If you run a small business, you’ve probably heard the term content marketing. So the question is, do you know what that is or why it’s essential for your business today? 

If you answered no, you’re in the right place. Keep reading to learn what it is, the different types of content, and how to get started. 

If you answered yes, that’s great. You’re not a digital marketing newbie and probably know a thing or two about how to market your business and brand online. Keep reading if you’re interested in learning more about the different types of content marketing and how you can capitalize on them or master the types of content you’re already utilizing.

What is Content Marketing? 

Content marketing is a type of inbound marketing that consists of creating and sharing content to increase your brand awareness, engagement, conversions, brand loyalty, or business revenue. The content can be blogs, videos, infographics, social media posts, or more. This blog you’re reading is a form of content marketing too.

Types of Content Marketing 

Though there are many different types of content you can choose from, some of the most common types of content marketing are:

1. Blog Content

Blogs are a great way to share business updates, demonstrate your industry expertise and knowledge with how-to guides, or provide in-depth information on the use or importance of your products and services. 

2. Social Media Content

It’s no wonder that social media is a popular form of content marketing since over 50% of the world’s population uses one or more social platforms. Social platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok) are a great way to share multiple types of content since most of them allow you to share images, videos, live streams, and traditional text-based posts. It’s important to choose the platforms that best suit your business instead of trying to use all of them at once.

Learn more about creating a successful social strategy with our social media marketing tips.

3. Video Content

With YouTube or apps like Instagram and TikTok, video marketing is becoming increasingly popular and necessary to move your business forward. In fact, according to Cloud Flare, TikTok was the #1 company in terms of traffic in 2021, overtaking Google for the top spot in the latter half of the year.

Videos also allow you to connect with your audience and engage with them on another level while still promoting your products or services. 

4. Podcast Content

Podcasts are the perfect opportunity to share your expertise and educate your listeners on specific topics. You can also target a niche audience which means more of your listeners will actively engage with your content.

5. Infographic Content

Infographics are ideal for visually providing your audience with an educational overview of a topic. Because they are visual, infographics typically receive more engagement from your audience than text-based educational content. 

6. Email Content

Email marketing is a powerful form of marketing because you can share news, updates, and other information related to your business directly to your subscribers’ inboxes.

7. Paid Ad Content

Paid ads such as PPC campaigns or social media ads make it easy to increase your reach while driving leads, sales, or engagement at the same time.

Why is Content Marketing Important?

Content marketing is important because it is how you share your story and connect with your customers. It allows you to generate leads, develop relationships with your audience, increase your brand awareness and loyalty, improve your SEO, grow your revenue. By connecting with your customers, you are able to get to know more about them and their pain points, which allows you the opportunity to improve your products and services.

Content marketing contributes to your business growth

A good content marketing strategy helps your business grow by generating more leads and increasing your conversions resulting in more sales. In fact, companies with blogs generate more leads than ones without blogs, and companies that use social media and regularly engage with their followers grow faster than those that don’t.

Content marketing improves your SEO

Search engines read the content of your website to understand what the website is about. By creating relevant, consistent, and quality content such as blogs or infographics, you’re giving search engines more information about your business, allowing them to direct more people searching for products or services you offer to your website.

For example, let’s say you sell running shoes and create a blog listing the best running shoes under $100. If someone who isn’t familiar with your brand searches for the best running shoes under $100, they will see your blog as one of the options in the SERPS.

Content marketing increases your brand awareness

The higher you rank in the SERPs, the more followers you have on social media, or the more people you reach through your content increases your brand awareness. As your brand awareness grows, you have the opportunity to convert one-time buyers into repeat customers, which allows you to increase your brand loyalty as well. 

How To Get Started With Content Marketing

Before you dive into content marketing by creating a blog or social media page, you’ll want to create a content strategy. This is essential to ensure your content doesn’t fall flat. In order to develop a successful plan, answer the following questions:

• Who am I trying to reach?
• What do I want to achieve?
• How am I going to achieve it?
• Is it working?

1. Determine your Target Audience

Your target audience is the Who. Before you do anything else, you need to know your customer and determine what they want or need or how you can help them.

2. Define Clear Content Goals

Your content goals are the What. Setting goals for your content makes what you want to achieve clear, and you can then map out how you will reach those goals.

Additionally, each type of content marketing benefits a different goal. By setting your goals, you’re able to determine which types of content you need to focus on to reach each of your goals. 

For example, if your goals are to increase website traffic or improve your SEO, then blogs and infographics should be the focus of your content marketing. However, if you want to grow your brand awareness and engage with your audience, you’ll want to focus more on visual content such as high-quality images and videos. 

3. Create a Content Calendar

The next step is to create a content calendar. This is the How and your schedule for the type of content to create, when to create it, when to publish it, and where to publish it. For example, you will create and publish one blog post per month, three social posts per week, and one video per week.

Your content calendar is also where you will plan out the topics of each type of content. We suggest you plan your content topics out monthly or quarterly, but no less than a week in advance.

4. Evaluate your Content Performance

Lastly, you’ll want to evaluate the performance of your content to learn what’s working and what’s not. By doing so, you’ll be able to adjust and improve your strategy. 

Don’t try to evaluate your content right away, though. Give it some time to gain traction before you decide if it’s working or not. We suggest evaluating your content quarterly and adjusting your content based on your evaluation.

Every leading brand utilizes content marketing, which lets them share news, updates, or ideas with their audience and also allows them the opportunity to receive real-time feedback from customers. Whether your business is big or small, content marketing is a vital part of your marketing strategy and contributes to your long-term business growth.

Contact our team today if you want to learn more about content marketing and how it is beneficial for your business, or you need help managing your marketing efforts.