Content marketing
Content marketing involves the creation and dissemination of valuable and applicable content to reach your target audience, primarily through online platforms. A significant advantage of content marketing is its ability to harmonize with your brand’s identity and generate genuine engagement and conversions.
The overall objective of each type of content, such as blog posts, newsletters, white papers, and social media posts, among others, is to enhance your brand’s long-term decision-making.
- Convey your brand’s expertise.
- Show that your company values its customers.
Posting frequency is just as important as the quality of your content as it contributes to developing a lasting relationship with potential customers and clients.
Your company’s willingness to share knowledge, as demonstrated by the content it produces, and its genuine interest in the success of its customers will make people more likely to choose your brand when they make purchases.
Below are the types of content that your business can create and distribute, which are essential.
1. Newsletters and email lists
Capturing your audience’s attention may be a great accomplishment, but retaining it for an extended period can be quite challenging.
Regularly sending newsletters and maintaining email lists is a useful way to keep your company’s name visible to customers. Even if your subscribers don’t open every email, simply seeing your company’s name in the sender’s column serves as a reminder of your presence to them, ensuring they know you’re available whenever they require your services.
To get as many subscribers as possible to open your email content, it is important to ensure that your content is engaging, pertinent, and educational.
The choice of content will mainly depend on your objectives, although it is important to think logically and systematically about it.
If establishing yourself as a leader in your industry is your goal, you should consider regularly including links to the latest news headlines. This practice not only offers a reliable service for your readers, but also eliminates the constant need to create all of your content.
A newsletter can be a great way to inform readers about new features if your company adopts a more proactive approach to content updates. The key is to establish a consistent connection with your audience.
2. Social media
Instead of waiting for your customers to come to you, why not go to them? Nowadays, social media is a one-stop destination to locate almost anyone. Hence, it is not astonishing that various content marketing tools have been created specifically to captivate audiences on social media platforms.
Attracting a new reader to your company’s website can be challenging. However, once they visit, guiding them to your social media platforms can be an effective way to inform them about staying connected. By regularly updating your company’s profile across different platforms, you can instantly notify your audience about fresh content, interesting updates, or promotional deals.
By strategically placing targeted ads on social media platforms, you can effectively reach potential customers who are highly likely to be interested in your offerings, thereby using these platforms as effective lead generation tools.
3. Interactive events and content
Interacting directly with customers is the most effective method to gain their trust, but it may not always be feasible. However, specific types of content can provide a similar experience.
One example of effectively engaging with audiences is through webinars. By conducting live broadcasts according to a schedule, your company can both educate viewers and address their inquiries immediately.
Do you wonder what to do with your broadcast recordings? You can keep them available for future viewers who have similar questions. However, what about readers who require quick answers outside of broadcast times? Utilizing chat features, including chatbots, can be an effective solution to constantly make yourself accessible.
Services such as Drift enable you to establish conversation boards on your website, aiming to provide visitors with prompt answers to their queries.
4. Whitepapers
Whitepapers are a form of content that holds a greater amount of information compared to a typical article, but less than an eBook. If you are aiming to provide evidence-based research to support your assertions, your audience will anticipate finding it within a whitepaper. Furthermore, it serves as an excellent platform to present your research comprehensively and establish your expertise within your field.
A comprehensive whitepaper presents the particular challenges encountered by your target audience and highlights the reasons why your company provides the most effective remedies. Though whitepapers are typically not the most engaging to read, employing charts, data, and other visually captivating methods can enhance their appeal.
Although they have a tendency to attract a particular kind of reader, it is crucial not to underestimate the significance of whitepapers. According to a study, a considerable 71% of B2B readers heavily depended on these content resources when making decisions about purchases.
5. Blogs posts and articles
Starting with written content is the evident first step in developing your strategy. If your topics are appropriate and the content is search engine optimized, you will attract new visitors to your site. Yet, in order to effectively attract readers, blog posts and articles must be useful, well-written, and adhere to SMB blogging best practices.
In order for your blog to stand out, it is not sufficient for it to simply exist as the Internet is vast. Your focus should be on creating posts and articles that offer fresh information, assist potential customers in some manner, or provide entertainment – and ideally, the highest quality content accomplishes all three of these aspects.
If you’re struggling to find topics for writing, consider asking your existing customers about what they would like to learn. As an illustration, if you offer a product that entails intricate instructions, you can create a comprehensive guide with pictures detailing each step.
Every business out there has something to offer their customers, so if you are a clothing retailer, it is important to write about current trends in the fashion industry and provide suggestions for incorporating new items into your readers’ wardrobes. Similarly, if you are a family restaurant with an interesting backstory, ensure to explain it in detail as coming up with topics can be challenging.
6. Photos and videos
Humans are highly visual beings, with images being more captivating and easily processed by our brains compared to text. It is, therefore, essential to incorporate photos, videos, and other visual content into your content marketing strategy to maximize its impact.
To accomplish this easily, you can incorporate photographs into the blog posts of your company. However, it is important to ensure that the photos are relevant to the topic and genuine photos are preferred over stock photos in most cases.
If you have recently made changes to your office space or organized an event at your business, these occasions present great opportunities to take photos. However, on a more regular basis, pictures depicting your product being utilized or your employees engaged in their work can be equally captivating to potential customers.
Not only photos but videos are also an effective method for captivating site visitors and prolonging their stay on your pages. Previously, generating videos entailed costly equipment, but now it’s as simple as tapping the record button on your smartphone. Afterwards, you can edit it using either Windows Movie Maker or iMovie at no cost.
7. Infographics
When was the last time you encountered a blog post or article containing complex information? It is likely that comprehending the entirety of it was difficult. However, infographics present statistics in a more easily understandable and memorable manner. Additionally, they are visually appealing and simpler to share compared to text.
If you don’t have design skills, there are numerous customizable infographic templates available online. You could either create the infographic yourself or hire a designer for the task. Regardless of the subject, make sure to include references and give the infographic a searchable title containing appropriate keywords.
An infographic offers a simple way to establish branding content for small businesses’ internet marketing. Make sure to include your business name and website on the infographic.
8. Lists
Lists have always been popular with people, whether it was David Letterman’s Top Ten List or the latest list on Buzzfeed. In reality, lists are highly shared content on the internet, generating up to 25,000 shares each month. If you create lists that are applicable to your specific audience, they will assist you in spreading your message.
One of the Internet’s strengths lies in how it can display lists using different formats such as animated GIFs, slideshows, and text lists.
Find the most suitable format for you or create lists in different formats, all while ensuring that the topics connect consumer needs to your business. For example, if you provide tax software, a list titled “10 Reasons Why Tax Software Outperforms a CPA” will pique interest, although it may not attract CPAs.
9. Case studies
If your small business follows a B2B model, you might find it challenging to explain the intricacies of your products or services and how they can be advantageous to potential clients. In such situations, utilizing case studies is an excellent choice to demonstrate the outcomes of your efforts.
To start, create a roster of your top-performing clients and reach out to them to inquire if they would be willing to feature in a case study on your website. In the majority of instances, they will gladly agree. Next, collaborate with your designated contact to carefully construct a detailed account outlining the specific advantages they experienced by partnering with your company.
Begin by outlining the challenges that the company encountered before implementing your product, and subsequently elaborate on the precise measures your company undertook to resolve these issues. Whenever feasible, incorporate accurate statistics and concrete evidence in order to present a comprehensive understanding. By following this approach, not only will prospective customers gain insights into the benefits your product can provide, but they will also develop trust in your capabilities to deliver on promises.
10. Testimonials and reviews
Including testimonials and reviews on your website is an inexpensive method to generate more content for your brand and give your clients a platform to express their opinions. All it takes is consulting with your clients to obtain this type of ready-made content.
