First time content clients are always fun and a pain to work with. Pain, because they know not what they want (quite often); fun because it`s always an education for both - the client and the content provider.
The first question often asked of a provider or marketer is - what type of content and delivery platform will “do the magic” for our brand? A blog? Emails? YouTube videos? Of course, patience is a virtue not many first-timers are guilty of.
So without much ado, let me jump into it straightaway. The answer is - “NONE”. Pretty obvious there`s no one size fits all formula where content is concerned.
You need to decide your content and the message delivery or story telling platform based on a variety of factors (listed in no particular order): your target audience, your market, the budget of course, the product itself and even its price. For this, a content provider and marketer need to brainstorm with the rest of the marketing team to devise a plan and a strategy that fits into the brand`s overall business plan.
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So, like I said, there`s no “top of the charts”. Content marketers must try their damnedest to ensure it does not end up like a trial and error, but sometimes it does. Invariably, from experience I can say that it is a combination of two or even more content forms and platforms; it`s never either, or.
What I can list down here are some of the oft-used (and popular) forms of content that are known even today to fetch the desired results. But before I do that, remember that there`s a difference between content and content delivery platforms or formats or whatever else they may be called. To distinguish further, you may make a doodle video but after that, you`ve to decide whether YouTube is the best medium to deliver the video to your target audience, or some other video hosting platform?
Another way of defining the two would be - content and content marketing. After the content is written, or designed, or developed, the content marketer decides which are the best marketing channels for its propagation.
Here are the content forms/formats, in no particular order:
Long form articles
blog posts
videos
e-books
white papers & of course
emails, including newsletters
These remain still the popular content options. But there are some others like a webinar, a podcast or even a GIF or a meme that can do the trick, too.
Almost all digital versions of content have their antecedents in the old-world. (Remember what I had said in a previous newsletter - there are no original ideas?)
Yesterday`s analog content formats are today`s digital ones.
Take the long form article, for example. It is the digital avatar of your Sunday newspaper “feature” which you would read at leisure after a hearty Sunday repast.
Webinars are, of course, the digital version of real world seminars; a podcast is nothing but a radio program, recorded to be played at (your) will. Marketing emails are like physical flyers or even catalogues that would land in your post box.
So in a sense, nothing`s changed but everything has, thanks to the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web, right?
Image by PIRO4D from Pixabay
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