Instead of using textbook language, if I speak from my understanding and 13-14 years of experience in the industry, I’d say content is like a product that serves as the heart of your digital marketing. Every section of your digital marketing strategy works through this content. It’s what promotes your product in front of your desired customers. The better your content is, the more likely your customers will be to purchase your product or service. There are countless examples where a product or service wasn’t great initially, but good content elevated it to sky. That’s why it’s said, “Content is the king of any digital marketing.”
So, to those reading this, if you’ve decided to market your service or product, especially through digital marketing, focus all your energy on your content. Now, let’s dive into the types of content available on digital platforms and discuss how to choose the right content for the right audience and timeframe to market your product.
What is Content?
I’ve already discussed what content is and how it plays a role in digital marketing, so I hope you don’t feel like asking, “Why are you trying to explain something I already understand?”
Instead, let me explain this: to attract people with such diverse tastes and preferences to your product or service, your product promotion also needs variety. Some people love to read or trust written information, so you’ll need to engage them with blog writing, using logic, arguments, and examples to help them understand the need for your product or service.
On the other hand, some people are more visual. You can’t always connect with everyone through text. Some people believe in a visual approach, so you can’t engage them with a blog. For them, you’ll need to create emotional or funny video content, or a mix of both. Others may not be interested in reading or videos; they prefer still images with product information and pros and cons. On the other hand, you’ll need to create different types of content to meet your goals, but most people will consume it based on their own preferences. There are others too, which I’ll discuss in the next paragraph. Please don’t leave me behind!
Types of Content
I’m glad you stayed with me. Now, I’ll share the types of content that will help promote your product or service. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not talking from theory or books, but from years of personal experience in digital marketing. Here are the 7 types of content I prefer:
Written Content
Post blog articles related to your product or service in communities where your target audience is active. Your blog should focus on how your product or service solves problems for people. If your blog provides solutions, it will grab people’s attention, just like spotting someone attractive at a large party. You can also write articles with the same mindset or offer case studies featuring reviews from people who have used your product or service.
Visual Content
Infographics present your product or service’s pros, cons, and usage in one visual post or flyer. You can also include images, memes, or illustrations.
Just make sure these visuals reflect the age, activity, and behavior of your target audience.
Video Content
Tutorials, explanations, or webinars related to your product or service will increase the performance of your ads. These types of video content work well in digital marketing.
Interactive Content
You can get through your target audience from post some quizzes, polls, or games related post in social media, forum, and group also for your product or service. This allows you to get valuable feedback while helping your audience better understand what you offer.
Audio Content
You can create podcasts, audiobooks, or sound debates related to your product or service. This type of content is effective for those who prefer listening.
User-Generated Content
Share customer reviews, testimonials, or social media mentions. You can promote these through posts or videos to showcase authentic feedback to your target audience.
Social Media Content
Use social media to display any type of content about your product or service through posts, reels, stories, and tweets. Social media provides a broad platform to engage with your audience directly. These are the key content types that will help you market your product or service effectively.
Understanding Your Target Audience
determine which type of content you should select for your target audience, you need to first identify who your target audience is in relation to your product or service. Consider their age, gender, and geographic location. Additionally, you should analyze their interests and behaviors through activity analysis. I briefly touched on this in my previous blog post, How to Build an Effective Roadmap as a New Social Media or Digital Marketer.
If you’re interested, I could explain in a future blog post how to better identify and track your product-related customers.
Choosing the Right Content for Your Target Audience
Once you understand your target audience, creating a content strategy becomes as easy as water. For example, in a recent blog post, I wrote about an educational services agency that helps both local and international students in Britain complete their education or higher graduation. From this type of business, it’s clear that your target audience is students and their guardians who are concerned about their children’s higher education.
It’s easy to figure out the types of content that would work for them. Let me give you three content types that I would select for this audience:
- Educational content
- Educational entertainment content
- Inspirational content about the potential for a bright future through higher education
In addition to these, you can add other types of content as well. So, if your product or service is related to an educational agency, does my suggestion for content choices align with your vision? If it does, then you’re one step ahead in selecting the right content for your target audience!
If you’re interested, I could explain in a future blog post how to better identify and track your product-related customers.
Aligning Content with Audience Stages in the Buyer’s Journey
At this stage, you can build a relationship with your audience through your content, starting with brand awareness and ending with a purchase decision. This follows the institutional marketing approach—awareness, consideration, and decision stages.
Alright, let’s move on to the discussion portion about the awareness stage. You can take step with your creative content in your targeted audience offering and some problem-solving issue related with your product and service. This phase will continue for a certain period, but based on audience response, you might need to extend or shorten it, and the event content may change accordingly.
Through this, your target audience will recognize how helpful you are to them. If you can earn their trust, they’ll move to the decision stage, ultimately becoming loyal customers of your product or service.
Monitoring and Adjusting Content Strategy
In the second paragraph above, I mentioned that based on the response to your content, you may need to adjust the advertising duration, content type, and add or remove certain information.
This applies to all platforms—Google, Facebook, Instagram—each with its own tracking system that requires analysis. You should regularly update your approach based on these reports. It’s really affordable work for you to keep an eye on what your audience likes and dislikes. And this should become your primary focus and target.
Conclusion
In conclusion, my main goal in marketing is to reach those who will buy my service or product. And to achieve that, the key is to create content that resonates with them in a logical and effective way, which in turn helps grow the business. That’s the primary purpose behind content creation and selection.
That’s all for today.
