If you want to be a success at digital marketing, you have to wrap your head around the fact that content will always be king. In fact, a lot of the digital marketing tactics you see today have actually been practices for many generations – before digital was even a dream.
From cave paintings to John Deer and even Jell-O, content marketing has been around for literally thousands of years. Anytime someone wanted to get the information out about anything, they could turn to content to help. Cookbooks are a great example of content marketing before the internet, because it’s something everyone can relate to. If a cookbook listed a particular brand of item in it, that’s what people would buy.
Today, content marketing is extra important because it’s how you’ll get people to visit your website. It’s also how you’ll teach people about the issues that are important to your audience, and hopefully turn them into a customer.
Digital Search Content – All content is fodder for search engine traffic. Search engines use the information on your blogs, websites and social media to send your customers your way. They do this with the terms used in the content or in the “alt” descriptions.
Social Media Content – Everything you put on social media is content. It doesn’t matter if it’s a meme, an image, words, a video or something else; it is considered content. When you realize all that content encompasses, you quickly realize that yes, it is very important. It’s not just a blog post or text; it’s everything.
The types of content you can create are:
- Blogs – These need to go out on a regular basis to help your visitors find your website. You can also write original guest blog posts sometimes to bring other audiences to you.
- Newsletters – These can be sent via email on a regular basis to keep your subscribers engaged and active.
- Magazines – Today, you can create an online magazine to help with marketing and informing your audience.
- Podcasts – This is another way to put out information without having to type it. Instead you can record your thoughts and upload them to be listened to later.
- Videos – YouTube is a great example of the power of video to get the word out about anything and teach others something that requires visuals.
- White Papers – These are long research documents that often compare and contrast the solutions to a problem discussed in depth. They are great for educating a wide audience without overtly advertising your solution.
- EBooks – Using books to build your expertise is a great way to teach an audience about something that requires a lot of information. Today, publishing on Kindle is simple and free.
- Online Presentations – You can post PowerPoint slides on SlideShare.net and other presentation sharing sites as another way to keep your audience informed.
- Webinars – Growing in popularity due to their live nature and the way the audience can interact with the hosts, webinars are a very effective form of content.
- Infographics – Often used on social media, infographics are a great way to help your audience picture important data visually.
- Games – If you can create an online game that teaches or markets your offerings to your audience, then you will have some really awesome content that gets results.
- Branded Tools – Whether it’s a diet app, a WordPress plugin or something else, creating a tool that your audience can use daily (even if it’s an old-fashioned calendar) provides the type of content that will remind them that you’re there.
As you see, everything you do to market your business plus inform people about your business and interact with people is actually content. That’s why content is king. Content is the most important asset you own when it comes to digital marketing.