Content marketing is one of the most cost-effective digital marketing strategies nowadays.
When implemented strategically, it can do wonders for attracting new customers and nurturing your existing ones, boost your brand recognition and awareness, and help you create loyalty and trust with your prospects.
However, creating engaging content can be challenging, especially if you’re stuck in the same routine and using the same formats over and over again.
Read on and learn how to diversify your content strategy, using some of the most engaging content forms.
1. Blog
Blogging is the starting point of any content strategy, as it’s one of the best ways to improve your SEO ratings, bring more organic traffic to your website, build and improve your brand image.
In fact, statistics show that companies that use blogs get 97% more links to their websites and have 434% more indexed web pages.
If you want to make the most of your blogging efforts, here are a few basic tips to follow:
- Make sure your every content piece adds value to your target audience as it addresses their needs, wants and pain points.
- Make your content customer-centric rather than promotional and salesy.
- Optimize your content for search engines, using the right keywords and including the backlinks from relevant sites.
- Post frequently and consistently – companies that post four blog posts per week experience 3.5x more traffic than companies that post 1-4 times per month.
- Use easy-to-read language and make your posts scannable by using short paragraphs and sentences, bullet points and subheadings.
2. Videos and live streaming
Videos and live streaming can be a great lead magnet in your content campaigns – a report shows that this type of content brings companies 66% more qualified leads, as well as 48% faster revenue growth.
If you lack ideas for your videos, here are a few:
- Use your old blog posts and turn them into great educational video courses on relevant topics in your niche.
- Introduce people to your business with an introduction video.
- Create a showcase video for your products or services.
- Explain to your customers how to use your products or services by using tutorial videos.
- Livestream the company’s events.
- Create a behind the scenes video.
3. eBooks
eBooks are another type of content you can include in your strategy, as they can bring you many qualified leads and help you install trust in your target audience.
Creating an eBook is a bit more demanding than blogging, as it is longer and you need to invest more time in creating them. In fact, you should consider hiring professionals such as Infostarters to do all the research and design the eBook for you.
If your eBook adds value to your customers, offers useful information or a solution to their problems, all your efforts will pay off.
Make sure to gate protect your eBooks so that your prospects need to sign up to be able to download it. This way you will generate leads that you can continue to nurture using email marketing and gain significant ROI.
4. Webinars
Webinars can be extremely beneficial for adding variety to your content marketing strategy and getting some awesome results, especially if you’re running your business in B2B. Studies show that 20-40% of B2B webinar attendees turn into qualified leads.
Some of the reasons for including webinars in your content marketing strategy are:
- You can deliver real value to your prospects,
- You can establish the position of an expert in your industry,
- They are more engaging than videos, because of the FOMO
- You can build relationships with your prospects.
- They are affordable.
- Their interactive nature will help you understand your target audience better.
Webinars should ideally last from 30-45 minutes and you should host them on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 to 11 am. Keep your webinar registration page as simple as possible, with no more than 5-7 fields that the participants should fill.
5. Infographics
A Microsoft study found that, due to too many distractions, the human attention span has decreased from 12 to 8 seconds, in just a couple of years.
To make an impact with your content, you need to grab your prospects’ attention fast. Visual aids, such as infographics, can be of enormous help.
Infographics are more fun and engaging than text, and they can make complicated information understandable and easy for your customers to grasp. As they make use of tables, charts and graphs, they seem credible and demonstrate expertise.
6. Case studies
Case studies are one of the most valuable types of content that you should definitely include in your content strategy.
These customer success stories show how your business helped others achieve their goals and added value to their lives. You can use case studies to highlight certain features and applications of your products or services and make them easy to understand by using real-life examples.
These stories will also boost the credibility and trustworthiness of your business, as they also serve as social proof for the quality of your products or services.
Use these content formats to diversify your content marketing strategy and make it more effective.