Content marketing is a must for businesses that want to attract new customers and retain current ones. If you have a growth mindset and want to impact your business’s bottom line, building content marketing into your current marketing program can have a real impact. Compared to traditional marketing programs, content marketing costs 62% less and generates approximately three times the volume of leads.

In this guide, we’ll go over 10 main types of content marketing, why each is important, and tips on how to create content that will help you grow your business. 

10 types of content marketing to attract and retain customers

#1. Blogs

A company blog is a great way to share company news, write articles about topics your customers care about and show that your company is up to date on what’s happening within your industry. 

In particular, blogs that are hosted on your website allow you to publish SEO-optimized content on your site, which can help give your website a boost in organic rankings. 

Tips for writing effective blog content: 

• Choose topics that your audience cares about: Perform keyword research to find out what topics and search terms your audience is looking for, and create content based on your findings. 
• Write for people: Make sure you’re writing content for people, not for search engines. Avoid keyword-stuffing, check for grammatical errors and make sure your blog is engaging. 
• Keep length in mind: In general, blogs should be as long as needed to cover the topic you’re writing about. In its Webmaster Guidelines, Google says that articles should provide a “satisfying amount of content” that has “substantial value” when compared to other pages in the search result.

For more tips on how to write engaging content, check out this guide.

#2. Video

Video deserves a top spot in your content marketing to-do list. 

Marketing videos can be a creative way to showcase what makes your company unique. From product tutorials to testimonial videos, marketing videos are an effective way to get your business in front of your customers. 

When creating your marketing videos, there are a few best practices to keep in mind:

• Make the first 10 seconds count: The average internet user has a short attention span. Hook them into your video in the first 10 seconds to encourage them to keep watching. 
• Add value: Plan each video with your audience in mind, and make sure your video adds some kind of value.
• Optimize your video for SEO: Because YouTube is the second largest search engine (after Google), always upload your videos onto YouTube first, and then share them from there. Write your video title and description with keywords in mind, and make sure to select the video category that makes sense for your business.
• Use a call-to-action: Give viewers a clear next step to take after watching your video. For example, signing up for your newsletter, a free trial, or watching a related video.

For more details on how to make effective marketing videos, check out this blog post.

#3. Website content

Creating compelling, conversion-focused website content is an important part of your overall marketing strategy. Whether you’re attracting website visitors organically, through social media or through paid ads, your website content needs to draw people in, explain your product, highlight your unique value proposition and guide your website visitors to take the next step in the conversion process. 

Think about the following items when putting together your website content: 

• Your audience: What do your customers care about? What problem does your product or service solve for them? Write content that speaks to your potential customers and focuses on their needs, fears and wants.
• Your unique value proposition: What makes you stand out from your competitors? Highlight your value proposition on your homepage, and include stats or testimonials that show what sets you apart from the rest. 
• Images: High-quality images are an important part of crafting website content. Images can help you showcase your products, services and team, and are also a great way to break up blocks of text.
• Calls-to-action: As mentioned above, make sure to incorporate CTAs into your website content so that website visitors know how to take the next step towards converting. 

For a detailed guide on how to write effective website content, check out our blog post here.

#4. Infographics

Infographics take detailed stats and information and turn them into visually-appealing resources. When making an infographic, think about your audience, the goal of your infographic and how it will fit in with your current marketing strategy. Then, compile information about your topic. 

For example, if you own a candle business, you could create an infographic about the different types of waxes and scents you use, and provide information about the most common types of candles people buy. Your infographic could include information about different wax types, candle shapes, and the pros and cons of each type. You could also include information about popular candle scents and the benefits of aromatherapy. 

Sharing infographics within your social media campaigns, email marketing campaigns and on your website can increase your online authority by showing you know your stuff. Plus, informative infographics will be shared by your audience, which increases your brand awareness. 

Infographic tips: 

• Keep it simple: While you may be the expert on your topic, most viewers don’t need to know the nitty-gritty details. Keep your infographic simple and provide engaging information that your audience will appreciate.
• Make sure it’s branded: Include your website URL and incorporate your brand colors into the infographic. That way, when it’s shared around the web, readers will know immediately who made the infographic. This will increase your brand awareness. 
• Show things visually: Charts are your friend. Putting together data in a visually-appealing way makes infographics more readable. 

#5. Social media

Where does your audience spend time online? Chances are, there’s at least one social channel that your audience uses regularly. And with highly-targeted social ad opportunities, social media is a great way to reach people who are interested in your business. But, reaching your potential audience is just the first step. Your social content needs to be engaging and informative to drive social traffic to conversions. 

• Keep your brand in mind: Your social content should reflect your brand’s voice and communicate your brand’s values. This makes your brand more trustworthy and can help improve loyalty.
• Use clear imagery: Social media is an image-heavy channel. When you’re posting an image or video, make sure it’s high-quality.
• Know your audience: The key to social media success is knowing your audience and the types of content they engage with. Social engagement is an important part of growing your following and gaining social attention, so take a deep dive and learn about your audiences and what they like/don’t like.

Learn more about how social media can help you grow your business by watching our video here. 

#6. User-generated content

User-generated content is a huge part of making your business trustworthy and authoritative. Content that’s generated by your customers can include reviews, testimonials, social posts, blogs and more. This type of content can be used throughout all your other content marketing strategies, including your social strategy, email marketing strategy, website content and more. 

But, how do you gather user-generated content? There are a couple of ways: 

• Don’t be too shy to ask for feedback: Include links to review sites on your receipts, in your emails or anywhere else it makes sense. You can also remind your customers to leave feedback and reviews in person when they visit your business.
• Research your hashtags: Look on Instagram to see what people are saying about your business. You can search using your hashtags, your business’s Instagram handle or by location to see how people are interacting with your business online. 

And remember, don’t just ignore negative feedback. Use it to make your business better. 

Incorporate more user-generated content into your social media strategy using these tips. 

#7. Reviews

A subset of user-generated content, reviews are one of the most important types of content for your business. Positive reviews strongly influence purchasing decisions, increase your authority, and can help you convert new customers. 

Not only do online reviews help you increase authority, but they also increase your online visibility on platforms, like Google and Yelp. The more positive online reviews your business has, the better chance of you appearing in local searches. 

Read more about how reviews are the content marketing strategy you can’t ignore. 

#8. eBooks and Whitepapers

eBooks and Whitepapers are long-format pieces of content that take a deep dive into a certain topic. As we mentioned in the blog post section, knowing your audience and what they care about is the special sauce you need to make eBooks and whitepapers that convert. 

Typically, eBooks and whitepapers are gated content, meaning a person must exchange their contact information (like their email) to access the content. Once they’ve submitted their information, the content is emailed to them.

This content technique is especially popular for B2B businesses because it can be incorporated into the selling process.

#9. Email marketing content

With an average ROI of $38 for each $1 spent, email marketing is one of the most effective ways to grow your bottom line. But just because you’re running an email marketing campaign doesn’t mean you’ll see this kind of success. It takes thoughtfully crafted email content and smart email list segmentation to see the best results. 

Not only does email marketing draw new customers in, but it also helps you retain current customers by building loyalty and establishing trust.

Here are a few tips to maximize your return on email marketing: 

• Personalize your emails: By dynamically incorporating the recipient’s name into the email content, it makes it seem more personal.
• Test your subject lines: Your subject lines are the first things a person sees when they open their inbox. Make sure it captures your readers’ attention and encourages them to click through. 
• Provide value: Don’t spam your email subscribers with needless email updates. Make sure every email you send has value for the reader. For example, a sale, promotion, information about a new product or important company news. 

Read our Email Marketing DIY guide for more information on how to set up an email marketing campaign that works, or view nine email marketing tips and best practices.

#10. Text message marketing content

Text message marketing lets you reach your customers wherever they are. But, it’s important to plan your text marketing strategy with value in mind.

• Keep it short: If you only want to send one text out, limit yourself to 140 characters.
• Lead with value: Limited-time promos or specials are great to use in text marketing.
• Don’t overdo it: Send as few texts as possible to get your point across. Because texts are an inherently personal form of communication, too many can become an annoyance, fast. 

View this blog post for more tips on how to set up a conversion-optimized text campaign.

About Marketing 360®

Marketing 360® is a one-stop shop for all the business software you need. From our email marketing software and SMS marketing tools to our team of experienced content writers, we have everything you need to start your content marketing strategy. And with real-time data reporting, you can see how your campaigns are performing at any time.

Learn more and see our plans and pricing.

Originally published on 11/23/20