If the name of the game is content marketing, then format reigns king.
In 2014, a ‘new trend’ emerged in marketing that took the industry by storm. Content marketing became the tool par excellence for attracting and retaining customers through the production of valuable and meaningful content. Initially, all of this seemed a little odd. It would be wrong to say that content marketing is enduring a revival because, in reality, it never went away. Content has always been there, but it’s being utilised now in an entirely different way. Longform writing is becoming the norm and businesses are turning their attention to various marketing formats to showcase their brand.
Content format is a building block for content marketing. Whichever method you use (and you can use more than one!) will dictate how your customers engage with your product. Whether you write a snappy article or design the latest app, content format allows you to get creative and build a dialogue with your customers. You don’t even need to stick to one. Use images, upload videos, and distribute materials which have a lasting and valuable impact on your target audience.
You’ve probably already guessed that there’s an assortment of formats for businesses to pick and choose from. From the tried and tested, to the weird and wonderful, there’s something to suit every content marketer.
Articles and Blogs
A recent survey conducted by MarketingSherpa showed that 64% of marketers believed that articles were an effective tool for businesses to connect with their consumers (2013). Given the popularity of social media websites in business marketing, it might seem surprising that content marketers attached particular importance to online articles. However, it’s likely that this opinion is very much based on the rising popularity of longform content.
Content which goes beyond 1,500 words is much more likely to have a lasting impact on customers. It gives people the opportunity to inform and develop their opinions, thus engaging with them on a more meaningful level. Even if they disagree with an article or have little interest in it themselves, they are more likely to share the content with a friend. This has obvious benefits for the business. Longform articles have the potential to connect emotionally with a customer and (if done well) they may recommend that article to someone else, and so on.
However, not all longform content is created equally. Nearly 10% of marketers believed that articles had no effect in helping businesses to achieve their marketing objectives. Of course, much of this depends on the business itself. While many companies can benefit from giving themselves a more substantial online presence, this is not always practical. There is no value in creating extra content if your customers won’t respond to it. Like a web of dialogue, content marketing should reach customers at every level but should be specific to the needs of the individual.
Videos and Visuals
With the unrivalled popularity of sites such as YouTube and Google Video, video content is abundant and easier to create than ever before. In terms of content marketing, videos can be an exciting and engaging tool to connect with your customers. They are easy to access, easy to share, and can create a lasting impact on your audience.
However, the accessibility of video content is a double-edged sword. Video content is a saturated format, with millions of individuals competing to make their brand stand out. The potential for video viralling can even make businesses complacent. Creating a unique and valuable marketing video is a much harder task than many people think.
As a marketing format, videos have the ability to capture customers’ imaginations and are easily shared between friends. Nevertheless, there are many questions that businesses should consider before they create a marketing video. Some good examples include:
- What is the purpose of my video?
- What kind of reaction do I want from my customers?
- How will the video reach my customers?
In addition to creating a meaningful and impactful video, it’s important that businesses utilise SEO technology to effectively promote their content. While it would be outdated to suggest that companies should use keywords for keywords’ sake, businesses can be clever about their advertising. Google Adwords Planner makes it easier for companies to use keywords and descriptions which better align their product with the wider industry. If you are uploading a video to YouTube, try and convert your accompanying description intro into a blog post for SEO optimisation. This means that Google will be able to find your video easier and your customers won’t get lost in the deep, dark online woods trying to access your product.
So what does this say for the future of the video format in content marketing? Although its future may have once looked bleak from over-saturation, businesses just need to get savvy. Ask yourself what you want from video marketing and how you’ll promote your video (it certainly won’t promote itself). Try your hand at SEO and create meaningful, valuable content.
Apps and Social Content
Articles, blogs, and videos are some of the more obvious formats for businesses to promote their products. However, there are many ways that businesses can engage with audiences and create an active, two-way dialogue. Mobile apps can be incredibly beneficial, when done well, and they have the potential for greater longevity than advertising through social networks.
However, only 35% of marketers in the MarketingSherpa survey believed that mobile apps were very effective in helping to achieve marketing objectives. This could be for a variety of reasons: apps are easy to ignore, they depend on customers downloading them, and longform content is difficult to translate onto mobile apps. Although many of these criticisms are entirely valid, they are also somewhat short-sighted. As mobile data plans and smartphones become cheaper, more people in the future will have access to online apps. Even if your business shuns the trend, other companies will continue to utilise mobile apps and some companies run the risk of being left behind.
This sentiment is echoed further by the Econsultancy and Adobe trend report (2013). According to the survey, marketers see mobile optimisation as the top business opportunity for 2014. However, like video marketing, there are many factors which businesses should take into consideration before they venture forth into mobile apps.
As a format for content marketing, it should be obvious that online content needs to be readable on mobile devices. Responsive web design, as the name suggests, is a method in which businesses can build their websites with the intention of promoting it on different technological devices. It can even be as simple as scaling down your current website so that it can be read on tablets.
For businesses that are ready to embrace mobile apps whole-heartedly, it is possible to create mobile-only assets. For well-established brands, such as the BBC, offering content available exclusively on your mobile app is hugely appealing. This instantly gives your app added value and even gives your company a competitive edge. If you follow a business online, for example, you may be incentivised to download the app to find more content. The ultimate goal, of course, would be that customers could have an omni-channel route to access your product.
Mobile Apps, therefore, have a significant role to play in the future of content formats and content marketing. Although they may have encouraged skepticism in the past, there is no doubt that apps are here to stay. They show enormous flexibility and can give businesses the opportunity to diversify and add extra value to their business content.
Presentations
When you talk about content formats, presentations might not be the first thing that springs to mind. It conjures up images of Microsoft PowerPoint and the dreaded overhead projectors from school days. However, some of the most prominent companies in the marketing sector are using presentations to engage with their customers.
SlideShare allows businesses to connect with their customers through simple, well-designed presentations. The idea behind the programme is to encourage companies to think of simple topics and prompt valuable questions to their customers. When done well, presentations offer short and clear snippets of information about a business to their customers. You have potential to focus your topic, expand on your thoughts, and reinforce your presentation through videos and images.
However, there are also potential downsides. Everyone knows of websites which will only allow you to access information by clicking on individual presentation slides, directing you to a new page every time. The process is slow, infuriating, and offers no real or meaningful engagement with a company’s content.
The trick to good presentations, as content formats, is to create valuable material that people want to return to and share. The content should be short and snappy and with plenty of added extras, like images and videos. Otherwise, you might as well pull out the old overhead projector again.
Press Releases
Press releases have long been an integral part of content marketing and are used by a variety of sectors, from PR to business. However, the question of how press releases will evolve as a format in content marketing is more difficult to ascertain. There are numerous benefits to utilising press releases, but at the same time they don’t always have a lasting impact. Customers often receive press releases via email, sent to them en masse from the company from whom they have subscribed. Easy to dismiss as spam, press releases can sometimes fall by the wayside.
However, press releases, in conjunction with a wider marketing strategy, can be a useful format to engage with customers. If you are SEO-minded, then press releases can optimise your inbound traffic (although it cannot guarantee customer loyalty). They can be low cost, easy to produce, and can be sent to large audience groups. If you use PR Newswire, for example, you can virtually guarantee that your content will be online within seconds. Overall, they are a good tool to keep your customers up-to-date with company news and (if you fancy) general corporate bragging.
What does all of this mean, then? Press releases are great format if you want to contact your customers quickly and keep them updated. However, you should never assume that this will have any long-term implications. Press releases can be easy to dismiss and don’t necessarily add value to the lives of customers. As longform content increases in popularity, press releases lose overall significance. The best practice, therefore, would be to use press releases in conjunction with a wider, more substantial marketing strategy.
The future of content format and content marketing
There are a variety of formats in which companies can reach and communicate with their customers. Each has its own benefits and each has a different role in the future of digital marketing. The greatest threat to content marketing, arguably, is when businesses don’t become creative with their content. Mobile apps require businesses to plan their websites long before they release them, which can prove problematic for the inexperienced. Similarly, videos require significant planning in an already over-saturated media outlet. Companies must ask themselves what they stand to gain from video marketing and how they will promote their business.
In the past, businesses have been criticised for having content for content’s sake. Rather than choosing the format which best highlights their product, they choose the format type which is currently in vogue (seen in the over-saturation of online video marketing). Every business is unique and each one’s marketing strategy must be appropriate to the needs of the customer. In the case of press releases, the format can often be useful for news updates and to create quick contact with customers. However, it has little lasting impact and should be used in conjunction with a wider marketing strategy.
Content format is integral to content marketing. It’s more than a tool for communication, it’s the first step in creating meaningful communication between a business and its customer. The great thing about format is its fluidity; you don’t need to choose just one and you can experiment with the content that best suits you.
Be creative, try new things, and respond to your customer needs.