Content marketing encompasses a wide range of tactics that focus on the creation and distribution of high-quality content. It’s considered a form of inbound marketing because it attracts customers without disrupting their activities with ads. When you publish and distribute high-quality content, such as blog posts, you’ll draw new customers to your business.
Blogging, however, isn’t the only content marketing tactic. While countless businesses blog, there are many other content marketing tactics available, some of which are equally if not more effective. Rather than only blogging, consider the seven following alternative content marketing tactics to get your business noticed by its customers.
Social media
Social media is a popular content marketing tactic. According to LinkedIn, in fact, it’s more popular than blogging. LinkedIn found that 64 percent of businesses create and distribute content on social media networks, whereas only 53 percent blog.
Your business’s customers probably use social media. By posting high-quality content on social media networks, they’ll inevitably stumble upon your business. On Facebook, you can post content from a Facebook Page. On Twitter, you can post short-form content, known as tweets, from a Twitter profile. On LinkedIn, you post content from a Company Page. Regardless of which social media networks you use, post content under your business’s name rather than your own name.
Email newsletters
Creating email newsletters is an effective content marketing tactic that doesn’t involve blogging. An email newsletter, of course, is a sequence of emails that are sent to subscribers over time. Some of them consist of just four emails, whereas other newsletters consist of dozens of emails.
Email newsletters are effective at attracting new customers because of their permission-based approach. Regardless of how many emails you intend to use, you can’t run a newsletter without obtaining recipients’ permission. When a user subscribes to your business’s newsletter, he or she is electing to receive emails from your business. Therefore, recipients will likely open your business’s emails and read the enclosed content.
Infographics
The content you publish and distribute doesn’t have to be text. It can be any form of digital content, including infographics. Infographics are images featuring concise, visualized information on a particular topic. They are designed to convey key points of information visually. Infographics may still feature embedded text, but the text is presented alongside relevant visuals — charts, graphs, photos, icons, graphics, etc. — so that it’s easier for users to consume.
According to a study cited by HubSpot, 90 percent of all information processed by the human brain consists of visuals. Infographics leverage this biological trait to improve their effectiveness as a content marketing tactic. When compared to blog posts, more users will read and comprehend the information within infographics.
Podcasts
Another content marketing tactic involves podcasts. A podcast is an audio file that users can download to play back at a later time. They’ve been around since 2004, during which they were created specifically for iPods. Podcasts are no longer limited to iPods, though. Since they use universal audio file formats, including MP3 and MP4, they are supported by most computers and audio-enabled devices.
You can record podcasts and upload them to your business’s website, as well as third-party platforms, to reach new customers. If a podcast contains high-quality and non-promotional content, users will voluntarily download it. After listening to the podcast, users will view your business as being an authority in its industry, which may compel them to buy your business’s products or services.
Videos
You can create video content as well. Videos are gradually taking over the internet. According to a report by Tubular Labs, 82 percent of all consumer-based internet traffic will consist of video content by 2022. With video consumption on the rise, you shouldn’t omit it from your content marketing strategy.
Like infographics, videos convey information visually, making them a popular form of digital content among users. To include them in your content marketing strategy, record videos on topics that are relevant to your business’s customers and upload them to YouTube. You can then link to these YouTube videos from your business’s website and social media properties.
Search engines often rank YouTube videos as organic listings. To optimize a YouTube video for higher organic rankings, give it a relevant title that includes your primary keyword. You can also add your primary keyword and secondary keywords as tags.
Q&As
Engaging in question-and-answer discussions is an effective content marketing tactic. When they encounter a problem, users often seek the advice of a professional by posting their questions online. You can find question-and-answer discussions on websites such as Quora, Reddit and Yahoo Answers.
By responding to users’ questions, you’ll help them solve their problems. Users will appreciate the time and effort you spend answering their questions. At the same time, they may choose your business instead of a competitor. Just remember to answer relevant questions that are related to your business and its audience.
Case studies
Publishing case studies is a great way to get your business noticed. A case study is a form of research that investigates a question or topic through data collection. To create a case study, you must collect data. You can then turn this data into a report for your business’s website.
While collecting and organizing data for use in a case study may sound tedious, there are ways to simplify it. You can publish a poll or survey on your business’s website. If you’re creating a case study to investigate the average cost of homeownership, for example, you can ask visitors how much they spend to maintain their homes in a typical year in an embedded poll or survey. The poll or survey will automatically collect their responses, which you can use to create a case study.
Blogging isn’t the only content marketing tactic. Others include social media, email newsletters, infographics, podcasts, videos, question-and-answer discussions and case studies. By using multiple content marketing tactics, you’ll reach a larger audience while attracting more customers to your business.
