Whatever industry you’re in, you probably have an eye on the competition. And when you see some of the content your competitors are producing, it’s hard not to strive to do the exact same thing. "They wrote a blog post on the biggest mistakes content marketers make? We should write a blog post on the biggest mistakes content marketers make".
But as they say, good artists copy; great artists steal. Not in the sense of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre, of course. More like taking inspiration from your competitors - but doing it so well that everyone assumes you did it first.
Surely you don’t want to settle for being just good, you want to be great, so the question is, what can you learn from your competitors, then improve upon?
Here are six things to think about when you examine your competitors - and what you can take away from their content marketing efforts.
1. What are they doing to show their company’s personality?
B2B content marketing is typically educational in nature - but that doesn’t mean it has to be boring. Just take this blog post from HubSpot for example: 22 Writing GIFs All Content Marketers Will Understand.These guys are willing to break up their educational content with the occasional humorous post that illustrates the company’s lighthearted personality. Now, your audience may not appreciate GIFs specifically, but you can still appreciate the takeaway: What kind of personality (if any) comes through in your content? And what can you do to change that?
You don’t have to think about this in terms of being funny. Your company could, for instance, choose to show its philanthropic side by using social media channels to showcase community service efforts or recognize employees who volunteer. Whether your company is innovative or opinionated or funny or whatever, that’s what should come through in your content.
2. How much content are they putting out - and how?
Some companies seem like content machines. They crank out blog post after blog post, supplementing those articles with eBooks, webinars, videos, quizzes, and every other kind of content you can imagine. And it’s hard not to wonder how they do it.Take a look again, and focus on where some of those posts are coming from. Do they use guest bloggers? Do they curate lists of things that could be interesting to their readers (e.g., a collection of industry influencers to follow on Twitter)? Do they syndicate blog posts or infographics from other companies (with permission of course), adding in a paragraph of commentary at the top?
Seeing how your competitors are fueling their content creation can provide inspiration for your own.
What new things can you do (or what content can you curate) to keep your content machine running?
3. What level of content are they delivering?
Creating relevant content for your audience doesn’t always mean you have to write something that’s never been written before in the history of your industry. Just the other day, I came across a blog post titled, “What is a Bounce Rate? (And How Can I Fix Mine?)” Super simple, right? But for someone who’s new to marketing analytics, it’s probably a useful post.The key was, this blog post didn’t stand alone, it was just one of dozens of posts that spanned a range of content levels - some in-depth, some broad, some fundamental, and some expert-level. And that’s what makes this website a go-to source for information.
What can you add to your content lineup to appeal to a wider range of readers?
No comments:
Post a Comment