7 Types of Content Marketing to Scale Your Business: Benefits, Resources, and Tips

A recent report by Content Marketing Institute reveals that 66% of companies are planning to invest more in content marketing this 2022.

In a parallel study we conducted here at Virtudesk, 3 in 10 CEOs and marketers recommend that businesses invest in content marketing.

Why? Because good content is good for business. By creating relevant and high-quality content, you are creating more opportunities to converse with your prospects and lead them into conversions. 

In this article, we outline 7 types of content marketing that you can use to propel your business to success.

1. Blog Posts

Blogs are staples in content marketing for a reason. They are pieces of content that allow you to intimately track user behavior, conversions, and ROI on your content marketing campaigns because they live permanently on your website.

Through the use of Google Analytics, you can analyze how many people are reading your blogs, the engagement metrics, and how users navigate the website after reading the article. 

With blogs, you can also cater to the needs of customers looking for answers on the web. Because this content lives on your website, you can make it discoverable on search engines by embedding the content with keywords in your niche.

By targeting popular keywords in your industry, you can give your target audience solutions to problems they want to learn about. By doing so, you’ll be able to establish your authority in your field and build trust and engagement with new leads.

Additionally, you can feature internal and external content via links, entice people to try out your products and services, and promote your social media pages and accounts.

Incorporating search engine optimization (SEO) strategies into the blog content creation process will allow you to rank higher in SERPs and drive more traffic to your website.

Featured Resource: SEO and Content Writing Virtual Assistant 

2. Videos 

The demand for video content is high. In fact, Wyzowl’s video marketing statistics show 88% of people want to see more videos from brands. According to the same data set, 96% of people learn about products and services through explainer videos. Apart from consumption, people are also twice as likely to share videos than any other form of content.

In addition, Virtudesk’s study on marketing trends demonstrates how the majority of CEOs and marketers think video marketing will reap the biggest ROI this 2022. These figures only show how much value video content brings to businesses.

There are many types of video content that you can capitalize on. Some of which are testimonials, product demos, how-to videos, FAQ videos, reviews, and 101 videos.

When creating video content, you need to be mindful of its relevance to your target audience. Try your best to capture their attention in the first few minutes. And don’t forget to strategically add your call-to-actions.

Featured Resource: Developing an Effective Video Marketing Strategy for Your Business

3. Infographics

Our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text. This means that you can leverage graphic design to deliver marketing messages at an incredibly high speed. One form of visual content you can use for marketing is an infographic.

Infographics are useful for making texts more easily digestible for readers. They can also make your articles appear more credible, especially when you are illustrating hard data.

One tip to always remember when designing infographics is to align colors, fonts, imagery styles, and other graphic elements with brand identity. Apart from this, you need to ensure that the data you are conveying is accurate and cite your sources if necessary. 

Some types of infographics that you can experiment with are timeline infographics, geographic infographics, process infographics, and list infographics. 

Featured Resource: Designing Tips Using Canva Tool

4. eBooks and Whitepapers

Both eBooks and whitepapers are great tools for lead generation. The question for many marketers is, which should they choose between the two? To answer this question, you need to establish your goal first.

Whitepapers are documents that businesses use for sharing academic content about their products. They present a problem and, using data from original and external research, try to solve it. You can use whitepapers to explore an issue in your industry and present your product as the solution.

Meanwhile, eBooks are like blogs but longer. They have graphic-intensive layouts and contain information designed to educate but not overwhelm readers. If you want your content to be easy-to-digest, it’s best to choose eBook over whitepaper.

When choosing between the two, remember to put yourself in your reader’s place. A serious buyer is more likely to set aside time to read a whitepaper. Someone who is hearing about the company for the first time, on the other hand, is more likely to be interested in an eBook.

Featured Resource: Lead Generation Strategy

5. Podcasts

Podcasting is another great way to build your audience. Over the years, the number of people exposed to this medium has only risen. In fact, according to The State of Podcast Listening 2021, over 57% of Americans aged 12 and above or 162 million people have already listened to a podcast. That’s almost twice as many people who did as of 2012. 

Some of the benefits that come with producing podcasts are increased brand recognition and awareness, lower marketing expense, and improved conversion rate. Other than these, podcasts also help to humanize your brand and build more personal connections with more targeted audiences. 

To get people to listen to your podcast, a strong launch is essential. Good reviews also help, as they encourage other people to tune in to your podcast. So, don’t forget to invite your listeners to leave you one.

Featured Resource: How Podcast Marketing Works for Your Growing Business

6. Email Newsletters

Emails have one of the highest Return of Investment (ROI) among content marketing types, earning companies $36 for every $1 spent, according to a report by Litmus. The same report outlines possible ways for improving ROI including A/B testing, dynamic content, animated GIFs, and email analytics tools, among others.

Email newsletters are such a cost-effective solution that not making the most out of them would be a missed opportunity. If you’re not already, send out emails daily or weekly. Make an effort to personalize your emails so they have higher chances of getting open and engaging the reader.

You can do this through audience segmentation and microsegmentation. Divide your contact list by your contact’s demographics, buyer behavior, interests, and other factors.

Further, optimize subject lines, sending time, and length. Remember, the ideal length of an email is only 50 to 125 words.

With emails, personalization and automation are two trends you should ride. These will make the process of email marketing easier, and the results, better.

Featured Resource: Getting Started with Email Marketing

7. Social Media Posts

According to Datareportal, 58.4% of the population or 4.64 billion people are active social media users. Whether you’re a small company or a large enterprise, you can benefit from having access to this many people. 

There is a myriad of ways to use social media to grow your business. You can use it to engage customers and prospects, increase leads, drive traffic, develop brand recognition, and more.

Follow the best practices for creating social media posts to maximize their effectiveness. For instance, keep in mind that when creating copy for social media, it’s best to keep it short and simple. Ideally, you must observe and analyze engagement patterns and develop a social media marketing strategy from there. Lastly, you need to stay informed about the latest marketing trends as they change fairly quickly.

Featured Resource: Do’s and Don’ts in Social Media Marketing

Key Takeaways

As discussed in this article, there are seven types of content marketing that you can leverage to scale your business. These are blog posts, videos, infographics, eBooks and whitepapers, podcasts, email newsletters, and social media posts. 

If you are not an expert in creating different types of content or don’t have more time to devote to new business activities, then consider hiring one of our marketing virtual assistants.

They’ll help you create and execute a sound content marketing strategy. Just fill out this form and one of our Consultants will get in touch with you.

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