Content marketing can involve some difficult choices. What will be the most effective? Should we experiment with something new? With such a variety of choices to marketers, the choice of what to use doesn’t need to be difficult, but do you know all the different types of content marketing? Some brands are into retweets, gifs, blog posts, and commercials in their social media posts. Others stick to primarily visual content with only videos and gifs.
In the end it’s what most effectively communicates your business. In this post we’ll take a look at 12 types of content marketing you can use to communicate your brand and boost audience engagement.
Content Marketing Types
- Blogs
- Videos
- Infographics
- Checklists
- Memes
- User-Generated Content
- Testimonials/Reviews
- How-to-Guides
- Case Studies
- Whitepapers
- eBooks
- Influencers/Paid Ad Content
Blog
A blog on your business website is a low cost and effective way to drive organic traffic to your website by boosting SEO. A blog allows for you to attract potential customers through demonstrating expertise and answering questions.
When writing a blog post, there are 3 key points to keep in mind when writing:
- Optimize your content for SEO.
- Choose a pillar or cluster model to organize the topics of your business blog.
- Be sure to keep your content relevant to your business and focused on your products or services.
For example, if you scroll through the 3 Cats Labs blog archive you’ll find every post is relevant to what we do or s about the agency. Never do we stray from topics directly why someone might be visiting our website.
Videos
Videos have exploded in popularity and for good reason. They quickly engage the viewer and multiple studies show that videos are the most popular type of content marketing with a broad range of audiences.
Videos are also versatile because you can create a variety of content and entice viewers to want more. You can use videos for interviews, “behind the scenes” of your business, or animations and explainer videos.
You also don’t need an expensive production setup with the latest gear. Go ahead and use your cell phone. You don’t need a blockbuster, you just need a video your audience can connect with.
Infographics
Infographics are fun and offer some of the most eye catching marketing content you can serve up to your audience. Typically, infographics are bright and provide an interesting way to present statistics or processes that would be boring in almost any other format.
Do you know what’s also good? They’re low cost and quick to make.
You can use infographics to present interesting information or used to boost the reputation of your product or service with hard data and facts.
Lastly, remember that if your infographic doesn’t perform as expected on one platform, be sure to try it on another because you might get surprised.
Checklists
Checklists often provide immediate value to your potential customers. They often contain the answer to a problem and provide step-by-step instructions that double as a learning tool. Another positive aspect is that checklists can be easily reformatted to fit any type of platform.
Another great thing about checklists is that you can always tie them into your marketing.
Memes
Serious business people often think this is a joke. But you know what? Give it a try. They’re relatively new and work extremely well. People immediately jump to the conclusion their brand will be represented by an internet cat meme. There are many ways to incorporate an image with culturally relevant text, and it doesn’t need to involve a cat.
A great brand to see using memes is Hulu. The streaming service’s meme tweets are its most popular.
Investigate the current social climate, see where your brand sits, and getting out a well timed meme social media post matching your brand will go a long ways. Social listening will be a great aid to you during this process.
User-Generated Content
Get your customers involved. Often you’ll find other customers and potential customers responsive to this because they will see someone like themselves. An example of this could be a user tweeting out a photo of your clever napkins and tagging your company in the tweet.
Testimonials/Reviews
Testimonials and customer reviews are closely related to user-generated content and that’s why we’ve placed them next to each other in this list. Testimonials will help provide an emphasis to potential customers by helping you stand out.
You’ll see brands like Nike using celebrity and star athlete endorsements. You might not have that star power and influence, but Steve down the street will have an influence on those looking to learn about your brand and why they should choose you over the competition.
How-to-Guides
A perfect type of content marketing for companies offering software or systems is the “How to…”. In fact, it’s essentially required content. One of the advantages of this type of content is that it’s divided into sections and can be shared piece by piece on social media. The guides and training sources will help you sell your product. Google Ads, Skillshare, and many others employ this type of content marketing.
One way of creating interesting guides is to employ Instagram Carousels. Instead of a lengthy explanation you can upload short 3o second video clips or multiple photos into a single Instagram post.
Case Studies
One of the types of content marketing that is most effective for educating leads is the use of case studies. This is because it lets your lead more about your business and what if offers from other customers on their own. Case studies illustrate a customer’s journey and they can view case studies that may closely simulate their own situation.
Usually case studies are text stories about the customer journey, but that doesn’t mean you are relegated to text only. Just as video has grown as marketing tool, vide case studies have also increased in popularity. They don’t require a large budget and can be done in a short amount of time with just some small edits for time.
Whitepapers
Whitepapers are often misunderstood and sometimes confused with eBooks. Like eBooks, whitepapers are lengthy but whitepapers are definitely packed with more data and statistics.
The content is often dry and utilitarian, but that doesn’t mean they need to be aesthetically dry too. Make your whitepaper visually appealing and be mindful of design when you’re creating page layouts and highlighting key takeaways. A key design point for whitepapers is to use easy to read and appealing fonts.
If you’re in a B2B industry, get your statistics together, design your layouts, and create some visually appealing and informative whitepapers to inform your potential customers of what you can do for them.
eBooks
An eBook isn’t a novel or a multiple page advertisement. An eBook is almost like long-form blog content that gives potential customers valuable information.
There are eBooks about how to write eBooks, but the key things to remember are to keep sections and topics short, use keywords, and be mindful of the fonts used and their readability.
Influencers/Paid Ad Content
Influencer marketing has exploded and both the positives and negative aspects of this type of content marketing have been making the news. Influencers can attract new people to your brand that you mot have reached otherwise.
It’s relatively easy to connect with an influencer. Simply contact the influencer or the influencer’s representation. Often you’ll find the best way to make contact in the influencer’s profile/bio.
What Types of Content Marketing Will You Use?
You’ll find other types of content marketing if you look around, but these 12 are our top types that can apply to almost any business. Determine which of these 12 best fit your brand and approach to marketing, then incorporate into your regular marketing plan.
Let’s Talk About Your Brand
shane@3catslabs.com | Call +65-3159-4231
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