The goal of content marketing is to attract and engage customers for your business. It can also build organic search traffic.
Achieving these ends, however, takes compelling topics. Here are five content marketing ideas your business can try.
1. Convert Articles to Audio
In 2019, some 144 million Americans age 12 or older were podcast listeners, according to data from Edison Research. That means a majority of Americans over 12 have listened to at least one podcast.
Edison Research data shows that about 51 percent of Americans 12 years old or older have listened to a podcast.
What’s more, when Edison presented its findings in April 2019, 22 percent of Americans said they had listened to a podcast in the past week.
So here is your first content marketing idea for April 2020: Convert your best, written content into a weekly podcast.
This suggestion would work best for businesses that have been steadily producing blog posts, articles, or even whitepapers for some time. For these companies, the process is straightforward.
- Identify your company’s most popular written content.
- Using voice talent or a well-spoken team member, record a reading of that content.
- Edit the audio file into a podcast episode.
- Publish that episode.
Try to have at least three months’ worth of content before you launch the weekly podcast.
2. Write Long Articles
Long-form content may attract more backlinks than do short posts. The result is better organic search rankings. That’s according to many search engine optimization pros.
For example, Neil Patel, the co-founder of Crazy Egg and Neil Patel Digital, wrote, “Longer articles generate business leads for a longer timeframe. This is because they attract backlinks and organic traffic from Google timelessly, organically making it evergreen content.”
Adding, “Longer posts usually perform better on every level.”
Longer articles aim to provide a deep dive into a narrow topic.
For example, imagine that you market for an online kitchen supply store. You know that customers tend to be between 35 and 55 years old. They are high earners, and they are concerned about the environment.
You could write an article about PFOA-free cookware. You could explain what PFOAs are. (Perfluorooctanoic acid, a chemical used in coatings that resist heat, oil, and grease.) You might describe so-called “forever chemicals” generally. You could explain how chemical maker, DuPont, had to pay $670 million in damages for dumping PFOA-related waste.
Your long-form article would be relevant in the near term since two popular films, “The Devil We Know” and “Dark Waters,” tell this story. When they watch these, consumers are likely to search for terms from the films. They could find your long-form content. Here is the trailer for “Dark Waters.”
For April, try to find a long-form topic related to the industry your business serves.
3. Easter Sunday: April 12
Easter has broad appeal in the United States and beyond.
Your company’s Easter content marketing can remind folks why the holiday is fun or important and point them to the products you provide.
For Christians, the holiday celebrates Jesus’s resurrection. It is foundational to their faith. Many Christians will purchase new clothes, shoes, and accessories. They will host large meals.
Others are drawn to Easter because of the Easter bunny, colorful eggs, and loads of chocolate and candies.
For your April content marketing, write useful or entertaining articles that address one of the reasons folks celebrate Easter. Relate the holiday to your industry. Here are examples from a few prominent merchants.
4. Wrestling Olympic Trials: April 4-5
In 2013, mismanagement at the world’s Olympic wrestling organization nearly cost the sport of wrestling its place in the 2020 Summer Olympics.
“For wrestling, this may have been the ultimate body slam: getting tossed out of the Olympic rings,” ESPN reported.
“The vote Tuesday [February 12, 2013,] by the [International Olympic Committee’s] executive board stunned the world’s wrestlers, who see their sport as popular in many countries and steeped in history as old as the Olympics themselves.”
The controversy stunned the wrestling community.
In the United States, nearly 160,000 youth wrestlers participate in USA Wrestling programs, and about 250,000 high schoolers wrestle each season. When you consider former wrestlers, wrestling parents, and others interested in the sport, millions of folks were offended by the IOC’s decision.
Those folks, along with the international wrestling community, rallied behind the sport. Collectively, they were able to get wrestling added back into the 2020 Summer Games.
This group is loyal to their sport and the businesses that support it.
For your April content marketing, consider covering the U.S. Olympic wrestling trials at Penn State University’s Bryce Jordan Center on April 4 and 5.
Jordan Burroughs is an American freestyle Olympic champion, and one the wrestlers likely to compete in the trails. Photo: Meghdad Madadi via Wikipedia.
The competitors in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling will include many names familiar to your company’s prospects. And the sport itself could be of interest.
Imagine for a moment that you own an online store selling cowboy boots. You might think wrestling is unrelated. But Jess Lockhart, a world champion professional bull rider, was also a Montana state champion wrestler.
Lockhart even briefly trained with the U.S. Olympic wrestling team in 2018 — not for his wrestling skills, but so that the wrestlers could meet and work with a world champion.
Your boot store could discuss this connection and how wrestling builds the character and discipline that lead to success.
5. COVID-19
Let’s hope that COVID-19 (“Coronavirus Disease 2019”) is weakened by April 2020 due to warmer weather or scientific ingenuity.
Regardless, there may be an opportunity to create useful and informative content related to the industry your company serves.
For example, if you have an online store selling workwear, you could interview local public health officials and then create a COVID-19 safety guide for construction workers and repair specialists.
Your guide could address COVID-19 issues related to construction sites or visiting someone’s home to check on an air conditioner.
An online store selling workwear could create a COVID-19 safety guide for construction workers and repair specialists.
