Content creation has become more important than ever, as it is a majorly important method to create SEO content that will help your business become more visible to searches, social media content, digital marketing and email marketing content and even paid broadcast content.
Before you get started, you need to write down and diagram out:
1. Your Goals
Depending on what your goals, are, the ideal type of content can change. Make sure to at least have a pretty good idea of what you are trying to accomplish.
2. Marketing Channels
Do you use facebook, twitter or focus more on digital marketing or email marketing.
The content that is most effective will change a bit between media channels.
3. Your Audience!
Different audiences respond differently to different types of content. There is generally a marked difference between the ideal type of content for B2B vs B2C. Think about what your audience, including age, location, buying preferences among other attributes. Larger firms spend large amount of time to segment their audience which will drive up advertising effectiveness and ROI
Once you have these basic parameters determined you can start to plan the actual content you will create. Here are just a few of our favorite ideas.
Educational Content
Creating tutorials or educational content that viewers will enjoy is a powerful tool to rank SEO and connect with users. For example, a CNC machine shop could make a quick tutorial on how to use a cad program or how to design a metal gate hinge set. Many B2B firms heavily focus on knowledge and educational content, as often their audience is very keen to stay up to date and learn more about their field.
Education content can take many forms, such as a simple blog post, video post, or a downloadable pdf that could be tied to emails.
Company News
Perhaps one of the most obvious types of company content, would be company news focusing on any company updates you wish to be public. Just like many of the other types of content, these posts can be video posts or a written press release blog.
Most larger companies release company news on their website concurrently as they release them to PR partners and industry media outlets.
Your Team
Often your team members are the ones that your customers speak to or come face to face with. Creating content that focuses on team members or letting your team members guest author posts is a great way to build a better relationship and further your relationship with customers.
Behind the Scenes
Behind the Scenes posts are another great way to better connect with your audience. If you are a mnuafacturing firm, many times your customers would be intriguedby the technology and equipment you use to build your products. Take time to explain the painstaking steps you take to ensure quality.
Graphics and Charts
Over and over, brands are reazling that their audience often prefer graphics or infographics over a long written blog. Now blogs are of course important, but sprinkle infographics into these blogs and also create shorter blogs that are more focused on just your info graphics.
Video
Video content can come in many forms, everything from broadcast and cable tv spots to live videos, vlogs and longer form video case studies, marketing videos and video product/ service overviews.
Video is becoming more and more important as well, as it has become clear that consumer heavily favor photos and videos over simply written text. When it comes to email marketing and digital marketing, videos are important to utilize because they capture users’ attention and result in a much higher percentage of click through rate. This makes your marketing spend more efficient.
Reviews
Reviews across multiple platforms have become increasingly important as well. Make sure that you are encouraging customers to leave reviews via email, phone or in person visits on your google, facebook, and if applicable trip advisor or ASDASDASD pages.
A great type of content creation is highlighting certain reviews on your social media page.
A further development of this would be to use a review and develop it into a case study.
Case studies are one of the most important and influential forms of content that can make even a new company alleviate any concerns that both business or consumer customers might have.
Industry News and Commentary
Staying well connected and viewed as a thought leader within an industry is a great way to solidify your reputation and build a larger customer base. Also it can be a method to reduce skepticism with price increases.
B2B firms in particular need to stay actively engaged with industry news and happenings. For example if you were a supply chain or logistics company, providing commentary how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed foreign suppliers’ operation or insight on how to better manage international shipping following increased tariffs could be a great example of a industry commentary style of post.
Tutorials
For craft related, restaurants, bars etc, a simple tutorial is a great way to build a widely shareable piece of content. For example if you are a restaurant, you could make a written blog showing how to make a certain type of fudge, then create a video highlioghting how to make it as well. So with one idea, you’ve created two different pieces of content that can both be shared across multiple marketing channels. Another example would be a Christmas tree farm creating content on what they think are the best way to preserve a cut christmas’s tree needles before drying out. Again, this is something that would be widely interesting, easy to make and easily shareable across their audience.
As you build out your content, also ask your audience members if there is a specific topic or piece of content that they would like to see you make. Often your audience will have a comments or would enjoy seeing something in particular covered in a blog. Don’t forget to occasionally check out your competitors and benchmark your marketing against theirs.
The most important takeaway from this, is possibly that the type of content you create is less important to the simple notion that you are creating content! Don’t be one of those companies that posts a blog or social media post every 6 months!
In future blogs we will go into more platform specific tips!
Let us know if there’s anything you’d like to see covered in the future.
About Volan Media
We’ve worked with dozens of businesses across many different industries and sizes to plan content marketing plans. Volan Media is a top Knoxville based content marketing agency, we not only work with clients in the Knoxville, Maryville, Chattanooga, and Nashville area but also work with clients around the country!
Let us know how we can help your business push forward in 2021!
