Working in content marketing is fast-paced, and exciting, and requires an analytical, creative, and lateral mind.
Content is the backbone of any successful website, social media page, or print ad, and as a business owner or content specialist you’ll need to launch a variety of campaigns across a range of channels.
However, without quality control mechanisms and in such competitive fields, your campaigns could easily fall short
This helpful article will share top-quality control tips to help improve your content marketing campaigns, so continue reading to learn more, as we explore the importance and functions of AI, regular reviews, audience engagement, and more.
Use AI tools for ideation and grammar correction
AI is being adopted in some way in almost every aspect of business operations, so there’s no reason you can’t use it to your advantage in your content marketing campaigns.
Prompt AI software such as Claude.ai and ChatGPT to come up with creative angles for your content, but make sure you add a human touch to the actual output produced. If you don’t have a dedicated content writer on your team, consider working with a freelancer or contractor to guarantee high-quality work.
When content is being shared between individuals and across devices, use a PDF maker to quickly convert your docs into universally compatible PDFs. That way, the formatting and content structure will remain intact, no matter which software it’s being accessed on.
No content marketing campaign, whether it involves blogs, email, or landing pages, is worth its salt unless it has correct spelling and grammar. That’s why you should always proofread your work before you hit the big red send button. You can also use AI editing tools to make corrections on spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
This innovative software can polish a good piece of content into a great one. The free version of Grammarly is a popular model with a basic feature set, but if you upgrade to the premium version, you’ll unlock the full power of this excellent tool.
Review content on an ongoing basis
Even with the best copywriters and the most advanced AI editing tools, you should always review content before publishing it to ensure it meets your stringent quality standards for accuracy, relevance, and engagement.
Having a colleague, manager, or even professional editor review work before publication with a fresh set of eyes can majorly help spot errors and typos, and suggest improvements on structuring, subject matter or language choices within the content. Each word counts.
Reviewing doesn’t stop once your content is out there in the world though. Make sure to periodically refresh, update, and change your content to adapt to changing customer demands, and the services or products you’re providing.
For example, if you’re referencing a product you no longer stock, swap it for something you are. If a statistic or cultural reference you’re using is starting to become outdated or irrelevant, change it for a more recent one.
Know your audience
One essential part of the content marketing quality control checklist is knowing your audience and what will resonate with them enough to drive them to action. For instance, if the product you’re marketing is targeting the Gen Z market, you’ll be using different language and tone and referencing different concepts than if you were targeting a millennial or all-female market.
You may even consider developing a style guide for each targeted segment of your audience to help steer your developing campaigns, but make sure to keep your brand voice relatively consistent despite these nuanced changes.
Try to go more specific when separating out your target audiences than broad brushstrokes. Hone down the different subsections of your demographics to consider what they’re dealing with, and then provide information on how you could help. Sympathize with their problems (and provide the solutions) in your content to maximize engagement with your posts.
Research optimal timing & delivery
Another quality control mechanism for content marketing is acing the delivery and the timing. How are you going to get your excellently crafted content to the right people and at the right time, in order to ensure it gets seen by the right eyes? Luckily for you, this is an aspect of content marketing that can be researched via A/B testing on prior content marketing campaigns.
Conducting this research should provide some useful evidence to point towards when the best open rates for emails are for your audience, what topics boost engagement and positive responses the most, or which content formats receive the most attention. Quality content is only useful if people see it and can act upon it, so understanding the optimal delivery and timing is crucial.
Strike the right balance between length & value
When it comes to quality control, naturally your content needs to be nothing short of excellent. However, length also matters. In years gone by, the experts said that shorter pieces of content were the way to go in order to deliver an effective, impactful message.
However, now there is a shift towards favoring long-form content in some spaces, provided that it adds genuine value, informs the reader about the topic, and can position the brand as an authority in its space
For instance, a gym supplement company could publish a lengthy blog providing fitness goals and tips for beginners. In this case, content should be at least 800 words, provided the content is well-written, informative, and high-quality. After 2,000 words, there is the risk of the blog becoming too long and losing succinctness.
For on-page content produced to accompany the product or service listings on your website, for example, you don’t need to write a short essay. However, you do need to write enough so that you can avoid keyword stuffing, which could see your website penalized by search engines, un-doing all your efforts. As Google evolves to place more value on context, your content must provide it.
Learn that content marketing is more than just words
You may think that content marketing should only comprise the written word. However, when it comes to quality control in content, an omni-media approach is often better. Include licensed images, audio, video, and other multimedia elements in your campaigns.
If you’re able to source images yourselves by working with a professional photographer (rather than paying for them via stock photo agencies like Shutterstock), search engines may favor your content, deeming it more organic and original. Make sure to provide alt text to caption your pictures, for accessibility and also to provide even more context for web crawlers.
Likewise, incorporating videos recorded by your team can show a more authentic, personal side to your brand. The multimedia content you share will depend on your industry and your campaign goals.
If you’re trying to appeal to a younger audience as a trendy clothing company, a day in the lifestyle vlog, or clips of your colleagues participating in viral trends is likely to resonate more than if you’re appealing to an older demographic to market your services as a divorce lawyer. In this case, short clips presenting nuggets of information will build trust and credibility to help explain the concepts in your blogs.
As long as your media additions are subject to the same stringent quality control standards that you’ve learned about in the rest of this article, they should serve to strengthen your content marketing efforts and demonstrate consistency with your social media marketing campaigns too.
Quality control tips for content marketing in summary
This helpful article has provided some top-quality control tips to help improve your content marketing campaigns. Let’s summarise the main points we’ve covered.
- Make use of AI for content generation and grammar checking
- Don’t forget the human element in the content you produce
- Frequently edit, review, and update content
- Understand your audience’s preferences, pain points, and needs
- Research the best timing and delivery styles for content publication
- Provide genuinely valuable or interesting content of substantial length
- Include pictures, videos, and graphics to invigorate your text
Following these guidelines will ensure you create better content marketing campaigns that deliver the results you’re after.
