Improve Your Content With These 5 Experiments

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Experimenting and testing out different ideas is a great way to discover ways to improve your content. It will show you new techniques you can use, as well as tell you what you should not do.

Experimenting with your content strategy could allow you to discover new methods that could improve sales and revenue and your business as a whole! 

But what type of experiments should you make? Keep reading to find out 5 key experiments that we recommend! 

More voices equal more engagement, more readers, and more conversations! 

You should have multiple contributors to your blog to offer different perspectives and topics to your audience. A fresh voice will create a sense of excitement for the readers and allow them to learn new things. 

You could include guest bloggers, as there are plenty who are looking to gain exposure in new channels. The point of your blog is to inform and engage your audience, and a guest blogger or someone new can offer new ideas and share new knowledge. 

Pro tip: set up a landing page for writers to submit blog post ideas! You can explain your blog’s style and guidelines and everything they need to submit and this is a great way to find a guest blogger!

Along with guest bloggers, you can also have colleagues contribute to the blog. Having a group of writers at your company contributes to the blog will offer new voices to the audience and blogs on a variety of topics. Since they are working within the company, and not outside as a guest blogger would be, they know all the company information and the blog can have more of a connection to your company. By having a rotation of writers, or many contributors, it will be easier to create quality content at a good speed that will keep the audience from having to wait for new blogs. 

2. explore new content formats

Another way to improve your content and make it more interesting for the readers is to experiment with new ways of presenting your content. While having a standard format is good for organizational purposes, it can get boring after a while if all of your content looks and feels the same. 

You can also use different format styles for each group of clients throughout the stages of the buying journey. For example, emails work for leads as it captures attention and encourages clicks to content or your website. Once your audience is more interested, but still on the fence, a video buying guide could persuade them or offer information that will help them make their decision. 

Providing a range of content in different formats is beneficial in keeping your audience interested and engaged with the content. 

• Infographics. People tend to retain 65% of visual information, compared to 10-20% for written or spoken information. Infographics make it easier for readers to absorb the information and remember it as well. They are interesting, appealing, and exciting! They are also 40 times more likely than other content forms to get shared on social media, due to their visuals. Viewers especially like infographics with fresh ideas that are not as common. So if there are any new studies or research in your industry, try creating an infographic with this content that has not been released yet to really spark your viewer's interest. 
• Listicles. Lists are easy to memorize, digest, and make people feel organized and included. They provide information clear way that is straight to the point and people appreciate the simple structure. It is easier to remember a list of things, rather than paragraphs about each aspect. Using lists definitely works to get your message across, and the top 10 lists work even better!
• Personal Storytelling. Telling a story creates emotion and a personal connection, which allows your audience to connect with you, the content, or the story. You can also share stories or thoughts through opinion pieces. Inspirational tales are another way to educate your audience and inspire them to take action. Form strong relationships with your audience by showing them the personal side of your company. 

3. master social media copy 

Engagement from social media is huge! Social media is often overlooked, as the trends change so quickly and they are hard to stay on top of. However, social media allows your audience to connect with you and engage with your content. 

The best way to reach your audience through social media is to keep captions or headings short and to the point. The message and meaning should get across through the post, and then encourage them to take action, through a ‘see more’ or ‘learn more’ button.

To gain more viewers, use hashtags. This is a great way for people interested in topics that you are posting to find your content. You can use hashtags that are popular or trending too, to put your content where people are more likely to find it. Hashtags must be relevant to your company, your content, and your message. 

Pro tip: Before using hashtags, check how well they are performing over time to ensure that they are popular hashtags that will boost the visibility of your content! 

The last tip is every platform does not need to be identical. There may be something that works well on Twitter, but might not be the best for Instagram. Test out different captions,  titles, or graphics, and see what your followers like best!

Here is an example of a thinkdm2 Twitter post promoting one of our blog posts! We used a short description of what the blog will be about, related hashtags, a call to action encouraging the audience to read more, an image, and a link to the blog. 

4. try out new distribution channels 

Once you create content and are ready to publish it, it is time to focus on your distribution strategy. 

You are likely to distribute your content on company social media pages, such as Facebook or LinkedIn, or in company newsletters. These are valuable strategies, but you can do even more to boost your reach! 

Get to know communities and forums that will republish your content. Here, there are readers who are interested in topics similar to your content, and this will help you present your content to a new audience. 

You can also loop in your sales team as they should be informed on all content as well. They need to understand the content in order to help determine how to use it with leads, prospects, and clients in order to convince them to move along with the sales process. 

5. make your content reader-friendly  

Providing an enjoyable experience for your audience is crucial! In order to do this, you need to have content that is easy to read and comprehend. People do not want text-heavy content that is agonizing to read. Keep it short but with enough detail to keep them entertained. When using a blog or content on a website to attract your audience, the point is to get them interested and to inform them, but to lead them to take action outside of the blog for example, by going to the website. Don’t bore them before they get there.

Break your content up with relevant subheadings or lists so people can quickly scan the content and find what interests them the most. This will make the reading much easier and more pleasant for them. 

Next, you should always add visuals! This makes the content more appealing to the eye and inviting. All types of visuals like images, videos, and gifs will help with this.  

Along with providing reader-friendly content, your content should also be mobile-friendly. It should be easy for anyone to access it on any device. Otherwise, you could be losing many potential viewers.

over to you

There are so many different ways to experiment with content to determine what works best for your company. Some of these will work well, and others not so much. That's the point of testing out different ways to engage your audience.

Here is a list of experiments that we recommend:

• Include guest writers, including colleagues, to bring new voices to the blog
• Explore new content formats and step outside of your comfort zone 
• Switch up your social media copy and do something different on each channel
• Get to know communities and forums in your industry 
• Step into your audience’s shoes 

Reach out to Thinkdm2 to learn more! 

Sources: Foleon.com