Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket
Imagine if your job was to generate interest in music. Would a good strategy be to play the same song over and over again for people? Of course not. While a certain style of music or a particular song may attract some, it may also repel others. Ideally, you would want to present the listeners with a wide array of musical styles to draw in various groups.
For content marketers, the concept is the same. Certain strategies may attract certain customers, but not others. It’s important to utilize as many different strategies as possible as long as the quality of those strategies don’t suffer.
Let’s take a look at the many faces of content marketing!
What is Content Marketing?
First, let’s establish a quick definition.
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that focuses on creating and sharing content that is valuable, relevant, and consistent. The goal is to build trust and establish a relationship with potential customers by providing them with information to help them solve problems, rather than just selling to them.
By building trust, credibility, and brand awareness, businesses can attract and retain a clearly defined audience, drive profitable customer action, and ultimately create brand/product evangelists.
What are the Different Types of Content Marketing?
Blog Posts
An oldie, but goodie. Blog posts are great ways to drive traffic to your website and generate leads. They can help establish your brand as a thought leader in the industry, educate your audience, and build a relationship with your readers. In addition, blog posts are shareable, so they can help increase your reach and attract new followers to your social media channels.
The right piece of content can also help you improve your search engine rankings, making it more likely that potential customers will find you when searching for information related to your products or services.
Ebooks
These are basically for the blog super fans. Ebooks are digital books that are typically longer than blog posts and provide in-depth information on a specific topic.
Videos
Shout out to all the visual learners! Video content is a highly engaging and effective way to capture the attention of your target audience. It allows you to communicate your message in a more visually appealing way than other forms of content, such as blog posts.
Videos are also great for conveying complex ideas and concepts (e.g. what is RevOps?) in a way that is easy for your audience to understand. This makes them particularly useful for businesses that offer products or services that require a certain level of explanation or education.
Infographics
This is just a fancy word for: “instead of giving you a ton of data in boring number form, here’s a chart or graph to make it easier to visualize”.
By using a combination of text, graphics, and images, infographics can help your audience better understand your message and remember it more easily. Today, it’s easy for people to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of content they encounter online. Infographics can help break through the noise and capture your audience's attention, making them more likely to engage with your brand.
Infographics are a relatively underutilized form of content marketing, which means that creating high-quality ones can help you differentiate your brand from others in your industry.
Podcasts
Definitely all the rage right now. Podcasts can help businesses connect with their audience on a deeper level as they offer a highly personal and intimate way to communicate with the audience. Unlike other forms of content marketing, podcasts allow you to speak directly to your listeners in a way that is engaging, informative, and entertaining. This can help you build a stronger connection with your audience and make them more likely to choose your products or services over those of competitors.
White Papers
This one’s a little more old school. Essentially, it’s a persuasive, in-depth report on a topic which seeks to provide a solution to a specific problem faced by consumers. They are typically long form content, which can be helpful in establishing your brand as an expert in your industry.
As with infographics, white papers are a relatively underused form of content marketing, which means that creating high-quality ones can help you attract more attention and increase brand awareness.
Social Media Posts
If this isn’t the king of content marketing, it’s darn close. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn provide businesses with the opportunity to create and share content that is tailored to their audience's interests and needs.
By creating content that encourages discussion and interaction, businesses can foster a sense of community among their followers and build brand awareness. This can help increase loyalty and advocacy, as well as generate word-of-mouth referrals. When content is shareable and engaging, businesses can increase the reach of their message beyond their existing followers, which increases mind share and attracts new customers.
Webinars
Why do marketers love these things so much? Simple: they’re convenient, cost-effective and interactive.
They allow businesses to showcase their expertise on a specific topic related to their products or services and can also be an effective way to generate leads. By offering valuable information in exchange for contact information, businesses can attract potential customers who are interested in their products or services. This can help build a database of leads that can be used for future marketing efforts.
Case Studies
Case studies do something that many other forms of content marketing do not, which is to provide real-world examples of how businesses have helped their customers achieve success. By sharing stories of how they have solved problems or overcome challenges, businesses can demonstrate their expertise and show the value they can provide to potential customers. This can persuade potential customers to take action.
Email Newsletters
For those who love creative content marketing, this is your time to shine!
Email newsletters are an effective way for businesses to build relationships and stay top-of-mind with their audience by providing regular updates and information about their products or services. Newsletters often include calls-to-action and interactive elements, such as surveys or quizzes, which encourage their audience to engage with their content and offerings.
Email marketing can also be an effective way to personalize the customer experience. By segmenting the audience and sending targeted content based on their interests or behavior, businesses can provide a more personalized experience that is tailored to the individual's needs and preferences.
User-Generated Content
This sounds like fancy marketing jargon, but it’s actually something most people have experience with. If you’ve ever watched an unboxing video on YouTube then you’ve interacted with user-generated content.
It’s a marketing strategy that involves encouraging and showcasing content created by a business's customers or followers. This type of content can take many forms, such as customer reviews, social media posts, images, videos, and more.
One of the main benefits is that it helps build trust and credibility with potential customers. When people see real-life examples of other customers using and enjoying a product or service, they are more likely to trust and be influenced by the brand. It also helps businesses create a sense of community and engagement around their brand, as customers feel valued and appreciated when their content is shared and promoted by the business.
It can also be a cost-effective way for businesses to generate content. Instead of relying solely on their own marketing efforts, businesses can leverage the creativity and enthusiasm of their customers to create high-quality content that resonates with their target audience. This not only saves time and resources, but it also helps businesses create a more authentic and relatable brand image.
Product Reviews and Comparisons
Whether you’re going on vacation, buying a vacuum cleaner, or just trying to find some good Chinese take-out, the first thing most people do is look online to see what other people recommend.
Product reviews and comparisons are powerful content marketing strategies that can help businesses increase brand awareness, build trust with their audience, and drive sales. By providing detailed, honest reviews of their products, businesses can build trust with potential customers and show that they value transparency and honesty.
In addition to providing valuable information for potential customers, product reviews and comparisons can also help businesses improve their products and customer experience. By listening to feedback from customers, businesses can identify areas for improvement and make changes to their products or services.
E-learning Courses
The ultimate goal of any company is not only to sell their product, but to create loyal customers who become evangelists, or advocates, for it. A good way to do this is to make your customers experts, and a good way to make them experts is through e-learning courses.
E-learning courses allow businesses to share their expertise and knowledge with customers, while also providing a valuable resource that customers can return to again and again. These courses are typically more in-depth and comprehensive than other types of content marketing, as they are designed to teach customers a specific skill or set of skills.
Also, e-learning courses can be a powerful tool for lead generation and customer acquisition by providing valuable resources that customers are willing to exchange their contact information for.
Influencer Marketing
This may be hard for some to believe, but that white paper you spent so much time crafting may not persuade everyone to love your product, especially younger audiences. That’s where influencer marketing can help.
Influencer marketing involves collaborating with individuals who have a significant online following in a particular niche or industry. The key lies in identifying influencers who have a similar target audience to your brand and whose values align with your own. Once a business has identified the right influencer, they can work with them to create sponsored content that promotes their products or services. This can include sponsored posts on social media, product reviews and endorsements.
Sometimes this method can actually be more cost-effective than traditional advertising, as businesses can work with micro-influencers who have smaller followings but are targeted (sorry, you probably won't be landing MrBeast).
Website Copy and Landing Pages
These may not be the flashiest forms of content marketing, but they may just be the most important as they are often the first impression a potential customer has of your business.
Website copy should be easy to understand and communicate your brand message in a way that resonates with your target audience.
Landing pages are designed to convert visitors into leads or customers. They typically contain a form or call-to-action that encourages visitors to take a specific action, such as filling out a contact form or making a purchase. Effective landing pages are focused on a single goal, have a clear and compelling headline, and include persuasive copy that addresses the visitor's pain points and offers a solution.
A Lot to Choose From
While the goals of content marketing are rather straightforward, the methods which can be employed to help achieve those goals are quite diverse. It’s important to recognize which content formats are best at promoting a particular product or service and keeping customers loyal.
