December 6, 2020 •DJ Team
You may find yourself asking, “What is content marketing, and why is it important?”
Nailing down a content marketing definition can feel tricky, but it really boils down to a simple idea: create different formats of information that provide your customers with value and encourage them to purchase your product or service. Think of it like fishing—we don’t jump into the water and swim out to chase fish down! We use a bait technique to draw the fish to us.
Content marketing is an inbound marketing technique that brings in customers for you. This is important because it is more effective than traditional outbound marketing techniques (like cold calling), typically offering a much higher reward in terms of conversions and sales.
How Many Types of Content Are There?
In today’s digital landscape, there are a lot of different types of content that you can pick and choose from. In some places, you’ll see lists like “101 types of content” or “106 items to create,” and this can feel overwhelming at times. When formulating your content marketing strategies, it’s important to ask yourself a couple of questions:
- What type of content would be most valuable to your customers?
- What type of content is most popular—both in general and with my target demographics?
Answering these questions will give you a few areas to focus on, rather than being overwhelmed by trying to create 100+ different types of content. You may only need 5 or 10 different types in order to reach your content strategy goals.
What Are the Different Types of Content?
While there are a lot of different types of content, we’re going to look at the ones that are most frequently used for content marketing. They are:
Blogs
Blogging is one of the top content marketing formats that pays off big time. From helping your website out with SEO rankings to providing education for your customers and creating conversion paths, blogs are an incredibly effective and important type of content marketing. The key to a successful blog is to post regularly so that your target audience knows that you’re a reliable source for information and doesn’t forget about your business.
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DemandJump also offers a team of talented writers who can write blog posts for you if your marketing team doesn’t want to do it alone. If you want to do it yourself but need more guidance, you can also enroll in DemandJump University, a free pillar-based marketing resource library that teaches you how to use DemandJump and write good content. DemandJump University is free to anyone with a DemandJump account.
Infographics
Looking for a way to grab attention? Infographics are a great type of content that you can post to many different channels—social media, website, emails, etc. You can even include them in your blog to clarify the message you are trying to get across.
Videos
Content marketing allows you the freedom to show off your personality and bring some humor into the business space. Videos are a good format to do this, especially when you can find charismatic and personable members of your team to highlight through your video content.
Memes/Gifs
Memes and GIFs can help you show that your business “gets it” and is engaging in internet culture. Do your research, though, and generate these types of content carefully—it can be cringe-inducing and backfire if you create memes that miss the mark. Also make sure to only create them if they appeal to your target audience. For example, if you want your business to have a more professional tone and appeal to those in the business world, medical field, etc., you might avoid including these in your content.
Long-Form Pieces
White papers and ebooks are often used by businesses that have more in-depth and technical subjects to cover. These can offer a lot of value to your prospective customers and convince them to utilize your solutions. These premium pieces of content will serve as the basis for your lead generation efforts because they live behind a lead form, and users must share information about themselves to access this high-value content.
Podcasts
A rapidly growing type of content, podcast production and listenership has exploded over the past few years. If you’re looking to diversify your content offerings, consider podcasting as a potential channel. It’s another great way to inform your audience while also connecting with them through your business’s tone and your own personality. DemandJump has a podcast where SEO experts and business leaders discuss how to get to page one of Google searches.
Social Media Posts
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn are the big players in the social media space, but TikTok is a rapidly emerging channel as well. Different social media platforms will appeal to different demographics, so make sure to use different tones on each platform to appeal to each. Your social media content strategy should include pictures, text posts, and short videos to post to your social media channels and keep your customers engaged. Like with blog posts, you should post on social media regularly so that your target audience keeps seeing your business’s content.
Email Campaigns/Newsletters
Typically you’ll be reaching out to your loyal fans and your current customer base with these types of content. You can show behind-the-scenes, team member highlights, and other more informal content to help your customers feel like they know you and your business inside and out. Email campaigns and newsletters are also a great way to inform your customers about new products or services your business is offering.
Webinars/How-to Guides
People love to learn and expand their knowledge base. Offering educational posts and formats can give a lot of value and give you the opportunity to present your products and solutions. Make sure that you are giving value, however, because an easy way to lose potential customers is to make them feel like they’ve just been tricked into a sales pitch!
User-Generated Content
Keep an eye on your social media channels and see what your customers are posting and saying! Reposting and sharing their content is a great way to encourage engagement and to show other customers the authentic impact of your business. If current customers have testimonials they’re willing to share, you can also include these in your posts to show potential customers the good things that people like them are writing about you.
DemandJump: The Best Tool for Any Type of Content Marketing
Now that we’ve looked at these different content marketing formats and explored this content marketing definition, what’s next? If you’re struggling with coming up with what to write about or confused about how to find your target audience, take a look at our solutions. DemandJump can help you create the content that your consumers actually want and take the guesswork out of content strategy with unique tools like analysis of internet behavior and marketing attribution tools that can show you exactly what people are clicking on and responding to.
