Content is an indispensable cornerstone of every business. Whether it’s lead generation or lead nurturing or simply creating brand awareness or loyalty, content is at the core of it all. Moreover, all types of content marketing put together costs 62% lesser than outbound marketing and generates 3 times as many leads. Now while every business has some form of content to market themselves, what’s crucial is leveraging your efforts in a manner that drives home numbers.
So if you’re looking for ways to make your content reap tangible ROI, check if your current strategy includes these 8 types of content marketing and if they are optimized to meet your business purpose.
1. Blogs
Blog posts are fairly easy to create and serve as an easy go-to source of information for your audience. Plus, it offers you a platform to deliver a variety of content styles like listicles, how-to articles, expert round-ups, etc. Good blog posts can be repurposed into multiple content assets. They can garner mentions from renowned media sources which eventually translate into better search rankings.
How to get it right:
- Pack in as much original research or aspects that your brand can vouch for as possible. It attracts more citations and is good for SEO purposes.
- Take a good look at what’s already available online. See if you can come up with new ideas or a different perspective in order to add value.
2. Presentations
LinkedIn’s SlideShare platform offers a great opportunity for businesses to connect with their target audiences. About 80% of their 80 million visitors come through targeted search. Thankfully, you don’t have to start from ground zero to claim your share of the spotlight.
Simply pull out that presentation you made at the annual stakeholder meet last year or the one that fetched you an inbound. Go ahead and prime those for your target viewers and you’re ready to run SlideShare campaign.
How to get it right:
- Choose a combination (preferably any two) of these to develop the purpose of your presentation: inform, persuade, inspire, entertain.
- Back your story with vivid charts and graphics.
- Pick 3 easily relatable keywords to tag your presentation.
3. Videos
Videos are a great way to educate your audience about your product/ service offerings, build your brand personality and showcase your mettle through expert interviews online. In fact, 84% of consumers have been convinced to make a purchase after watching a brand’s video. Videos can also be instrumental in driving website traffic to target content assets like e-books and whitepapers if done well. And here’s the best part – you can monitor your viewers’ activities to get actionable feedback on what interests them – from their pause, play, and skip actions.
How to get it right:
- Pick your platform before you start production as attention spans vary. The chart below offers a fair benchmark.
- Keep it short. Make your first 8 seconds riveting enough to get your audience asking for more. Remember to add a definite call to action.
- Always embed captions. Studies suggest about 92% of consumers view videos with the sound switched off.
4. Podcasts
Not many believe in the power of podcasts yet. However, the format brings with it a convenience quite valued in the age we live in. Podcasts are a great way to engage with your audience when they seek some productive off-screen time. They help build your repute as a thought leader.
From getting an industry expert to offer best practices on a particular topic to answering frequently asked questions about your product and more, there’s a lot you can do. The below graphic showcases how the format has grown popular in the US. Moreover, with Amazon’s ‘Alexa’ assistant gaining ground in most savvy households, the future of podcasts looks bright.
How to get it right:
- Think of a topic that you can turn into episodes to keep your audiences tuning in.
- Turn your podcasts into a conversation. Have domain experts from your company take interviews.
- Initiate polls to get a pulse of your listeners and the topics that interest them.
5. Newsletters
This format performs best when optimized to the interests of the receiver. If subscribers are well-polled at the sign-up time, it could help businesses deliver relevant content and lead to higher email open rates.
Newsletters offer a gamut of ways to entice prospects with industry news round-ups, blog recaps, event announcements, expert columns… the list goes on. This type of content marketing also enables businesses to capture attention and build excitement over their exclusive or paid content assets.
How to get it right:
- Try to have a theme/ topic series in mind for every quarter. It helps create anticipation.
- Experiment with the length of your copy, and in the nascent stages create A/B tests on your tone of voice.
- Follow the 90-10 balance. 90% informational – 10% promotional.
6. Case studies
One of the best ways to connect with your target customer is through well-detailed case studies. They are incredibly relatable, speak the customer’s language, and help build brand credibility. Case studies are great sales assets as they help elaborate on your competitive advantage enabling your prospects to see why they should choose you.
How to get it right:
- Check if the client you plan to showcase minds being mentioned in the case study. Tell them how they would benefit.
- Talk about the most popular challenges and chart out the journey on how the desired solution/numbers were achieved, preferably in a visual form.
- Find a great customer testimonial to include – either from your internal resources or social media.
7. Whitepapers
Whitepapers are an authoritative content format that enables brands to talk about specific industry issues and offer high-value solutions. Being information-rich they are a handy source of reference used by decision-makers. A study by Forbes indicates that about 79% of B2B buyers share whitepapers with their peers.
They are an incredibly lucrative form of gated content that helps businesses build an organic and effective lead base through the capture of email ids among other vital details with every download. Besides, they also work great as a sales collateral at the lead nurturing stage to understand the finer nuances of what they can expect from signing up with you.
How to get it right:
- Offer as much original and authentic content as possible to back your claims.
- Provide valuable and actionable information. Resist the temptation to sell.
- Pepper your content with visuals and graphs.
- Try to stick to 6-10 pages. End with a clear call to action.
For an effective example of a whitepaper check out ours on Evaluating EHS compliance in your supply chain.
8. Infographics
Studies have shown that people can recall 65% of the visuals they see, even after three days. Whether plugged into a newsletter or blog or used as a standalone piece of content, infographics as a sure-shot way of getting your visitors to spend more time on your website, among other types of content marketing. Inversely, for time-crunched executives looking for a quick way to prove their point, infographics prove to be a valuable reference.
Some effective ways to use infographics are: exploring topical themes, offering timelines, how-to flowcharts, showing comparisons between products, processes, now and then, etc.
How to get it right:
- Choose topics that can be better explained in pictures than in words.
- Ensure a consistent design format. Use minimal words. Cite your data sources.
- Keep the file size low. Longer page load times could result in higher bounce rates.
Finally, whatever the type of content marketing, ensuring it is easily consumable by the demographic or target personas you have in mind is vital.
Netscribes helps leading organizations across industries create research-driven, customer-centric content assets that help convert leads into long-term customer relationships. Contact us to know how we can help you achieve your content marketing goals.