These days, companies operating on overly competitive markets have to use every single trick in the book to stay in front of their prospects and existing clients. Those who think this task is overwhelming should be ready to face an even greater challenge: information overload.
This can also be known as content infoxication , or infobesity . (Webster, can we add those to the dictionary, please?)
Content Fatigue: The Silent Disease that can Threaten Your Ascension in Any Industry
According to an article published by Huffington Post , the amount of information available online will increase a whopping 600% by 2020. This somewhat intimidating prediction suggests business owners will have to go out of their way to implement more effective marketing campaigns based on the best content that they’ve created and published so far.
These numbers make us consider one potential threat that could shake our world to the ground: Content fatigue. We are crafting and publishing more and more content to stay relevant; but at the end of the day we are competing for the same pair of eyeballs.
A chart published by Moz illustrates the danger we may have been ignoring for too long. According to this source, the quantity of contentreaders are exposed to influences the relative likelihood of earning visits, applause, and amplification.
In other words, infobesity maintained though an overflow of written words could make it increasingly difficult for readers to find the concise information they were actually looking for in a timely fashion, amplifying their frustration and maximizing your website’s bounce rate at the same time.
11 Simple Ways to Keep Content Fatigue at Bay
Furthermore, one of the most pressing problems we experience today is based on the fact that generic messages about the importance of content have tricked many business owners into creating “content for the sake of content”. Millions of small companies that pursue big goals still count on an ineffective “one-post-per-day” blogging strategy that revolves around overdone concepts and outdated formats, instead of being geared towards new, interesting and useful information that may actually capture the readers’ attention.
Intoxicated with huge amounts of data that they have very little time to digest, people may become less receptive to the messages that you’re trying to send through your content. So how can you overcome this challenge and earn the amplification that you feel entitled to? Here are 11 easy ways to fight content fatigue on a daily basis, while also perfecting your existing content marketing strategies .
1. Organize Weekly Brainstorming Sessions
In order to round-up some of the best ideas that can help you combat the meanest case of content fatigue, it is imperative to start organizing better brainstorming sessions. According to Entrepreneur , the most successful ones gather less than 10 people and reflect the highest level of cognitive diversity. This means that the brains of all attendees hold different kinds of conceptual materials. Ask writers, copywriters, marketers, and client managers to join. The perspectives shared by your staff members will enable you to prevent topic fixation and come up with great newsworthy facts, while also battling content fatigue.
2. Including New People in Your Content Creation Plan
We will let you in on a little secret: diversity is the key to neutralizing content fatigue. This means you shouldn’t hesitate to allow new people to support your content creation efforts. Talk to new staff members, survey your new clients for their biggest questions or have a nice chat with your client manager. All these people could help you gain invaluable insight and explore new topics that could put an end to your writer’s block and maximize your productivity.
3. Get More Quality Links
Backlinks have always been one of the most important Google ranking factors . Both, the quality and the quantity of backlinks have a strong effect on how well your site ranks. By focusing your efforts on better social media marketing, you are more likely to attract the right type of backlink opportunities.
When your content has a higher number of social media shares, it is gets noticed. Not only by influencers/power users but also by many relevant webmasters/bloggers who might want to link to you.
According to a study conducted by Dan Zarrella of HubSpot , there is a definite, positive correlation between the number of social media shares your content has and the number of backlinks. Gone are the days when social media was only about shares. Today, it’s about making leverage.
It’s about making your content engaging enough so that it is shared and seen not just by anybody, but by the right people. Given that you are publishing and sharing high-quality content on social media, your content should be able to generate a higher amount of engagement and backlinks.
4. Build a Strong Audience or Following
Creating a great product is obviously the first step towards achieving great marketing goals. However, in order to truly call your product or service a success, it is important to spread the word about it amongst your target audience – especially the early adopters. Remember, if your audience doesn’t know about your offering, it’s as good as not having it.
The marketplace of today is highly competitive where businesses are ready to make a real investment to get their share of the pie. This is why you have to put in the needed extra effort to actively reach out to your target audience. The more proactive you are in your approach, the better results you will see.
Social media makes it easy for you to build your web presence. It lets you connect to an audience that is not only ready to hear from you but also wants to do business with you.
Nowadays, most online users have some kind of a social media presence, it’s just about finding the best social media platforms your target audience hangs out with the most.
And then working on producing social content that gets you to connect with them on a certain emotional level.
5. Increase the Number of Branded Searches
Growing your audience and building a strong brand is a huge part of any online marketing campaign, social media marketing being no different. Your social media profiles and pages help you create a relationship with your chosen set of audience. With your constant social media updates and by supplying quality information to them on a regular basis, they recognize your brand. They know who you are and what kind of content you create. And start seeing you as a trusted source.
When done right, social media marketing helps you grow your brand awareness. When more people become aware of your product or service, you’ll find more of them clicking on your content in the search engine result pages.
Since Google and other search engines give immense importance to click-through rates, this can significantly impact your rankings and increase your visibility. Also, keep in mind that these clicks are far more valuable in the eyes of the big G because they have a lower bounce rate.
Why? Because these people are already aware of your brand, which means, fewer of them are going to hit the “back” button once they visit your page.
Since bounce rate does correlate to the ranking of a website, lowering it gives you an edge over other competing sites.’ By building brand awareness on social media, you also have more people specifically searching for your brand. This then goes on to boost the organic search traffic to your website and as well as your social media pages/profiles.
6. Learn What Your Audience Wants
While the importance of a keyword strategy in SEO remains the same, the way they’re being researched has evolved over the years. Today, finding and selecting the right keywords involves a strong understanding of “user’s intent”. Without understanding the intention of the searcher, the chosen keywords may not give you the results you’re looking for. If you search for “landscape photography”, Google wants to know why you did so in order to serve the most relevant results.
Are you interested in learning how to photograph various landscapes? Or you’re only interested in reading more about it?
There are many ways to learn about what your audience wants, such as email surveys, but you can do the same with social listening. By tracking and looking into the various types of conversations your audience is having on social media, you can gain insights into their needs and wants. This can help you create content that caters to their needs, which in turn gives Google and other search engines what they’re looking for.
7. Tap Into Local Search
If you’re a small or a medium-sized business with a physical address, you cannot and should not ignore the power of local SEO . Google knows the importance of geography and its relevance to giving people a better user experience.
With a large majority of Internet users searching for local businesses on their mobile devices, local searches are bound to grow. So, make sure to keep every profile updated with your current address, phone number, company name, etc. Have the same information across all profiles, which should in turn match with the information on your site. Or else you may experience lower rankings and miss out on potential customers.
8. Stick to a Fresh Editorial Calendar
An editorial calendar provides numerous benefits and makes your life as a small business owner so much easier. Just think about it: this handy little helper can give you the chance to avoid a virtually endless list of problems listed by Hootsuite , like missing extremely important dates, publishing low-performing content, overwhelming or puzzling your team of writers, neglecting or spamming social media platforms and, ultimately, amplifying the content fatigue threat. An editorial calendar created and adjusted by multiple staff members can support your content planning efforts and help you stay up-to-date and relevant in your industry.
9. Become an Expert in Your Niche or Work Closely with One
Let’s face it: readers love experts. They simply devour content pieces written by specialists who provide accurate, easy to follow tips on how to face daily challenges. If you don’t have what it takes to share your wisdom and connect with your readers on such a level, I highly recommend collaborating with expert writers who are familiar with your industry. Work with people who have already made a name for themselves in your niche, instead of relying only on generic writers.
For example, if you operate in the IT or automotive sector, it would be better to employ a tech writer who would have the skills and knowledge required to translate the features of your products into benefits that could attract the attention and interest of your potential buyers.
10. Listen to What Influencers and Thought Leaders Have to Say
You can prevent content fatigue by learning from the best. Consider establishing strong relationships with the individuals who have already achieved the goals you are currently pursuing. By interacting with the most prominent thought leaders in your industry you can come up with fresh, interesting content ideas and lay the foundation of beneficial relationships enabling you to reach a wider audience, while building credibility and trust in your sector. Listening to others in your industry, connecting, and talking with them is a fabulous strategy that can bring awesome ideas together for free! Unleash the power of the people and let it take your content creation and distribution to a whole new level.
Being sociable always pays off, especially when it comes to using your own connections to improve brand awareness and consolidate your position on a certain market.
11. Put Pen to Paper Anytime, Anywhere and Stay Relevant
Don’t let your creative impulses vanish into thin air. According to Business2Community , this is a major mistake that will make you dread the agony of a strict deadline and the frustration of gazing at the blank page in front of you. As soon as you come up with a brilliant idea that could lead to a shareable article or blog post, write it down. Keep a list of excellent content ideas on your smart phone or notepad and discuss them with your staff members during your weekly brainstorming sessions.
Relevancy is another aspect that you should consider. At the end of the day, it is extremely important to be able to identify and respect the limits of your readers. Unless you’re offering gift cards in all the emails that you’re sending to your prospects (people can’t get enough of freebies, that’s for sure!), try to send emails on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to prevent content fatigue.
Making your SEO & social media efforts pay off requires you to know where you’re going and measuring your progress. Regardless of your marketing goals, by measuring and analyzing your actions and their results, you can get better results.
The last thing you want is to put your efforts in the wrong direction.
Proper tracking and analyzing of your social media KPIs lets you understand what’s working and what’s not. So that you can focus on improving the right metrics.
Whether your goal is to keep track of the number of social media shares per post or see how much social referral traffic you’re generating, it’s important to measure the metrics that according to you are helpful.
Before you jump on the social media SEO bandwagon, be clear about your actions, and how you will measure them.
