Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract your target audience and drive their profitable action. This is a powerful tool to generate long-term and sustainable leads as well as nurture your leads.
However, one issue that many entrepreneurs have when trying to implement content marketing is what types of content they should go with. So, let’s discuss 10 most popular content types and how to use them effectively to build your desired audience here.
1. Blog Articles
Blog articles are great for driving organic traffic to your site by creating content that is relevant to your target audience’s common searches with good Search Engine Optimization (SEO). From there, you have an opportunity to convert that traffic into leads by adding a lead-generating call-to-action to every blog post. Additionally, blog articles are the golden eggs for gaining inbound links and higher rank for your website on search engines like Google.
A blog article should consist of long-form high-quality content whose length should be around 2,100-2,400 words according to Hubspot, such as: listicle, checklist, how-to guide, or information about your products, or any answer to a question that your target audience likely has. For example, if you teach investment, you may publish articles about how to read a chart, how to read a financial statement. And, what you’re reading right now is also an example of a blog article.
2. Videos
Video is a versatile content type that’s increasing its popularity among internet users and business marketing strategies recently. Data from Limelight in 2019 indicates that people spend an average of 6 hours 48 minutes per week watching online videos, which has raised 59% from 2016.
You can post your videos on specialized platforms like Youtube, TikTok or you can incorporate them in different places like: website, blog articles, emails, and other social media posts. A video can be about educating your audience, an interview with experts, sharing and demoing your products, or generating sales. You can also repurpose your blog article into a video. It could be pre-recorded or live. Each type serves different viewers and targets for your business.
According to Wyzowl, in 2021, 87% of marketers claimed that video gets a good return on investment (ROI). The positive results they’ve seen include everything from increasing time on page, product understanding to generating traffic and leads, reducing support calls, and increasing sales.
The reasons that make this content form so prominent are its ease of accessibility and that it can be consumed passively. Like, have you ever accidentally come across a video so enticing that you cannot stop watching till the end. Furthermore, it can give general understanding over some topic in a shorter amount of time due to visual and audio support – as opposed to a long article full of text to read.
Mark Zuckerberg himself has even stated that he believes most online content we consume will be video in the future. Therefore, if you have the time and resources to make video content, you definitely should include that in your content marketing strategy.
Check out AweSM Youtube Channel if you would like to watch free informative videos on improving your sales, marketing, business, and mindset.
3. Webinars
Webinars are virtual events that feature presentations from speakers, experts, and hosts, attended by an online audience. You can host webinars on topics that your target audience wants to listen to and be guided on, which should have a link with your product. In that case, a webinar is a great chance to raise your call-to-action effectively because the attendees there are certainly the potential customers that care about issues that your product can solve.
Similar to video content, Webinars have been proven to have great ROI in terms of increasing marketing results, sales, and engagement rates. According to a report from ClickMeeting, 76% of B2B buyers have made a purchase after watching a webinar. It makes sense that after interacting with you live for a while, and after a Q&A session that you’d better include because 92% of viewers want it, your audience will be more likely to trust and open up to you. Especially, if you’re an infopreneur who sells knowledge online, when you deliver a good webinar, the attendees will be more convinced to convert for your online programs. So, this content type may take much time and effort to organize, but it’s worthy for high-ticket products.
If you want to know what a webinar is like and learn more about sales and marketing, you can join an upcoming AweSM webinar
4. Podcasts
A podcast is a type of audio content that often comes in a series of episodes and features one or more recurring hosts discussing a particular topic. Podcasts are similar to videos but only with audio, so its topics can also be similar to those of a video but without implementary visuals.
Thus, one of its strengths is also that it can be consumed passively. For example, people can listen to a podcast while at the gym or driving, but they can’t do that with an article. This could be one of the reasons why podcasts weren’t a big deal a decade ago but now there are more than 29 million podcast episodes on the airwaves as our lives get busier and busier. Statistics from Convince and Convert show that over half of Americans have listened to at least one podcast episode and 41% listen monthly in 2021. Therefore, it’s obvious that this content type has grown rapidly over the past several years and is still on the uptrend, and it’s a smart idea for businesses to jump on the bandwagon.
5. Infographics
An infographic is a visual representation of information and data by combining elements of image, data visualizations like charts, graphs, diagrams, and minimal text that gives an easy-to-understand overview of a topic.
Infographics are easily shareable and consumable as they are one graphic packed with a bountiful information that would be much longer if expressed in text. So, it can make a complex piece of information a lot simpler and quicker to digest for your audience. It can also help make data and statistics that are often deemed boring become more vivid and interesting to absorb. In fact, our brain processes images 60,000 times faster than it does text, and infographics are 30 times more likely to be consumed than text articles (Business 2 Community).
If you have lots of content based on facts and figures, turning them into infographics is a highly effective way to drive in more traffic. There are numerous tools available to help you with that, such as: Visme, PiktoChart, and Canva.
6. E-books
An e-book is an electronic version of a book that can be read on a digital device. E-books would be a great option if you have a piece of content that is exceptionally long that readers must scroll endlessly. It is good for showcasing your expertise and profound knowledge for a topic relevant to your business, especially if you’re a coach or consultant. Not only the e-book’s intensiveness can position you as a credible authority within your industry, but it also can contain original research or other differentiators that you can gate in exchange for an email address or even payment
In addition, e-books can boost your rankings for keywords while also nurturing and providing valuable insights to your leads. Also, you can use your e-book as an incentive gift as well as a promotion tool to your leads at the early stages of your funnel. Despite taking longer than a blog article to develop, a great e-book is incredibly effective at garnering industry and press attention (Deloitte and Forbes) in any content marketing distribution strategy.
7. White Papers & Reports
Similar to e-books, white papers and reports are also long-form content that informs readers about a certain topic. However, white papers are more data-driven, fact-driven, analytical, academic, and commonly written in the style of a report. A white paper or report can be used to communicate research findings, analysis, and other quantitative or qualitative data about a subject relating to your business. It allows brands to extrapolate on their topics and incorporate more details as well as promote an in-depth level of profession and industry knowledge.
Reports are great for both internal and external communication, for both B2C and B2B companies. For example, if you run a tech B2B company, publishing a white paper containing technical information written in a persuasive and authoritative manner will be great for your marketing purposes.
According to Forbes, 79% of B2B buyers listed white papers as the material they were most likely to share with colleagues. Apparently, it takes you a lot more time to produce a white paper, but this high-quality content type will also get you high-quality traffic in return.
Example: Data Storytelling in Marketing: Benchmark Report 2021
8. Case Studies & Success Stories
In a business context, case studies tell the story of how your product or service helped a person or a company got their desired results. This is an essential weapon that you need to equip for your business to appear more trustworthy and convincing to potential customers. On the other hand, it will also help you better evaluate your own product, understand how your customers feel and improve anything you can.
Creating this content does take time, you will need to reach out to past customers to make sure they are okay with you using their information and telling their story, but it is totally worthy to try. It could be in text form like a blog article or social media post, or it could be a testimonial video.
79% of B2B consumers preferred case studies over any other type of content marketing – as they helped them make a more informed purchasing decision. The more specific results you can display and the deeper you can dive into your process; the more effective people will believe your product can be.
9. Email Newsletters
Email newsletter is also a popular content type that must give good reasons for around 90% of marketers to use in their marketing repertoire. It is simple yet effective and can be the supporter for other content types. You can send a short email announcing your new blog article, video, upcoming webinar, podcast, infographic, ebook, or anything that you’ve just published and want your subscribers to have a look. It can give you results at different stages in the customer journey, from the early phase to the middle or even the end of your funnel with some sale-off announcement emails.
However, one thing you need to keep in mind is making sure the recipients open your email. Because an email newsletter cannot be passively consumed. The audience must get through the forefront fence of clicking to open in order to get to your content inside.
You can read these 5 best tips to increase your email open rate.
10. Social Media Posts
Besides search engines like Google, according to Data Reportal, over 40% of people in the ages of 16 to 44 use social media for brand research in 2020. Plus, as a common sense, consumers are more likely to purchase from brands who are active and engaging on their social accounts and have a decent amount of followers that speak for their credibility.
Nowadays, there are many social media platforms that have billions of active users, such as: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. You need to figure out which platforms are suitable for your business and products and your target audience will spend the most time on. After that, you also need to consider your best posting times and schedules.
Similar to email newsletters, you can post different types of content on your social media as well: photos, graphics, infographics, videos, blog, reports, GIFs, etc. Of course, these contents should be repurposed to fit a social media post, which should not be too lengthy, but more concise and attention-grabbing.
Besides, social media is good for interactive contents that encourage your followers to react and comment, like polls, questions, and live streams. Stories that only last for 24 hours are also something that can make your followers feel closer to your brand.
In addition, your social media channels and posts are great places for your inbound link practices. You can lead scroll-stoppers to your website or landing page. You can even sell your products directly on some social media platforms, like Facebook marketplace for example.
Wrap-up
So there you have it, our Top 10 Popular Content Types for you to freely choose from to optimize your content marketing strategy. Of course, you should take into consideration each type’s characteristics and how it suits your business, product, resources, and your audiences’ preference. With the right content marketing strategy, you will for sure gradually manage to build a solid audience of your own for stable organic traffic in the long run without having to depend too much on ads.