Over the years, digital marketing has evolved significantly. From the days of spamming the web with keyword stuffed content to rank on the SERPs (search engine result pages) to the age of micro-influencers, online marketing practices have changed in ways we couldn’t even imagine before.
With that said, one thing hasn’t changed throughout the years, the importance of content.
Bill Gates said “content is king” back in 1996 and even in 2021, the statement holds a lot of truth.
Almost every aspect of marketing a business online, including SEO, website development, social media marketing, and paid advertising, is powered by content. Unless a brand gets their marketing communication right, all their online marketing efforts are bound to fall flat.
While there isn’t a lot of change in the importance of content, a lot has changed in terms of the importance of various formats of content.
The web was once populated solely with text-based content, with blog posts enjoying most of the popularity. However, with the advancement of technology and the rise of social media platforms, visual formats of content, like videos and infographics became popular.
This means, while producing content is critical, it is equally important to know which type of content you should be producing.
To help you get started, these are the types of content you should be focusing on in 2021:
It is clear that users love videos. That’s why, in a survey conducted last year, 92% of marketers agreed that video is a critical part of their marketing strategy.
Video has held an important place in the marketing landscape for many years now, and that trend is showing no signs of slowing down.
With social media platforms becoming more visual content friendly (TikTok, Instagram’s Reels, stories on LinkedIn), marketers should see it as a sign of the increasing importance of video. At the same time, with video making equipment and tools becoming more and more accessible (smartphones with professional grade cameras and free online video editing software), there is a good chance that your competition is also geared up and ready to include marketing in their videos.
If you haven’t already started, it is high time that you think about how you will include videos in your marketing mix. Some of the ways you can start are:
Product Demo Videos: If you are selling a product, creating demo videos that show it in action is a brilliant idea. Such videos will communicate the real world applications of your product and how it solves your ideal customers’ problems.
That’s also perhaps why 66% of consumers prefer learning about a product by watching a video, instead of reading about the product.
Instructional Videos: Instructional videos are great marketing material, as long as they are relevant. To understand instructional videos, let’s take the example of a digital marketing agency. Instructional videos about how to use Google Analytics will not only be relevant to their niche, but will be genuinely helpful for their audience that may comprise amateur marketers that are also small business owners.
Repurposed Content: Repurposing your old but well performing content into videos is a brilliant idea, especially if your brand hasn’t published videos in the past.
To do this, you don’t need to come up with fresh ideas and you will be producing videos on topics that you already know have performed well with your audience in the past.
This problem can be solved with the help of interactive content. As the name suggests, interactive content gets the audience involved in the process of consuming the content. It isn’t passive, it asks the audience to take action and thus, gets engaged.
Almost every social media platform offers the ability to make interactive posts in the form of polls, quizzes, or even interactive maps.
You can also use online tools like Canva to create your own interactive posts like the online Bingo that became viral back in 2020.
Creating an online learning experience that your customers will love isn’t a demanding challenge, as long as you are offering genuinely helpful content. If you are on a budget, here are two economical ways to execute this idea:
Create A Screengrab Course: If you want to teach someone to better use a computer program or application, you can do so economically with a screen grab course.
All you need is a software that will allow you to record your screen, along with your own voiceover. There are many free software available on the web that offer those capabilities. Even Zoom offers the ability to record screens.
Create An Email Course Series: An email course series is exactly what the name suggests, a text based course delivered straight to the email inbox of your audience.
This kind of an undertaking will allow you to not only engage your audience and position yourself as an expert in your field, it will also allow you to build a bigger email list that you can use for other marketing endeavors. Buffer, a social media automation app, offers a free online social media mastery course.
Adding value to your prospect’s lives is perhaps the most surefire way to increase your brand’s recall value and ultimately, bring in more customers. Giving out free knowledge is a great way to add value to your audiences’ lives.
Live streaming training and webinars have also emerged as a popular way to sell products, especially digital products like online courses and SaaS products.
The increased dependence on online video is not expected to diminish anytime soon. Moreover, consumers love watching live streams and when done right, they can be a powerful and engaging medium to get your point across to your consumers.
At the same time, live streams also help to humanize your brand and make your prospects and customers realize there are real hard working people behind the logo and website.
However, knowing what is trending is a good way to make informed decisions right from the beginning. What type of content are you planning to produce this year? Tell us in the comment section below.
With that said, one thing hasn’t changed throughout the years, the importance of content.
Bill Gates said “content is king” back in 1996 and even in 2021, the statement holds a lot of truth.
Almost every aspect of marketing a business online, including SEO, website development, social media marketing, and paid advertising, is powered by content. Unless a brand gets their marketing communication right, all their online marketing efforts are bound to fall flat.
While there isn’t a lot of change in the importance of content, a lot has changed in terms of the importance of various formats of content.
The web was once populated solely with text-based content, with blog posts enjoying most of the popularity. However, with the advancement of technology and the rise of social media platforms, visual formats of content, like videos and infographics became popular.
This means, while producing content is critical, it is equally important to know which type of content you should be producing.
To help you get started, these are the types of content you should be focusing on in 2021:
Videos
Studies revealed that in 2019, users spend a whopping 84 minutes every day watching videos on the web. As online video consumption increases gradually, it is expected that the number will see a 19% increase and users are expected to watch 100 minutes of video every day in 2021.It is clear that users love videos. That’s why, in a survey conducted last year, 92% of marketers agreed that video is a critical part of their marketing strategy.
Video has held an important place in the marketing landscape for many years now, and that trend is showing no signs of slowing down.
With social media platforms becoming more visual content friendly (TikTok, Instagram’s Reels, stories on LinkedIn), marketers should see it as a sign of the increasing importance of video. At the same time, with video making equipment and tools becoming more and more accessible (smartphones with professional grade cameras and free online video editing software), there is a good chance that your competition is also geared up and ready to include marketing in their videos.
If you haven’t already started, it is high time that you think about how you will include videos in your marketing mix. Some of the ways you can start are:
Product Demo Videos: If you are selling a product, creating demo videos that show it in action is a brilliant idea. Such videos will communicate the real world applications of your product and how it solves your ideal customers’ problems.
That’s also perhaps why 66% of consumers prefer learning about a product by watching a video, instead of reading about the product.
Instructional Videos: Instructional videos are great marketing material, as long as they are relevant. To understand instructional videos, let’s take the example of a digital marketing agency. Instructional videos about how to use Google Analytics will not only be relevant to their niche, but will be genuinely helpful for their audience that may comprise amateur marketers that are also small business owners.
Repurposed Content: Repurposing your old but well performing content into videos is a brilliant idea, especially if your brand hasn’t published videos in the past.
To do this, you don’t need to come up with fresh ideas and you will be producing videos on topics that you already know have performed well with your audience in the past.
Interactive Content
On social media, engagement metrics are most commonly used to measure success. While it is perfectly possible to drive engagement from any form of content, the catch is to make your content extraordinary. With thousands of brands consistently creating content for social media platforms, standing out with your brilliant piece of content can be a difficult undertaking.This problem can be solved with the help of interactive content. As the name suggests, interactive content gets the audience involved in the process of consuming the content. It isn’t passive, it asks the audience to take action and thus, gets engaged.
Almost every social media platform offers the ability to make interactive posts in the form of polls, quizzes, or even interactive maps.
You can also use online tools like Canva to create your own interactive posts like the online Bingo that became viral back in 2020.
Online Courses
Creating an online course is a great way to add some genuine value to the life of your audience, while also attracting some happy top-of-the-funnel prospects. The best part is, creating an online learning experience doesn’t take much. If you are worried about the expense and the time that this undertaking may consume, there’s good news.Creating an online learning experience that your customers will love isn’t a demanding challenge, as long as you are offering genuinely helpful content. If you are on a budget, here are two economical ways to execute this idea:
Create A Screengrab Course: If you want to teach someone to better use a computer program or application, you can do so economically with a screen grab course.
All you need is a software that will allow you to record your screen, along with your own voiceover. There are many free software available on the web that offer those capabilities. Even Zoom offers the ability to record screens.
Create An Email Course Series: An email course series is exactly what the name suggests, a text based course delivered straight to the email inbox of your audience.
This kind of an undertaking will allow you to not only engage your audience and position yourself as an expert in your field, it will also allow you to build a bigger email list that you can use for other marketing endeavors. Buffer, a social media automation app, offers a free online social media mastery course.
Adding value to your prospect’s lives is perhaps the most surefire way to increase your brand’s recall value and ultimately, bring in more customers. Giving out free knowledge is a great way to add value to your audiences’ lives.
Live Video And Webinars
Live streaming was already an incredibly popular type of content before the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic happened. After that, for obvious reasons, live streams gained even more traction. Some estimate that the number of live stream events on the web increased by 300% between March and August 2020.Live streaming training and webinars have also emerged as a popular way to sell products, especially digital products like online courses and SaaS products.
The increased dependence on online video is not expected to diminish anytime soon. Moreover, consumers love watching live streams and when done right, they can be a powerful and engaging medium to get your point across to your consumers.
At the same time, live streams also help to humanize your brand and make your prospects and customers realize there are real hard working people behind the logo and website.
Conclusion
Finding the right kind of content types for your brand, the ones that resonate with your audience and also align with your business goals, will take some experimentation.However, knowing what is trending is a good way to make informed decisions right from the beginning. What type of content are you planning to produce this year? Tell us in the comment section below.
