The Learning Center

Content.

Content. Content. Content. (To the tune of Jan Brady from the Brady Bunch)

All we ever hear about in the marketing world is content, and I love it. Organizations, companies, and professionals across a vast array of industries are all adopting the content marketing mindset and finding great success.

What many companies fail to do is see beyond the most common form of content: blogs. In fact, I’m writing a blog right now. How ironic?

There are endless types of content you can utilize to promote your business. For sanity’s sake, I’ll just focus on nine underused types of content.

Podcasts

Podcasts are almost the equivalent of a family gathering in the living room to listen to a show on the radio. Except, this radio is streamed over the Internet and is available for download on your mobile or desktop device.

Podcasts enable individuals to talk and inform the user about anything. Seriously, anything. For instance, you could have an entertaining podcast full of trivia like “Good Job Brain”. Good Job Brain uses podcasts to quiz each other on trivia and educate the audience in an intriguing and often hilarious manner. Their podcast content has become so successful that the 4 friends have developed promotional partnerships with brands including Warby Parker and Squarespace.

eBooks

We all have an innate desire to learn. After all, you’re reading this blog post to learn about different types of content. eBooks are a type of long-form content used to relay valuable information to consumers. Paired with well-designed imagery, marketers use eBooks not only to provide users with knowledge, but also as a lead generation tool.

eBook downloads are a great way to capture customer information and generate a constant stream of qualified leads. However, your lead generation success depends on the quality of your eBook content. Take this example from Black Belt Magazine for instance. As a Tang Soo Do practioner and a martial arts enthusiast in general, I would be interested in their eBook titled “Tang Soo Do: How the Traditional Korean Martial Art Teaches Universal Lessons for Effective Self-Defense Moves.” However, in order to receive it, I need to provide my information.

Remember, your eBook(s) needs to capture the audience’s attention with a headline and retain them through intriguing and useful content.

How-To Guides

How-to guides provide users with an in-depth, step-by-step blueprint of completing a task, project, or advancement of some nature. When your how-to guide is presented in a long-form format, it could be considered a type of eBook. Luckily, there is no rule on how to design, package, or distribute your how-to guide.

One of my favorite how-to guide examples comes from a good friend of mine, Jack Sartori. Jack Sartori is a men’s tie and accessory line created in Brooklyn, NY and inspired by the unparalleled style of 1960s New England. I recently ordered three custom ties for my fiance, his best man, and his groomsmen for our wedding. When we picked up the ties, we found guides on tying all sorts of knots paired neatly with the packaging:

This how-to guide is simple, to the point, and is yet another extension of the brand.

Video

The human attention span is sadly decreasing. Congrats on making it this far into the blog post! The average attention span of a human is eight seconds, while a goldfish beats us out with nine mere seconds. With this in mind, it’s no wonder people are flocking to video content. Videos allow you to quickly capture the ever-fleeting attention span of your audience.

Your desired video content must answer the following questions:

• What is the goal of my video? (Lead generation? Brand awareness?)
• Is this a singular piece of video content or a web series?
• What question am I trying to answer with this video?
• What is the message of my video?
• Will my video be live, animated, a whiteboard video?
• What resources will I need for this video?
• Are additional pieces of content necessary for the video?

Starbucks uses video to package their how-to guides on creating different types of coffee. From french press to an iced pour over, the simple video guides walk you through each step.

While YouTube is one of the top social networks, an alarming amount of small businesses are still failing to use videos to their advantage. Get ahead of the pack and use video content as part of your content marketing strategy!

Customer Testimonials

When a customer has a great experience with your product or service, always ask if they can provide a testimonial. These testimonials can be utilized in so many ways — from social media posts, to powerful website content, to an entire video series devoted to customer appreciation, and beyond.

In fact, our Communications Director, Lauren Linton, recently provided a video testimonial for TechnologyAdvice. We enjoyed working with them and appreciated their friendly and helpful advice, and thought they absolutely deserved a video testimonial.

Keep in mind that consumers trust online reviews and testimonials more than advertising. Why not use your customers’ satisfaction to your advantage?

Presentations

Presentation platforms such as Slideshare and Prezi, allow users to navigate through content in the form of slides at their desired rate. These slides contain quick snippets of information, data, research, or other tips and tricks to help the audience accomplish something — whether it be gaining knowledge or conquering a task.

In the example above, we turned a blog post into a Slideshare presentation by slicing up the written content and imagery into individual slides. Now, users can either read the entire blog post or click through a presentation — whatever they desire.

User and Employee Generated Content

When your brand gets to the point where you have a loyal following, start leveraging user generated content. Celebrities, brands, and even startups use this content to their advantage all the time.

A singer recently asked fans to help create a lyric video for her new song. Our graphic designer, Bryson, submitted his lyric designs in hopes that it would be used in the video. Along with his work, this musician now has tons of content to work with for her video. On top of that, she has just ignited a wave of fan engagement, which ultimately will lead to a loyal following.

Your customers and online fans aren’t the only one creating content. What are your employees up to? At Titan Web Marketing Solutions, we have a massive chalkboard. We encourage our team to be as creative as possible and draw away. Many of these designs end up on our social media accounts and garner great interaction.

Infographics

Ah, infographics. These bite sized forms of content can pack a whole world of information into one vertical image. Similar to when we used blog content for a Slideshare presentation, we utilized an infographic to pair with a blog about creating a landing page (yet another form of content).

Infographics have been used as sales tools, creative additions to content, and even animated and incorporated into website designs. The beauty of infographics is the ability to demonstrate a concept or data in an appealing manner.

News

Any newsworthy announcement from your business is considered content, so share it with the world! Whether you use a press release, news article, media spot, or a simple blog post, make sure your audience knows all about that latest thing you did.

News can include opening an additional store location, hiring announcements, new products or services, and anything that has to do with your business! We leverage our hiring news by introducing new team members to our Facebook audience with personalized images, such as Randi’s.

P.S. — If you want your own chalkboard drawing and are interested in web design, SEO, social media, and more, we’re looking for interns!

Use These 9 Types of Content to Your Advantage

While these examples of content are great, what use are they if no one sees them? You need a full-fledged marketing plan to back up your work. This also means you need the time to do so, which means being distracted from running your business. Let our team take the marketing reigns and create valuable content and distribute it to the world on your behalf!