As we all know, the marketing industry is fast-paced and constantly changing. Being agile is a challenge that marketers must overcome — trying new things and taking calculated risks are now crucial for marketing success and separate top marketing professionals from novices.

Here are five marketing risks worth taking:

1. Embrace new social media platforms

Newer platforms like Snapchat, Instant Articles on Facebook and Instagram Stories provide companies and professionals the ability to experiment with and target specific groups and audiences.

So while Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have their own places in the social media world, new channels can allow you to reach new audiences in new ways, in more creative methods and formats.

2. Interactive content and new formats

Since there is a lot of clutter on social media, standing out and gaining attention has become more difficult than ever for brands. Thus, to overcome this challenge, we must invest in making our basic content more interactive and exciting.

Interactive content like quizzes, calculators, infographics and even trending content formats can be more eye-catching, can help convey your messaging more creatively and can also help in attracting prospects.

3. Switch from outbound to inbound marketing

For content marketing to work for you, your content should add value and provide knowledge to the audience. This helps establish you as a thought leader, but marketers often ask, how will they know about my product or service without our product being pushed?

The key is that content marketing relies on your expertise. This builds trust among your audience, who then in the long term will remember your brand when they intend to make a purchase. Content marketing is also shown to generate more leads than outbound marketing.

4. Content for real people

Marketers have generally gotten in the habit of producing content that will help them land at the top of search engines. But to stand out, the right way to do it is to know your audiences, their interests, behaviors, etc. and then produce content that would appeal to them and provide them value.

Building content for the people who you are selling to— not for algorithms, keywords and engines — will be enough for your content marketing success.

5. Reuse your best content

Even with all your content marketing efforts, it is possible that your content is not being shown to the whole of your audience. It takes time and multiple efforts for more people in your target audience to see your content.

Reposting your top blog posts with refreshed titles or new visuals can help you avoid creating new content all the time, which can be overwhelming. It also helps you fully utilize the potential of the content you've invested your time and effort to create.

Additionally, you should also try repurposing your content into entirely different formats like newsletters, whitepapers and emailers, along with optimizing for relevant interests and time.

Conclusion

With the above points, you might try something that doesn't work or isn't right for your audience. But more importantly, you might find something that is a clear win and helps you change the course of your marketing efforts, your business and messaging.

It is OK to not know exactly what to expect. By continuously monitoring and optimizing, you can achieve your content marketing goals in the long run.