Today we have a guest post by Colin Cieloha of Skilled.co.
Content marketing is changing the way that businesses promote their products and brands. More and more companies are choosing this option due to both its affordability and effectiveness combined. The problem that these businesses are having however, is how to choose which method of content marketing is best for them as a company. Some of the most common types are listed below:
E-books
The goal of a good e-book is to educate the potential customer, but also engage the reader while being consistent with the company brand. This method can be a great way to get a lot of information out there, however it can be time consuming to produce and sometimes money needs to be spent on getting the e-book to where it needs to be to be seen.
Infographic
An infographic is a relatively new form of content marketing, and gives condensed information in the form of diagrams, graphs and figures. This is a type of content where it is advised to work with a professional as some graphic skill will be required in order to create it.
Video
Videos can take time and money to create, however once a good one has been created, it is proven to be very effective. It can be used to expose a brand to a large audience using platforms such as YouTube and social media.
Guides
A guide tends to be a fairly large piece of content. Guides can be a great way of harvesting the email addresses of potential customers if produced in an attractive and engaging way. They can provide a lot of useful information to the customer, giving the solution to a problem that they may have had.
Case Study
A case study is a great way to show a potential customer what you could do for them without being a sales pitch. It needs to be created in a way so that it doesn’t seem like advertisement, so the best way to go about it is creating a ‘success story’.
Lists
The fact is people love lists, they are easy to read and clear to understand. There are millions of articles all over the internet that start with ‘Top 10’ etc., as numbered ideas prove to be very popular. The more detailed the list is, the better, and providing a conclusion is the best way to sum everything up.
These are only a few of the many ways that companies can use content to market their business, but really the only drawback is imagination. New and creative ways to market brands and products are emerging all the time, helped along by the advancement in technology and the affordability of creating material.
Take the infographic for example, a few years ago it was very unlikely that a business would be able to create an infographic themselves. More recently though it is becoming easier for businesses to do it themselves due to the tools and software available to them. The easier and cheaper it is for these businesses to make use of content marketing, then it is more likely that we will come across it in our everyday lives.
Check out the infographic below for even more ways content marketing can benefit your business.
Presented by Skilled.co
Colin Cieloha is an American author and content marketer at Skilled.co. He writes about everything that will draw his attention with a general focus on the trends in the tech world. When he is not writing he is spending his time traveling the globe and snowboarding. You can follow him on his Twitter at @ColinCieloha or on Linkedin.
