Have you ever wondered why some of your stuff works and some of your stuff falls flat?
It’s ok, happens to everyone. Even big brands have had epic fails.
The thing is with marketing it’s kind of like when you go out to eat.
You can have something simple, a quick bit if you will.
Or you can have a gourmet meal.
And the thing is a lot of different foods can be both right. You can pay $1 for a hot dog or $7 J.
Same with chicken, steak and chocolate cake right…
It’s “what” it is, and it’s how it’s “delivered” or packaged.
So with your marketing, you’ve got your message but then also how and where it’s consumed.
Let’s talk about that for a minute.
You basically have four formats of medium to produce your content.
- Text – such as blog, article, press release
- Graphics – this can be a simple social graphic, an infographic, or even a slideshare
- Audio- this is basically a podcast
- Video – there are a lot of different types of video styles to use as well
All of these content types can be produced in various sizes as well.
You can also promote this content on several different sites or platforms.
Text
For instance, with articles, those can be posted on your own site, or you could be a guest author on someone else’s site.
Here’s the thing.
You want to be sure your content is going to be popular and get the most eyeballs on that content right?
Here’s how you do that.
If your posting content on your own site, you can use Google Analytics to see what content has been the most popular in the past.
You can also use sites such as Buzzsumo or Epic Beat to see what content is popular in your industry or on competitors’ website.
And finally you can do topic research to see what’s popular or trending as well.
If you are going to write a guest post on someone else’s site, check their site to see what’s had the most engagement as well.
You can also check sites that are similar to that site to see what’s been popular.
Similar web will give you insights to this.
Another good way to check that out is with Audience Insights in Facebook.
Press releases are really based on if you have something new that’s newsworthy to share and that will drive the content.
There are different sites to promote your press releases.
Check PR Underground and PR Web. I used to like Lightning Releases as well but they have had some issues.
Graphics
Let’s move on to the next type of content, graphics.
Graphics are so widely used today.
And there are so many ways to use them.
You can post to various social media sites with bite size social graphics.
You can create carousel posts with your images.
You can produce infographics or datagraphics with substantial amount of information.
Slideshares are also popular where you create slides with tools such as PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides or Prezi and turn those into slideshares.
A popular place to post those is on Slideshare.net from LinkedIn.
All of these styles of graphics can be promoted on various graphic sharing sites.
There are specific sites that offer infographic submissions.
And there are distribution services that will help you with that as well for a nominal fee.
One great thing about these sites is they allow for backlinks to your website which is a bonus for SEO.
Also, people frequently search these sites for curated content when they don’t want to produce their own content so you have an opportunity to have your content share that way as well.
Audio
The next form of content we’ll talk about is audio.
Seems like everyone is jumping on the podcast bandwagon.
And for good reason.
We are a society of people “on the go”.
We are busy and we are not always able to sit in front of our devices to watch or read.
But we can “listen” and learn.
Which many people do now when their driving or at the gym, etc.
You can take pretty much any set of articles and turn them into a podcast.
Same with your videos.
If you have longer videos or a set of videos in a series, consider turning those into podcasts as well.
Video
The next form of content we’ll discuss is video.
This is really my favorite.
Video is so versatile and you can use it in so many places.
Video is great for:
- Your website
- YouTube (and other video sharing sites)
- social media posts (upload natively to Facebook but you can use your YouTube link on Twitter and LinkedIn)
- Video ads – whether on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or native advertising.
You also have all sorts of options with your videos as far as style goes.
You don’t have to be on camera if you don’t want to.
- You can do short clips to get attention.
- You can do how-to videos to build your brand.
- You can do an explainer video on your website.
- You can create an entire video ad campaign.
- There are also training videos for employees, vendors, resellers and customers.
And video is easy to consume and the most popular form of media right now.
Now here’s the real key.
You can produce a piece of content in more than one format.
Have a great blog post?
Excellent, turn it into an infographic.
Then take that content and see how you can create a video around it.
The strip that audio and turn it into a podcast.
See how you can take one piece of content and turn it into four pieces of content?
This gives people an opportunity to see what you have to say in the way that suits them best.
Plus you are helping boost your authority by having your content available in several different places.
So there you have it.
These are the four ways you can produce killer content and start positioning yourself as an authority in your industry.
- Text
- Graphics
- Audio
- Video
If you need help with content creation or even topic research, contact us for a strategy session today.
