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Content marketing involves the creation and distribution of—you guessed it—content. But it’s so much more than just tossing out images and text, hoping that something sticks to your intended audience. Instead, you need to make sure that everything you do provides value and resonates with your brand.
To succeed at content marketing efforts, consistency is key. As you continue to push relevant content, you have a better chance not only of attracting consumers but also retaining them as you boost your conversions. In this article, we will be considering how your business can get the most of out a content marketing strategy.
How Content Marketing Benefits You
Gaining the trust of your audience should be at the top of your priority list. Without this trust, you don’t get sales. The issue could be that your business is being viewed as just that… a business. That would be a faceless entity without any human qualities acting to make a real connection. Even if you have the best product on the market, if a prospective customer doesn’t see you as credible and responsive to their issues, their interest will be swayed toward your competitors. You must establish yourself as an authoritative resource from the beginning.
In HubSpot’s Annual State of Marketing Report, it was found that 82% of marketers actively use content marketing. Having different types of content builds brand awareness, which is the foundation of customer acquisition. Consumers want to experience your personality. Whether it’s being seen on the Instagram Explore page or in a search on Google, your content offers shareable material that lets that personality shine. Not only does this result in more leads being generated, but also higher quality ones. From every stage of the conversion funnel, your business will be able to support its needs.
Prioritize a Long-Term Content Strategy
Just because you gather immediate interest from some of your content marketing efforts doesn’t mean that they will have an immediate payout. It may take a while for you to see substantial results. Those results vary, so it could be several months down the road before you achieve your definition of success. This, of course, depends on your goals for the content, but also your industry and market. Dive deep into research on your target audience as you develop your buyer personas. It will guide you through your content creation process, directing you toward their challenges, backgrounds, and searching habits.
Ultimately, having an effective strategy for content creation is necessary for organic search. For your business to rank well, search engine optimization (SEO) is a critical asset. It is a process that requires maintenance and great attention to detail. With Google’s algorithms constantly evolving, you need to ensure that you are delivering content accordingly. When you are writing any kind of copy, structure it around focused keywords that are relevant to your brand. Continue to provide more useful insight than your competitors do. Although it will take some time before you start gaining traction in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
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10 Examples of Content Types
Sticking to one channel when you produce content isn’t the ideal decision. After all, you can’t be confident that every prospect you are targeting will be on that channel. You should be meeting them where they are. While that isn’t to say that you need to be always everywhere, branching out with a variety of content formats will help you to better achieve your overarching business goals. Let’s consider some of the ways that you can engage with your audience.
Blogging
Did you know that there are over 600 million blogs on the internet? Blogging predates social media, and it remains a very accessible and effective form of content. Many brands even use blogging as the core of their content marketing strategy. You can attract quality traffic to your site by making your blog posts detailed and keyword-optimized. Include internal links and a call-to-action, as well, so that readers can navigate your offerings better. An ideal option for lead nurturing, authoritative blog content keeps visitors on your site.
Infographics
Any business that utilizes data can construct an eye-catching infographic. However, you aren’t limited to just displaying research findings. You can also share events, timelines, and maps through an infographic. They are perfect for packing a lot of information into a relatively small amount of space. And because they are visual content, they are highly shareable and have a lot of viral potential. To not overwhelm consumers, make your design simple and break up the information in a digestible way.
E-Books
Sometimes you may have so much information that it can’t all fit comfortably in one technical piece. This may mean you structure it into a series, or else you build an e-book. E-books are long-form content that is typically packaged as downloadable PDFs. Note that long-form content has proved itself to be valuable to a variety of business types because they have a better opportunity to share their industry knowledge. Oftentimes, businesses exchange e-books (or white papers) for free when you sign up for their newsletter. So, while you are building your authority, you are also building your mailing list.
Email Newsletters
Email marketing has an impressive return on investment, which is why it is used so heavily by both B2B and B2C organizations. Good emails focus on readability. They use concise language with meaningful headlines to reel people in with content that will be relevant to them. When you create a newsletter, you can bring forth new and old content alike by linking back to it. By segmenting your audience, you can better nurture your email campaigns as you give them exactly what they need.
Videos
One of the best things about video content is that they draw emotion out of the viewer. Perhaps you have watched a commercial that made you tear up or laugh out loud. Emotions are a powerful tool that every business should work with. When we engage with a piece of content on an emotional level, we are more easily persuaded to carry out the requested action. Taking video marketing seriously has become a necessity considering it targets every age group on every device. Put your creations on YouTube to get more engagement and boost your SEO.
Social Posts
Today, being active on social media is a must. There are billions of daily active users across social media platforms, so members of your audience can likely be found on at least one. You need to figure out which of those channels they are primarily on. Once you have determined that, you can make your presence known in an honest, approachable way. For your channels to perform well, you need to not solely make your profiles promotional. You also have content marketing goals in place, such as driving traffic to your cornerstone web pages.
Quizzes
Interactive content is a fun way to engage with your prospective and current customers. When you use quizzes in the right way, they can be extremely effective. As the most engaging content type, they reveal to you what the interests and needs are of your audience. To accomplish getting this data, you first need to decide what the point of the quiz is and make sure that it’s something participants will be curious about. In the end, you can have them supply their email to get their results and ask if they’d want to opt-in for your newsletter.
Webinars
The pandemic brought about the rise of webinars. It became an easy way to host educational events that everyone would be able to attend from the comfort of their homes. Webinars offer tremendous value because, with the help of interesting subjects and panelists, they can keep attendees engaged for an extended period. Most webinars last for longer than 30 minutes, with many reaching the hour mark. Because attendees are those that are already intrigued by the topic and in the later stages of the marketing funnel, a webinar is exceptionally capable of driving conversions.
Podcasts
While webinars are better suited for those that have the time to sit down and watch, podcasts are the perfect format for on-the-go consumption. Many people enjoy listening to them in the car, in place of music. As an increasingly powerful form of content marketing, podcasts offer high-value information at your convenience. To make a successful podcast, build off topics that you are well-versed in. Share stories that you haven’t elsewhere to build a relationship with your lead. If you publish the transcript, you also receive added SEO value.
How-To Guides
Google makes it simple for us to find step-by-step instructions. By inputting a search that starts with “how-to,” you receive hundreds of thousands of sites that want to help guide you through your problem.
If you are producing a how-to guide, you want to be at the top of that list. The content could come in the form of AI generated blog posts, infographics, or videos. Whichever route you choose, the goal is to be precise in your explanation. Where applicable, how-to guides benefit from the inclusion of diagrams or screenshots, so consumers don’t rely on just text.
What to Know About User-Generated Content
Don’t feel as though you solely must rely on your in-house team to produce content. While they should continue to do so, you can also make use of the very people you are trying to reach. Using social media, user-generated content (UGC) has paved a new road for brand engagement and social shares. Having a loyal audience could provide you with great opportunities for collecting UGC. This is content that is published by people who have already purchased your product or service. And they promote it for free! These customers will serve as your best word-of-mouth allies.
Consumers crave authentic content. With this in mind, understand that you cannot simply take UGC and claim it as your own. In fact, crediting the original creator can establish your trustworthiness even further. If you repost their content, it could inspire them—and others—to put out more positive messages about your brand. You could even just simply comment on the post about your appreciation for their support. The purpose is to fortify your community. Encourage this further by using hashtags that people will associate with you when they do post UGC.
Repurposing Content in Another Medium
Do you have content that proved itself to be highly valuable in the past? If so, you may be able to transform it into something new. Let’s take the example of if you have a blog. You are producing regular, high-quality content that answers the questions people are asking. Several consumers are reading your pieces and they are performing well in the SERPs. But now, you are stuck in the brainstorming process, and you aren’t sure what your next angle should be. Pause to look at your blog post inventory. See what facts can be pulled out for a short, animated video, or what can be stretched into an hour-long podcast.
When you repurpose your content, you reach members of your audience that you may not have previously. This could be because it was published a year ago before they found out about your business. Alternately, it may be that they don’t use the platform you posted it on. Keeping the previous example in mind, someone who doesn’t like reading may be much more inclined to hear your insight in the podcast format. As you expand your content to a variety of learning styles and preferences, you also expand your reach.
Great content marketing isn’t about your products and services. It’s about your audience. With the internet becoming a space that is evolving due to the expectations of customers, you need to start catching up. Show your business off as one that they can rely on and learn from. Then, watch as your reputation, rankings, and sales rise over time.