Producing and distributing high-quality content is one of the best ways to reach, engage, and convert your target audience.
Yet, even though content marketing still reigns supreme in terms of ROI — explaining why more than 60% of all marketers plan on increasing their content budgets in 2023 — it’s safe to say that not all types of content marketing were created equal.
Two of the more common types of content include informative articles like this one and infomercials or promotion content like this one.
Yes, everyone knows that the days of 500-word blog posts are long gone, with consumers (and Google) demanding value and quality.
But pinpointing the exact types of content that have the potential to benefit your business can be a challenge.
And, when chosen through guesswork, it often leads to an alienated audience or, worse yet, a negatively impacted brand image.
So, whether you’re looking for fresh ideas to implement in your marketing strategy or want to know whether there are any options you still need to experiment with, the following are the types of content marketing you need to consider for your business.
Long-Form and Short-Form Video
If you’re only going to use a kind of content marketing in your strategy, it has got to be video.
According to the latest data from Wyzowl:
- 91% of marketers plan to invest in video in 2023.
- 96% say video marketing helped increase user understanding of products and services.
- 95% have used it to boost brand awareness. And;
- 87% have successfully utilized it to increase sales.
In other words, if you’re looking for impressive ROI, video is the way to go — and not just because consumers spend an average of 19 hours per week watching online video content.
How you approach the format is entirely up to you (and the data you’ve collected through audience research).
For example, if you’re targeting a young demographic, investing in catchy, short-form videos for TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube is a great way to reach and engage your audience.
However, if you’re a B2B business, a SaaS brand, or want an effective way to empower your prospects to understand and adopt a complex solution, you’ll do much better with long-form video.
It doesn’t have to be super long. It just has to cover a topic with sufficient depth, like in these educational clips on the Basecamp website.
Blog Posts & Articles
Although they may seem old-school, blog posts and articles remain some of the best content formats to invest in.
After all, short-form articles (which don’t exceed the 1,500-word count mark) are cheap to produce, easy to distribute, and, when done right, can be repurposed for various uses and distribution channels, allowing you to get a ton of traffic from a single post.
If you decide to base your content marketing activities on blogging, you must understand a few things to ensure satisfactory results.
- Writing basic blog posts targeting high-volume keywords and repeating old information wastes time and resources. Instead of doing this, focus your energy on serving your prospects with something new.That can be original data, a unique way of solving their pain points, or supplementing text with images or infographics to describe complicated notions. For a great example of the latter, check out how SomniFix uses text and pie charts to explain polyphasic sleep.
Source: somnifix.com
- Prioritize accessibility via readability. Although you may be an expert on a subject, chances are that your target audience isn’t. So, instead of confusing potential customers by using complex language and industry-specific jargon, do your best to simplify your articles.The best thing is that you can do this automatically, with free readability or proofreading tools available online.
- Optimize blog content for user intent. Lastly, if you want to get more out of blog posts and articles, optimize them for search intent. Determine what your audience wants to achieve by reading an article and ensure your content meets their needs.For instance, if you’re trying to reach people in the evaluation stage of the sales funnel, an article that helps them pick the best product for their needs, like this guide on choosing a medical alert system, will effectively answer their questions. And coupled with a few well-placed CTA buttons, it will maximize your chances of turning readers into satisfied customers.
Long-Form Content
As you explore content marketing strategies that could allow you to stand out from your competition, be prepared to step into the realm of long-form content, specifically ultimate guides and how-to posts.
According to research, articles hitting or exceeding the 2,000-word mark tend to rank higher on SERPs, generate more backlinks, and are more likely to be shared by readers on social media.
So, if you have the expertise to go into a lot of detail on a topic, as demonstrated by Transparent Labs in their science-based guide to pre-workout supplements, go ahead and share your insights.
Your readers will appreciate the willingness to educate. And chances are, the content will help you win their trust, thus maximizing the chances of turning blog visitors into loyal customers of your business.
Email Marketing
Though email may seem old-fashioned, it’s still one of the most valuable (and cost-effective) marketing strategies you can use for your business.
The 2021 Unbounce Conversion Benchmark report discovered that the most effective traffic channel for driving conversions was email, with a median CR of 21.8% (as opposed to a 3.5% conversion rate achieved through paid search).
With this in mind, you should find ways to use your high-value content to encourage web visitors to convert into email subscribers.
On the one hand, you can do this by turning unique content like ebooks, ultimate guides, and data reports into gated resources.
On the other hand, you can supplement your existing blog posts with a compelling CTA button or pop-up — like the one on GILI shown below — to point out to readers that they can benefit by becoming a subscriber and continuing to engage with your brand.
Source: gilisports.com
Case Studies, UGC, and Customer Testimonials
The truth about winning consumer trust is that no matter what you say, it will be less convincing than the opinions shared by your existing customers.
So, if you want to guarantee that your marketing strategy has the potential to deliver results, you have to enrich it with at least some format of social proof.
The easy way to do this will be to show off positive reviews on your website, preferably in an easy-to-notice spot like the hero section of your homepage or right next to the listing name on your product pages.
However, if you want to step up your game and get the absolute most out of this type of content, invest your marketing resources into creating and sourcing social proof like user-generated content, video testimonials, or even in-depth case studies like the ones featured on the Monday Success Stories page, which describes the methods the SaaS brand used to solve pain points for clients like Farfetch, Zippo, and Canva.
Source: monday.com
Social Media Posts
One of the easiest ways to boost brand awareness and keep your audience engaged with your brand is to be active on social media.
Survey data from HubSpot found that social media is the preferred product and brand discovery platform for young Gen Zs and Millennials.
Moreover, social commerce is on the rise, with some experts predicting it could reach a global revenue of $6.2 trillion by 2030.
In other words, creating engaging and original content for relevant social media platforms pays off.
And the best thing about promoting your business on social networks is that you don’t have to create original content for each platform you use.
In most cases, slight alterations (like modifying the caption) will make your posts stand out while still allowing you to utilize the same content on multiple platforms.
Check out how Loomly employs Twitter to promote its latest blog posts. The strategy delivers more than just fresh and helpful content to the brand’s followers.
It also drives traffic to the company’s site, where the business has a high chance of impressing prospects and getting them to convert.
Source: twitter.com
Interactive Content
Finally, as you explore the content marketing types you need in your strategy, remember interactive content that solves consumer pain points without forcing them to read an article or watch a video.
Calculators, games, free tools, and browser extensions are all examples of interactive content that can effectively attract your audience’s attention.
For instance, a proofreading tool, like the one by Perfect Tense, is an excellent way to solve a common pain point, attract a large audience, and turn high-quality leads into paying customers.
But investing in interactive content can also be a great way to get people to engage with your brand’s products continually.
Just think about how effectively the Google Dinosaur T-Rex Easter Egg game keeps users on the page, even when the search engine is out of order.
Finally, remember that interactive tools, like the Skincare Regimen Builder by The Ordinary, can also be a means to stand out from your competitors.
Especially if they’re unique, target hyper-relevant keywords, and give your prospects valuable, personalized feedback that can genuinely improve their customer experience.
Source: theordinary.com
Final Thoughts
Investing in quality, user-oriented content always pays off. But as you explore ways to reach your business goals via a content marketing strategy, you have to consider two things:
- What it is, exactly, that you want to achieve. And;
- What it is that your audience wants and needs from you.
You’re on the right path if you can generate content that does both.
The types of content marketing described in this guide are some of the options with the highest chance of success in 2023. So don’t hesitate to give them a go. And remember, it’s OK to approach them with your own twist. In fact, that’s a necessity; especially if your goal is to stand out from your competitors and make your solutions irreplaceable in your target audience’s lives.
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