A Quick Guide to Content Marketing

Even though I studied Communication and Organizational Development, the way life goes, I ended up working in Marketing for more than half my working life. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it so very much, but, as I never had “formal” training, I had never really thought about many things I do. For example, after I took my Project Management Google Certification, I realized I had already managed several projects… it was that “ah-ha!” moment when I found out how much I already know.

The different types of marketing are:

• Blog posts
  Although I have not created blog posts for any of my previous jobs, I have been using WordPress and blogging silly things since I was extremely young. Even though Spanish is my native language, I have always felt more comfortable writing in English, but, these are, in my opinion, the best type of content. It could be a bulleted list explaining something of value, a shared experience, something new, or your thoughts on a news article… the sky’s the limit!
• Infographics
  These content pieces are precious when done well, as they can be shared and easily, therefore guiding audiences from other sites to yours. A good infographic should be an artful presentation of visuals, data visualizations, and minimal text that conveys a topic’s key points quickly and easily for your audience to follow
• Ebooks and White papers
  Most places I’ve worked at use the words “ebook” and “white paper” interchangeably, however, a white paper would be much more academic writing, with numbers and investigative work, instead of an ebook, which could be, for example, a longer form of this blog post, with detailed information.
• Case studies
  What differs the case studies from both ebooks and white papers is that this is something done after working with a client, creating a success story on how your services work. This will help your audience understand how it would be working with you and trust in you because they have now seen your success.
• Videos
  My favorite way to use videos is to showcase your company. As I mentioned earlier, I studied communication. My real passion in that area is employee engagement and recognition. Showing your company’s culture with a video, congratulating employees in videos, as well as sharing their stories, how they got into the company, and how they have been helped or affected by working there will benefit your audience to understand who you are and what you are about.
• Webinars
  I’ve managed over 30 webinars in my life and each and they are all different from the next. This is the moment for the experts in your company to shine as the content authority, as they will speak to a targeted audience about their expertise. From simply discussing a few presentation slides which can be shared with your audience or those that registered, but couldn’t attend, to a chat with experts live, where they can answer any questions attendees ask. I have to admit I have enjoyed working behind the scene of webinars so very much, helping the experts get to where they need to be to speak to an audience.
• Podcasts
  This is another type of content that I find priceless for internal communication. Your team does not always have time to read the intranet, or the internal emails introducing new employees and giving information from HR about the most recent changes to policy or benefits. Employees could simply pull up the podcast and listen while they work, while they drive to or from work, or whenever they feel appropriate. This is also true for externals, and, just like webinars, a podcast with a regular time cadence would help position you as an expert in your field.

• Choose the right topics
  Knowing your audience is key to choosing the right topic for your content. If I head to a blog from a company that provides software, I don’t expect to find information about bikes. If I’m looking for specific information, and you are an expert but don’t provide content, this will be a missed opportunity to attract more audience.
• Do your research
  To be honest, I have been doing very little research for this piece, but that is mostly because I am just creating it to keep all of the information I’ve been learning somewhere, like notes from class. It’s important to have great, truthful information for your audience, so they keep coming back, knowing you’re a trusted source.
• Create engaging content
  You have done your research on the best topics to attract your audience, but, if it’s a blank page with long paragraphs of information, your audience will get bored. Remember to use visuals, leave some white space, create an appealing layout, and, of course, a call to action to help you get even more eyes on your content!
• Promote your content
  In a company I worked at, we would share a newsletter with the internal team, and, in it, we had our most recent articles, ready for employees to share on the platform of their choice, to gather more of an audience. More people would view the content that was shared by our employees, bringing more people to view our content and get to know us better. This is just one way to promote your content but is an excellent example of what can be done to reach out and build trust.

You can create content till your fingers fall off, but, what good it would be if you were unable to measure the success the content you are creating gives you? Here are a few ways you can analyze how good and helpful your content is in attracting an audience towards you.

• Track website traffic
  Where is your audience coming from? How many are coming from what site, and who is arriving at your site by typing your URL in the search bar? How many people come in and stay for a second and just leave? All these questions can be answered by website traffic data, and they are incredibly useful if you pay attention and use it to improve your strategy.l
• Track social media engagement
  I’ll admit I’m not a fan of impressions, where you see a post or ad past your scrolling and don’t give it a second thought. Give me clicks, likes, and shares, that way, I can see real engagement with the people who interacted with posts on social media, and how we can improve on that, bringing similar, new, cleverer content to keep the audience coming back for more.
• Track leads and sales
  Probably the easiest to measure, as these are the most tangible. did they read a blog post and downloaded the ebook? Well, now we have a lead! That lead will hopefully become a sale so, we can track everything from beginning to end: They clicked that link on social media, read the article, downloaded the ebook, received an email offering a free consultation, and, suddenly, you’re closing on a sale! How awesome is that? All because of content marketing!

Content marketing is constantly changing, and a big part of it has to be on how people like to consume their content. Not everyone has the time to read a blog post, so they go towards video content or a podcast. This is just one example, but, please let me give you a bit more details.

• The rise of video content
  From YouTube to TikTok, video content is taking over the world. You could upload your webinars, your live chats, your employees’ stories, and short videos about how your company works day to day. This will show the human side of your company and give the audience a good idea of who they would be working with.
• The importance of personalization
  It’s so very common to see personalization in email, but, how about creating content that speaks to a specific person? If you have a repeat visitor, they might get a different call to action than a new visitor to your blog, or give people the opportunity to change their viewing preferences. As an example, as you might notice, I prefer dark layouts to stark white ones. I’m sure some people (like my mom… Hi mom!) prefer white backgrounds with black letters.
• The need for more data-driven content marketing
  When we had our weekly meeting and discussed numbers, I would always enjoy looking at where people came from to our site, not only from other pages, social sites, etc. but also, from anywhere in the world. As I was the only Mexican in the company, I sometimes wondered if those clicks from Mexico would be only me, or someone else. As the company grew and got more Mexican employees, numbers from Mexico would also rise. Maybe you could personalize with this type of data, creating solutions for people in other countries or places that can help you be a trusted advisor to an audience that was not originally being contemplated by you.

So here I am, writing about content marketing when I’m just learning that this is a lot of what I’ve done during my working life! I have enjoyed blogging, creating emails, managing and working on webinars, and, at some points, even infographics. If a topic interests me enough, like, this one, I will work on it for hours, doing research and trying to find the best information, as I can’t stop trying to learn new things.

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I felt it would while I wanted to outline what I’ve learned. Share this article on social media and let your friends know about it. I hope they’ll thank you for the valuable content!