Marketing can be considered anything that you use to convey a message about yourself or your company, but content marketing is just one small facet of digital marketing. Content is more specifically what you might find on blogs and websites (articles, photos, videos, graphics, etc.) that are meant to attract attention in order to gain some form of engagement views, likes, shares. We’ll discuss what is content in digital marketing in this article.
What Is Content in Digital Marketing?
Content is any material on a website, blog, social media account, or other digital sources that someone has published. Content is what helps your site rank high in search engines and also informs the content people share about your brand to their friends and followers.
Content can be anything from informative articles to images to funny memes. The main goal of content is to help you communicate who you are and what your business does. It can be used to inform your audience, answer questions about your industry and what you do, build trust through transparency, or just pure entertainment.
Content has been the backbone of digital marketing since the internet began. But in recent years, marketers are learning that content isn’t just images and videos, but different messages about their brand from all angles on social channels.
Content can also help people who don’t understand your product or service to get more comfortable with it. It can bring them closer so they’re a receptive audience for other marketing efforts such as ads or sales calls because they’ve already become interested in your company through reading about what you do and seeing the way you operate.
The key strategy is to come up with a variety of content types that will catch people’s attention over different platforms (like social media) and then create an editorial calendar focused on those topics at specific times – perhaps weekly or monthly.
Different Types of Content in Digital Marketing
Here are some different types of content you can use:
Informative Blog Posts
informational blog posts, whether written by you or guest bloggers, are typically full of helpful information and tips for your audience. They often include things like lists, tutorials, guides, ebooks, and more.
Edutainment
This type of content uses humor to teach people something they don’t know. It’s hard to make edutaining work but if you can, you’ll likely get coverage from sites like Buzzfeed or Huffington Post.
Cover Stories
These are very visual articles that inform the reader and also help promote your brand through exposure to high numbers of potential customers. They can be used as blog posts, articles in magazines or newsletters, on your own site’s home page (with a “read more” button), or even just shared on social media.
The image of the magazine cover is an effective way to grab someone’s attention before they even read the title of the article.
Content for Social Media
You don’t have to write 15 different Facebook updates every time you publish something new about your business. Social media updates should be based on your editorial calendar. By that, you should already have a plan in place for what kind of messages, photos, or videos will be posted to target audiences at different times of the week.
Some examples are sharing longer blog posts with more images (like from Pinterest), short Facebook updates with text and an image, or even Instagram stories of interesting things you’ve done recently as well as links to posts in other social media channels.
Infographics
These present information about your business or brand in a fun and visual way so they’re easy to understand for someone who doesn’t know much about your industry or niche. They can be generated by you or used from a third-party source.
The latter is often a better option because it’s free exposure for your brand. For example, if you run a nail salon, then an infographic posted on Best Nail Salons in Vancouver or Top 10 Nail Salons in Toronto, etc. could give your business some extra credibility and boost your SEO at the same time.
Canva
Canva is an online design and publishing tool that empowers anyone to create any type of graphic, from a logo for their business or a social media post to graphics for presentations.
Canva offers tons of templates, designs, fonts, and photos so the user doesn't have to hire expensive designers or find good quality images elsewhere.
It launched in 2013 and was designed as an easy-to-use tool where anyone could sign up and start designing anything they want immediately - no design skills required!
Explainer Videos
These are videos that explain to people how something works. They can be used as Facebook video posts or uploaded directly to YouTube. Each of these types of stories takes different work but they all aim to help your audience understand more about what you do and feel comfortable with visiting your website or buying from you.
Create Quality Content in Digital Marketing
The most important thing when it comes to creating quality content is to keep abreast of what your target customers are looking for–what do they care about?
If you’re not sure what this is, then take some time to think about what you might say if you were being interviewed about your business by someone from the BBC or Forbes.
If you can’t explain what you’re doing in a way that even someone with no direct experience of your industry will find interesting, then it’s unlikely anyone else will react positively to the posts, tweets, or stories about your business. So, start thinking about creating quality content that is helpful to your audience.
Creating quality content is one of the best ways to get found on search engines so that people in your niche can find you, too. You’ll attract clicks and leads from people who might not have heard of you otherwise.
The content marketing strategy for your business should be interwoven with your overall digital marketing plan. This means making sure you have a social media presence and a good blog.
In addition, try to take advantage of the promotional opportunities that come with holidays, events, or just special days like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. You can share content based on these occasions to increase engagement on your brand channels.
Conclusion
The content for digital marketing is important in order to engage customers and prospects. With a plan of what kind of messages, photos, or videos will be posted at different times of the week on social media platforms as well as other online mediums such as blogs, infographics, and explainer videos – there are many opportunities for quality content that helps you get found on search engines.
These promotional opportunities can come from holidays or events which should be considered when creating your overall digital marketing strategy.