A marketing strategy known as “content marketing” involves producing information to provide value to an audience. A company can promote itself as a reputable thought leader in their sector by offering pertinent information to the consumers they are trying to reach through online tools such as blogs, videos, and emails.
There are many different approaches to content marketing that you may take. Find the ones that make sense for your brand instead of trying to master them all. Invest your time and resources in those instead of trying to master them all.
A Look at Ten Distinct Strategies for Content Marketing
Here are ten different content marketing approaches for your consideration.
1. Social Media Posts
According to Statista, social media has evolved into a marketing tool that is astonishingly powerful because more than 3.6 billion individuals will be using these platforms in the year 2020. That number is anticipated to increase to 4.41 billion by the year 2025.
When using social media for marketing purposes, it is essential to consider your audience and what they hope to see from your company. For instance, if you own a business that specializes in interior design, you might want to consider including some décor pointers in the Instagram story that you post to your account.
Suppose you own a small bakery, for example. In that case, you could post information about an upcoming event at your business on your Facebook page, a recipe, and a cooking video on your TikTok channel.
2. User-Generated Content
User-generated content is a beautiful tool for marketing since it comprises texts, videos, images, reviews, and other forms of information that other people (usually consumers) create, as opposed to the brand itself. This type of content can include text, photos, reviews, and reviews of products. Simply reposting or sharing the content and allowing it to speak for itself is all a firm requires.
For instance, if a client of a local boutique shares an image of themselves on social media while wearing one of the store’s dresses, the boutique can then share the image on their social media accounts to promote their wares. This promotes your products and emphasizes the positive evaluations that others who have purchased them have left.
3. Blogs
Blogging is perhaps the content marketing method employed the most frequently by businesses of all sizes to gain their audience’s attention. Keeping a blog raises the probability of creating solid relationships with your readers, which can lead to increasingly profitable actions on the part of customers.
Blogging is an excellent tool for conveying to your audience the breadth and depth of your knowledge and skills. Your organic search exposure will rise as well as your blog’s audience size, if you maintain a continuous presence and produce new content on a consistent publishing schedule.
Blogging will enhance your search engine optimization (SEO) marketing approach, and your results on search engine results pages (SERPs) will improve if you establish a blog. If you keep up with your blog, you can consistently publish new content that discusses issues other people are interested in learning about.
You may build your organization as an authority in the sector with the help of intelligent and well-written postings. These blog posts will also contain important keywords relevant to your sector, which will help your post rank well in search engine results pages (SERPs).
4. Emails
As stated by HubSpot, email marketing is considered one of the most successful types of content marketing, with 64% of small businesses using email to communicate with their clients.
However, giving your subscribers enlightening information will be more effective than continuously spamming them with email advertisements.
You should include the following in any marketing emails you send out:
- Subject line. This should be clear and convincing in its presentation.
- Image. Every email should have at least one attention-grabbing graphic.
- Body paragraph. The main body of your email should consist of 200 words or less and provide relevant information.
- A rallying call to action (CTA). To move your reader in a particular direction, such as visiting a website, participating in a survey, or making a purchase, encourage them to do so.
According to several studies, the number of views on content that includes pertinent photographs is approximately 94% more than the number of views on information that does not include images.
5. Books in Digital Format and White Papers
Long-form content is an excellent tool for demonstrating your knowledge and level of competence in your field to your audience.
This is also beneficial to your email marketing approach because readers of e-books or white papers are often required to supply some information before they can download them. This information may include an email address. However, you are responsible for providing a cause for your audience to make an effort.
Remember that your e-book or white paper is not an advertisement for your company or the service you provide. This is a highly significant consideration. You will continue to get new subscribers and keep the ones you already have if you provide your existing ones with an in-depth analysis of your business sector and valuable takeaways.
6. Infographics
Infographics are visually appealing representations of data, such as statistics and facts, that are organized in a manner that is simple to read and comprehend. Text in an infographic is frequently broken up into discrete blocks, and these blocks may be supplemented with small icons or other pictures that relate to the subject matter of the presented information. When combined with a blog or any other form of textual medium, a content marketing strategy based on infographics can be highly effective.
7. Videos
According to Global Media Insight, there are more than 2 billion active users of Youtube. This fact makes video content among the most efficient ways to reach and engage your audience because you can share it easily.
Two of the most popular kinds of video content are recorded presentations of information, such as how-to movies and demonstrations of various products.
Additionally, videos encourage site visitors to remain on your page for extended periods. If a viewer feels that they have gained something of value from watching one of your films, they are more likely to continue browsing your website or come back to it for additional information.
In today’s world of digital marketing, you need to pay close attention to the ranking of your videos, the number of people who follow you, and the number of people who watch your videos or read your blogs. This is because many people prefer time-saving methods such as reading, shopping, or visiting before taking action.
Even though many people watch videos, this can still be a challenging problem for the people who develop video material. Because companies want their brands to be appealing, coming up with ever more spectacular ideas is necessary.
8. Podcasts
According to Statista, approximately 60 percent of customers listened to podcasts in 2021. As a result, podcasting has become a popular type of content marketing.
Sharing your knowledge and expertise gained from working in a particular field through this platform can turn listeners into devoted consumers. This is true whether you want to pursue audio-only or video podcasts.
The fact that listeners may subscribe to a podcast is undoubtedly one of the format’s most valuable selling points. Launching a fresh marketing campaign is unnecessary because your audience will be notified via RSS feed syndication whenever a new podcast is available, saving you time and effort.
You may further communicate with your clients and prospects through podcasting by offering a dedicated email address associated with your podcast. This will allow people to comment directly on the topic that is being discussed in the podcast.
After that, plan the next episode in which you will respond to questions or concerns raised in previous episodes. Comments are enabled on most hosting systems, as well as aggregators for podcasts. You can use that feedback in the creation of new content at a later time.
In addition, podcasting is something that you can readily incorporate into the social media umbrella of your firm. Both the blog entries and the podcasts can then be cross-promoted through various social media channels in order to reach readers who prefer to listen to content rather than read it.
Podcasting can make listeners feel more connected to your brand, which is essential for modern customers who want to know more about the companies they do business with. Podcasts offer an additional opportunity for creative expression and access to other thought leaders in your sector.
During your episodes, you may invite guests, network, and talk about essential and relevant topics to your audience. Consider inviting members of your audience to participate in the podcast by letting them submit questions or make suggestions for future subjects covered.
9. Educational Materials or How-To Guides
Building trust with your audience can be accomplished in various ways, one of which is by providing them with how-to tips. Your exposure will grow, as will your chances of converting leads into consumers if you offer your audience helpful information free of charge.
Your audience may visit your website to access your free knowledge. Still, they will remain there to take advantage of your additional expertise and products.
After creating them yourself, you can publish short films or textual guides on your website and social media sites. For instance, Instagram enables users to publish carousel posts, which you may use to publish step-by-step guides on various topics that interest the user’s audience.
10. Paid Ads
Spending money on advertisements that operate in conjunction with your other content marketing techniques is an excellent strategy to increase the visibility of your work among the target audience. You can share paid advertisements across various platforms, including social media, landing pages, banners, sponsored content, and more.
This helps you reach a larger audience. Although it may appear to be a simple and uncomplicated idea at first glance, it is a surprisingly tricky strategy to learn.
It involves keyword targeting, variations in display that are peculiar to the platform, constant algorithmic adjustments, and a marketplace that is quite loud and competitive for common words.
Consider investing in influencer marketing, paid advertising that promotes a product or service through influencers, who are public people with a niche following, generally on social media. The followers of an influential person are likely to be devoted and trustworthy individuals who place weight on their suggestions.
Increase the amount of exposure your brand receives and your organic sales by forming a partnership with an influencer.
Conclusion
Content marketing is a highly efficient strategy for expanding your company’s customer base. Always check that the content you produce is pertinent to your audience’s needs and interests, and ensure that you consistently provide high-quality new stuff.
If you provide more value to your audience and are more relevant to them, then Google will also value you more. Building a solid and sturdy marketing funnel may be accomplished with absolute certainty by regularly spreading out nets to attract potential customers.
Therefore, content marketing is necessary if modern firms want to drive value. If you want to know more about content marketing, check out our other articles.
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Author’s Bio:
Paul Meñez was a freelance interior designer turned graphic artist and audio-video editor. He went into full-time NGO work for more than ten years and found his passion for outreach work, specifically for underprivileged children and youth. He is currently based in the Philippines, doing freelance graphic design and video editing while writing for Softvire.