What are the most effective forms of content marketing?

Marketing
1

Lee Odden answered this question on seo chat

The answer to “best content marketing” isn’t a silver bullet. However, it does involve personas, storytelling & crafting content designed to meet customer needs. For a pretty good post on developing personas: Developing Personas for Better Social Media Marketing.

The best content marketing has a purpose in mind for a particular audience and an outcome or objective according to customer preferences. This is somewhat in contrast to a lot of SEO work which tends to focus on optimizing existing content to appear where customers are looking. The good news is that working together, Content Marketing and SEO amplifies effectiveness and becomes a competitive advantage.

Format-wise, effective content marketing tactics might be text or video or interactive or audio or print or more likely a combination according to the point in the buying cycle that the marketer is trying to engage.

Regarding matching content types with touchpoints in the buying cycle, check this post: Customer Life Cycle & Content Marketing.

What do you guys feel about this? Do you think he’s right or wrong?

2

I think he got most of it pretty much right. I’m doing almost the same same tactics which is kinda funny. But hey, I’m open for brighter ideas.

3

i found the same explanation on this & it seems relevant to me according to my study & search.

Three types of content for content marketing

Story Telling – Don’t just present your content, tell a story with it. Give characters in the story names so that they are easily recognized and can be related to. Appeal to your audience’s sense of wonder and try to use literary elements that help paint pictures beautifully to your mind’s eye.

Creative content is engaging. Be sure to speak directly to your audience’s emotional state in order to drive your message home.

User-Generated Content – Websites that allow user-generated content receive a lot of traffic, have tightly-knit communities and a ton of pages that aid in organic marketing efforts.

Although user-generated content is valuable, some companies are worried about what will specifically be said in such content. Companies that provide great content and experiences shouldn’t worry too much, but if you still do, here’s a thought on how to get positive user-generated content: Specifically ask your audience a question on their favorite item relating to your company. For instance, in you were an online music store, you could ask your audience to write about their favorite album of the their favorite all-time band. Asking questions allows people to talk about themselves while the organization itself can receive insightful perspective.

Link Reviews – Do you often scour other blogs for information related to your industry? I assume all of you who are thought leaders do so. Giving credit where credit is due to others residing in your industry helps to show your credibility as a news source while it builds content for your website and possible relationships with competitors.

To create a link review: write an engaging headline, add some commentary and insight to your post and include a link to the original article. If your link review is optimized with your keywords, make sure it’s over 300 words in length to increase your odds of having it get ranked by Google.

An additional strategy for content marketing

Do not hesitate to repurpose and republish your content through different mediums. For instance, if you have a dozen free reports on interesting topics, take some of that information and create an audio or video podcast with it.

Using the different medium may bring in new audience members who strictly prefer it. Promoting and sharing media-rich content may also resonate with your audience more, and inspire them to share the content on your behalf because they see the value in it.

4

I say that is always a smart idea. That way you are making your content viral.

5

If you’re going to be an effective marketer, realizes marketing spans media types. Only when content marketing spans web, print, radio, and tv (no, not just YouTube) will it be effective marketing.

Then, you might get a publisher to print and distribute your content to potential customers. See, that’s “effective.”

But the price is high. To tell a good story, you have to have a compelling story. To convince a publisher to print your business philosophy, you actually have to have a business philosophy.

So while “because we can,” and “me too” are the anthem of the web, they don’t make the basis for an effective marketing proposition.

6

In some ways I keep feeling like people have been ignoring the obvious when it comes to marketing on the web. The rules of the game haven’t changed from pre-internet days. You still need content to engage your audience. Just showing up has never been enough. You have to show up with something worthwhile.

And yet every time some new marketing vehicle comes around, people jump on it as if all they have to do is show up to the party to gain the benefits of this latest marketing tool. It’s never been like that.

I also think it’s sort of stating the obvious that you need to use a combination of media to gain the most benefit. Again, that’s nothing new, and yet we act like with the web this is some revolutionary idea.

Lee Odden is right on every point. I just don’t think he’s breaking any new ground with his ideas.

7

I also think it’s sort of stating the obvious that you need to use a combination of media to gain the most benefit.

Please explain that to the web guy whose site design looks nothing like the company brochure, and/or whose site design makes you do a double take if you ever walk into their physical business site.

When I pointed out the site should base its theme on consistency across physical facilities, existing print pieces, running TV ads that drive traffic to …nothing, etc, it’s like a minor revelation.

These guys will Web 2ify a site for a dive bar with chicken wire across the stage and broken glass on the floor, and not give it a second thought. One guy had to be told not to use stock photos of foods the restaurant didn’t offer on the site. Imagine driving traffic to a business where people are asking for things the company doesn’t sell, and will never offer. That’s marketing on the web today.

Are we sure there’s a recession going on where people are super careful about money? I don’t see it.

8

True. Maybe it’s not obvious, but it’s nothing new. Pre-Internet, the same rules applied. You didn’t just run an ad in the local paper. You can an ad in a few papers, put up a billboard, bought a radio spot, etc.

Now the thinking is that it’s enough to just have a website. Or just having a Facebook page means your business is into social media marketing. Really those are just single points of contact in what should be an online marketing campaign that includes consistently branded websites, social channels, email marketing, content writing, SEO, video, etc. I don’t know why people think its enough to just set up a Twitter page, post 2 tweets, and say, “We’re social! We’re on Twitter!”

9

It is really a sad story but it is true. Online marketers fall into this trap and just make their commitments and product value super fake. Why it has to be the case when we can just play fair and square. I have friends who were victims of online marketing scams.