In a previous post, we discussed what you need to know about content marketing. Today I’d like to provide you with a list of five common forms of content marketing.
Blogs
Clearly, when it comes to content marketing, the most popular form is a blog. A blog is a regularly updated website written in a more conversational and informal style. They are easy to set up and keep updated with new content. I, personally, host my blog at Hostmonster since their monthly costs are incredibly low and they offer a bunch of free tools like WordPress.
WordPress is a free and open-source content management system that I use to manage my blog content. It is very resourceful, and there are thousands of free WordPress plugins to expand the capabilities of the tool. There are also some premium paid plugins if you what even more features, but most are free.
Templates
A template simply is a document that already contains some level of content and details that are already in place. Templates are often copied or downloaded by the prospect to use.
Free downloadable templates offer the added benefit of being able to trade content for contact information making the prospect traffic your own, so you can continue to market to them later. To see some examples, we offer a bunch of free templates in the Free Downloads tab on SteveBizBlog.
Checklists
A checklist is a job aid or a form that is designed to compensate for our mental shortcomings and to improve the execution and repeatability of a task.
Checklists are a powerful way to demonstrate your expertise. To see some examples, we offer a bunch of free Checklists and forms in the Free Downloads tab on SteveBizBlog.
Infographics
An infographic is a visual representation of information intended to present content quickly and in a form that is easily digestible. Infographics are highly shareable since they are, essentially, a big image with text. Infographics help to increase your ranking in search engines because you can share them.
I, personally, have used the free version of Piktochart but there are other options. Remember, since infographics are images and the content is not searchable by search engines, be sure to include relevant long-tail keywords in the Alt Text field.
Video
As a content type, prospects love videos. I suspect it is because many internet users are conditioned to watch a video rather than read an article or listen to a podcast. How-to, product reviews, and product demo videos are especially popular and serve to build your credibility as someone in the know.
Video interviews can also be another powerful form of video content. A Vlog is simply a video version of a blog. To see some examples, I offer a bunch of videos on the Videos tab on SteveBizBlog. Some videos are more like a vlog, and some are how-to videos.
The content in videos is not searchable by search engines so be sure to include relevant long-tail keywords in the video’s description.
In addition to the standalone video, that is suitable to be shared in a post on Social Media, is the video course or webinar. A video course is a more thorough way to explore content and to demonstrate your expertise.
Video courses are broken into several lessons and include access to other forms of content such as papers, forms, templates, etc. Courses can be free or offered for a fee. For example, I offer a Boot Camp: Steps to Owning Your Business for free that uses the free WordPress plugin LearnPress to offer on my SteveBizAcademy website along with several other courses. We also syndicate several video courses using the Udemy platform to take advantage of that site’s gravity for people searching for educational videos that we offer for a small fee.
