Content marketing is a must-do strategy for businesses of any size and across all niches; whether it’s through blogging, social media, email or any other platform, you need to leverage content in order to get results for your business.

Content marketing can help you reach a plethora of objectives for your business; most notably:

• Higher rankings on search engines – great content leads to higher ranks on search engines and more organic traffic on your website or blog. This can also lead to an increased domain authority.
• More traffic to your website – you need to give people a reason to visit your website and what better reason than great content? Plus, by creating and publishing valuable content on your website, you’ll keep them around for longer, improving your website stats
• Boost brand awareness and achieve thought leadership – with every high-quality piece of content you create, you gain brand awareness and get closer to thought leadership in your niche. If consumers are consistently getting real value from the information you provide, then you’ll be considered an authority in the field.
• Generate leads and convert consumers into customers – through valuable content, you can generate new leads that will eventually convert into customers and loyal buyers; for one thing, you can offer content as a resource in order to generate leads and then, you can also leverage content to further nurture your leads into becoming actual customers

So that you know why you need to leverage content marketing for your business, what are the best tactics to use this year?

In this blog post, discover the best content marketing tips you need to know in 2020.

Tip 1: A bigger focus on SEO and keywords

SEO strategies are of great importance this year. Creating amazing content is great – but if your target audience can’t find online easily, then what’s the point?

By focusing on the right keywords and SEO strategies, you can improve your rankings and generate more traffic and leads from your content.

Before you start writing a new piece of content, you need to perform in-depth keyword research to help you find the right keywords to target.

You can start by using a tool available to all: Google. Simply google the keywords you’d like to target to see what kinds of suggestions you get, based on what people are searching for:

However, in order to get a better idea of what keywords to target (and get more suggestions for other keywords), you can use a tool like Moz:

Not only will you get more keyword suggestions, but you’ll be able to see how many people search for each keyword and what the difficulty is like for ranking for those keywords.

That being said, targeting the right keywords is only the first step:

• Provide value: check out the current first page results for the keyword you want to target: ideally, your content needs to be bigger and better than all of them to increase your chances of getting top ranking spots
• Focus on long-form content: most top results in Google searches are long articles, of an average of 1900 words. While that won’t always be possible, where you can, you should focus on long-form content (however, stay away from fluff and always offer real value to your audience)
• Use the keyword in your content: in order for search engines to understand what your content is about and place your content in the right google searches, you need to use the keywords you’re targeting throughout your content: in your H1 headlines, as well as in several H2 headlines, in the first paragraph of your content and wherever else it makes sense to include the keywords organically; however, don’t overdo it as it will look like “keyword stuffing” which is penalized by search engines

Tip 2: Content remarketing

Content remarketing is a tactic that is largely overlooked, but one that can provide a lot of value to your business – and help you get better results and more leads from your content.

Basically, it’s all about targeting the visitors that have already interacted with your brand at least once in the past and practically invite them to revisit your website or blog for more information.

Think of this as a reminder for an uncompleted action. The consumer is surfing the web and suddenly your brand appears with a new and catchy piece of knowledge. This time a true connection will be established if the user is really interested.

This quick tip allows you to:

• Convert the visitors that have left your website into leads
• Boost brand recall
• Increase engagement and website traffic
• Boost SEO and help create a stronger content marketing strategy

As Forrester Research mentions, 96 per cent of website visitors don’t complete the intended action before leaving the site. So, content remarketing offers the marketer a second chance to reach the customer and create engagement.

Tip 3: Focus on quality

The quality of your content is imperative to your success: there’s simply too much content out there, both good and bad, that only the best can truly stand out.

So, to reach your audience, you have to deliver unique pieces of content that they can’t find elsewhere. Come up with something new this year, add more to what’s already out there and you will manage to stand out.

Here are some examples of content that would fit perfectly:

• Guides – contain a lot of information in one place and ae best read by search engines. Readers prefer guides because they can find everything they need to know in one place.

• How-to articles – in this type of content, you can offer detailed step-by-step information about a certain subject of interest for the reader.

• Infographics – can provide a lot of interesting information in the form of a picture. They can be easily shared by the viewer and can go viral quickly.

In the meantime, check your competitors to see what they are offering. In order to get better results, you need to deliver better, more valuable content than them.

Tip 4: Leverage evergreen content

Evergreen content – short, long and everything in between – is one of the best types of content to invest in this year.

Sometimes, you need to add information or change it to maintain its value. In other cases, it can remain the same and still be considered a top content.

Evergreen content collects a lot of backlinks in time, so it can end up on the first page on search engines and drive organic traffic back to your website or blog.

Types of evergreen content you can choose from this year:

• Definitions - some of them can be considered as an evergreen content like the definition of content marketing or content strategy; here's an example from the Content Marketing Institute:

• Checklists - these can be very useful for both beginners and experts; here's a great example from Buffer:

• Resource lists – lists, in general, attract readers. They are easy to understand and contain a lot of vital information about specific subjects like tips for successful content marketing strategies or tools to use for content creation

• How-to articles - they are engaging and helpful for readers for various reasons, but mostly because they contain vital information like how to create great content or how to leverage SEO to grow your business.

2020 is the year when you should start taking more advantage of your evergreen content to boost your sales and earn the trust of your target audience. Provide as much in-depth information as you can to attract more visitors and create content that can last forever.

Tip 5: Create more video content

Visuals have gained a lot of terrain in the 2019 content marketing strategies and 2020 won’t make the difference. Videos remain a top priority type of content, more appreciated than written articles. So, creating a video and uploading it on YouTube can bring you a lot of views and traffic on your website or blog.

Did you know that, in 2019, videos were considered marketing tools by 87% of businesses? This percentage has increased from the 2017’s 63% and 2018’s 81%.

According to WyzOwl, 96% of people watch videos to find out more information about products or services, while 79% of buyers were convinced to buy an app or software based on the brand’s videos.

Take for example this video from Neil Patel’s Instagram account:

It provides crucial information for companies that are looking for free website traffic. See how many views the video had, more than 11k. Now think how all the people that watched it went on his website afterwards for more intel on the subject. Traffic rises and brand awareness is boosted because the content does its job.

Another interesting example is taken from Buffer’s Instagram account:

It presents an interesting app for social media. It has fewer views than the first example, but you can take a look at the comments. People find it engaging. It is also important to create educational, informative, and unique videos strictly based on the target audience’s needs.

Tip 6: Create a podcast

Podcasts have massively grown in popularity over recent years. And they also present a great opportunity for businesses: as more people are listening to them, it's the perfect time to create valuable content that they can listen to and learn more about your business in the process.

Here is an example of a podcast channel from Buffer:

As their tool focuses on social media marketing, they use their podcast as a way to educate social media marketers and brands on how to get better results from social media. This then helps boost people's trust in their brand and consequently, help Buffer generate more leads and sales from their content marketing.

If you want to start and promote your podcast in a way that it really converts into new leads for your business, I recommend you take a look at the Spreaker, which is the provider I use to host and distribute my podcast, The Lilach Bullock Show to all the main listening apps.

Tip 7: Always analyze and evaluate content performance

Creating content is the first step.

Promoting the content, the second step.

Next, comes the analysing - and the optimizing.

In order to keep improving the ROI of your content marketing strategy, you need to understand what works for your business and what doesn't:

• which content formats perform best
• which channels generate the most traffic and engagement
• which content generates leads
• whether you've reached your objectives or not and why

Your analytics can basically tell you what you need to change and optimize in your content marketing strategy in order to boost your results.

You can use a tool like Google Analytics to get started:

This is a very important task that should be done consistently so that you can optimize your results continuously. Check out our guide on content marketing ROI here to learn more.

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Free resource: Content marketing templates, strategies and tips.

2026 Update: What Has Changed in Content Marketing Since I First Wrote This

I wrote this post back in 2021 and a lot of what I said then still holds up, but I would be doing you a disservice if I did not flag how dramatically the content marketing landscape has shifted. If you are coming to this post fresh in 2026, read the original tips below with that context in mind, and then come back up here for my current thinking.

The biggest shift is AI-assisted content creation, and I want to be straight with you about it. Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are now a normal part of most content workflows, including my own. But the writers and marketers I see winning in 2026 are not the ones using AI to churn out volume. They are the ones using it to handle the structural grunt work, the outlines, the first drafts of repetitive sections, the repurposing, and then putting genuine human expertise and opinion on top. Google has got considerably better at identifying thin, generic AI content, and audiences have got considerably better at sensing when there is no real person behind the words. Your point of view is your competitive advantage right now, full stop.

Short-form video is no longer an optional extra for content marketers. In 2021 I could still get away with calling it "something to consider." In 2026 I cannot say that with a straight face. If you are producing written content without also thinking about how a core idea translates into a 60-second video for TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts, you are leaving reach on the table. The good news is that repurposing is far easier now with the tools available, so there is no real excuse.

Search behaviour has changed in ways that matter for content strategy. With AI Overviews appearing in Google search results for a wide range of queries, the content that earns clicks in 2026 tends to be either highly specific and practical, or genuinely opinionated and experience-led. Broad, informational "what is X" posts are getting squeezed hard. I have been shifting my own content calendar towards more specific, first-hand guidance as a result, and I would encourage you to do the same.

Everything else I wrote in 2021 about knowing your audience, being consistent, and focusing on quality over quantity? That advice has aged well. If anything, those fundamentals matter more now, not less. Read on for the full post.

Bottom line: Content marketing in 2021 works best when you focus on quality over quantity, repurpose content across multiple channels, and build genuine relationships with your audience through consistent value. Video, personalisation, and voice search optimisation are the trends shaping strategy this year.

If you write on this topic, see Write for Us Digital Marketing Blog.

Rather skip the outreach? You can buy a guest post on my blog directly. Want the placement done for you? Here's my guest post service, direct from the publisher. For data to back up your plan, here are the 2026 content marketing statistics I'd start with.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most important content marketing trend for 2021?

Video content remains the top priority, with short-form video and live streaming seeing significant growth. Brands that combine video with personalised messaging tend to see the strongest engagement.

How often should I publish new content?

There is no fixed number that works for every business. Consistency matters more than frequency, so a realistic schedule you can maintain long term will outperform sporadic bursts of content.

Should small businesses invest in content marketing in 2021?

Yes. Content marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to build trust and visibility online, and it levels the playing field for smaller brands competing against bigger budgets.

What type of content performs best right now?

Educational and problem-solving content continues to perform well, especially when paired with real examples, data, or case studies that show practical results.