Content marketing is one way that companies and brands can share their story, their solutions, and their value by meaningfully engaging users. Content marketing falls under the umbrella of inbound marketing, which caters to users’ needs and delivers meaningful experiences tailored to them. Contrast that with outbound marketing (also called interruptive marketing), where advertising stems first and foremost from the company’s goals and needs.
And content marketing is just as broad as it sounds, taking a dizzying number of forms: text, photos, videos, interactive media, and more. From user-generated videos on TikTok to Instagram stories to informative blog posts on your company’s website, content can be as creative as your audience’s tastes and your brand’s image.
But even if you know that content is king, you may not know what your company should do to stand out from the crowd. In other words, what makes content marketing effective?
Your content should be engaging and unique and provide value for your audience. But to create that, you should also take time to more deeply understand two things:
- Your audience, and
- Your story
What is your target audience, and what are their needs, interests, questions, values, and problems—and how can you address them? And on the other side of the equation, you’ll want to give a clearer message on your brand’s story, too. What is your expertise? How can you leverage the space that your competitors are missing?
Once you have the answers, you can start narrowing down which of these five types of content marketing could be most effective for your company—and start more powerfully engaging with your audience.
Blogs
When you think of content marketing, you probably think of blogs. They’re the workhorse of content marketing, allowing companies to grow their visibility in search engines like Google.
If you have a useful blog, you can demonstrate your company’s expertise and authority in your topic or service area—which will showcase your value to your audience and show Google that you just might deserve to rank in the top research results.
Most marketers say that you should plan to publish content regularly and focus on writing articles that truly help your audience. If you make dog treats, maybe that means writing FAQs to answer customers’ questions about healthy pet food. If you offer on-demand plumbing services, maybe that means explaining when you should call a plumber.
Success with a blog doesn’t come overnight. But in time, if you produce content consistently, write posts on a handful of well-defined topics you know best, and offer customers solutions to their problems, you’ll be on your way to seeing returns on your investment. By ranking higher in Google search, your customers will be more likely to think about your company when they need your product or service.
A great way to make your blog content more interesting is to add visual content such as videos and animations. This not only keeps your visitors on the page longer, but also makes it more likely that they will contact you
Email marketing can be extraordinarily effective. You can use emails to share content your latest vidoe content, blog, generate leads, or close sales with customers at the decision stage. You can structure emails like a newsletter featuring text or video content, You can use them to offer product updates, share promotions, or offer high-value freebies.
You can (and likely should) connect with customers via email. But, be mindful about when and how you do it. After all, an increasing number of internet users are concerned about data privacy, and people want to buy from brands they trust. That’s true for both B2B and B2C sales.
The bottom line: Use email marketing to build your customers’ trust, not diminish it. Be sure to get permission from your users before emailing them and personalize the message to their needs. Also, keep your voice human and conversational to hook readers from the subject line to the CTA.
Social Media
Insta stories. TikTok influencers. Everyone may be talking about creating visual contetn on social media, but plenty of companies don’t know where to start. Should you use photos or videos? Try one platform or several? Our hint: If your customers are using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, or other social platforms—and most web users are—you may already know where and how to reach them.
Social media campaigns often revolve around two marketing goals: engaging a user community and spreading brand awareness. But with the creativity of social media, you have plenty of choices for executing those goals with engaging visual content.
A dog food company could regularly post on Insta showing happy dog customers eating their kibble (engaging their customer community). Or a home improvement store might post useful memes on the top tools all homeowners need—and that their store offers (spreading brand awareness).
Don’t let social media intimidate you. Research where your audience already hangs out and meet them where they are. Then, set goals for your campaigns, like the number of clicks, engagement, or hashtag performance.
Interactive Media
From app-based games and quizzes to interactive maps and e-books, interactive content marketing may sound like the future. And in many ways, it is. The New York Times made waves in the past decade as it increased interactive media like reader quizzes—and boosted reader engagement. The takeaway: Text-based media can be richer and more engaging when users can play an active role in it.
Regardless of your company’s size or marketing budget, you can leverage interactive media. Try using polls or quizzes to get your audience involved. For the accounting software company, offer your customers a quiz on their data personality type—and give them tailored solutions when they get their results. If you run an e-commerce platform for used children’s gear, survey your customers on which baby gear they use the most.
Interactive content shows your audience that you’re not the only one doing the talking—they are, too.
Lead Generation
The goal of lead generation is to capture useful information directly from your audience in exchange for useful (and typically high-value) content. You have several options to set this up, but one structure entails creating a landing page where users can fill in a form and receive a premium freebie.
Your yoga supplies business could offer a free ten-minute beginner course to get started on the mat. Or your cloud-based accounting software company could offer a detailed case study on optimizing reserves forecasting.
Whether you offer a video, PDF, or coupon, you’ll need to think about what one piece of content would entice your customers enough to hand over an email or phone number. (Hint: It should be pretty good!)
Engage Your Audience With More Effective Content
Using content to connect with your customers is one of the most important ways companies can spread awareness of their brand, convert customers, and achieve the marketing ROI they’re looking for. You can share your brand’s story and boost engagement with the right content that best speaks to your audience.
Your company may already have a full team of marketing pros who understand this. Or, for smaller companies or startups, you may need to think more intentionally about how you’ll dedicate your marketing budget and your strategy to attract and engage your customers.
With a content marketing agency’s help, you don’t have to guess about what types of content make sense for you or how to dedicate your budget. Get a creative agency on your side that knows how to create high-quality content that tells your story and impresses your audience.
And whatever content medium you choose, video can boost its effectiveness. According to Hubspot, video marketing improves SEO and boosts conversions and sales. 31% of marketers add videos specifically to improve SEO. Websites see a search engine boost when they add video because page quality is improved, and visitors tend to spend more time on the page.
If you’re ready to see how video could boost your content marketing efforts, Contact the Slice team to find out how we can bring it to life: (727) 267-0650.
