What Are Content Marketing Methods?

Marketing is a wild world, isn’t it? Whether you’re a pro who does it every day, or a business owner who’s trying to manage it all by yourself, the fact is that things are constantly changing.

Best practices go in and out of style, new means for marketing are popping up constantly, and there’s always something new to learn. And while that’s all fun and interesting, sometimes you just want marketing that works.

Content marketing has been around for a while, but it takes time. And if you’re not familiar with it, it’s easy to get lost while you’re trying to navigate it. Let’s look at some standard content marketing methods that are tried and true.

What is the Role of Content Marketing?

Content marketing wears a lot of hats. It impacts a lot of parts of your business—some directly, and others a little more indirectly. Regardless, content plays an important role in your digital marketing plan and shouldn’t be passed up. Here are just a few areas where it matters.

• Brand awareness - The more your audience sees your brand—and better yet, interacts with your brand—the more likely they are to remember you, become familiar with you, and keep you top of mind when it comes time to buy. Content marketing does all of these things.
• SEO - When you’re putting content out into the world, and it’s pointing back to your website, you’re getting an immediate boost in SEO value. The algorithms behind SEO are complicated—far too much to go into here—but know that having valuable, helpful content on the internet makes it more likely that you’ll show up higher in search rankings.
• Filling your sales funnel - As with any kind of marketing, the goal is always to get potential customers into your sales funnel. And when you’re providing helpful content, your audience is more likely to look to you as an expert in the industry. When it comes time to reach for their wallet, they’re going to go with the company they trust—and with content marketing, that can be yours.
• Building brand authority - Like mentioned above, a primary goal of content marketing is to provide interesting, helpful content to your audience. It should either teach them something (a how-to video or an e-book for example) or give them information they find valuable. Either way, if you’re providing good content, they’re going to come to trust you as an authority on the matter.

Content Marketing Formats

There are loads and loads of different types of digital marketing, and it feels like there are more being added every day. And for every one that’s added, there’s another that’s going defunct. Digital marketing encompasses a lot of things, including content marketing, but even content marketing uses various different platforms and formats to tell a story. In fact, many types of digital marketing are content marketing.

These different types of content marketing help accomplish different goals.

• Blogs - These are articles that usually live on your website. They provide helpful information, insights, thought-provoking discussion starters, and other topics that audiences find helpful and engaging.
• Podcasts - Podcasts are growing in popularity as it gets easier to create and share them—and more people begin to listen to them. Anything from one person’s thoughts to interesting interviews, podcasts are very popular in both the business and non-business worlds.
• Videos - Since it’s become so incredibly easy to shoot (and even edit) a video on our phones, they’ve started to take over. They’re one of the easiest ways to share information—especially if you’re doing a how-to video), and people love to consume them.
• Infographics - One of the original forms of content marketing, infographics take otherwise bland data and turn them into interesting visual pieces of artwork that make it easy to digest—and even enjoy—numbers.

The Most Popular Types of Content

If you’re new to creating content and don’t know where to start, you’ll likely want to look at some of the more popular types of content that exist today. There’s a fairly safe bet when you’re getting started that these will draw some kind of attention. That said, if you try them out and don’t see the kind of reaction you’re hoping, it may mean your audience simply isn’t there to see it, so you’ll want to find them elsewhere. Content marketing is very much about trial and error, trying new things, and adjusting appropriately.

Social media is easily the most popular type of content. Think about it: millions upon millions of users log into social media platforms every single day. It’s an easy way for them to interact with you, and vice versa.

Case studies are also popular, because they let your audience see the way your business helped someone else who is in their situation. This is a key way to set yourself up as a leader and authority in an industry.

Finally, highly produced videos are a top form of content. While it’s easy to shoot and edit a video on your phone, it doesn’t mean it’s of the highest quality. Consider getting a proper audio system (even a lavalier mic works wonders) and a tripod to start.

Eventually, you may want to invest in a proper camera. But also keep in mind that most modern smartphones can shoot high-quality video. As long as you have a smartphone and a genuine message, video is within reach for your brand.

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