When it comes to getting your website discovered by search engines and being appealing to your audience, there’s no better way to go about it than content marketing. Even the most recognized brands in the world spend more money on content marketing efforts than television commercials. The internet is quickly beating out traditional forms of marketing with well-known and established companies changing to keep up with the times. Creating a content marketing strategy is the way to go but what’s the best way to go about it? Here are the top 10 high-performing types of content marketing for your business.
1. Blog Posts
Blogs are at the very top of the list when it comes to effective content creation. They drive conversions for a variety of reasons – first and foremost because they provide plenty of opportunities to include relevant and related keywords in their content. Blog posts most likely include the exact words and phrases that someone looks for when searching for a particular topic. The length of the average blog post was 1,054 words as of 2016 but even if the person isn’t interested in reading a full-length article, it makes keywords more likely to get picked up by search engines. In turn, a potential customer may quickly find links to a product or service that they’re looking for, regardless of if they want to read the entire post. That makes this kind of content a great sales tool for agencies.
2. Videos
Another extremely popular and high-performing type of content marketing is video content marketing. In today’s world, receiving information through video is the quickest and most convenient method. Producing quality video content is important to make a product or service appealing to a variety of audiences. There are plenty of platforms available to showcase videos, whether they are a few seconds or minutes in length. Whether it’s YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or elsewhere, you will see high-quality videos popping up from all of your favorite brands.
3. Social Media Posts
Social media is a top form of content marketing and its relevance and popularity growing by the day. More and more companies now dedicated hire social media managers as they realize that this is a major way of promoting business. The most appealing part of social media posts is that they’re free for companies to run and for the public to follow. This, coupled with the fact that social media posts can quickly get a message across, makes them important to the bottom line. Whether it’s through a photo with a thought-out caption or a minute-long video, a well planned social media post can grab anybody’s attention quick. Plus, social shares are one of the best ways to amplify brand visibility.
4. eBooks
eBooks are long-form content marketing but are still an incredibly effective marketing strategy. Because eBooks are about more than quickly selling your brand, they build the trust of those who are reading them. It’s true that a person would already have to be extremely interested in the topic to take the time to read a five to ten-page eBook but those taking the time to do so are potentially going to be valuable customers. When purchasing or downloading an eBook, you often need to provide some sort of contact information which could also help to establish high-quality leads. Not convinced that eBooks are the way to go? eBook sales in 2018 equaled about 545 million units. So, there’s that.
5. GIFs and Memes
Yes, GIFs and memes are considered an important part of a content marketing campaign – and they work, whether you realize it or not. GIFs and memes are more than likely the number one way to quickly grab people’s attention while scrolling through social media. If a brand knows what they’re doing, they use these to pull you in then find a way to relate the image to their brand. Even if a lot of memes start out as user-generated content, they're a smart and easy form of a content marketing campaign that works.
6. Interviews
Interviews are still a popular read and can be great long-form content when it comes to an SEO strategy. We want to hear expert opinions on the topics that we’re interested in. Whether these interviews are published in a blog post, live-streamed, or recorded and published as video content on YouTube, the fact that your company is taking the time to interview experts on the subjects that you’re passionate about can be extremely effective content marketing. These can also be a great source of link building, as interviewees often like to share their interviews.
7. Case Studies
Case studies are still one of the highest performing types of content marketing. Just as viewers like to read interviews that come directly from experts, they also like to read case studies that deal with the facts. Customers like to see brands that are not only putting proven statistics and data out there but that are also taking the time to conduct their own case studies. Case studies not only show that the brand knows what they’re talking about but also that they care about the value of their product or services.
8. Infographics
In case you’re not familiar with infographics, they’re generally a cartoon-like graphic with a text overlay. This text overlay contains information about the product or service that the company is offering and often contains statistics as well. Infographics are an effective way to grab a viewer’s attention by stimulating their need for a visual while also providing valuable information that links the two together.
9. White Papers
White papers are another type of long-form content marketing but are not to be mistaken for an eBook. White papers are detailed reports that provide information and reports about a complex issue. Because White Papers are fact-driven, a whopping 79% of B2B buyers have expressed that they would share White Papers with colleagues over any other form of content marketing.
10. Checklists
Last but not least is checklists. Confused at how checklists are a part of the content marketing funnel? Well, let’s think about it for a second. A business that runs a service or produces a product could easily create a relevant checklist on their website representing why their brand ticks all the right boxes versus other brands. This not only provides valuable information about the product or service, but it may also show what you’re missing out on by going with a competitor. Bet you didn’t know there were so many different kinds of content marketing out there. While this is not an exhaustive list, they are certainly some of the highest performing and most effective types of content marketing. No matter what your brand is about, content marketing is key – so if you’re looking for inspiration, this is a great place to start.
