In today’s digital world, content is king. As businesses continue to adopt new technologies and make their marketing strategies more targeted and personalised, the need for relevant, engaging content also increases. That also means it’s become increasingly difficult for businesses to stand out from their competition and drive meaningful leads through channels like above-the-line advertisements, or direct mail.
Content comes in many different forms and can be used as a tool to help generate leads for your business in a variety of ways. According to DemandMetric, an agile marketing software company, content marketing generates 3 times as many leads as other traditional forms of marketing. That said, in order to rise above the noise and compete in this increasingly digital world, businesses need to find new and innovative ways to generate leads.
In this blog post, we’ll be exploring four popular content formats that you can use to generate leads for your business.
Content formats: Video
Video content can be used to convey a wide range of different messages and topics, allowing you to reach your audience in a way that’s focused and precise. The great thing about video content is that your potential leads don’t have to read the information you’re conveying; they can simply watch it. This can make the process of attracting leads to your business much easier, as they don’t have to read any long-form content or consume any product or service information before they decide to make the effort to contact you. Fortunately videos can be hosted on company websites, YouTube, and social media platforms, which means that there are an abundance of places online to share your content.
Short-form videos such as Instagram reels and TikToks are some of the most popular and effective content formats. According to HubSpot, a marketing software company, for the third year in a row, short-form videos remain the primary form of media consumed and have the highest engagement rates. Additionally, Wistia, a video marketing platform, stated as of 2021, an individual watches 18 hours' worth of online videos each week. With consumer behaviour predominantly leaning towards video content, it would be favourable to start storyboarding, filming and editing!
Below is an example of how SheSpace, a co-working space located in Houston, effectively utilises influencer marketing to create video content boasting about its services on TikTok.
Content formats: Infographics
Many people are visual learners, meaning that they prefer to engage with information that is presented in a way that they can see. In the age of visual content, an infographic is a great way to present information in a format that is easy for your leads to consume.
An infographic can be used to convey information about your business or a particular product or service that you provide. Statistics gathered by Hubspot indicate that “56% of content marketers who use infographics say that it is their most effective marketing content type”.
Creating a high-quality infographic is not a simple process, because you usually need to display complex information concisely. For this reason, it’s important to carefully select the topic of your infographic before you get started.
Content formats: Blogs
A blog is a great content format to engage with your current and prospective leads, as it allows you to show expertise about a product, service, or market in which your business operates. Blogs are typically longer than most types of content, and can therefore provide more substantial information than a shorter piece of content may be able to provide. You can use blogs to answer common questions that your target audience is likely to have about your business and the products or services that you provide. This will help to build trust between your business and its leads.
It’s important to consider the amount of information that you’d like to provide in each blog post before you get started. This will allow you to create posts that are long enough to provide the information that you want, but are also short enough to be easily consumed. It's good to have a both longer and shorter blogs.
Check out our other blog posts here: https://www.rawcreativegroup.com/blog
Content formats: Podcasts
Podcasts are audio files that are published on a regular basis, and are useful because they can be consumed while doing other activities, such as exercising at the gym or driving to work. This content format is a great way to stay in regular contact with your leads and to provide them with new and relevant information on a consistent basis. This helps to keep your business at the forefront of your listeners’ minds, which can help to build trust and encourage them to become customers.
A podcast can be made up of either pre-recorded audio or live audio. Both of these types of podcasts are relatively simple to create and can be recorded using a wide variety of different equipment. Podcasts are great for engaging with your audience and are especially useful if you have a large following on a particular platform, such as Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Below is an example of a podcast called The Property Show, where Co-founder and CEO of HomeViews, Rory Cramer was invited to discuss the ever-evolving needs in the market for overseas clients and how HomeViews is one of the first and only dedicated review platform where tenants and owners can provide feedback for residential developments based in the UK.
Which content formats are you trying next?
Content comes in many different forms and can be used as a tool to help generate leads for your business in a variety of ways. It is important to keep up to date with the latest content formats, as consumer behaviour and trends constantly change. You want to ensure you're always producing the most relevant content for your audience.
Need help getting started? Click here to find out how RAW CREATIVE can get your content to effectively generate leads.