Content creation is the ultimate inbound marketing practice, vlogs, animation, and content offers can help your website come alive. Another resource for those considering a post retirement career.
When you create content, you’re providing free and useful information to your audience, attracting potential customers to your website, and retaining existing customers through quality engagement.
Content equals business growth. So, let’s continue with part two looking at the types of content you can create and then review your content strategy.
If you missed part one you can access the post here: Or to listen to the podcast Ctrl&Click here
Vlogs:
Whether you want to post videos on social media or YouTube, video marketing is a type of content creation that becomes more popular every year. Short-form and long-form videos both have their place in your content creation strategy. So, be sure to come up with ideas for both types of content
86% of video marketers say that video is effective for generating leads. This makes original video marketing an essential strategy for anyone working on content creation.
Some solid video content ideas include behind-the-scenes or time-lapse videos. Let’s go over some other valuable ideas for video content creation.
Animate Hard-To-Understand Ideas
Animation makes it easier to understand new or complex information. So, use video to show your viewers how your product works or to talk about the specific problem your product solves.
Choose scenarios that people can relate to that connect to your product. Whether you choose to use digital animation or stop-motion, animation can bring a dry topic to life.
For example, tech products often solve problems the average user doesn’t deal with daily, like a broken connection with an API.
But what about an animation of what happens when the wireless at home gets cut off. A video with this scenario could make that abstract idea easier for the average user to understand.
Repurpose Blog Content
Another quick video idea is to use the text from your most popular blog as a voiceover. Long blogs make great content for a video series.
You can also break up key blog points into bite-size videos for your social media posts.
Then, add your videos to your blog posts. This gives people who find your blog on search engines another alternative to get the information they’re looking for.
How-tos and Tutorials
How-to content is also very popular in video formats. To create a powerful instructional video, stick to short and specific steps. Don’t skip anything, but you don’t want to overwhelm your viewers with extra information.
Use simple visual steps to help your viewers learn and offer a clear call to action at the end.
It’s also a good idea to engage with the comments on these videos. This reassures your audience that you are available if they have more questions and could help you develop more video ideas.
Product Demos and Unusual Use Cases
Product demos can make it easier for potential customers to see how they can use your products. It’s also a chance for you to share some product design processes.
By sharing the problem you initially solved with your product and how the solution changed through the process, you are building a relationship with your viewers. This relationship builds trust and makes them more likely to engage with you and your products.
Show how your product works in an interesting way. For example, the “Will It Blend?” video series on YouTube was a winner for Blendtec because it didn’t just show the power of its blender.
They were inventive and asked for customer suggestions for each video. And the videos were blending objects you normally wouldn’t throw in a blender, like cell phones, golf balls, or glow sticks.
You can also personalize your video content. Video product demos are great for connecting individual customers to your products.
Graphics
In your blog posts or in your social media posts, you should post original graphics. These can be infographics, photography, GIFs, memes, illustrations, or screenshots.
This type of content creation usually requires a graphic designer or a design tool to help you get the job done.
Image-based Content Creation Ideas
Photo and image-based posts are the content businesses use most to increase audience engagement. As you create visual content, ensure you have a firm grasp of the basics. These include:
Use contrast and colour. Keep it simple
Visual Storytelling
Visual content is excellent for quick storytelling. As you experiment with storytelling, remember to show, not tell.
For example, say you’re telling a story about meeting a challenging sales goal. A picture of a sales rep talking on the phone won’t tell the story as well as an image of that same sales rep scaling a tall mountain.
Try to use setting, clothing, lighting, and motion to emphasize the action and drama of every scene in your images.
User-Generated Content
Fans of your products are often looking for ways to get involved. And there’s nothing like user-generated content to show your followers that you care about their opinions.
To get your users to create and share content for your brand, invite them to get involved. Try a custom hashtag or contest on social media to start. Email is also an excellent channel for collecting photos, quotes, and stories from your customers.
That said, don’t use users’ content without their permission. You also want to make sure you credit users for their contributions. Nothing can damage your relationship with a customer like using their images without consent.
Infographics
There is proof that data visualizations can decrease errors and improve learning and retention by as much as 80%. If you want your content creation strategy to include infographics, keep these best practices in mind:
Choose the right data for your target audience. Choose the right graph or chart for your data. Do your research
Tell a simple visual story. Don’t add too much data
Make your main points easy to read and remember
Go Behind the Scenes
Sharing industry and product secrets is exciting and engaging for your readers. It’s also an interesting way to share information about how you make, package, and update your products.
To create visuals that take your audience behind the scenes, start with a plan. Whether you’re sharing photos from a tour of your manufacturing facility or documenting an average day on social media, make it extraordinary.
At the same time, make your images feel authentic. Don’t set up your photos in a space that feels too perfect to be real.
5. Content offers
Another type of content is content offers. These are templates, whitepapers, worksheets, or eBooks that your visitors can download. This is gated content — meaning your audience will need to fill out a form and provide their email to access it.
Content Creation Ideas for Content Offers
67% of companies use lead generation as the primary metric for content success.
This means that you should combine any content creation efforts with content offers to draw new leads. The best lead magnets solve a problem for your followers. Usually, they solve urgent issues and deliver lasting value to your target audience.
To be immediately valuable to your users, content offers should be specific and quick to use. It should also offer value that reflects your understanding and expertise.
This will keep your audience coming back for more and help you convert more leads into delighted customers. These are some content offers ideas for you to start with.
eBooks or White Papers
Long-form written content creation is where many businesses start for content offers.
eBooks and white papers can give your readers a deeper understanding of a topic. They can also help them solve an urgent problem.
While eBooks can be intense projects, you can also use existing content, like blogs, to build your eBooks. An excellent eBook template can also speed up the process. HubSpot has a how to create an e-book post that includes free templates. Ctrl+Click here to access their post.