Content marketing of one or two varieties will only take you so far. The key to making a meaningful impact on your target audience is diverse content. An engaging blog with a steady stream of insightful posts lays the foundation. However, one blog post after another won’t prove sufficient in the quest to turn prospects into loyal clients. Every business needs to build on blog material with balanced content to gain traction with their target audience.
- Audiences are Becoming Increasingly Selective
Contemporary audiences are quite sophisticated. While some are willing to read 1,000 word blog posts, many prefer videos, images, social media and other forms of online content. It is imperative that your business achieves the right mix of content to appeal to a wide variety of prospective clients. Key in on creating helpful and engaging content for each buyer persona at every point of the “buying funnel” and your business will establish itself as legitimate in the eyes of as many prospective clients as possible.
- Don’t Produce Marketing Material Simply for Content’s Sake
If your content creation team generates new content on a regular basis, it won’t make many inroads with prospects unless it is highly unique. Google penalizes websites that contain generic and weak content. So don’t develop any old content for the sake of having a regularly updated blog, social media website or other online presence. Key in on which style of online content your target audience desires. Content style and the platform it is hosted on will help you attain your goals of enhanced search engine optimization, the generation of new sales leads, boosting brand awareness, increasing conversions etc.
- Ways to Diversity Online Content
The number of online platforms available for content marketing continues to increase. Though blogs and social media are the basis for most content marketing strategies, all sorts of other content is proving critically important. Consider expanding your online marketing footprint with an eBook, white paper, educational webinar, video, Instagram presence and beyond. Even a live video stream of your product or service in action will help connect with prospective clients.
- A Wide Range of Voices
Part of diversifying online content is making each piece unique. If an audience reads, hears or sees the same style of content over and over again, they will eventually tune out. Reach out to professional freelance and other content marketing professionals to create idiosyncratic content. These diverse viewpoints, voices and ideas will help expand your brand to a wide array of prospective clients. A well-rounded team of writers, creative thinkers and content generators will also serve to produce a dynamic message that doesn’t sound repetitive or stale.
- Take Risks
The challenge of content marketing partly lies in your abaility to gain exposure to new audiences. Switch things up by contributing a guest post to an industry partner or another business that plays a role in your industry. Make sure the piece contains a “backlink” to your website/blog so web traffic can be redirected for your benefit. Reciprocate by allowing other businesses to post a guest blog article to your website/blog with its own backlink. Record a podcast, create some slideshares, infographics or research reports. Even something unconventional like a tutorial video or a video featuring company leaders/employees will serve as refreshing content that further engages your target audience in an intriguing way.
