There’s no shortage of content on the internet. In fact, there’s so much content that it can be overwhelming to try and sift through it all. That’s where content recommendation strategies come in handy.
Smart content recommendation strategies help you deliver the best content to each visitor and provide them with a better experience. This will also help you get more of relevant content discovered and get more engagement on it.
In this blog post, we will explore the top 6 best content recommendation strategies that you can use in 2024.
Table of Contents
6 Best Content Recommendation Strategies
Let’s get right to the point and discuss the top content recommendation strategies. Here we go.
1. Most Viewed Content
Recommending the most viewed content to site visitors is one of the popular content recommendation strategies used by brands.
The most viewed content is usually determined by the number of page views or unique site visitors that a piece of content receives. The popularity of a piece of content can also be gauged by the amount of time that it spends on different categories.
This is one of the content recommendation strategies that is ideal to engage first-time visitors to your site. Take a look at how “The Week” promotes the most popular content on its site:
Image via The Week
You can also use this tactic on your category page to display more content in real time to your first-time visitors in that category, like how The WOD Life has done.
Image via The WOD Life
2. Associated Content
When it comes to creating new and interesting topics to customers or new visitors, one of the best content recommendation strategies is to suggest similar, content.
Marketers make use of content recommendation engines that use sophisticated algorithms to suggest similar content to customers based on their past actions.
For example, YouTube populates valuable content in real time on the right-hand side based on the video a user is currently watching and suggests similar videos.
Image via YouTube
The algorithm makes content recommendations by grouping topically related videos or videos that are typically watched together.
The other popular method is to use related post widgets. These widgets will show your readers other articles in real time that they might be interested in based on the article they’re currently reading.
Manually adding links to related articles is also one of the clever content recommendation strategies that can be effective in boosting user experience on your site.
See how we encourage our readers to explore more topics based on the article they are currently reading.
Image via Attrock
3. Last Viewed Content
The next in this list of the best content recommendation strategies is to suggest new content based on the content previously viewed by your audience.
AI-based algorithms display the most recently viewed content first to the visitor and typically, the content recommendations are based on the viewing data from the past week, month, or any other time period.
Popular sites such as Netflix and Amazon employ this content recommendations based strategy to engage their customers.
Image via Amazon Prime
4. Hyper-Personalized Recommendations
If you want your content to be seen by as many people as possible, you need to make sure it's super-personalized.
Besides, modern consumers expect hyper-personalized experiences across digital channels. In a 2021 study, 60% of respondents said they will make a repeat purchase from a business that offers a personalized experience.
That's where the affinity-based content recommendation comes in.
In addition to demographics, content recommendation engines look at these data sets to segment audiences and tailor content recommendations:
- Search queries
- Geographic location
- Purchase history
- Social behavior
- Current shopping cart items
This is one of the product recommendation strategies used by sites like Amazon and Netffix. These sites use machine-learning and AI-based algorithms to make highly personalized content recommendations.
Some sites ask uses to answer key questions to provide their preferences to make custom recommendations. Here’s an example from Alo Moves site:
Image via Alo Moves
5. People Also Viewed
One content recommendation strategy that often works well is “People Also Viewed.”
Here you recommend content to a user based on what other people have viewed. Here’s an example.
Image via Finding Tom
In fact, this is a tactic most ecommerce sites use to upsell and cross-sell productsto each visitor. Here’s one of the content recommendation strategies used by ColourPop, a cosmetics company, to promote products to visitors.
Image via ColourPop
6. Bundling
There are a few key reasons why bundling content is an effective content recommendation strategy.
First, it allows you to present a larger volume of content to your audience simultaneously. This is especially useful if you have a lot of content that you want to recommend, but don't want to overwhelm your readers.
Bundling content helps to keep your users engaged. By presenting multiple pieces of content (or products) at once, you're giving them more opportunities to find something that interests them.
This is how The Weather Channel promotes a combination of content pieces on a broad topic.
Image via The Weather Channel
Bundling content is one way to increase page views and the duration of time visitors spend on web pages. When you include multiple pieces of content in a bundle, it's more likely that one of them will resonate with users.
You can also feature deals and offers on the same page to promote sales like how The Weather Channel has done.
FAQ
Q1. What are content recommendations?
A: Content recommendations are a great way to keep your audience engaged by directing them to more of your content. By providing personalized recommendations, you can encourage your users to explore new content that they may be interested in.
Q2. What is a recommendation strategy?
A: A content recommendation strategy is a plan for choosing which pieces of content to recommend throughout the customer journey. It can be used to increase engagement, drive conversions, or simply improve visitor experience.
Q3. How do you create a content recommendation strategy?
A: First, it's important to understand the overall goal of the content recommendation. What is it that you're trying to achieve?
Once you have a clear understanding of the desired outcome, you can start to develop your content recommendations. Make sure to consider all factors, such as the target audience, platform, budget, and resources.
Q4. What is a strategic recommendation in marketing?
A: Content recommendations are a strategic marketing tool that can help you boost your bottom line. By personalizing your content and recommending it to each visitor, you can increase engagement and conversions.
Q5. Which is the best content recommendation system?
A: The most common type is a content-based recommendation strategy, which is based solely on what the reader is currently viewing and recommends tailored content.
Another type is the collaborative filtering recommender, which looks at the ratings of other users to recommend content.
The best system for your business depends on your goals and your target audience’s preferences.
Final Thoughts
There you have it—the best 6 content recommendation strategies that you can use to drive more traffic to your website. By implementing even just a few of these strategies, you can see a significant increase in the amount of traffic you receive.
Try out a few and see which ones work best for you and your audience.
Need comprehensive digital marketing support? Our marketing experts are here to help with content marketing, lead generation, landing page optimization, and much more.
Leave a Comment