Choosing the right content formats and channels for your audience and goals can make a big difference in your content marketing success. But how do you know what works best for your niche, industry, and customers? In this article, you'll learn some data-driven ways to select the most effective and engaging content types and platforms for your content strategy.
Before you create any content, you need to understand who you're creating it for. What are their demographics, interests, pain points, preferences, and behaviors? How do they consume content and what are their preferred channels? You can use various tools and methods to collect and analyze data about your audience, such as surveys, interviews, analytics, social media insights, customer feedback, and personas. This will help you tailor your content to their needs, expectations, and motivations.
One thing I've found helpful is to select a specific thing to test, set a timeframe for testing it (don't waste time trying to perfect things), and make sure you have systems to measure data. Test different formats using that guideline, then use heat mapping tools to help you know the time spent per page, what caught reader's attention, etc. Use analytic tools to know what kind of readers vs each content type. Also use analytic tools or A/B tests to track content vs action so you know what converts best. For channels, test multiple channels and compare channel to results over time (ideally a 28 day cycle per channel). identify the top performing channel based on results you're optimizing for and you're good to go!
When I worked at CallRail, our product marketing managers frequently sent out surveys to our users. One of the best things they did that significantly helped us create content was to include questions about the type of content they liked to consume. So, when it came to looking at our different customer segments by industry, we could see what formats, topics, and types of content our audience enjoyed, which helped us be more targeted. But if you don't have access to this, you can also look at your emails, social media, and conversion rates on your forms to see what resonates with your audience. Also, you can just send an email to your audience to find out.
Use tools like Google Analytics to look at metrics like age, location, device usage, and engagement patterns to understand where your audience spends their time and how they consume content.
Using large reports that mix data on product usage with open ended survey responses about what they are looking to accomplish and what are their current roadblocks to accomplishing their goals can generate a wealth of insights about the topics your audience is interested in. To understand the format that works best I tend to focus on which social network the audience is spending their time on and what are the high-performing content types there.
Don't overlook the value of actual conversations. While a pile of data can be helpful, it usually doesn't tell the full story. Ask your audience directly about what they like, don't like, when they consume the content you produce, what device they use, etc. Then ask follow-up questions, dive in deep!
Another way to get data-driven insights into content formats and channels is to look at what your competitors are doing. What types of content are they producing and where are they distributing it? How are they performing in terms of traffic, engagement, conversions, and rankings? What are their strengths and weaknesses? You can use tools like SEMrush, BuzzSumo, Ahrefs, and SimilarWeb to conduct a competitive analysis and identify gaps and opportunities in your market.
Visual Content Analysis: Use image and video analysis tools to study competitors' visual content strategies. Understanding the types of images, infographics, or videos that engage their audience can inspire your visual content creation efforts.
Avoid spending too much time analyzing your competitors as it will likely result in similar sounding content with a different angle. Instead look at a different industry and see what type of content formats are gaining steam. For example - Let's say you are a SaaS agency - unboxing videos are popular for physical products so you might want to create "unboxing videos" for your product where you talk through the login and setup process in a similar format.
Once you have a clear idea of your audience and competitors, you can start experimenting with different content formats and channels to see what resonates with your target group. You can use various types of content, such as blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, ebooks, webinars, case studies, and more, depending on your goals, resources, and budget. You can also test different platforms, such as your website, social media, email, online communities, and third-party sites, to reach your audience where they are. You can use tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, YouTube Analytics, and Mailchimp Reports to measure and compare the performance of your content across different formats and channels.
If you're experimenting with new formats go for speed to insight. Don't waste a ton of time trying to perfect the format or develop a strong opinion. If you're going to make a podcast just start recording. If that does not work for your brand then hire an agency that has experience then bring in house later.
Review the performance of your existing content. Identify which formats (blogs, videos, infographics, etc.) and channels (your website, social media, email, etc.) are driving the most engagement, traffic, or conversions. Tools like BuzzSumo can help analyze content performance across different platforms.
Monitor key performance metrics for your existing content, such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and engagement metrics. Identify the content formats and channels that consistently perform well and replicate successful strategies.
Experimenting unlocks the perfect content strategy. It's crucial to find what truly resonates with your audience. Tip: Don't stick to just one format; variety is key. The more you experiment - the more you'll learn. Finding the right content format can open doors to engagement.
After experimenting with different content formats and channels, you need to optimize your content to improve its effectiveness and efficiency. You can use data to identify what works and what doesn't, and make adjustments accordingly. You can use tools like Google Search Console, Yoast SEO, Grammarly, and Canva to optimize your content for search engines, readability, grammar, and design. You can also use tools like CoSchedule Headline Analyzer, Hemingway App, and Lumen5 to enhance your headlines, copy, and visuals.
To optimize your content just focus on reading it and editing it to be better. To many marketers spend a ton of time pouring over Google Analytics and Ahrefs to determine that "older articles with low search volume" need to be updated. Taking the time to simply read your brand's content and refresh what could be improved is a faster route to optimization.
Conduct A/B tests across different content formats and channels to empirically determine what resonates best with your audience. This could involve testing different types of blog posts, videos, or even the timing and frequency of posts.
One of the benefits of using data-driven methods to choose content formats and channels is that you can repurpose your content to maximize its value and reach. You can use data to find out what content is most popular, relevant, and evergreen, and transform it into different formats and channels to appeal to different segments of your audience. For example, you can turn a blog post into a video, a podcast into a blog post, an ebook into a webinar, or an infographic into a social media post. You can use tools like Rev, Anchor, Designrr, and Piktochart to help you repurpose your content.
The best tactic to repurpose content is cut longer content into shorter clips that utilize engaging imagery and animation. This content can be used in social, email, and on your website. Usually people want shorter, easier to consume versions of in-depth research. The more you hone your skill at summarizing the better.
Convert Blog Posts into Infographic Series: Transform key points from your high-performing blog posts into a series of infographics for social media sharing, catering to visual learners and increasing shareability.
Differentiate between mobile and desktop user behavior. Analyze data to determine whether your audience prefers certain content formats or channels on specific devices. Optimize your content strategy accordingly.
With the information overload we face on a daily basis, it's crucial to adapt content to make it more accessible and engaging for audiences, especially with social media where content is consumed in almost the first 15 seconds. The idea of transforming longer content into shorter clips with images and animations or infographics is a smart approach to capturing attention and conveying messages effectively in cross-media.
Finally, you need to keep your content fresh and up-to-date by using data to monitor its performance and relevance over time. You can use data to find out what content is outdated, inaccurate, or underperforming, and update it with new information, examples, links, images, and keywords. You can also use data to find out what content is evergreen, high-performing, or trending, and refresh it with new insights, comments, testimonials, or calls to action. You can use tools like Google Trends, BuzzSumo, HubSpot, and WordPress to help you update your content.
Refresh Examples and Case Studies: Replace outdated examples and case studies with more current ones. Highlighting recent successes or trends keeps your content fresh and relatable to your audience.