Yesterday, while I was using some tools for better content marketing, I thought I could write a new post mentioning all those exceptionally brilliant tools that can help you write great content. The same as I told one of my friends, and the immediate response I got was a question- “what is content marketing?”. That’s a brilliant idea to get started with, I thought and replied with thanks.
I understood this term only a few months back and I subscribed to all content marketing blogs immediately. Don’t you be surprised; the results are excellent with content marketing. Yes, positively.
Suppose you are a business owner or have started blogging about a passion like painting, DIY home improvements, or computers. In that case, content marketing can surely bring you the best results ever.
So, What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is another marketing strategy where content is produced in many interactive formats and connects and engages with the target audience to create a stronger bond.
Content marketing is a creative process. Here, you don’t send them annoying product promotion emails, yet you present content, making them realize how important your product is. Providing more valuable information to complete your customer more intelligent is what you’re supposed to do. Compelling content is what you should give here.
Content Formats
Content, in terms of blogging, is words but not in terms of content marketing. Here, content can be any visual form, which is interactive. It can also be a little game but should be able to educate the reader.
The type of content you create directly decides how effective your content is. The percentage of influence the very format shows is as follows-
- Social Media – 79%
- Article Posting – 78%
- Case Studies – 55%
- Blogs – 53%
- White Papers – 43%
- Webinars – 42%
- Videos – 41%
- Podcasts – 16%
- Ebooks – 9%
Now, you can start working on the particular format as you knew how extensive the reach and influence would be.
Wait! Maybe, you can act better once you know how the audience would like to see. It can be easier for you to produce the content, then.
- 37% prefer email newsletters
- 33% like the business page on Facebook
- 23% love to watch videos
- 15% play games
- 9% follow updates on Twitter
- Only 7% comment on blogs
Yet, it is obvious.
Inserting images/videos at proper places will make sure the engagement with the audience.
Social Media
Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms are the best place to find the target audience. Because, today, everyone started using these social networks and, this is your chance to make the proper use of it.
As your primary goal should be to create relevant and engaging content, you can expect many responses on social media platforms, unlike the others.
Article Posting
Article publishing is nothing more than posting relevant articles on the web (for global reach). No different from guest blogging, in perspective.
If you are aware of Bill Gates, The Gates Notes, where he writes about the future of food; he recently posted an article Food is Ripe for Innovation on Mashable. This would’ve indeed given him a positive response.
Blogs
It has become so easy to set up a blog! All you’ve to have is a domain and space to host your site. Once you install it, Google (no, Bing!) will teach you everything.
It is highly recommended for every business to have a blog. You get more exposure, and so do consumers if you have a business blog.
It is also noticed that companies with blogs get more inbound links than usual.
Bonus: To make your blog posts go viral, write super-long blog posts. Break the old-school 700-word rule and write posts like Glen (of ViperChill).
Whitepapers
White papers are all different from blogs. Length is what separates them because a white paper is generally short in contextual data.
It provides short and accurate data about the considered resource. Leads are seen faster through white papers and not blogs, and that is why marketers start white paper marketing, as a blog generally takes more than six months to start generating leads.
Webinars
Webinars help extremely. Both to the consumer and marketer. Because a consumer/reader can learn a lot.
Last week, I attended a webinar on Guest Blogging, and it did help a lot in executing new strategies.
Today, you can see every top-notch blog organizes free/paid webinars to increase their leads/sales/whatever.
Videos
Videos, in other words, help your site with decreased bounce rate because we can’t expect a video to be less than a minute (except in worst-cases). And, readers will spend an extra minute on your blog, which reduces your site’s bounce rate.
Content Marketing Institute and Hubspot create a lot of videos to engage with their readers. And, creative videos can quickly go viral. Derek Halpern also uses this strategy to engage with his blog readers.
Podcasts
If you can’t possibly make a video, go with the audio. Some people love listening to podcasts.
Ileane Smith of BasicBlogTips loves to create podcasts. Have a look to get an idea.
Ebooks
Scribe Library, Hubspot Ebooks, Content Marketing Institute Ebooks, and tons more. Ebooks are now everywhere.
Free ebooks are yet considered to be the best giveaway to get started with building a list.
With your ebook, you can market your content more effectively and expect better results, as well.
Using these social networks and is your chance to make the proper use of them.
As your primary goal should be to create relevant and engaging content, you can expect many responses on social media platforms.
We can see Huffington Post, YouTube, Instagram, MTV, UberSocial, NBA, The Onion, and other brands in the most influential list, even on Twitter.
