There is no question that content marketing has become a cornerstone of any marketing plan for businesses of all sizes and industries. Content marketing benefits are immense. Marketers use this marketing strategy to attract, engage, and retain customers. Moreover, it helps you build your reputation as an expert in your industry and connects to your audience. It also enables you to build trust with your customers, leading to increased sales or traffic. When done right, content marketing is extremely time effective and can have long-term benefits at convenient costs.
This being said, every brand, company or business needs a content strategy. While creating content sounds relatively easy for most marketers, there is much more to it than what meets the eye. One may think that a video series may be enough, while others might discuss SEO topic cluster strategies or how they partnered with influential bloggers to create visual content campaigns for Instagram and Snapchat. How do we decide amongst several different types of content marketing? Below you will find which types of content formats are most popular and how each may boost your ROI.
Blog Articles
Content marketing for your website is one of the most popular types of content. And for good reason! According to a Forbes article, a blog section brings 434% more indexed pages and 97% more inbound links and relevant keywords. This means more chances to appear on the first page of Google search results, achieving your visibility goal.
Moreover, blog articles are a great means to gain more credibility with your audience, as the information used is viewed as correct and valuable. Not to mention that interesting and engaging content will help to keep your audience hooked and can also generate traffic to your website. To all this add a well-defined, long-term SEO strategy to keep your content optimised for search engines and you are ready to go.
Video Content
Another extremely popular and high-performing type of content marketing is video content marketing. If you want to connect with your audience who does not have the attention span to read through your blog, video materials are the best solution. Whether it is Facebook, Instagram or YouTube, more videos are popping up from different brands as customers are viewing more video content than ever before.
According to Wyzowl, watching a brand’s video has convinced 84% of people to purchase a product or service in 2021. As the pandemic left customers unable to see or try the products before buying them online, watching a video of the same became the only viable option that helped them survive the lockdown restrictions.
Research what type of content and topics will appeal to your audience the most - is it how-to videos, is it DIY? - and what platforms are most popular among them. Then you go ahead and integrate video content marketing into your overall marketing strategy.
Social Media Content
There may be no other best way to increase your brand awareness than social media marketing. With billions of active users every month, social media may be a key tool in your content marketing arsenal. What is the most appealing part of social media posts? They’re free for companies to run and for the public to follow. :) Still, if you expect visible results from organic social media activity, you need to know what platforms your audience prefers as well as the types of posts they find valuable. Younger customers may now be found on Instagram and Tik Tok, while the adult public may spend more time on Facebook. You’ll need to maintain constant activity as well.
Whether it’s through a photo with well-thought-out text or a minute-long video, a well-planned social media post can quickly capture anyone’s attention.
P.S.: Social media is a great way to harness the power of User Generated Content and leverage both word-of-mouth marketing and social proof of your brand's value.
Case studies
Letting the users discover more about your brand from the clients themselves is as important as your brand knowing its public. Case studies are compelling customer stories that illustrate how the brand adds value to users' lives and businesses. Plus, if you are a marketing agency, case studies are a great way to prove the great results you achieved, what strategies you used and how your business could help other brands.
Most businesses prefer case studies as a type of content marketing because they are an extremely effective way to generate leads at the bottom of the conversion funnel.
While this is not an exhaustive list of all the content types out there, they are certainly some of the highest performing and most effective types of content marketing. When choosing the best content marketing types for your digital marketing strategy, keep in mind that content marketing serves long-term rewards. Yes, engaging in the long game with content marketing takes a lot of patience, but once you start to see traction, you’ll likely see compound results over the long term. ;)
