Content marketing has evolved more in the last 2 years than it has in the last 20. Okay, that statement has yet to be proven (or tested), but it certainly feels like it, doesn’t it?

On the bright side, with change comes opportunity, and there are a couple of quick wins that you may not have taken advantage of yet. Here are 3 favourites that we’ve added to our to-do list.

1. Podcasts Over Blogging

Sure, creating a podcast may not be an ‘easy’ win (never trust a title), but it’s certainly one that content marketers need to get on their do-lists. Ourselves included.

Mark our words: podcasts are the blogs of the future. In fact, earlier this year, searches for ‘Podcast’ overtook those for ‘Blog’. And why wouldn’t they? It’s so much easier to consume a podcast than a blog. I’m not spending any more time at my laptop than I absolutely have to, and clearly I’m not alone.

When it comes to content marketing, podcasts are able to do many of the same duties as blogs: they educate, entertain, answer user questions, build trust, authority & thought leadership and provide content for customers at all stages of the funnel. Plus they’re just easier to consume and seem less ‘salesy’ to the consumer.

What about SEO? Good question – 10 points for Gryffindor. We reported earlier in the year that Google announced plans to make audio content searchable, using voice recognition software to get to the point where it is able to recognise and crawl audio in the same way it does a page of text. It’s not there yet, but that’s the way it’s heading.

Whether you start producing your own podcast or getting featured on others’ podcasts, chances are you’ll be doing less writing and more speaking in the next 5 years.

2. Put Your A-Team Up Front

This one actually is an easy win. Promise. All it requires is a little shuffling of your blog page structure – no writing required.

Here’s how it works: chances are, you have a few blog posts that are very successful and drive the majority of your blog traffic or assisted conversions, while the other ones perform okay/fine/average.

Blogging can be hit-and-miss – some posts blow up, others spit and fizzle – so why not make the ‘greatest hits’ first up on your blog? If you’re not a news publication site, your blog posts needn’t be in chronological order. Put the high-converting ones first (or pin them to the top of your blog page) and have the rest after. We’re in the process of doing this and will report back with details when we’re done.

Here’s an example:

By doing this you’re getting the most out of your high-converting blog posts and putting your A-team up front.

3. Using Your Clients & Customers

This is another easy but underutilised one. Customer Reviews, testimonials and case studies bolster trust (as much as 75%, according to studies) and generate more conversion-driving content, but most us don’t make enough use of them.

Ideally, you should be asking your happy clients if you can use their praise in testimonials and using every ‘record month’ you have in analytics as a mini-case study.

Not only is this type of content fairly easy to create, it’s really, really powerful. Look at the graph below.

That’s 92% you’re missing out on if you don’t provide any reviews on your website. Now imagine you published a new one every month.

So there you have it. 2 simple tips (and a slightly more complex one) that we’re focusing on at the moment.

Tags: blogging, content, content marketing, online blog, podcast, podcasts