Need specific examples of content marketing? Here are 25 ideas you can implement now.
- Research: Perform extensive keyword research to topic model its blog categories, then assigned experts to create “everything you need to know” about content for each topic.
- Enews: Create multiple newsletters if your audience has varied interests Give subscribers an option for a daily, weekly, or monthly newsletter. Adopt mobile-optimized design techniques—such as using a single-column layout, large text, and buttons, and spacing out links. Be sure landing page for web is mobile friendly.
- Eye Candy: Integrate exciting videos and entertaining infographics into publications.
- Polls: Create a quick poll on web site or social sites on a regular basis. Recognize them when you use one of their ideas.
- Case Studies: Think beyond straight text and consider adding visual elements such as videos and photos to make your stories come to life. Instead of focusing on traditional features/benefits, focus on the meaning of its technology.
- Blogs: Create valuable content, videos and answer questions about various topics in your industry. Focus on interactive conversations.
- Guest Posting: If you have individuals who are well-respected – or want to build a personal brand – consider using articles on other web sites. For articles to pack the most punch, it’s essential that they be about a specific need – not your brand.
- Articles on Web: Think about how members of your audience are segmented and what questions they may have, and consider organizing your content around these key areas. Consider who is your core audience and what is your content marketing mission?
- Events: In person events: If bloggers and the press are covering your event, an easy way to curate the posts is by using List.ly. You get a lot of feedback about your event in one place. Behave less as a vendor, and more like a partner with clients. Charitable events: If your company runs a charitable campaign, honor customers/fans that support your efforts. After the successful event, list these contributors on your web site or send a personalized email thanking those who were involved.
- White Papers: Think graphics, not just text. Get your designer involved from the beginning to create at least one graphic element that depicts the process or story of your white paper. This can then be shared on sites such as Visual.ly, Pinterest, Instagram, and even Slideshare.
- Online Presentation: Instead of using traditional slides with headers and bullets, think short and snappy text with lots of eye-popping design. Maxymiser example balances the need to entertain with the desire to inform.
- Webinars: To make webinars accessible to more people, consider including a transcript with the slides as part of the archive to appeal to those who prefer text over audio.
- Original Research Reports: While people love to review reports, consider the many content assets that can spring from this: infographics, online presentations, webinars, blog posts and more.
- Microsites: Relentlessly designed to be “search-initiated” and “buyer-controlled,” Salesforce.com’s Sales Success microsite obeys the “90/10” rule: 90 percent of the content must be about the customer; only 10 percent can be about the product. Concentrate on a narrow topic, featuring rich content developed by the brand.
- Infographics: Infographics are best at distilling complex data or illustrating a process. If you have a smaller story to tell, consider “snackable graphics” instead. A good one visualizes data to communicate a point of view, NOT visualize data for the sake of visualizing data.
- Branded Content: What’s something very simple, and very helpful that you could be providing to your customers for free, that ultimately positions you as an expert related to the products/services you offer?
- Mobile Apps: Consider a mobile app when there is something specific your customer may need when “out and about” and not in front of a computer.
- Mobile Content: If you are not convinced you need a mobile strategy, check out how many of your users are using tablets and mobile phones. When using Google Analytics, go to Audience > Mobile > Overview.
- Ebooks: Think: less copy, bigger fonts, more white space, and interactivity.
- Print: While there is something ephemeral about print, think about how you can repurpose your print assets for digital. Can you use these as blog posts? What can you add to make them more interactive?
- Digital Magazines: Take many forms, with marketers doing everything from creating all new content to repackaging content from other sources. You also can have a digital magazine as a stand-alone piece or one that is complementary to a print magazine.
- Print Newsletters: This is a tactic used frequently in the healthcare industry because patients and caregivers prefer print to digital. Mayo Clinic Health Newsletter is three-hole punched so they can be easily stored.
- Annual Reports: Those that are most effective combine stats and storytelling. Use visual storytelling: a combination of moving stories and mesmerizing visuals. Available in paper, PDF, and as an online digital magazine.
- Boost Twitter: Klout offers an influence measurement that ranks social media mavens and wannabes on a 1-100 score. Twitalyzer, maps its follower base, giving you a way to visualize the physical breadth of social media impact.
- Content Curation: Content curation adds editorial value through a personal perspective and commentary. You can curate other people’s research, spotlight best images in your niche, make the boring and mundane universal and fun.
– Condensed from an article by Joe Pulizzi with the Content Marketing Institute.