It’s common knowledge that a regularly maintained blog is a key component of a successful digital marketing strategy for a number of reasons. Not only does it help your company establish a reputation as a leader in your industry, but it also provides you with an outlet to boost your SEO and set yourself apart from your competition.
That being said, simply having a blog won’t provide many benefits if the content you create isn’t inspiring your readers to make a purchase or inquire about your services. If you find that your bounce rates are up and your leads are down, it could be a sign that the content you are sharing on your blog lately isn’t holding your audience’s attention.
Think about the types of content you post on your blog – not necessarily the topics you cover, but the manner by which you cover them. If your blog is filled with straightforward text-based posts that answer “what is” questions related to your industry, it may be time to consider diversifying your content strategy.
Varying the content on your blog will help you reengage your readers and determine which types of posts resonate the most with your target audience. Here are 6 types of highly effective though often underutilized forms of content to help you build out your digital marketing strategy:
1) How-To Guides
How-to guides are some of the most misunderstood forms of content in a digital marketing strategy. Many marketers fall into the trap of believing that teaching their readers how to do something means they will no longer need your company’s services. However, the exact opposite is often the case. A strategically written how-to guide will actually create more business for your company once you explain how complicated the task at hand would be if your reader attempted it on their own.
The way you title your how-to guide also presents the opportunity to bolster your SEO through the use of long-tail keywords. Think about the way consumers structure their search queries, particularly voice searches. For example, someone thinking about renovating their bathroom might ask “How to install a shower” or “How do I tile a backsplash?”. Utilizing commonly searched long-tail keywords such as these will signal to Google that your content offers an exact answer to the searcher’s question, which will provide you with a hefty SEO boost.
2) Videos
Videos are quickly gaining a reputation as one of the most diverse and dynamic elements you could add to your digital marketing strategy, and for a good reason. Whether you opt for live shots or custom animation, utilizing video on your company’s blog provides you with a unique visual element from which to engage, educate and entertain your audience. Videos also create an opportunity to recycle your past content in a fresh, new way. A website visitor might not have been willing to commit to reading a 5000 word blog, but a series of 1 minute videos conveying the same ideas could be a more palatable option for absorbing information.
If bounce rate is a concern on your website, video marketing should definitely be an avenue to consider for your digital marketing strategy moving forward. Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who leave your website after viewing one page without interacting with it further. If your analytics reveal that your website’s bounce rate is 70%, for example, that means 7 out of 10 visitors leave your website without exploring beyond the link they initially clicked on. A recent study found that having a video on a page decreases the bounce rate by 34%, giving your visitors something to engage with and a reason to stay on your website longer.
3) Lists
If the topic you’re writing about is best suited for a text-based format, a great way to present your content in a more visually interesting way is in list form. Lists are appealing to readers because they’re easier to skim through for the information you’re looking for than a block of text. List-style blogs are some of the most successful forms of content on our website – and the fact that you’re reading this right now is proof that they work!
There’s no right or wrong number of points to cover in your list, but when in doubt, more is always better than too few. Creating a long list can seem intimidating when organizing your outline, but the more detailed it is, the more engaging it will be. Look for opportunities to use numbers in your list in a clever way, such as “21 Questions for 2021” and “95 Tips for a Productive 9 to 5”.
4) Roundups
If one of the goals of your digital marketing strategy is to drive new traffic to your website, look no further than roundup blogs. Roundup-style content features quotes submitted by outside sources related to a certain question or topic. One example of this is our annual Business Resolutions roundup, where we get hundreds of responses from professionals around the world.
Along with being a cool piece of content, one of the main benefits of roundup articles is the shareability factor. If you feature 20 professionals in your roundup, that’s 20 opportunities for them to share your blog and thousands of opportunities for their followers to read it. If the link to your roundup on their website as well, you’ll also receive the SEO benefits of a backlink. Just be sure to email the link to your roundup to all participants so they know when it is live.
5) Case Studies
Case studies are a great way to establish your authority by providing a detailed look into how your company assessed, addressed and remedied a problem through your services. For our digital marketing agency, for example, a case study might examine the challenges a client faced with their website, the website changes we made to remedy these challenges, and the eventual outcome of these changes. The highly personalized nature of case studies provides you with a lot of creative freedom, but they should generally follow this model:
- Introduction: Set the stage by introducing the subject of your case study, including who they are and what they do.
- The Problem: Discuss the challenges your subject was facing and how these challenges were affecting their business.
- The Solution: Explain what your company did to address these challenges. This can be a step-by-step explanation or a quick summary.
- The Results: Show how your solution remedied your subject’s initial problem. Back these results up with statistics whenever possible.
- The Call-To-Action: Encourage your readers to get in contact with you now that they know your company has a proven track record of success.
Anyone can create content explaining how to find success in your industry, but the best way to position yourself as an expert in your field is to demonstrate how you’ve achieved it for real clients.
6) Quizzes
Not only do quizzes provide you with a fun piece of easily shareable content, they’re also a powerful lead generation tool. How powerful exactly? Lead forms embedded in quizzes generate a 55% opt-in rate. Compare that to pop-up lead forms with an average 1.95% opt-in rate, and the impact is immediately clear.
Take a look at the existing content on your blog and determine which topics could be repurposed in quiz form. After you’ve created your questions and answers, settle on a design that fits the tone of your quiz. Typically your quiz design should fit in with your company’s existing colors and branding, but themed quizzes for holidays might benefit from something with a seasonal motif. No matter the design you choose, be sure your quiz ends with a lead form to capture the user’s information (name, email and/or phone number) prior to delivering their results.
Diversify Your Content for a Stronger Digital Marketing Strategy
Now that we’ve covered the benefits of diversifying your content for a stronger digital marketing strategy, the next step is to conduct a content audit. Take a look at the types of content already on your blog and look for opportunities to experiment with new ones. Some great places to start are with blogs that are old, outdated or underperforming. Repurposing this content in an intelligent and interesting way will add some variety to your blog and reengage your readers.
That being said, rebuilding a robust new content calendar is no quick and easy feat. Factor in the actual content creation itself, and it can become a massive undertaking. If you don’t have the time and resources available to commit to an overhaul of your company’s content, your best option might be outsourcing the work to a digital marketing agency. Our team of talented content creators has the skill and experience needed to capture the attention of readers and search engines alike. A winning digital marketing strategy is only a click away – contact us to get started.
