Quality over quantity is a well-worn mantra in content marketing, but new research published by marketing software enterprise Skyword suggests there is a nuance to this claim. Their research suggests that the most successful brands are now producing a wide range of engaging and relevant articles, blogs, videos and infographics at scale.
Skyword analysed the work of around 1,000 content marketers during the last twelve months to determine the methods and strategies that are used liberally by the best performing brands, and communicate the results to various industries, so enterprises can overcome challenges and meet their own content objectives.
The study found visionary marketers are now achieving excellence in execution and combining it with a regular, targeted publishing schedule. Editorial articles, infographics and podcasts are used by nine out of ten of these high performing marketers, while more than three quarters are creating episodic and serial stories.
It appears that doubling down on a single medium or platform is no longer a viable method for driving positive customer actions. Another key trend is storytelling as more brands are moving away from hard sell messages and calls to action in favour of high quality, written word editorials.
However, this is a strategy that requires excellent creative to really make a difference. It is no surprise that this is an area where the most successful marketers are ahead of their peers, and Skyword noted it as a major factor in differentiating competent and masterful content.
Finally, brands should attempt to gain a holistic view of content performance by using a broad range of metrics, as opposed to a focus on specific results in isolation.
