Content Marketing is a great way to bring brand awareness to your business, and when content is shared consistently enough, also keeps your business at the top of customer’s minds when they are thinking about buying a product.
Content Marketing is the creation and distribution of suitable, consistent, and handy content – such as blog articles, social media posts, videos, and so on, to current and potential customers to engage or attract them to a business.
This blog describes nine different kinds of content commonly used for Content Marketing.
Blog Articles
Blog articles are a popular way content marketers reach target consumers. Blog articles are used to share valuable information, industry trends and updates, or show a business’s know-how on a topic.
Most blog articles are shared on a business’s website, however, occasionally, guest bloggers also contribute blog articles to another website to build links and offer different perspectives. Usually made up of text-based-content, blog articles also include video and images to break up blocks of text and improve reader interest.
Blogging is beneficial to include in a Content Marketing strategy because it’s cheap to make, easy to create and is search-engine friendly.
Videos
Videos are an engaging type of Content Marketing, used for many purposes. They allow you to create fascinating visual content for your audience. Video is a great way to secure attention, spread your message and stir up emotions, causing people to want to interact with your content.
According to Wyzowl, 91 per cent of businesses use video as a marketing tool, so it’s become one of the more popular content choices.
Images
Images/photographs are regularly used for Content Marketing. Much like videos, images are visual content that grabs attention and evokes an emotional reaction from audiences.
Photos are best used on networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to increase visibility and inspire/cause people to take action. Image–based content such as infographics or photographs are useful for audiences to digest complex information in a quick and easy way.
Pro-Tip: Check out Purple Giraffe’s Image Guidelines to take your images to the next level.
Social Media
Social media marketing is a branch of Content Marketing, where people create content and share it through relevant social networks. Brands post content such as: text, video, and photos on social platforms.
Most businesses pick the social media networks their target audiences use. Popular platforms include Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and Pinterest. Business-to-Business (B2B) brands can find success by being thought leaders on networks such as LinkedIn and X.
Social media helps businesses socialise and engage with customers. It’s a great way to share engaging content and keep customers up to date about the activities of a business.
Social media is also useful for:
- Sharing your brand’s values, voice and personality
- Providing valuable content to be shared widely with many people and driving more traffic to your website
- Interacting with your audience and urging them to follow your brand and liking, commenting on and sharing your posts
- Growing loyalty and trust with your customers and creating a community of supporters who will promote your business to others
eBooks
“ebook” is a contraction of “electronic book”. These digital publications can be used to share valuable information with their audience to generate leads and establish expertise.
They are typically much longer than blog posts and usually concentrate on one topic.
eBooks are commonly used for B2B Content Marketing and often feature unique research, industry insights or offer data/statistics that can’t be found anywhere else. eBooks allow businesses to gather more leads and grow their brand’s authority.
Podcasts
Podcasts are digital audio programs, regularly created as a series, available online and are streamed or downloaded. Episodes focus on a theme or subject, e.g. marketing, technology, books, movies, comedy, news, interviews or education. They are listened to on smart phones, tablets or computers.
Businesses can create a podcast of their own, or people can guest star on another podcast in the same industry to connect with other possible customers. Branded podcasts provide answers to audience problems and often also include case studies, industry trends, customer and anecdotal stories to make an emotional connection with their listeners.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a successful type of Content Marketing, which allows you to send messages directly and personally to your audience.
Email marketing is helpful to:
- Welcome new subscribers
- Explain your brand values
- Share tips
- Promote products and offers/discounts
- Reveal business updates and events
- Nurture relationships, loyalty and trust
Case Studies
Case studies are real stories that show how your product or service has helped your customers to reach their goals. Case studies give details about your product/service and a winning story.
Case studies are useful for:
- Giving social proof and credibility with statistics
- Showing your value proposition
- Enticing possible customers and convincing them to buy
User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is any content, such as video, images, audio and text, that’s made and shared online by customers or followers of a brand. It’s different from standard content because it’s made by amateurs not professionals and is more interactive.
UGC is used to:
- Gather more social media content easily to decrease your workload
- Grow brand trust, loyalty, and supporters
- Use the influence of word-of-mouth recommendations
- Direct more traffic to your other content and increase conversions
- Bump up your social media engagement and posting schedule
Are you thinking about including Content Marketing as part of your broader marketing strategy? If you want support with using Content Marketing for your business, contact our team of marketing experts today!
