Content Marketing Examples For Small Businesses

Hey there, this is Monique. You're listening to episode number four, and today I want to talk about content marketing and what types of content you should create. Content marketing is a prerequisite for so many other types of digital marketing, and traditional marketing, because you need content to share on, for example, your social media accounts, and in your email marketing campaigns, you need content for SEO, because you need something that can actually rank in Google in the first place, when you're running ads, you want them to lead a person to a piece of content, when you're looking to have affiliates, and get into affiliate marketing, you need to create content, that your affiliates can actually share, and without content, there's also nothing you can automate or measure, which is the biggest advantage of digital marketing. There are a variety of types of content you can create. Here is the ultimate list of types of content: Blog posts, press releases, emails, articles, case studies, infographics, social media posts, ads, podcast episodes, webinars, ebooks, branded videos, videos, testimonials, customer reviews, ratings, data sheets, how-to guides, classes, online courses, free trials, product demos, research reports, brochures, elearnings, white papers, technical journals, competitions, quizzes, widgets, virals games, celebrity endorsements, community forums, trend reports, enews, events, product features, checklists, and calculations. You can find it all written down in the show notes on our website and that's dragon-digital-marketing.com. Now you know what types of content there are for you to create, but how do you go about it? There are several ways to categorize content, and for you to prioritize the creation of certain pieces of content over others. When you look at the marketing funnel, there are several stages in the marketing funnel, which can be like: Awareness. In the awareness stage, a stranger discovers you and turns into a visitor. Interest: In the interest stage, a visitor learns more about you, engages with you, and turns into a lead. Consideration. In the consideration stage, a lead learns about the benefits, advantages, and values you offer. Intent. In the intent stage, a lead develops a liking and wants to buy. Evaluation. In the evaluation stage, a lead compares different options, and forms his or her buying decision. Purchase. In the purchase stage, a lead turns into a loyal customer and advocate and is retained. Certain content pieces are particularly suitable to incorporate in certain stages of the marketing funnel for which others are unsuitable. The pieces of content that are best suitable for the top of your digital marketing funnel are pieces of content for your cold leads. Those are information qualified leads or IQL's. Those pieces of content are available for free, and there is no obligation, or registration needed for visitors to see them. Remember, the top of the funnel consists of the awareness stage and the interest stage, where a stranger discovers you and turns into a visitor, then learns more about you, engages with you and turns into a lead. The pieces that content best suited to offer in this stage of the funnel are blog posts, press releases, emails, articles, case studies, infographics, social media posts, ads, podcast episodes, webinars, ebooks, and branded videos. In the middle of your marketing funnel, you got your warm leads. Those are your marketing qualified leads, also called MQL's. The pieces of content that are best suitable for the middle of your funnel are free, but perhaps there's an email address required to access them, or a registration needed. Remember, the middle of your funnel consists of the consideration and intent stage, where a lead learns about the benefits, advantages, and values you offer and develops a liking and wants to buy. The pieces of content that are best suitable for this stage of the funnel are blog posts, videos, testimonials, customer reviews, ratings, data sheets, how to guides, online courses, and online classes, free trials, product demos, emails, case studies, social media posts, webinars, ebooks, and research reports. As you can see, there are overlaps, and it is a very smooth transition from one stage to another stage in the marketing funnel. Let's talk about the tip of your funnel. At the tip of your funnel, you have the content for you hot leads. Those are your sales qualified leads or SQL's. That's who you offer your most substantial content to. To access those pieces of content, a registration or subscription would be needed. Remember, the tip of your marketing funnel consists of the evaluation and the purchase stage, where a lead compares different options and forms a buying decision, and then turns into a loyal customer, and advocate of your brand, and is retained. The pieces of content best suitable for the tip of your marketing funnel are testimonials, customer reviews, ratings, brochures, data sheets, online classes, case studies, ebooks, elearnings, white papers, technical journals, and research reports. All types of content are important, and you should create a variety of content. So you're able to meet each person where they are, no matter in what stage of the marketing funnel they are. Are they aware of you yet? Do they know you exist? If so, are they interested in you? Do they want to learn more about you and engage with you? Do they consider you yet, do they have a buying intent yet? Are they evaluating different options? Maybe comparing you to your competitors? You want to have pieces of content to meet people in each of those stages. We've categorized the different types of pieces of content according to the stages of the marketing funnel. Now let's categorize them, according to the four quadrants of the Content Marketing Matrix: Entertain, Educate, Convince, and Inspire. The Content Marketing Matrix was created by First 10 and SmartInsights, and you can see a picture of it in the show notes on drgon-digital-marketing.com. You can categorize pieces of content according to rationality and emotionality. Content can be rational or emotional, and it can be raising awareness or lead to a purchase. A piece of content applies to those four categories. If a piece of content is rational, and raises awareness about something, it educates. If a piece of content is emotional, and raises awareness about something, it entertains. If a piece of content is rational, and leads to a purchase, it convinces, And if a piece of content is emotional, and leads to a purchase, it inspires. Inspiration is the most preferable option because it mentally stimulates to do or feel something, especially to do something creative, and you want people to do and feel something with your digital marketing, right? Why do consumers buy one product over another? How do you develop brand loyalty? How do you maximize customer engagement? Through conviction and through inspiration. You want to preferably create inspiring pieces of content and favor inspirational content in your content marketing strategy because people don't want to be convinced, they want to be inspired. Examples for entertaining pieces of content are: Competitions, quizzes, games, virals, and branded videos. Examples for educational pieces of content are: Articles, ebooks, enews, infographics, press releases, demo videos, guides, trend reports, and white papers, and other reports. Examples for convincing pieces of content are: Events, ratings, product features, case studies, interactive demos, checklist, data sheets, and price guides, webinars, and calculations. And examples for inspiring pieces of content are: Celebrity endorsements, community forums, and reviews. Reviews are inspiring because people imagine themselves in the position of the person who wrote the review. They can relate to this person because they have something in common. They both have a problem whose solution they think is your product or service. If your product or service is not a jack of all trades product or service, it's likely that they have a similar problem. This makes it relatable. It is a natural human desire to seek approval of others and to want to look at what others are doing in the same situation. Not only are customer reviews powerful because readers can relate to them. They are also powerful because they empower customers and empowered customers improve the experience for you and for other customers, too. That is why reviews are inspiring. We have a comprehensive article on customer reviews on our blog, so go check that out as well. It's really insightful. Community forums are forums that you can create for your projects, teams, and company white discussions. You can effectively track discussions around important topics, and encourage topic interaction, and keep important content relevant in your community forms. That form of exchange is inspiring. Celebrities can use their fame and status to get your product or service in front of a new or larger audience. A lot of people are more likely to purchase a product, if a celebrity endorses it or pretends to use or consume it themselves. There is this phenomenon, that people look up to celebrities because they're well known and famous, and admire those people for that. That's why celebrity endorsements are inspiring. Convincing people with your content leads to sales too but always remember, people don't want to be convinced, they want to be inspired. People enjoy an experience much more if it is emotional instead of rational, and this includes a customer experience. Harvard Professor Gerald Zaltman wrote a book called "How Customers Think: Essential Insights Into the Mind of the Market", in which he shares many exciting ideas that can be helpful for your marketing and branding. Buying decisions are not made by logic. They're not rational decisions because humans are driven by feelings. In order to make more sales, your audience must be engaged and impassioned by the interaction with your company. This means you should prefer emotion based campaigns, that highlight the values and the benefits of your products and services instead of only the features. The content marketing of luxury goods targets feelings of self worth, acceptance, and status in the world. Communication devices excite us by offering us a connection to friends, family, and a broader network of people, and not by telling us how efficient the central processing unit is, or advertising how advanced the pixel shaders are. Athletic brands inspire by offering adventure and glory through the act of competition, and not by telling us about how the cold press foot bed of a sneaker is, or how stable the double stitching is. And many other products such as perfume, cologne, and lingerie, target emotions related to love, relationships, and sexual desires. Summing up. You now have the ultimate list of all types of content you can create and make part of your content marketing strategy. You can get an actual written down a list in the show notes on our website that's dragon-digital-marketing.com. Certain pieces of content are particularly suitable for different stages of the marketing funnel, and you can also categorize and prioritize the different types of content pieces according to the content marketing matrix. You should still focus on your product's and or service's features in your marketing efforts, and also continue to create entertaining, educating, and convincing content. However, it is beneficial to sell the lifestyle and the feeling and be inspiring. The key is to highlight the emotional response a customer will achieve by using your product or service, and the three examples of inspiring pieces of content are: celebrity endorsements, community forums, and reviews. And if you need help with your digital marketing and your content marketing strategy, check out our agency Dragon Digital Marketing. We're happy to help you out. That's what I have for you today. Until next time.