December 29, 2020 •DJ Team
Digital content marketing looks a little different than your grandpa’s newspaper advertisement. Sure, traditional forms of marketing still carry their own weight, but digital content marketing is a new ballgame with a lot of opportunity.
New (as well as experienced) marketers keep their skills sharp by looking for content marketing tips online, prompting Google with questions like “How do you create digital content?” If you’re in that camp, wondering how exactly to create the type of high-value digital marketing content that will attract prospective customers, then this blog’s for you. We’re going to address some of the basic, common questions around effective content creation, so that by the end of this blog you’ll know how to create the right content for your customers and business objectives.
Do Digital Marketers Create Content?
Yes, digital markets DO create content. The Content Marketing Institute sums it up well:
“Content marketing is the strategic marketing approach of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”
In layman’s terms, content marketing takes place when a piece of content created and distributed by a brand intends to educate rather than directly promote. Sure, the endgame is to capitalize on a relevant audience to build leads, grow customer bases, and increase brand awareness, but the strategy is played out by building content that users want.
It works by answering the questions that consumers face everyday, providing how-go guides for learners, and even giving users a little entertainment as they seek to gather information and learn through search engines and article-hopping.
What is an example of content marketing?
Well, this blog is an excellent example. Sure, we have a great suite of products that help our users leverage data to make more impactful marketing decisions, but our goal with our blog content is to educate you, the reader. Other forms of content marketing might take the shape of videos, infographics, or even user-generated content like customer reviews.
Truth be told, content marketing stretches across many different channels and formats, with marketers engineering unique ways to create and distribute useful, usable content to their audiences each and every day.
Types of content marketing
We already mentioned the breadth of variance that content marketing has. It’s true: there are a lot of ways to build content for your users. Here’s a good list of content types that you might find yourself getting creative with.
Written Content
Blogs, whitepapers, landing pages, email campaigns, FAQs, how-to guides— written content is often the first step marketers make when they step foot into the digital content marketing arena. This is because writing can be done without any expense, if done internally. It’s also the easiest to align with search engine optimization.
Graphics
Graphics are overlooked by some, but a beautiful infographic can really go the distance. They are designed to be easy to digest, and enable readers to download chunks of information in a visually attractive format.
Many brands use graphics to provide valuable content under the brand standards of their business, which is a great way to distribute usable content while also leaving your brand imprint on users.
Video
Videos can be a double-edged sword. Most digital consumers prefer videos over written content, but video content can sometimes involve pricey equipment and editing software to make a professional splash. That being said, smartphones can now take videos in high resolutions, which means you genuinely could have film quality videos just by using a smartphone.
Not sure how to get started with video? Instead of writing out your next Top 10 list, put a friendly face in front of a clean backdrop and have them present. Other video examples could include brand vlogs, event videos, site-based videos, VR interactions, customer testimonials, and webinars.
Social
The digital playground. Social media is where everyone already exists, sharing content with friends, family, and even peers. Consider how you can utilize your social media presence to provide value to your followers, like sharing hot tips for industry problems or recommending content that you believe in.
Social media has quickly become one of the most effective modern day marketing available, and the many unique ways businesses are using their social accounts to leverage useful content to their audiences is inspiring. If your brand doesn’t already have them, create accounts for major social platforms that your target audiences might already play and learn within, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.
Take advantage of hashtags to filter your content and ensure that users also browsing similar content have a chance to see yours. Welcome conversations with consumers on your pages, and on theirs!
Audio
Podcasts have become hugely consumed, and for good reason. Many professionals have found success in putting their unique spin on industry topics into a podcast format to bring to the desk-ridden masses. Businesses are also starting to hop onto this bandwagon. Other forms of audio content can include radio segments, interviews, and even music.
How Do You Create Marketing Content?
When it comes to the all-important question of how to create digital content, there’s not necessarily a one-size-fits-all answer. Depending on your current marketing bandwidth and personnel, you might benefit more from either an in-house or outsourced approach.
In-House
Here’s a good content marketing tip: before you start to turn your gaze to creative agencies and freelancers, look inward at your internal pool of resources. Take note of who may be able to support the creation of some great content.
Tapping into these internal talents can enable you to jump the hurdle of budgetary constraints or enable you to spend budgets elsewhere. Paired with the DemandJump Insights for content, team members are given the ability to create content without disrupting their normal workflow - using automated SEO-optimized content outlines. Try it Free - see just how easy it is to create great content.
Outsourced
Maybe you don’t have enough internal resources. Or, maybe your leadership has requested professionally crafted content and handed you a wealthy budget. In any case, hiring external partners to help build content that aligns with your brand can enable you to focus your efforts on setting up strategies and tools you aim to execute them with while knowing that your content is being created by creative professionals.
How Do You Create *Good* Digital Content?
Anyone can create digital content, but how do you create good digital content? Here are a few pointers for creating content that performs well:
- Align your content to your audience. Even exceptionally well-written content is going to fail to move the needle if it’s not relevant to what your prospective customers are searching for. When in doubt, err on the side of creating relevant content rather than perfectly-written content. Using tools like DemandJump helps ensure that your content aligns with your target audience.
- Invest in keyword research and search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. By using DemandJump’s keyword research and SEO strategy platform, content marketers can create content that uses the right language, answers the right questions, connects with prospective customers’ pain points or lifestyle, and so on. It also doesn’t hurt to see what kinds of content your competitors are creating, and how it’s ranking. All of this information’s at your fingertips with DemandJump.
- Proofread! And then proofread again. Whether it’s fair or not, many people will abandon your website quickly if the writing looks careless or unprofessional. There are simply too many tools available for proofreading to let silly errors slip through the cracks and compromise your credibility. HemingwayApp is an especially useful free tool that not only proofreads, but also provides pretty advanced insights into metrics like how easy or difficult the content is to comprehend, how well sentences are constructed, and more. Once you’ve proofread, proofread again—or, even better, enlist a second set of eyes to take a fresh look at what you’ve produced.
Automate and Elevate Your Content Strategy
Ready to create content but not sure where to start? We can help. From basic SEO keyword research and competitive insights to easy-to-create topic summary reports, pillar strategy frameworks, and content briefs, our platform was built for content marketers who are serious about creating a research-based strategy for content creation. At this point, you’ve probably read enough and are ready to see what this all looks like in action. Click the button below to try out the features described in this blog—and many, many others—today!
