Now that the holidays have passed, marketers must look to the new year for inspiration. With so many goals to be achieved, businesses must have clear objectives and resolutions to find greater success in 2013. Brafton has compiled a list of 10 New Year's Resolutions that every marketer should set his or her sights on over the next 12 months, as these goals can help any brand perfect its content marketing strategy.

1. 10
STRATEGIES USED BY
SUCCESSFUL
CONTENT MARKETERS
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2. 1
DEFINED GOALS
B2B brands set an average of nine goals
for their strategies, but measure success
using an average of 14 benchmarks.
Marketers must define their strategic
goals and then measure success
accordingly. If a brand wants to improve
website traffic, but measures the success
of its content initiative by evaluating social
mentions, there's a clear disconnect.

3. 2
CONSISTENCY
Seventy-three percent of entrepreneurs
want to see custom content from brands
they connect with on social media
networks at least once a week or more.
An effective content marketing campaign
shows consistency. High-quality content
grabs readers' attention, but if a company
doesn't produce enough interesting media
to retain leads' attention, the brand's
competition will capitalize on the misstep.

4. 3
DIVERSITY
B2B and B2C brands use an average of 12
tactics to communicate with prospective
and current customers.
Marketers are discovering that when they
engage with prospects in a variety of
ways, people tend to recall products and
services more clearly. Content campaigns
must become diverse enough to reach all
audience segments on the web.

5. 4
TEAMWORK
More than 70 percent of businesses look
for external help with their web marketing
efforts.
Businesses that lack the internal resource
may struggle to develop
consistent, diverse or high-quality content
for their websites. It's important to
understand when it's time to ask for
help, and brands shouldn't be afraid to
outsource to content experts.

6. It's proven that industries with the most advanced content
5
marketing strategies are the only sectors to have editorial
calendars.
No matter who's in charge of executing a content strategy for
a company, brands must develop editorial calendars. These
CALENDAR resources schedule topics, due dates, resources and audience
targeting goals in advance, so nothing gets overlooked, runs
late or misses the mark.

7. 6
It would take more than 6 million years to watch the volume of
video content that will cross global IP networks each month in
2016.
Video continues to become the most influential and attention-
VIDEO grabbing content type on the internet. With so much visual
CONTENT media online, brands should take advantage of this demand with
video marketing to engage audiences and promote sharing.

8. 7
ANALYTICS
Forty-three percent of marketers don't
measure or track content ROI. How many
marketing budgets are wasted on
ineffective content?
Brands have to set concrete goals and
evaluate metrics that track success toward
specific objectives to see what drives
campaign success. Then, it's important to
act based on what the data says about a
strategy.

9. 8
USER-GENERATED
CONTENT
Eighty-three percent of consumers say user-
generated reviews impact their purchase decisions.
Marketers who effectively engage customers and
get them to contribute a review or update their
social accounts about positive experiences may see
an uptick in brand awareness and sales. Converting
one lead into a happy customer can help
businesses gain access to that shopper's network
of friends and family.

10. 9
Americans use social networks to rant and rave about companies, and
they want brands to be accessible. Forty-seven percent of internet
users want customer service through social media networks.
SOCIAL Brands that create custom Tweets, Facebook posts and other social
updates to address fans' (and skeptics') feedback strengthen bonds
CARE with an active consumer base.

11. Matt Cutts suggests brands consider "search experience optimization" part
10
of their overall SEO campaigns.
Publishing high-quality content can increase on-site transactions, but the
best writing won't keep readers around if the overall page layout makes
SXO finding content difficult. Keeping every other step to content marketing
success in mind, marketers must look at the whole picture and make SXO a
priority.

12. THANKS FOR READING!
Get more content marketing news, tips and
trends at Brafton.com.
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