What is content marketing?

I define content marketing by: “creations that we make to promote a brand, business or product to a predefined public with the purpose to achieve a predetermined goal.” But let’s also analyze it from the beginning, together. First of all, let’s define the word “content”.

Noun

noun: content; plural noun: contents

the things that are held or included in something.

"she unscrewed the top of the flask and drank the contents"

Secondly, we will be defining the word “marketing”.

noun

noun: marketing

the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.

"the Western arts of marketing and distribution"

And for the two terms together “Content Marketing” google haves a definition for it also.

a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.

"social media is an integral part of content marketing"

To resume it so far, content marketing involves the creation of materials like graphics, infographics, videos, photos, etc… with the purpose of sharing them to raise awareness, leads, and sales. We notice that google made a reference there, “social media is an integral part of content marketing”. We agree with it but until one point. We agree that content marketing is essential to social media promotions but it doesn’t stop there. It doesn’t stop in the online world but the percentage of content produced and distributed in the offline world it’s drastically lower.

Everybody that has an objective uses content to achieve that objective. Students want to explain their projects better, influencers create content to engage with their fans and promote brands. Businesses and brands create content to generate leads, sales and awareness. Professionals create content to explain their projects better, freelancers make content to promote their work and portfolio.

Bonus! We made a list of 80 different types of content that you can produce and test out. To read it press here.

Before we go more in-depth let’s analyze the different channels through which we communicate with business in mind and the return of investment on each one of them.

From a business point of view, emails are still one of the most profitable investments especially in the long term, most businesses usually survive on a set number of loyal and repetitive clients that buy their products or services.

There are several types of content categories. Some of them work better on some platforms than others. When we start creating the content we have to keep a couple of things in mind. Who will be the public and where will it be distributed. In the case of campaigns we usually focus on one main platform and the others we use as secondary campaign platforms. We will write an article about Social Media Management and Ads that will cover that subject so keep an eye out for it.

1. Blog Posts

Starting off with Blog Posts. If writing is your thing, then this might be your favorite thing. They are pretty easy to produce to especially if they don’t contain too many images and are not too long. The potential benefits from writing a blog post are worth it if it’s done right.

• Helps build up a set of authoritative content in your niche.

• It helps if there are citations from other trusted websites helping your search ranking

• You can convert the content to video, infographics, podcasts and other crazy ideas.

• Guest blogging also helps to build up your inbound link profile.

You have to keep in mind a couple of things when you write a blog post. First, you can check your competitors and analyze what and why they wrote what they did, did it have an effect? What are the current search trends? Does your public have the same question?

Then we start writing. The headline, very important, that will be your hook. There are tools out there that can help you with that like <<https://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer>>. Optinmoster made a nice list of tools just for that. Check it out here. <<https://optinmonster.com/26-tools-thatll-help-you-create-better-headlines/>>

When you write do your research first and make sure that your content is well written, engaging and it haves good spelling. I would recommend a creative writing course if you are a beginner in this industry.

Lastly, make sure that your article is SEO optimized. That you linked posts together and done internal and external (if necessary) linking. This will also help you with search engines.

1. Long-Form Articles

Long-form articles have a high rate of online sharing. It brings exposure and traffic to your website and business so it is worth your time. Helps your SEO ranking and brand, awesome!

The long articles are similar to blog posts, just a lot longer and more detailed. Blog posts have to offer something with real depth and good research behind it. Longer articles are more detailed, more steps, more information. Blog posts are like a resume of a book and the book can be a long article.

Some examples of long articles that people produce would be like “ultimate guides topics”. They can be composed of different chapters, each on it’s own URL. This raises the chances for the guide to show up in search results.

You can research the content already produced, take it and make it even better, fresher and with more resources and publish it. Don’t copyright. Be original, share insights and personal tips and tricks.

1. Original Research

Original research is another great way to get traffic for your website or brand. It is one of the most shared types of content, especially on Facebook. It is also a great way to help your SEO ranking because people will start to cite your work.

The only issues for this type of content are time and resources. You consume a lot of them for an research but it can be worth it. It brings exposure and also some interesting data that could also help you out.

There are tools out there that can help you out and speed up the process. Tools like WPForms <<https://wpforms.com/>> or Google Forms <https://docs.google.com/forms>. First build up an survey, get people to fill it up and use the built-in reports dashboard to find charts that help you visualize your results.

1. Video

Studies have shown that video is a proven attention-getter in the online world. Most people watch them being one of the most popular types of content formats for mobile devices. Videos are also a great tool for businesses being a great convertor.

There are plenty of ways that businesses use video content. Here are a few of them:

• Explainer videos

• Promos

• Tutorials

• Lessons

Videos are pretty easy to produce these days. Everybody haves a smartphone in their pocket and the latest technology out there can produce some pretty awesome shots. To get started you can focus on Youtube because it’s friendly with the users that shoot and upload videos from their phones. Edit with a video editing app. You can also just go live on a social media platform using just your phone.

If you are more into animated videos but you don’t have any knowledge on how to make them don’t panic. There are professionals out there, freelancers, marketing agencies like us that offer Content Marketing services. If you would still like to do it your self then you would have two options. Invest time learning the craft or use a third-party tool like Renderforest <https://renderforest.com>. There are plenty of tools like them. In exchange of a monthly subscription they give you access to online tools and premade graphics that help you create an awesome animated video for your business, brand or project.

We like using tools like that but we also enjoying with specialized professionals in the industry. Depends on the project.

1. Infographics

Quick fact, infographics are one of the most shared pieces of content online. From everybody who uses infographics to market their business, 84% of them find this format effective.

It is very important to get the graphic elements right for this one to make it attractive and readable. Think of the user experience. Will they be able to easily read it and understand it? The information also haves to be interesting and of course, reliable.

As I mentioned earlier, a long article can be converted to a podcast, video and blog post. The blog post then can be converted to a shorter video and infographic and so on… It just depends who you are trying to communicate with and where.

A couple of tips to get you started with infographics would be firstly to plan it out. Try to make it as a story that people will follow. Do your research, resume it all in one page story made out of graphics. As of any content, pay attention to your headline, use it as a hook, be smart with it. Subheadings are also important.

As for anything there are tools out there to help you create an infographic without having a designers knowledge. An example of tool for building infographics is Piktochart <https://piktochart.com/>. As of any online tool      it gives you access to a platform that haves premade features and incorporated tools that for exchange of a small fee it will make your life easier.

1. Images

On the visual part we have images to, very important because it can raise the engagement of a piece of text. It helps as attraction grabber, explainer, to turn words into images to better help you explain and tell your story.

According to Visual Capitalist <https://www.visualcapitalist.com/happens-internet-minute-2017/>, each internet minute there are 15,000 GIFs sent on Messenger and 46,200 Instagram post uploaded. Your mission is to stand out from all the other white noise.

Written content with thumbnails on Facebook are more likely to be shared than the ones that don’t. You could create a GIF, use quotes on images, make a meme, etc…

1. Case Studies

If you are in the business to business (B2B) marketing then a good bet would be Case Studies. They help you show what you do, how and why, past projects and clients, raise credibility in your brand and services, and highlight your advantages over the competition.

1. Ebooks

Ebooks can be an excellent lead magnet that also helps your public solve a problem. Surprisingly, they are pretty quick to make, especially if you got a little writing experience. In the US, according to a study <https://www.visualcapitalist.com/happens-internet-minute-2017/> done by Statista in 2017, purchases of Ebooks has surpassed the printed books.

A nice starting point to create an ebook would be a long article or in-depth blog post.

1. White Papers/Reports

Another great tool for B2B marketing. White papers aren’t a pitch. They aim to help the audience and they are effective.

A couple of tips for making an awesome white paper:

• Focus on one important issue

• Short, 6 to 10 pages

• In-depth research

• Use verifiable statistics

• Use charts, graphs, and some smart quotes (be careful with the quotes if you do use them)

• Include a call to action

1. Presentations

Presentations are awesome when you want to present your business, brand, product or service. They are pretty easy to get them online using a SlideShare <https://slideshare.com> account.

Traffic Generation Café <https://trafficgenerationcafe.com> found SlideShare an effective way to:

• Generate traffic

• Increase social media fans

• Engagement on Slideshare itself

To benefit from SlideShare, you just have to create and upload your first presentation. Tag it with around three keywords to make it easier for the organic reach. Creating the presentation follows the same principles like any other content piece. Who are you trying to communicate, where, and why?

After you finished your presentation, add it to your LinkedIn profile to make it even more visible and you can promote it through the usual ways and techniques. LinkedIn is also SlideShare’s parent company so they work pretty well together.

A quick example of using a presentation uploaded on SlideShare, the website views grew from 0 to 243,000 views in just 30 days.

1. Webinars

Webinars are online seminars. They have proven to be a great lead generator. According to ReadyTalk <https://www.readytalk.com/resources/webinar-marketing/infographics/post-webinar-best-practices#.XF93l1wzbDd>, between 20% and 40% of webinar participants become qualified leads.

Other studies have also showed that between 2% and 5% of the webinar attendees make a purchase.

If you want to test things out before making a subscription on a platform that allows you to host those webinars, you can try out Zoom <https://zoom.us/>. The free offer let’s you experiments an 40 minute webinar with a maximum of 100 participants, not to bad for a start. The prices for a membership plan on a platform like this goes between 15$ and 35$ per month.

1. Quizzes and Polls

Polls are fun. They can make your audience curious and boost engagement . The cool part about them is if you play it smart and think it well, you can tie it to a campaign and also get some new data from it. It’s a win-win scenario.

A nice tool that helps you create your quizzes is Qzzr <https://www.qzzr.com/>. For the polls there are tools out there that can help but most social media platforms have a poll feature incorporated in them, you can start there.

1. Podcasts

According to Gary Vaynerchuck <https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/>, podcasts are more and more popular especially in the US. Edison Research conducted a study called “The Infinite Dial” <https://www.edisonresearch.com/infinite-dial-2017/> in 2017. One important factor discovered is that, 15% of the US population listens to a podcast at least weekly.

A quick way to make a podcast is to strip off the audio from a longer video that you made and turn it into a podcast. For an easy way to “start your own podcast” <https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/step-by-step-guide-how-to-start-a-podcast-with-wordpress/>, read the tutorial made by WPBeginner.

1. Checklists

One of the easiest things to make, a checklist. Very popular in some cases even attracting hundreds of thousands of shares.

In this category can go worksheets, tip sheets and cheat sheets. You can make an checklist by converting a blog posts key points or another type of content.

Afterward, you can lay out your cheat sheet in a Google Doc or Word document and export it as a PDF. Alternatively you can also use tools like Canva <https://canva.com> to make it a graphic and export it into a PDF from there.

1. Email Newsletter

Some people don’t consider the email newsletter as a content format, but they are wrong. An email newsletter includes words, images, call to actions, promotions, vouchers, videos, etc… It’s the piece of content that haves the highest ROI as we mentioned through the beginning of this article. For every 1$ spend, they had a return of 40$, this is hard to ignore.

Now that you have the fundamental knowledge that you need to decide on your content, start creating your content marketing strategy. If you want more inspiration you can check out 80 Extra Content Ideas.

Do you need help with your marketing, raising awareness and bringing in more leads and sales? You can contact me anytime!