Are you making this content mistake?

We hear it all the time: ‘content is king’. Bill Gates predicted the success of content marketing back in the 90s, and since then, marketers have taken the phrase and ran with it. To this day, 78% of chief marketing officers believe custom content is the future of marketing. But what is content? Too many people who are new to content marketing misinterpret content as meaning purely blog posts. This is, as Julia Roberts said in Pretty Woman, a “big mistake. HUGE!”

Variety is king

Forget what your teachers used to say. With content marketing, quantity is just as important as quality. You don’t want to go overboard, and you don’t want to post so infrequently that your customers grow detached from your brand. With content marketing, you need to publish engaging, regular, and relevant content for your customers to help you build your brand and start gathering a following. But, there is one key thing you need to make sure you take care of: variety.

Blog posts are fantastic content marketing tools. When you incorporate a blog page into your website, you have a 434% higher chance of being ranked highly on search engines, and SEO can take this even further. And businesses that use blogs in their strategy get 67% more leads than those who don’t.

But, what about all the potential customers out there who don’t like to read, struggle to read blogs online, or find it hard to stay focused when reading long pieces of text? Some people might be able to absorb the same information from a video that they couldn’t from a blog post. You are missing out on a plethora of business if you only focus your content on blogging.

Other types of content

Great content isn’t restricted to blogs. Content can also include:

• eBooks
• Guides
• Quizzes
• Videos
• Memes
• Images
• Case studies
• Infographics
• Podcasts
• Webinars

These are just some alternative forms of content that may appeal to a broader range of your target audience. Notice how the list contains visual content, written content, and audio content. Some types of content are even combinations of all these, meaning your choices when it comes to creating original content are endless.

The best content for you

Deciding what content you should post to get you the best results incorporates a few factors:

• Your budget - blogs and infographics may be easy to produce if you’re going DIY. Videos that are of a standard good enough to survive the jammed feeds of Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn may not be, meaning you need to call in the professionals.
• Your audience - What demographic are you trying to speak to through your content? Depending on factors such as age, people respond differently to various forms of content. For example, Gen Z, born from 1995 onwards and often mislabelled as millennials, will account for 40% of consumers by 2020. They are the most tech-savvy generation since its invention, have shorter attention spans, reject labels, and LOVE video and mobile content. Knowing this kind of information about your target audience can make or break your content strategy.
• Your business - A photography business is going to need to post visual content. But that doesn’t mean helpful guides on photography topics won’t be equally as effective for your audience. Posting the right content is about balance, and to get it right, you need to know your business inside out.

Content marketing the smart way

Ultimately, there’s no blanket approach that can be applied to content marketing. You can’t say post X amount of blogs and Y amount of videos because what works for one company’s audience may deter another’s.

To be able to post the right content, you need to do your research. Research your audience and use the vast variety of content formats to bring your marketing strategy to life.

Marketing isn’t always as easy as it may seem. If you aren’t getting the results you want, or you need a hand to lighten the workload, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the professionals at Coster Content. We can create compelling content marketing material and plans for you, or we can teach you how to utilise content marketing to take your business to the top. Give us a call today on 07462 455 894.