It’s the time of year where everyone’s looking at the calendar, whether they’re pushing toward an annual goal or a well-earned holiday break.
But as a B2B marketer, you know the arrival of the holiday season means there’s another question on the horizon: What will your content calendar look like in 2024?
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2023 Trust in Marketing Index: The trust gap
With brand trust so important to senior buying decisions, how can marketers ensure their content marketing is boosting and not busting key customer relationships?
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If that just quickened your heartbeat or triggered a flash of panic, don’t worry: we’ve got you covered. Here are 10 tips you can still use to get a jumpstart on content calendar planning for next year.
First strategy, then content
Your brand can’t be everything to everyone. Even if you had an unlimited budget – and none of us do – you’d still need to focus on supporting the most important business KPIs to have an effective strategy. If your content strategy isn’t sound, there’s no time to read up and refocus like the present.
Be honest about bandwidth
Your content is a representation of your team’s cumulative capabilities. Sure, they may have the skills, but so much of every marketer and content creator’s days are spent on planning, forecasting, bureaucracy and other intricacies needed to run a growth marketing operation. By the time the day’s checklists are complete, it can feel like there’s little energy left to be creative.
If this is your team – or could be you if your group was asked to grow – start researching a content marketing strategy partner who understands how to build toward your business goals now, so that they’re ready to plug into your marketing machine when you need them next year.
No matter your niche, focus on creating trust-building content
Trust in this case doesn’t mean honesty about your products and services (hopefully you’re already providing that). The Informa Tech 2023 Trust in Marketing Index found content that was undifferentiated, lacked examples, was surprisingly low quality or error-filled, or focused more on getting the sale than sharing insights all turned off clients. Having a clear point of view with original insights and data are vital to improving your brand’s prestige.
Locked in and ready to plan? Make it about tentpoles first
Establishing a strong strategy early allows you to dictate your organisation’s content cadence to maximum effect. Outlining tentpole pieces from that content strategy before addressing any other content – like gated white papers and reports, plus live events and webinars – will allow you to lock lead-generating pieces into your budget that you can then atomise as the year goes on. You can still pivot as needs or organisational directives change, but locking in these pieces early to support your sales teams and product releases lets you make future decisions from a position of strength.
Which leads us to …
Plan to ask questions (and then turn the answers into content)
Be sure to leave room to poll your core buying audience (creating surveys, etc.) to discover original insights. Content with fresh data – especially data provided by your audience – that supports your brand’s perspective is an ideal way to nurture prospects through the buyer journey, as conveying your expertise to prospects trying to solve nuanced problems is irreplaceable.
And that leads us to …
Revisit your content recycling strategy
Don’t be afraid to remix your greatest hits. A smart content recycling strategy will turn original survey reports and insightful thought leadership pieces into infographics, social media quotes, hyper focused articles and more.
Start now by looking back at your most successful stories and social posts from the last year. What specific topics and formats were the most popular? And how can you use that data to create derivative content? From there, use this initial analysis to develop a system that highlights how each piece of original content your team creates will be recycled for maximum engagement going forward.
Identify gaps in your keyword strategy
Your SEO performance doesn’t just change because of algorithms. It shifts with industry trends, too. Reevaluate your keyword list based on how the market for your products or services has changed. The fastest hack here when it comes to planning your content calendar is to allocate a fraction of your upcoming work to addressing those new trends and add those keywords proportionately.
Use generative AI boost your ideas – and multiply your output
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) writing tools can amplify your productivity, as long as you don’t rely on them to do all the work. Get into the habit of asking a generative AI tool to analyse your outlines before you create content. Also, ask the AI to propose additional points, alternative angles or challenges the validity of your arguments.
And if you need ideas of how to incorporate AI to boost functions across your marketing organisation, our experts hosted a webinar to get you started.
Consider if your audience is still your audience
Brands and buyers in the B2B marketing space evolve, too. Thinking about your content calendar for the next year means considering how your audience segments are changing. The easiest way to keep your finger on the pulse is to jump on a few calls (after texting, of course) with an array of long-term and relatively new clients and ask them how their needs are evolving.
Want to take it one step further? Create a thought leadership network of your top clients, forward-thinking employees and other industry pros and feature them in trends-focused Q&As throughout the year.
Still have 2023 budget? Start experimenting now
Already hit your 2023 goals? Or have leftover funds that will expire if unspent this year? Why not partner with a new partner on a series of low-stakes experiments with new formats or untapped audiences. These late-year executions – whether it’s analysing your strategy or targeting, or creating content for a one-off content execution – can test opportunities you may want to add to your marketing mix in the new year.
Don’t know where to start? Contact Informa Tech today to learn how you can reach our highly-sought-after audiences through a range of products and solutions before year’s end.
