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Everyone throws around the term ‘Content Marketing’. You know you should do it. You probably have an idea on how to get started. But I bet you’re wondering, ‘What are all the different types of content marketing I can use?’ In this article, you’ll discover the types of Content Marketing that increases traffic, leads and sales revenue.
Content Marketing is more than just posting content on your blog or Instagram Page and hoping that your prospects connect with it.
It’s far more strategic than that.
Content Marketing is about utilising all of the tools available to you in order to share your message, answer your buyer’s most pressing questions, and become a trusted source of information for your prospects.
The question then becomes, which tools should I use to add value to the marketplace? And that’s the crux of this article, and the main question you’ll get an answer to.
Being a Content Manager at RedPanda’s for well over a year now, I’ve discovered that not all types of Content Marketing lead to increased traffic, leads and sales. So, in this article, you won’t just find out what types of content marketing are available to you – you’ll discover which types you need to focus on to drive real business growth.
- Definition of Content Marketing – What is Content Marketing?
- Content Marketing Using Blogs
- Content Marketing Using Videos
- Content Marketing Using Emails
- Content Marketing Using Lead Magnets
- Content Marketing Using Social Media Posts & Podcasts
- The Best Content Marketing Strategy to Generate Traffic, Leads and Sales
Definition of Content Marketing – What is Content Marketing?
There are so many definitions of Content Marketing actually is but here’s our favourite:
Content Marketing is defined as sharing information online to educate buyers around your products and services with the sole purpose of building interest around your brand and increasing sales revenue.
What’s of most importance when it comes to Content Marketing is education because that’s what pushes them further through their buying journey.
It’s not about trying to sell to users with your content.
Instead, it’s about answering your buyer’s most pressing questions. In doing so, you become a trusted voice of authority in your industry, which only makes it easier to generate leads and close deals.
Now the question becomes, where should you share information online to get the biggest bang for your buck?
Content Marketing Using Blogs
logs are written articles that share helpful information such as product comparisons and cost.
When you have no idea where to start with blogs, we recommend starting with the ‘Big 5’ because these are the topics all buyers (including you and I) research when we’re close to making a buying decision:
- Cost Articles: these are focused on outlining the cost of your products and/or services
- Comparisons / Versus Articles: these compare different alternatives, whether it be your brand vs another brand, a software your brand uses vs another software on the market, or two different types of materials a customer can choose from when working with you
- “The Best”: these are articles that outline the best in a certain category. For example, you might be discussing the five best alternatives to your offering (this is great at building trust), or you might be looking at the 11 best practices of using a software you sell
- Problems Articles: these are articles that reveal potential shortcomings with your product or service, or articles that tackle a problem/s your buyer may have
- Reviews: as straightforward as it sounds, these are articles that review something, whether it be a competitor brand, an alternative product/service, or your own offering
If you want to see some examples and more detailed explanations of the best 5 blog topics to drive traffic, leads and sales, check them out here.
So, how should you use blogs?
You can follow a simple three step framework:
- Interview your sales team and ask them what questions they get asked by buyers in their sales calls
- Create articles that answer these questions and share these with the sales team so they can use them in their sales process
- Publish three articles every week and ensure you’re sticking to basic SEO blog guidelines
If you do this, you’ll see your traffic soar, leads increase, and sales revenue climb.
Content Marketing Using Videos
People watch an average of 18 hours of video online, and when it comes to learning about products or services, 69% revealed that video was their go to. This is probably because video is a quick and easy way to digest information.
I can attest to the power of video. The last item I purchased was a Google Pixel Watch (which I love very much!)
And do you want to know what got me from “this looks pretty cool” to “My credit card is exiting my wallet and I am paying”?
You guess it – a video.
But not just any video. It was a YouTube video explaining the benefits and the drawbacks of the watch. Afterall, if I was going to spend near $600, I wanted to know what I was getting myself into. You wouldn’t marry someone without first knowing what they’re like behind closed doors, right?
The same goes for your customers.
So, how can you use video as part of your Content Marketing Strategy?
The types of videos you should create is endless, but this isn’t an article about your average joe’s content strategy. We’re talking about leads and sales.
That said, there are seven types of videos that really make an impact when it comes to your revenue generating Content Marketing efforts.
The seven types of videos include:
- 80% videos: Videos that answer the questions that prospects ask 80% of the time during sales calls
- Employee bio videos: Videos that offer a quick introduction to your team members
- Product/service videos: Videos that detail the features and benefits of your product/service and answer commonly asked questions around them
- Landing page videos: Videos that are used to alleviate user concerns or barriers on a landing page where a form is used, to increase conversion rates
- Cost videos: Videos that outline the pricing around your products/services
- Customer journey videos: Videos that show the journey a customer has had with your brand. These act as testimonial type videos
- “Claims we make” videos: Videos that go over the claims your business makes and backs them up
The best way to get started is to pick one of these types and produce that video.
Then, share it online – on social media, on your website, and where possible use it in your 1:1 sales emails (or share it with your sales team so they can use it).
Want to learn about the seven types of videos that help move your prospect from a good fit to “how can I get started”? Check out our comprehensive guide here.
Content Marketing Using Emails
Good old email marketing is STILL one of the best ways to generate leads and sales.
But what sort of emails are we talking about? You’ve got your 1:1 sales emails, your marketing newsletters, and then automated marketing emails as well.
For a Content Marketer specifically, the best place to start would be publishing a regular newsletter. And the best way to produce a marketing newsletter that engages prospects is to:
- Choose a CRM that works for your business, empowers your sales team and supports your marketing team
- Answer this question: “How can we build an email newsletter that adds ridiculous value to our audience?”
- Build your newsletter, create a cadence, and most importantly, stick to your cadence, no matter what. Whether you can manage weekly, fortnightly or monthly just stick to it! For reference, at RedPandas, we like to send an educational newsletter to our database every fortnight
It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3.
When you start to do this, you’ll notice something interesting happen.
Prospects will read your email newsletter. And then soon after, they’ll be on a Zoom call or in a coffee meeting with you, asking how to get started.
Email newsletters are powerful. Want to take it a step further? You’ll want to start building email autoresponders.
Content Marketing Using Lead Magnets
Lead Magnets are valuable pieces of content you offer to your customers in return for their information, such as their email address, name, phone number, and company name.
Some examples of lead magnets include:
- eBooks
- Whitepapers
- Checklists
- Reports
- Webinars
- Case Studies
Why Lead Magnets are one of my favourite types of Content Marketing
Lead Magnets are like a two-pronged spear.
The first prong educates customers and moves them through the buyer’s journey. Because it’s a valuable piece of content that you’re offering, you have the chance to really focus on giving your prospect what they need (which is answers to their most pressing questions) and in turn you reduce their scepticism and build trust.
The second prong gives you a chance to reach out with them directly. When they give you their information to access the Lead Magnet, you’re effectively gaining a new line of access to this prospect. In other words, a lead. And with a lead, comes a potential sale.
That’s why I love Lead Magnets. Not only do they educate and position you as an authority – but they also help you generate leads.
How to use Lead Magnets for Content Marketing?
One of the best ways to use Lead Magnets for Content Marketing is to develop a Buyer’s Guide. This is a guide that answers your prospects most pressing questions and helps them move closer to a buying decision.
Learn how to create and use a Buyer’s Guide to generate more leads and close more deals.
Content Marketing Using Social Media Posts & Podcasts
When you publish content on social media every day, you look like an authority in your industry.
On top of that, you’re top of mind, so even if a potential customer isn’t ready to buy today, you can bet that they’ll remember you tomorrow when they are ready to buy.
But posting every day can seem like a lot. Fortunately, that’s where Podcasts come in. Podcasts not only help you alleviate stress from your social media publishing requirements, but also helps to build trust in your marketplace, so it’s a double win.
Here’s how podcasts can help your social media game:
- You record and publish a podcast
- You cut short 30 second to 1-minute clips from the podcast and turn them into single videos. For a 30-minute podcast, we generally have around 6 short clips created
- Then, you can publish each of those shorter snippets as a post on social media
- And just like that, you’ve gained around one week’s worth of social media content from just one podcast, saving you a significant amount of time
You can really kick this strategy into the next gear and get to a point where you’re publishing over 50 pieces of content every single week. And this is how you become an authority in your space using social media.
The Best Content Marketing Strategy to Generate Traffic, Leads, and Sales
It’s no doubt that Content Marketing can help you become a trusted authority in your industry, increase traffic, generate more leads, and close deals faster.
But Content Marketing is more than just posting on social media or putting up blogs. It requires strategic thinking and significant time needs to be spent there to really utilise all the tools of Content Marketing.
Now that you know what tools you can use for Content Marketing, it’s time to learn about the strategy that ties this together, so that you can generate more leads, traffic and sales.
