In 2022, the story of inbound content marketing success may focus just as much on retaining customers as it does on attracting them.

This is the story of creating a great customer experience for all of your customers no matter where they are in their buyer’s journey. It includes the consistent creation of relevant, high-quality content that resonates with followers and fans as well as those who are discovering just how wonderful you are. And by wonderful, we mean your company’s ability to solve the issues and answer the questions that consumers want resolved.

In this article, we discuss content marketing ideas that are already proven to:

• Reach audiences organically
• Attract and engage new prospects
• Build relationships with your customers
• Educate consumers on your products and services
• Improve brand awareness
• Delight people so they act
• Increase conversions

We’ll also point out trending innovations to content marketing ideas that can help make 2022 your best year ever. Here we go.

2 Essential Content Marketing Ideas Moving The Dial

1. Marketing Content with Video

Consumers love moving pictures. According to one annual State of Video Marketing report, 69% of consumers say they prefer to learn about a brand's product or service through video, which makes video much more effective than text alone. Here are some of the buzzwords for video content marketing in 2022:

Visual storytelling – If you want consumers to remember you, think of your brand story in terms of dynamic images. They could stand on their own, work together with text graphics, and be accompanied by an audio track of sound effects, music, and both.

Augmented reality (AR) – Here’s an amazing statistic: In 2021, 93.3 million people used augmented reality at least once per month. The interactivity of AR can help content marketers make personal connections with audience members. Content that reaches out to touch them can inspire action before, during, and after they experience it.

Ephemeral content – This is content that takes different forms including video and stays published online for just 24 hours before it disappears. Popular on social media platforms, it adds another dimension to marketing messages, especially when paired with evergreen content, which can last as long as you want it to.

2. Marketing Content with Podcasts

The popularity of podcast marketing is increasing exponentially among content marketers, fueled in part by their popularity among younger consumers. In 2020, 155 million Americans listened to a podcast at least once and 49% of 12-to-32-year-olds averaged six listening hours per week of podcast content. With educational podcasts in high demand among businesses, research shows about two million different podcasts were produced in 2021, totaling more than 48 million podcast episodes.

Effective for marketing to niche audiences, podcast marketing can create strong personal bonds with your company’s loyal customers. You can appeal to new prospects with a personal touch. Audio lends itself to expression and has a lasting ability to communicate depth of emotion, which can help an audience relate to you, your message, or both.

3 Pillars of Content Marketing

These three ideas for content marketing are almost always part of successful inbound marketing plans.

1. Marketing Content on a Company Blog

Bloggers research and write informational articles that can be quite versatile in terms of topic and purpose. Most blog posts cover things like the company’s line of business, products and services, brand, culture, industry, and more.

Today’s bloggers are getting inspiration for creating future content from two concepts: repurposing and refreshing.

Repurposing content means that bloggers create one piece of content that can be used in a variety of ways to achieve multiple goals. The repurposed content can be shared on different channels for different results. Bloggers find unique ways to package the original content in another way, such as turning an article into a guide or an infographic or a whitepaper, video, or webinar.

Refreshing content means that bloggers find ways to update existing blog articles or page content with new or more relevant information and re-publishing old pages. They will also research new keywords that serve current search intent more accurately and incorporate them into the refreshed content.

2. Marketing Content on Social Media

It’s estimated that the number of global citizens who use social media will increase to almost 4.41 billion by 2025. We’re hooked! Which is why marketers are so keen to tap into this popular digital habit. Social media gives content marketers a variety of platforms where they can reach their audiences in different ways. They can customize and personalize messages so they speak directly to specific audiences. Plus, it’s fundamental—and fun—to create brand awareness and build relationships through social media.

3. Marketing Content with Paid Ads

Content marketers use paid ads in tandem with inbound marketing tactics to tap into new avenues where you want to expand coverage and reach a broader audience. Paid ads can be versatile as well. Content marketers can share them as sponsored content on landing pages, blog posts, social media, and more.

One Idea That Continues to Perform

1. Marketing Content with Graphics

Infographics have been a staple in the content marketer’s toolbox, mainly because the graphic format distills complex ideas, data, and information in a way that’s easy for anyone to understand.

In 2022, infographics will continue to tap into the power of animation to tell their stories. Finding a way to incorporate interactive content into infographics will also be popular. Both animation and interactivity keep audiences more engaged with content. Interactive guides, quizzes and polls, and animated illustrations can also keep audiences on your site for longer periods.

5 Tried-and-True Tips For Content Marketing Success

1. Start with a killer content marketing strategy.

HubSpot’s best practices strategy for content marketing includes these eight steps:

1. 1. Set SMART goals – objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.
   2. Determine key performance indicators (KPIs) - quantifiable data that measures performance against the goal.
   3. Choose the kind of content to create – based on your target audience, their needs, and buying behavior.
   4. Determine the best content channels to share and promote content
   5. Budget the funds and the time – to create the type of content you want to create, given the chosen content channels.
   6. Create and distribute the content for consumption – with an eye toward converting your audience into prospects and customers.
   7. Analyze and measure results – against your goals.
   8. Document your content strategy – We’ve added an eighth step. Why? Because having a clearly defined content strategy can help with your marketing goals for years to come. Research shows that 41% of both established companies and startups lack documentation to support their content strategies, which can hinder efficiency and successful execution further down the road.
2. Optimize your content for mobile viewing first.

In 2020, 68.1% of all website visits across the globe were initiated from mobile devices, which rose 4.8% from 63.3% in 2019. By 2025, it’s estimated that almost 73% of internet access for search will occur solely from mobile devices. So to capture the attention of the largest audience in 2022, making sure people can find you from a mobile device will help your business garner more website traffic, subscriptions to your email list, and ultimately, purchases.

3. Follow best practices for SEO.

Search engine optimization (SEO) continues to wield power when it comes to content marketing. It’s no secret that the first page of search results on Google garners the most traffic, as high as 92% in recent years. The first organic result on page one has an average click-through rate of 28.5%. An average of 75% of searchers do not consider results that are included on subsequent pages.

For your content to rank on page one of search results:

• Make it consistently creative, original, and persuasive
• Make sure it explains clearly how your products and services help solve the issues that searchers are looking for help with.
• Use keywords in your content that help search engines identify it for relevance and ranking.

4. Backlinks still matter. So does developing a strategy for generating them.

Links that are found in the content of another website are used by searchers to find related content on your website. Experts at the Digital Marketing Institute agree:

Backlinking is one of the most effective ways to increase search traffic and search engine rankings.

• High-quality, relevant backlinks will authenticate the quality of your content and can help increase your website traffic.
• The best strategy for generating backlinks is to grow them organically over time, which can mitigate any changes to how search engine classification can affect SEO rankings.

5. Keeping on top of trends can be a difference-maker.

It’s one of the main reasons why we create the content we do for the 11outof11 Blog. Additionally, HubSpot lists six other content marketers to follow as well as 14 content marketing resources that could provide insight and inspiration for your 2022 content ideas.

11outof11 Knows Content Marketing

When you need help with any aspect of your content marketing strategy, connect with 11outof11. Request a complimentary call with an 11outof11 expert. Contact us to learn more.