How You Can Branch Out with Your Content Marketing

When most people hear the words “content marketing”, they generally think of blog articles. Whilst blog articles are a great form of inbound marketing, there are so many other types of content you could be producing to help gain exposure for your business and attract visitors to your website.

As technology advances we are certain this list will grow. However, as of 2018, here are some new content marketing options to try.

Turn your blog into an information source

While writing about your products can be useful in some cases, it’s also important to remember that your blog should be a valuable source of information. Expand your topics and articles to offer information relevant to your industry. This could be writing curated stories on breaking news happening in your industry right now or even introducing a guest blogger each month. It’s also a great idea to optimise your existing content using the inbound marketing methodology.

Instagram stories

If you have the right products and services to take advantage of Instagram stories, you should! Not only are you delivering a piece of material to your users in video format, you also have the option to link website pages to each story. Your users will also feel as though they are interacting with your business on a more personal level, helping to develop a relationship with them and ultimately build that much needed trust to lead them further into the buyer’s journey.

Go live!

Take it one step further and go live with your users! Whether this be on Facebook or Instagram, this real time feed is revolutionising video. In fact, according to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook saw a 300% increase in live videos from media companies between the months of January and May in 2016, proving you really want to jump on the bandwagon and get a lead on your competitors.

Start pinning

The power of Pinterest is growing at a rapid rate. With over 150 million active monthly users, it’s not hard to image why. 87% of Pinterest users purchased a product because of Pinterest. In fact, 83% of Pinterest users would rather follow a brand over a celebrity, justifying why you should start creating beautiful, shareable Pinterest boards today.

Create boards around your products, but also create boards that represent your brand and culture. If you own a café you could have a board for delicious dishes that get cooked up, as well as a board for amazing kitchen spaces featuring all of your dream kitchens. It helps create the feel of your brand, helping people relate to your business. Even if you aren’t a “visually engaging” company, you can still create graphs, charts, or even take pictures of your products and services in action.

Create a “voice” for your business

The popularity of podcasts is continually growing. According to the ABC, Australian podcast listeners listen to at least 5 hours per week. Creating podcasts and being an influential leader in your industry will keep your listeners coming back for more.

Offer webinars

Do you hold knowledge that you know other people would love to learn? Creating a webinar is a perfect way to attract more visitors and have them start to interact with your business. People love “how-to’s” and prefer to consume video content with instructions. Maybe you offer an online tool? Creating a webinar around how to use it would be extremely beneficial.

Social posts

Being active daily on social platforms is a must. However, you need to really think about your posts and make sure you are really offering value, not a sales pitch. It’s important to be engaging in each and every one of your social posts. For example, offering a product demo video or a creative video of an influential individual using your product in action. According to Hubspot, 4X as many people would rather watch a video on a product than read about it.

Infographics and illustrations

Infographics can be extremely valuable, especially for visual learners. They can also be easily shared. In fact, they are shared 3 times more than any other content type on social media. You could even create a relevant checklist that would help your audience like our Facebook business page optimisation checklist.

And lastly, repurpose your content!

Have you written a blog article that’s still getting traction a year later? Repurpose it into an infographic or even take snippets of valuable information for your social posts. Think of it this way… One user may prefer to read statistics, but another may be more visual. That repurposed infographic can help you reach that new audience.

So, which content marketing types are for you?

With an abundance of options available to you, you’re sure to find the types of content marketing that work for your business. We believe in testing and measuring everything, so experiment first and see what gives you the best results.

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