Trends in Content Marketing: Examples for a Successful Plan
Examples of types of content for content marketing: which formats and which distribution channels to use for an effective and measurable strategy? Achieve your goals and target your audience by diversifying and personifying your content.
Let’s talk about examples of content marketing at the strategic planning level, delving into the theme of which content formats to produce and how to distribute them to achieve objectives and to measure them. Knowing how to choose, for example, the contents to be allocated to the company blog, those for the newsletter, or even those to be transformed into social posts marks the difference between an effective and an ineffective strategy.
- The pillar of content marketing: “Content is king, but distribution is the queen”
- Content marketing: examples of performing content
- Videos and podcasts: trending examples for content marketing
- Content marketing: examples and case studies
The pillar of content marketing: ” Content is king, but distribution is the queen “
Content marketing means not only the planning and creation of quality content, but also the management of the means of distribution and the measurement of results, in order to evaluate the achievement of the objectives set. In this guide we want to focus on the importance of these last two aspects, dissemination and measurement, trying to answer the following questions: what are the content formats that interest your audience and on which platforms you can spread them to intercept them.
We have isolated three best practices that represent pillars in any content marketing strategy with ambition for success:
Segment : consider the content as a raw material that you can shape in different molds depending on the distribution plan. That is, avoid spreading the contents in a rain on all media because, you could benefit from it in terms of time savings, but you will not get any goals. By segmenting your audience, you will have the possibility to set specific goals and choose the right channel to reach them.
Personifies : Who is your audience? First of all, they are people, in technical terms buyer personas , interested in receiving a specific message, through a specific channel. This is a key step to segment the content in such a way as to spread it to a profiled audience and transform indefinite users into leads ready to convert.
Measure : metrics to measure are also an essential step in order to monitor the effectiveness of your strategy and, if necessary, to adjust the shot to optimize it. Google Analytics, for example, is essential to analyze the performance of blog content and know which ones work and which don’t , how your visitors behave and what they dwell on most. Social networks also have internal platforms for this type of analysis, such as Facebook Creator Studio and Instagram Insight .
Content marketing: examples of performing content
Planning a strategy for the dissemination of professional and corporate content entails various benefits in terms of marketing, such as: the enhancement of the brand, made recognizable through greater visibility and better positioning of the contents; the promotion of professional services and corporate products.
But what are the means we have at our disposal when deciding to plan a content marketing campaign ? To identify them, it may be helpful to divide them into 3 macro categories:
Owned media : the most classic example are the website / blog and company social accounts.
Earned media (‘free but earned’ means): this is what word of mouth is in traditional marketing and virality on the web, to put it another way is ” when customers become your promotional channel ” through mentions, shares, retweets etc.
Paid media (paid means): these are the platforms that make it possible to sponsor a content, such as Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, YouTube Adwords, but also banners and influencers.
Given the above, let’s see what are the formats that you can produce as part of a content marketing campaign depending on the target and audience:
- App
- Blog article / White paper
- Audio book / Podcast
- Images / Infographics
- Digital magazine / E-book
- Video
- Webinar / Online Courses
Videos and podcasts: trending examples for content marketing
The types of content listed can be declined in different ways according to the objective and the target audience as well as according to the means of dissemination. Above all, however, the video format stands out, which is considered an example of winning content marketing , thanks to the high rate of audience involvement.
The reason is to be found in the functioning of the human brain which processes moving images 60,000 times faster than texts, which is why it is always convenient to accompany the textual part with infographics or audiovisual elements. This is confirmed by a survey published by the Vimeo platform which showed that 80% of its users declare that they have a clear preference for video content compared to consulting a blog article.
What are the advantages of producing video content?
Engagement , in particular with the livestream made on social media (direct Facebook, direct Instagram etc.). It is an extremely popular medium with an immediate impact that pushes the user, profiled by you as buyer personas, to stay tuned for longer and to share where of interest for his niche and for the community to which he belongs. Facebook Live, for example, offers double the possibility of conversion than other forms of content.
SEO optimization also thanks to the recent developments of Google that uses AI (Artificial Intelligence) for the decryption and understanding of audio tracks in videos. If we help the search engine by adding subtitles then we can hope to have very performing videos in the SERPs.
Re-use of contents through the possibility of playing your video in audio version, transforming it into a podcast that can also contain interventions by guests, customer advertisements etc. Speaking of podcasts, it should be remembered that Forbes magazine – in a recent study – estimated that the number of users who use this type of format has tripled in the last decade.
Which platforms are best for video content marketing?
Snapchat and TikTok are social platforms of reference for young audiences and suitable for short content, also thanks to the use of filters and impact music effects.
YouTube and Vimeo channels are among the most used by video makers and among the most consulted by users. The conscious use of these tools is able to give a professional image to the brand, which is perceived as reliable and authoritative in the sector.
Your website is undoubtedly an ideal ‘place’ for publishing a video of your creation.
If we really want to draw up a ranking, we can only crown YouTube as the winning platform for sharing and promoting videos . We mention the forecast study by MyLeadSystemPRO which foresees a surge in advertising investments from 2020 onwards and at the same time a constant growth in content production.
What kind of videos can be made?
- Online courses
- Webinar
- Interviews with industry experts
- Demo video and How To
- Behind the scenes
- Testimonials from your satisfied customers
Content marketing: examples and case studies
We close this guide with three examples of emblematic companies and brands of how, while implementing different strategies, a winning content marketing plan can be built.
Michelin guide: listening to customers and creating a premium community
Who doesn’t know the Michelin Guide? Difficult to think that it was born as a support to the sale of the French tire company of the same name. Yet this book, published in the first edition in 1900 with the title of Le guide rouge de Michelin, was conceived by André and Édouard Michelin as an aid for customers who moved with their car and thus needed intermediate stops, because at that time traveling in the car involved the risk of punctures and mechanical breakages. For this reason, the guide included an instruction manual on how to change a tire , or where to refuel along the way.
While in the final section there was a list of refreshment stops . It took the Michelin brothers several years to bring those contents to fruition: only in 1920, in fact, they decided to pay it, removing advertisements and providing as much information as possible to entice people to buy. Furthermore, listening to their audience, the publishers understood that the value element of the Guide was the section dedicated to restaurants and in 1926 the star rating system was born to judge food and service, still considered an important marketing tool. for catering . Today the Michelin stars are a universally recognized quality brand and the book that assigns them is the ‘Bible’ of world-class high-end catering.
Rolex: timeless value with high definition
This is an example of content marketing in which the content of the communication completely marries the product. Rolex, in fact, focuses on classic refinement on its corporate social channels, enhanced without resorting to slogans, but with minimalist content expressed by very high definition images . The message arrives clearly: the precision of a photo captures an already timeless product.
GoPro: moments of life to capture people’s hearts
GoPro, a leading manufacturer of camcorders and camera accessories, uses a content marketing strategy based on real-life video. And it does so with the motto “ People Are Awesome ” aware that those who buy its products not only want to capture moments, but also share them. To this end, customers can upload videos made with GoPro to the platform and the company will edit and edit them to excite the public while showing the value of their product.
Posted By Abdul Rimaaz