What do you think of when you hear the term “content marketing?” Some marketers pick out blogs or social media posts, while others identify case studies or white papers. The truth is, all of these are correct, and there are even more types of content marketing at your disposal. In fact, there may even be a few here that surprise you.
Let’s dive into some of the different types of content you can include in your marketing strategy, and learn how you can become a content rock star.
Perhaps one of the more popular types of content marketing, blog posts are a powerful way to bring relevant, engaging content to your target audience. Not only do blogs offer an opportunity for you to demonstrate your expertise and authority on a subject, but they also position you to educate (and perhaps entertain) your readers on a regular basis. Blog posts are also incredible SEO tools: they help drive organic traffic to your site, increase the number of indexed pages on your site, and provide your site with more inbound links.
To get the most from blogging:
Burton, an outdoor outfitter, includes topics its customers care about on the blog that don’t oversell. You can from the headline above that this blog post isn’t pushing a product or service, but they’ve done their research on their users’ interests. That doesn’t stop them from running ads on the page, of course.
With all the different platforms – and different audiences on those platforms – social media is one of the most dynamic types of content marketing. You can customize your content by platform, utilize various media like videos or live streaming, and direct traffic to your website from your posts. Social media can boost SEO by sending signals to search engines, connect you with target audiences, offer a channel for customer service, and keep brands top of mind with fresh content.
To get the most from social media:
Airbnb creates inspiring social media posts for customers who like to learn about and travel to new places.
Without a doubt, a video is one of the most popular types of content marketing right now. In general, people are viewing more video content than ever before. Fifty-four percent of consumers want to see more video from brands and businesses they support. Online video not only engages people, but it can also be used to educate consumers and lead to conversions.
To get the most from a video:
Popular food blogger, Lisa Leake, creates videos to promote her brand, 100 Days of Real Food. (Source)
It’s been interesting to see – or should we say listen – to the rebirth of podcasting in recent years. Monthly listeners are growing from 21 to 24 percent year over year, and advertisers are expected to spend $500 million on podcast ads in 2020. Why should this be considered in your content marketing mix? Podcasts present you with a mostly captive audience; listeners tend to stick around, as long as your content is valuable. Podcasting also gives you the opportunity to inject humanity into your brand and demonstrate thought leadership to your audience.
To get the most from podcasts:
“How a Hotel Client Achieved 2000% ROI with Our Product!”
“Manufacturing Company Increased Conversions by 10x with Our Services!”
Case studies are a highly effective way to demonstrate the quality of your products or services, by using real-life examples. In fact, they are the top content for buyers, with 78 percent accessing case studies when researching purchases. Consumers like case studies because they can see how the results you’ve produced can add value to their own brands. This type of content marketing helps build trust and credibility to your business.
To get the most from case studies:
Google demonstrates its capabilities through case studies, one of the most effective types of content marketing. (Source)
If you want to gather information about your customers, one of the best ways to do it is with white papers. Seventy-six percent of buyers are willing to register for and share their information in exchange for white papers. These long-form types of content marketing are a great way to generate leads, as they create interest through data, details and tons of industry-relevant information.
To get the most from white papers:
Educating your customer is not just about sharing useful tips or relevant data; it’s also about establishing your brand as an industry expert. Infographics can help you do both, by communicating helpful information about an interesting topic and about your brand in an easily digestible format. These visual assets help you build trust and authority with potential customers, and they’re easily integrated with other types of content marketing like blogs, social media, and white papers. The best part, they’re highly shareable, which can quickly spread your reach to new audiences.
To get the most from infographics:
Social Media Examiner uses infographics to visually communicate ideas and relevant topics to its target audience: marketers. (Source)
With all the different types of content available to marketers, it’s important to understand the roles, strengths, and challenges of each one. Not every type of content works for every brand, and you may have to prioritize two or three at first. Once you have enough data to see what’s working and what’s not, you can use it to influence decisions about where to assign your marketing resources to be most effective for your brand.
Most importantly, each of these seven types of content rarely stands alone. Once you’ve put in the work to create a fantastically-written, data-packed blog, look for opportunities to repurpose by turning it into a video, infographic, or both!
What does each of these content marketing assets have in common? The first step in their ideation: determine an audience and a purpose. Every piece of content you create should solve a real problem for a particular audience. Once you have your personas and content strategy in place, getting your content engine running is a breeze. A comprehensive content marketing education ensures you have those first steps down. Our Advanced Content Marketing Training does just that.
Rob Sanders is a digital marketing veteran with over 20 years of experience. During that time, Rob has helped a wide range of companies utilize new and emerging technologies to increase sales and profitability. As founder of RSO Consulting, Rob helps clients maximize their digital marketing efforts via SEO, SEM, SMO, and Web Analytics. He is responsible for many facets of the web analytics value chain, from identifying business goals and objectives to developing strategies and translating those into Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Rob also teaches digital marketing and analytics classes throughout the U.S. and abroad. As a contributor for Simplilearn, Rob creates expert thought leadership content on a variety of digital marketing and analytics topics.
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