12 Examples of Quality Content Marketing
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Content marketing is an essential component of a successful digital marketing campaign. There are different types of content marketing you can utilize, including blogs, memes, white papers, and infographics. The goal is to create and publish content that speaks to your audience and supports your business in an effective manner. Learn the 12 types of content here and how to use each in your marketing strategy.
What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a type of online marketing that helps a company attract and speak to its target audience in a way that encourages them to convert. Content marketing is an important component of an effective search engine optimization (SEO) strategy and helps websites rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs), thus increasing organic traffic to a company’s website.
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12 Examples of Content Marketing
The following are 12 examples of the most common and effective forms of content marketing:
1. Blogs
Incorporating a blog into your company’s website is a great way to increase organic traffic, boost search rankings, and position your company as an authority in the industry. To ensure your blog is as effective as possible, it’s important to follow blogging best practices. These include to:
- Use informative URLs so the reader easily knows what the post is about.
- Post high-quality, optimized blog posts at least once a week and on the same day each week.
- Keep your brand voice consistent throughout all posts.
- Post about relevant topics that appeal to your target audience with 20% or less being promotional posts.
2. Videos
Videos are a form of content marketing that allows you to quickly engage your audience. When creating and posting videos, it’s important to optimize them for search engines. Best practices for videos include:
- Be clear on the purpose of the video.
- Ensure your video works well without sound, as many videos are watched silently.
- Provide transcription to each video to allow it to appear on search engines.
- Implement a video sitemap and submit it using Google Search Console.
3. E-Books
E-books are a great marketing tool to improve lead generation and bolster brand awareness and loyalty. E-books can also help generate sales by keeping users moving through the sales funnel. Be sure to create e-books that are relevant to your target audience and have a reader-friendly design.
4. User-generated content
This type of content marketing is when companies utilize content created by users. For example, your company could re-tweet a follower’s post. This marketing method gets consumers involved and encourages them to interact and ultimately become interested in your company.
5. Infographics
Infographics are a form of visual content marketing that includes charts, imagery, and text to provide easy-to-understand information on a topic. The three types of infographics include:
- Information design – Organizes content to relay a story
- Data visualizations – Includes data points and results from trends or surveys
- Editorial infographics – Includes more content than traditional infographics
6. Case studies
Case studies are a valuable type of content marketing and are used to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. They are niche-specific and allow you to speak directly to your target audience. They also tell customers how to solve particular problems while providing social proof of the solution.
7. Paid ads and influencer content
Paid ads and influencer marketing are an increasingly popular way to spread awareness of a brand. This type of content marketing is when you pay or provide free products to a social media influencer to promote to their followers. Avoid these pitfalls when participating in this type of marketing:
- Don’t make excessive demands, but rather let the influencer incorporate your product into their regular content.
- Analyze an influencer’s statistics before selecting them.
- Ensure the influencer properly marks their posts as sponsored advertising.
- Measure the results of the campaign.
8. Memes
A meme is a video or image that often uses humor to attract your target audience. This is a fun way to engage your audience and provides many benefits, including:
- Increased brand messaging reach
- Portrays your brand’s personality to increase likeability
- Can move through Facebook Edgerank to keep you in line with the next update for a larger organic reach
- Increased potential to go viral
- Encourages new likes on social media and therefore more exposure
9. Checklists
Checklists are images or content that show a step-by-step guide for solving a particular problem. They can be shared on both your blog and social media platforms. The most important component of a checklist is a call to action that encourages readers to connect with your company.
10. Reviews and testimonials
Customer reviews and testimonials allow you to show potential customers just how much existing customers love your products and services. They are important for any business. Keep in mind these best practices for testimonials:
- Keep them short.
- Make sure they are specific.
- Ensure they are real and honest.
- Include testimonials or reviews from throughout the customer journey.
- Make it easy for customers to provide reviews.
- Follow up immediately on negative responses.
11. White papers
A white paper is a form of content marketing that presents readers with an in-depth report of a problem along with a viable solution for that problem. They are heavily researched and take much more time than other forms of content marketing. Two types of white papers to consider include:
- Reference guide – This type of white paper acts as a useful reference for a particular product or service.
- Technical case study – This form of white paper tells the story of how a customer successfully accomplished a goal by using your company’s products or services.
12. How-to Guides/Academies
How-to guides can increase brand awareness and authority as well as help generate leads. Choosing the most effective topic for your guide or academy is imperative to entice visitors to read or participate in it. Things to consider when creating these types of content marketing include your area of expertise, your target audience, and the overall goal you have for the guide or academy.
Just remember: All good copywriting solves a problem for your audience and entices them to choose your products or services to solve that problem. Knowing which content marketing types are best for your organization and digital marketing goals ensures you use the most effective strategy to meet your needs.
