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Grow Your Business With Marketing Content

Most people don’t want to be sold to, they want to buy. Today’s buyers have a DIY, investigative spirit and a huge appetite for information. As a business, it is critical that you fill this need with enlightening, customer-focused marketing content. Not just any content will do. You need polished, professionally-crafted marketing content that makes you look good and positions you as an expert in your field.

Woman's arm with a red polka dot sleeve and silver bracelets, hand on the mouse and facing two monitors

What Is Marketing Content?

Marketing content, as you might guess, is the content you use to market your business. Unlike your sales materials, which are typically focused on features, benefits, and overcoming objections, marketing content should focus on examining problems, offering solutions, and answering common questions and curiosities. If you can provide relevant and helpful content during the earlier stages of your buyer’s journey, you can win their trust, confidence, and ultimately their business.

Types of Marketing Content

One of the two big questions your content strategy needs to answer is what types of marketing content you will need in order to establish authority and leadership in the minds of your buyers. Marketing provides tons of opportunities to publish and share content. Here are some of the most common forms of content used in successful marketing strategies. Once you know what types of content you need you can start to plan your specific messages and content pieces.

Web Pages

Your informational web pages (sometimes called “narrative content”) should clearly explain all the basic details of your business, products, and services. Web pages should answer some core important questions about your brand: who and where you are, who you serve, what you do and how, and why you are the best choice among competitors.

Blogs

Blogging creates website traffic by adding more pages, content, keywords, and links to your website. Blogs are highly versatile and can be shared across a wide range of marketing channels. Every blog post should have a call to action button that leads the reader to a web page with information about your business or the products, services, and solutions you sell.

Whitepapers

Used primarily to inform a narrow target audience toward the end of your marketing funnel and into the sales funnel, whitepapers can be very effective content. Whitepapers are best for explaining technical problems and solutions or asserting a stance on a topic of debate. Your whitepaper’s title should be specific and bold, while the copy must demonstrate your knowledge of the problem and offer a clear solution.

Articles

Articles are a happy medium between the lack of formality of a blog post and the downright nerdy world of whitepapers. Articles can take on almost any tone while providing lots of links and opportunities to drive traffic to your landing pages. Like whitepapers, ebooks and case studies, articles make excellent “lead bait” when offered in exchange for contact information and marketing permissions.

Testimonials

A short video from a previous client speaking well about your business is a powerful tool. If someone likes your service enough to speak about it on camera or in a quote, that’s as good as gold for your sales cycle. Many people are eager to support someone who brings them value. Don’t be afraid to ask your best customers if they’d like to share their story in a testimonial.

Reports

Some companies have to release periodic reports about their results and business activities. Others do it because they know it’s a powerful marketing opportunity. Flex your success by showing off your best stats and most compelling data with marketing-crafted report content.

Photos

The most powerful imagery you can put in your content is photography. Stock photos are a good starting point, but well-shot custom photos are the gold standard. From product photos to team pics to shots of your facilities and equipment, custom photography puts your true face out there for the world to see and evaluate. Using real photos in your marketing build trust and transparency.

Video

Video combines the powers of text, graphics, photography, and motion to communicate information and tell stories. Consumers love video because it’s easy, entertaining and engaging. Marketers love it because it’s versatile and has great ROI. If you don’t have video content in your strategy yet, you are missing out!

Audio & Podcasts

In the olden days, people read newspapers and magazines or watched TV programs to learn about the world and keep up with new developments. These days, people are always on the go with little time to focus. Audio recordings and podcasts are the perfect content format for busy people. They can listen on-demand nearly anywhere anytime, even when driving or doing other activities. Podcasts are a powerful frontier for marketers. Get on the mic and take the lead!

Landing Pages

A landing page is a specially-crafted entry page for targeted audiences and inbound web traffic. There are two main types of landing pages: click-through pages and lead generation pages. Click-through landing pages are self-explanatory. They have a goal of getting the user to click through to another destination and funnel them toward conversion. Lead generation landing pages are designed to keep the user focused and capture conversions.

Emails

Email is another multi-talented type of marketing content. Emails can include recurring newsletters, product offers, event invitations, triggered emails, transactional messages, and more. Every email you send is a marketing opportunity.

Ebooks

While whitepapers are more data-driven and analytical, ebooks are more graphical and interest-driven. They typically have a lighter tone and writing voice and are used to capture leads early in the marketing funnel or to reinforce fundamental concepts to your leads and customers.

Case Studies

Nothing proves your point better than a detailed case study. If you can show clear results that you’ve had with a customer in the past to a new prospect, that’s a great starting point for your conversation. Even if the two cases aren’t exactly the same, just showing a track record of success can be enough to persuade a client to choose your business. Hey, maybe they’d like to be the subject of your next success story?

Press Releases

A press release is a type of specially-formatted content delivered to members of the news media to provide information or make an announcement. Press releases may sound like a relic from a bygone era of smokey newsrooms and ticker tape, but they are still quite powerful in the 21st century, especially for local news and media coverage.

Graphics

Words are great, but let’s face facts. The majority of people online today are visual learners with short attention spans. The TL;DR effect is very real, but it’s also very easy to overcome by creating graphics that explain your most important information. Well-crafted graphics not only do a great job of telling your story, but they also reinforce the recognizable details of your brand.

Infographics

You know what’s boring? Spreadsheets, data tables, and long lists. If you want your compelling stats, facts, and findings to get attention online, you need to package them in a way that people find appealing. It’s sort of like sneaking your dog’s medicine in a sausage. Infographics are the treat that makes your must-know info more palatable with fun formats, charts and graphs, lively typography, icons, and graphics.

Gifs & Animations

Sometimes you just need a little bit of motion to catch people’s eyes and make your content feel active and energizing. Gifs and animations can do just the trick. Scrolling banners, moving backgrounds, images that come alive when you interact with them… There are so many cool marketing possibilities with gifs and animation. Just be careful not to overdo it! Too much movement can be distracting or even give your users a headache.

Marketing Content Services from Blayzer Digital in St. Louis MO

Blayzer is a marketing content agency in St. Louis, Missouri with over 20 years of web and marketing success under our belt. We offer a full range of content-related services for your business. If you need help figuring out what content you need or creating incredible marketing content to wow your buyers, give us a call today!

  • Content Strategy
  • Copywriting
  • Graphic Design
  • Video
  • Web & Mobile Content Management
  • Content Marketing