Getting your content marketing program in tip-top shape is a very important contributing factor towards business success. Here are five ways to find success with your content in 2017 and beyond.

1. Think responsibly before you plan

Don’t jump straight into content development without any though process going into it, but be really sure why you are creating something new. Spending time white-boarding, talking to your team, brainstorming, your stakeholders, whoever is important, it will widen possibilities and eliminate errors.

Ask yourself honest questions like is this the sort of content your customers really want or need? If not, why are you creating it?

Challenge yourself rather than depending on words from someone else. Don’t just create a blog post because someone said, “We need a blog.” Understand why you need a blog first. The best time to think hard is at the start of the whole process.

2. Ask questions prior to the actual writing

It’s important to get your routines right. Doing something in the wrong order can upset the flow of work and put you off the track. It’s probably safest to make a list of all the questions that may come to you about your content and you should ask them before you even start the writing process.

Hold meetings with your stakeholders, interview your potential or existing customers and talk to your customer service team to find out what customers ask about most frequently. If you take time to really appreciate what your customers need, you’ll generate content that’s so good, they’ll want to read it — and maybe, just maybe even share it for you!

3. If possible invite someone else to be part of what you are writing

There is a strong chance that you are not the only expert on the subject you are writing, it can only be helpful for you to find someone else who knows a thing or two about the same topic and include them in your writing as well.

There are several reasons why partnering with influencers is great. First, they will add some credibility to your content piece because their engrossment is seen as a third-party endorsement of what you’re saying. Beyond all that they are likely to share your content in their own network, which will increase the audience for your content benefiting you in the process.

4. Be sure to share what you write

Really emphasis on your distribution plans when you’re creating your content plans for the future. If you’re presently only posting to your blog or website, branch out a bit, add in social channels, and invite influencers you’ve associated with to share on their networks, too.

You might find new places to distribute your content piece to if you are looking for them. Your referring sites in your analytics account might be a good place to start, look for other similar places.

Investigating the competition on how they are promoting and distributing their content might highlight additional great ideas for you as well. Spend a few minutes reviewing what your competition and industry leaders are doing and see what makes sense for you.

5. “Do more with less”

If you generate content that’s truly concentrated and delivers excessive value to your consumer, you don’t need to create tons of it. A few primary pieces of content may do more for you than what 20 pieces of mediocre content can ever do.

If we really emphasis on creating great content that our customers want and need, we’ll see even bigger and brighter success in 2017 and even beyond.