder if I say this too much. And then I think, nah – it’s solid advice that you need to follow.
A/B email subject line testing absolutely increases your open and click-through rates. One client used to have an open rate around 20 – 25%. Once we started A/B testing, it went up to 45% – 50%. His clicks shot up too – they are often triple or quadruple what they used to be.
I’m telling you, it works. Do it.
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Gather reviews
How often do you ask for recommendations and read reviews? A lot, right? Everyone does, which is why you need to get serious about gathering reviews, recommendations, testimonials – whatever you want to call it.
People trust reviews. A BrightLocal study showed that 87% of people read reviews and 79% trust them as much as they would a personal recommendation. Likewise, Hubspot found that 81% of consumers trust the advice of friends and family over businesses.
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Record video
Please ignore this idea if the thought of recording video causes you to break out in hives.
If the idea of recording video sounds doable, excellent.
According to DemandSage, online video is expected to account for 82.5% of all web traffic in 2023, making it the most popular type of content over the internet.
Holy crap, right?
A one-minute video is fine. You don’t need to do anything fancy – a great topic, decent lighting, and good sound are enough.
One of my clients records a 2-3 minute each week, which we then transcribe and publish to his blog. Those videos drive a lot of traffic to his website.
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Track your metrics!
What good is marketing if you’re not paying attention to the impact it’s having?
I admit that it’s very hard to track buyer journeys and say with certainty that this ONE email/blog post/offer drives sales.
But just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you can ignore it. Look at your email open rates every month. Track your reach and engagement on social.
And spend time on Google Analytics to understand where your website traffic is coming from and what people are doing once they get to your website.
Pay attention to what is going on so you can do more of what’s working and drop whatever isn’t.
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Get out in front of people
This has nothing to do with content marketing, but I wanted to include it on the list anyway.
Two months ago, I went to my first in-person networking event since February 2020. Not only was it fun to meet new people, I also picked up new clients.
Yes, it helps that networking in Colorado is very different from the DC area. People aren’t as transactional out here; they don’t really care about status. They do care about building relationships and getting to know each other.
But I digress.
Go to an event. You might be surprised at what comes out of it.
Love these ideas – but still need help with content marketing?
Even though they might be easy content marketing ideas, they do require time and energy. We can handle all of the above for you (except attending events). If you want to get this stuff off your plate, shoot us a note today!
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