Content Marketing. A Complete Guide

For a decade, content marketing was hardly a recognized marketing practice and basically, not many people paid attention to it, not to mention creating content strategies for brands. Today, however, it looks completely different – apart from social media, SEO, PPC or email marketing, content marketing is one of the most effective strategies for reaching and engaging potential customers and increasing brand awareness.

In this article, you will discover the strategies to connect with your target group. What’s more, I will indicate the types of content marketing and current trends! Let’s explore!

What is Content Marketing and Why You Need It?

Content marketing is all activities of planning, creating, publishing, analyzing content in order to reach potential customers. This tactic also has many business objectives as the content may significantly increase brand awareness among the target audience, generate leads, improve conversion rate, win more customers, and eventually boost revenue.

It is important to note that content marketing is strictly connected with SEO as owing to the high quality and unique content on the website, e.g. category or product descriptions and blog posts, but also off-site, e.g. in sponsored articles or social media, search engines rank much higher in the search results, increasing the chance to generate greater organic traffic.

Types of Content Marketing

When we think content, most of us probably automatically associate it with text, but the content is so much more. Currently, more and more types of content have entered the game for a potential client,  and I must admit – they meet with a really positive reception from users. Let’s see which types of content are worth investing time and energy in.

1. Blog Content Marketing

A blog is the most basic type of content marketing. Practically every brand that has its own website should also set up a company blog. It is a really powerful way of contacting customers and sharing knowledge. You can post various types of content on your blog: educational, promotional, product- or customer-related. So if you want to build positive relationships with your potential customers, increase brand awareness, and be perceived as an expert, then the company blog is an absolute must.

What should you have in mind to run a successful blog?

• post on a regular basis – publish posts on your blog quite often, e.g. 2-3 times a month; this way, users will notice that your blog is up to date and will be more likely to follow it looking for fresh news;
• provide valuable information – the more useful the information, the greater the chance that your content will attract users’ attention and that they will regularly visit your blog;
• respond to comments – make your readers eager to comment on your posts and express their opinions; remember that user-generated content is strongly valued by Google;
• include visual content – if you usually write long format texts, add visual media to make your piece of content more attractive;
• make it legible – remember about text formatting, appropriate heading structure; highlight the most important information.

2. Social Media Content Marketing

The number of social media users is constantly growing, it is estimated that in 2020 as many as 3.6 billion people worldwide are present on various social media platforms. According to the chart below, the number of people active in social media will continue to grow, up to 4.41 billion in 2025. No wonder that social media content marketing has become an incredibly important part of marketing campaigns.

If you are planning content marketing strategies in social media, you must first of all start by choosing the right platforms. And here the choice is really impressive. The most popular social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or Instagram. The selection of the right platform actually depends primarily on your industry and your potential customers.

In social media, everything changes dynamically so try to stay up-to-date. Who of us thought a year ago that TikTok would enter the game and become one of the most popular and influential platforms?

How to create content for social media?

• create high-quality content – I know, this tip seems a bit cliché but remember that in social media the competition is higher than ever, so you need to create content that will be original, high quality and that will stand out from your competitors;
• use engaging social media content to attract your audience – here the choice is really huge (it depends mainly on the platform, of course), you can use for example memes, tips and tricks, Instagram stories, contests, company news, GIFs, animations… and so much more!
• keep it short and simple – respect your audience’s time; it is difficult to keep users’ attention in social media, long parts of text certainly won’t do any good in this, so go straight to the point,
• add a call to action (CTA) – at the end of your posts in social media, always add a CTA that will motivate users to take the action you have indicated; CTA can come in different forms: sending to a landing page, subscribing to a newsletter, asking a question, etc.

3. Podcast Content Marketing

Did you know that in 2020, 37% of Americans listen to podcasts? That’s 100 million people, and only in the U.S. (source: convinceandconvert.com)! The potential of podcasts is rising from year to year! Users simply love this content medium. The reason for that is very simple – podcasts are really convenient, you can listen to them while relaxing at home, taking a walk or even at the gym. So maybe you should consider this type of content for your brand?

What makes a good podcast?

• informativeness – your podcast should be substantive, informative, provide real knowledge which can prove useful to your audience,
• create catchy titles – episode titles should be intriguing and make a good first impression so try to be creative; remember, however, that users hate when the content of the podcast does not correspond to the title, we say no to misleading click-bait titles;
• don’t make too long episodes – there are different opinions on the most optimal length of podcast episodes, but keep the episodes no longer than 45 minutes or a maximum one hour;
• release episodes regularly – some podcasters release new content every day, but the most common practice is to post podcasts once or twice a week.

Do you want to discover other pros of podcasts? On our blog, you’ll find an interesting article comparing podcasts and webinars – check it out!

4. Video Content Marketing

Hubspot has conducted a survey that shows that as many as 54% of customers in the U.S. expect video content from brands they follow or support. This proves that video content marketing has really great potential for enhancing brand awareness and winning potential customers.

How to create an excellent video content marketing strategy?

• select the appropriate video type you want to make, and you have plenty of options:
  • brand videos – present your brand, its vision, values and products/services offered,
  • live videos – it’s a great opportunity to interact with users to increase their engagement,
  • webinars – provide knowledge on a specific topic, be an expert in your field,
  • testimonial videos – increase the credibility of your brand and prove that your product/service is of the highest quality,
  • unboxing videos – great idea when you launch your new product so you can show its features,
  • how-to-videos – a great way to educate users about your product/service,
• prepare your video tailored to various platforms – of course, YouTube is the first and most obvious choice, but you also have other popular video content platforms like Vimeo, Wistia, or Twitch;
• improve your video SEO – keep in mind the following elements:
  • video transcription,
  • engaging thumbnail image,
  • title and video description,
  • video tags (mainly on YouTube),
  • target keywords included.

5.     Infographic Content Marketing

It is a great way to show users all the information or data in a very compressed and easy to understand way. If you are looking for an effective way to communicate with users, infographics will be a great solution that will certainly draw their attention.

And here are some statistics proving that infographic content marketing has really great power:

• messages presented in color have a 39% greater chance of being remembered by their recipients than white-black messages,
• if the color is well used, 70% less time is spent searching for the relevant data,
• thanks to infographics, reading comprehension increases by 50%,
• 65% of people remember information communicated visually, and only 10% remember messages heard out loud. (source: visme.co)

Trends in Content Marketing

Content marketing is changing dynamically, so you should keep an eye on current trends in this industry and try to follow them. And which trends in content marketing currently dominate? It would be challenging to count all the trends, so here are the most significant ones:

Influencer Marketing

If you want to increase brand awareness, influencer marketing can help you achieve that. In fact, 80% of marketers consider influencer marketing to be highly effective (source: mediakix.com). The key to success is the right research and selection of influencers to start working with. If you choose a well-known personality (in your industry, of course) that has gained trust among users, then you will significantly increase your reach.

User-Generated Content

People really trust content created by other users, so it’s worth finding some space in your content strategies for user-generated content (UGC). Why can UGC have such a positive contribution to your brand? First of all, if most of the comments are positive and rate your products/services as valuable and of high quality, over time it will impress new arrivals. What’s more, it gives a great opportunity to create a community, and besides, user-generated content is absolutely free!

Voice Search

Since Alex or Siri appeared, voice search has become one of the strongest trends in recent years. Recently, users’ trust in voice assistants has increased noticeably, making it more common for people to use their voice when searching online instead of typing their query into the search bar.

What’s important, voice queries differ from those typed – their language is more natural and conversational, e.g., let’s say, instead of typing “weather Rome tomorrow” the user will be more likely to ask: “What will the weather be like in Rome tomorrow?”. So remember, when creating content, never neglect voice search because, in this way, you will simply lose the chance for additional traffic to the site.

Augmented Reality

Have you ever heard of augmented reality (AR)? You have certainly seen this type of content, even if the term doesn’t sound familiar. These are various filters or lenses that you can meet on different social media platforms such as Snapchat or Instagram. They allow users to change their face and add, for example, a dog’s nose, fancy glasses, or freckles.

It turns out that users simply love augmented reality and use it quite often. This content trend has been an absolute hit for several years now. So maybe you should consider it in your content marketing strategy?

Content Marketing Strategies

Stage 1: Set Your Goals

This is the first step to a successful content strategy. You need to define both short-term and long-term goals you want to accomplish.

What can be the main goals that can be achieved with the help of content marketing? With the right content you may:

• enhance brand awareness,
• build positive relations with your potential customers,
• improve conversion rate,
• boost sales,
• increase user engagement,
• find business partners.

These are of course only examples of goals that can be achieved with content marketing. Set your own goals tailored to your brand and, importantly, your industry.

I also personally recommend following SMART goals that will allow you to maximize efficiency and remain fully focused on your goal. SMART is the acronym that stands for:

Specific – set specific goals, not just blurry ones,

Measurable – your goals should be measured with real numbers,

Achievable – your goals should be a bit challenging, but still possible to achieve,

Realistic – you know yourself and your team best, so determine the things to do, for which you have the necessary knowledge and capabilities,

Time-bound – set a deadline.

Stage 2: Get to Know Your Potential Audience

Do you know for whom you create your content? Who is your reader? Create a persona, i.e. the archetypal character which represents the specific type of user. This allows you to determine how certain groups of potential customers can use your product/service, what expectations they have, and what language to use when communicating with them.

So first of all, ask yourself some basic questions to help you create a persona:

• how old is he/she?
• what are his/her educational level and job status?
• what is his/her preferred source of information?
• what adjectives would he/she use to describe himself/herself?

If you experience problems with creating a persona, you will find all the necessary demographic data in Google Analytics. I am sure they will be a huge help to you!

Stage 3: Choose Types of Content and Channels

Types

What format of content would you choose? Will it be just articles on the blog? Or maybe you find infographics and videos also interesting and profitable? Determine in which type of content you want to invest your time, energy, and, above all, your budget. Above I describe in detail the 5 most popular types of content: blog, social media, video, infographics, and podcast.

Channels

Once you’ve selected your types of content, it’s high time to choose channels. Here the number of channels to choose from is also impressive. These can be your properties, e.g. your website or company blog, social media properties, e.g. Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, or someone else’s website where you can publish your podcasts or sponsored articles.

Stage 5: Create and Promote Your Content

Create

The preparation process is already behind you, so it’s time to get down to work and to create a nice piece of content. I’ll give my tips on the example of blog content marketing, but they are also great for other types of content:

• create content regularly,
• never plagiarize,
• include creative CTA,
• add internal links to other posts,
• remember to mention the author’s name and date of publication,
• optimize for search engines,
• schedule your content.

Promote

Even if you create top-notch content, but you don’t promote it enough, your work will be worth nothing. So, make use of these ways of promotion (or at least some of them):

• email marketing – it is a really powerful form of promotion, especially since you usually send emails to people subscribing to your newsletter, i.e. showing interest in your brand; inform them in a creative way about your new content or remind them about older but still popular blog posts;
• be an active member of your community – join (or even create) various social media groups where you can post your content;
• paid promotion – if you want your content to quickly reach a larger audience, you can also choose Google Ads or Facebook Ads.

Stage 6: Analyze and Measure the Effectiveness

Last but not least… ALWAYS measure the effectiveness of your content. Otherwise, you will never know if it connects with your audience. Here are some of the most important content metrics:

based on: semrush.com

Content Is King, Isn’t It?

Setting up the best content marketing strategies that will help you achieve your desired goals takes time and requires lots of energy and creativity, but believe me – the game is worth the candle! There are many ways to increase brand awareness and recognition, boost sales, increase visibility in search results, and build great relationships with your audience thanks to high-quality content. You simply need to find the most effective strategies for your brand. Just never be afraid to try new solutions!

Are you looking for experts to set the best content marketing strategies for your brand? Contact us and our team will be happy to help you!