Content Marketing For Your Business
There are many ways to use content for your business. And fortunately, today’s social platforms offer the ability to create engaging content with relative ease. Today, we will look at the effective ways that video, audio, and live content can be used for your marketing strategy as well as the best practices for planning content itself. In one of our previous articles, we describe how to succeed online with content.
Video Content (Vlogs, Educational How-To’s, Commercials)
Aside from simple video commercials, there are multiple ways a business or brand can utilize video as part of their content strategy. Video hosting platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo can be great destinations for long-form videos. Social platforms such as Instagram and TikTok provides opportunities for content that’s more quick, and digestible. Here’s an interesting stat: Cisco estimates that video traffic will drive 82% of IP traffic (Internet traffic) in 2021. (Source)
Video Content Pros & Cons
Pros: Videos are attention grabbing and will increase engagement from your audience.
Cons: Creating video content can be expensive in production depending on your budget and time constraints.
Audio Content (Podcasts, Radio Spots, Music Streaming Ads)
Users now have their own playlists, favourite creators, and trusted platforms that they use for their audio consumption habits. Spotify, YouTubeMusic, and local radio stations continue to provide relevant options for paid audio-based advertising. Additionally, long-form audio such as podcasts are being adopted by organizations big and small due to its flexibility, cost, and ease of distribution. With audio content, you are targeting users who are typically busy with other tasks at the moment: in the middle of their shift, during their commute, and physical exercise for example.
According to Podcast Insights, comedy has become the most popular podcasting genre, followed by education and news. (Source)
Pros and Cons
Pros: Easy to set-up and start podcasting; paid audio ads have increased in utility due to better audience targeting measures.
Cons: Starting a podcast from scratch will require a significant time commitment to grow its reach.
Live Content (Streaming, Interviews, Events)
Live content continues to boom in popularity. Video and audio content options can be premiered live in real time for your audience to convey authenticity, relatedness, and with a consistent live schedule, reliability. Popular examples include video-game streaming, one-on-one interviews, and live-stream events. While some options may seem out-of-the-box for your brand, consider that U.S. politicians have been able to find success in communicating their message via streaming a viral multiplayer computer game “Among Us”.
For context on your potential live-audience, millennials are the largest consumers and creators of live video. (Source)
Pros and Cons
Pros: Live-streaming is as easy as clicking record on your device. Chat systems have innovated greatly for live-streams offering more personal interactions between viewers and streamers.
Cons: Live-streams having multiple moving parts, increase the risk of a technical issue during stream. Timing can also be a con, as it won’t be worth having a stream that no one knows about.
Planning Your Content
Here are some starter questions that will help brainstorm your content strategy:
“What is my timeline for content?”
“How much energy should I be directing to video, audio or live?”
“Who is my audience?”
“When are my audience most active?”
“Which content platforms are relevant for my brand?”
“How much of my content strategy needs paid targeting?”
These questions should be able to give you a strong idea on how you envision your content strategy. Content doesn’t just have to mean video, audio, or live. It includes your communications as well – through blogs, comments, and discussions.
Conclusion
There are many ways to use content to help your business, with the low entry cost to start content marketing being worth the potential gain. Your content strategy will depend on your goals and what you want to communicate to your customer. Do you want your brand to feel more personal or professional? 3CX Digital is here to assist you with your content goals. Bring on the content!