In our last article, we took a look at what content marketing is and why it is important in any digital marketing strategy today. Let us now dive a little deeper into the various types of content you could create as part of your content marketing strategy and how to use these to your advantage.
Blogs
One of the oldest tools in the content marketing kit, blogs are a great way to reach out to
your potential customer audience by giving them the information they are looking for. A great place to start is to ask yourself what problems being faced by your target audience fall under the purview of your expertise and how does your product or service relate to their lives.
Once you’ve identified their pain points, you give them the solution they are looking for via a blog. There are a bunch of tools that can help you find out what keywords they are using to look for information online – that’s how you get your information to them. It’s important to [create quality blog content your audience loves to read and share], so that your content has maximum impact.
Videos
A lot of people assume that making videos takes a lot of effort and money. But this is far from the truth in today’s online world where there’s no dearth of free video editing tools and affordable equipment. Take a look at how Gary Vaynerchuk became the master of content marketing using online videos and grew a 45M$ from the beginnings of promoting his family wine store.
The thing about creating video content or vlogs (video blogs) is that it is easier to retain the
attention of most Internet users who respond better to audio-visual, as opposed to text content.
Whether it’s tips, reviews, tops 10 lists, latest trends, all you have to do is to make
sure your videos are one or both of two things – useful and entertaining.
Infographics
Visually appealing, informative, and compact, infographics are perhaps the most sought after and shared content on the Internet. If you need some inspiration, Michael Schmitz, head of Content Lab at Publicis, Munich, has curated 197 infographics on the topic of content marketing.
Podcasts
Getting noticed is all about multiplying the number of platforms you are available on. With an increasing number of people spending hours on Spotify or iTunes, podcasts are a great way to get heard of. Whether it is starting your own podcast or getting interviewed (or both), it’s important you’re visible (or should we say audible?) on podcasts today.
Downloadable guides & e-books
Let’s take a page from Moz – quite literally. By creating a page such as The Beginner’s Guide to SEO, Moz – provider of SEO tools and resources, has opened a door to millions of visitors to their site, who then just stumble upon their other content.
There are a lot of brands using downloadable e-books, guides, and whitepapers in exchange for your basic contact details (for more valuable content) which they then use to email you more informative content. Genius, right?
So, are you ready to create some great content? Now that you know the ‘what’, it’s time to take on the ‘how’ of content marketing, for in the words of Arjun Basu, “without strategy, content is just stuff.”
