Where are your customers? They are spending time online reading blogs, watching videos, listening to podcasts, and consuming social media. In fact, in 2020, global online content consumption soared to an average of six hours and 59 minutes per day.
This surge in content consumption offers many benefits to your business. When done well, digital content marketing results in increased lead generation, better customer engagement, more website traffic, greater brand awareness, improved thought leadership, and increased total sales. And it’s beneficial for both B2B and B2C organizations:
- 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing to reach customers.
- 86% of B2C marketers think digital content marketing is key to strategy.
But what does all of this mean for your company right now?
Your digital content marketing efforts have more competition than ever before. In fact, the global digital content creation market is expected to reach $38.2 billion (USD) by 2030—a 12% CAGR between 2020 and 2030. That’s why your business must follow the lead of 70% of all marketers and actively invest in more unique and higher-quality digital content marketing.
5 Must-Use Digital Content Marketing Strategies
It’s not enough to produce a few blog posts a year, post on Facebook every once in a while, and send out an email every month. To take advantage of the competitive edge that content marketing provides, you must become familiar with digital content marketing strategies and invest your efforts where they will make the greatest impact.
1. Expand the Scope of Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Efforts
Did you know that 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine, and Google currently holds 92.04% of total search engine share? Search engine optimization(SEO) is continuously becoming more important to your success. 61% of B2B marketers state that SEO and organic traffic generate MORE leads than any other tactic, and 70% say SEO is better than PPC at generating sales!
However, today’s SEO isn’t what it used to be. To rank on the first page of Google, it’s gone far beyond simple keywords. There’s now a greater emphasis placed on voice search and mobile search as well as user experience. You now need to include the following in your SEO strategy:
- Core Web Vitals, which were announced by Google in May 2020. These are three new metrics used to measure the user experience:
- How fast does the page load?
- How soon does the page get interaction?
- How visually stable is the page while loading?
This means paying attention to page speed when building your website has never been more important.
- Google’s SMITH algorithm, which builds off of the BERT algorithm to better read content like a human. This means that in-depth web pages with key phrases, long-tail keywords, and detailed research are more vital than ever.
- Higher quality and more original content created with intent. Google prefers content created with the user in mind, which means more videos optimized for search, problem-solving and question-answering blogs, and content with more showing (less telling).
2. Educate Your Audience with E-Learning Content
The global e-learning (online education) market is worth $325 billion. That’s because people enjoy expanding their skill sets and increasing their knowledge through valuable courses, resources, and forums. But e-learning is not just for employee training or online universities.
Your business can take advantage of this digital content marketing trend with podcasts or videos that teach your audience the value of your products and services. Think of it as an opportunity to give your potential customers the tools and resources they need to start learning the details of what you have to offer before even speaking with you. A few e-learning ideas include:
- Hosting a webinar to give potential customers the opportunity to learn how your product/service can benefit them. Don’t forget to give them a few tips and tricks on how to use your product/service to maximize success.
- Writing a series of blogs, eBooks, or white papers on thought leadership topics for prospective customers to better understand the need for your company.
- Sharing how-to videos that demonstrate your expertise and provide insight into your industry.
3. Make Information More Accessible
Financial and technical topics can be extremely complex. The easier and more accessible you can make in-depth information, the better. The key to effective content marketing is to meet your customers and prospects where they spend the most time online and to create and distribute your content in the format that makes the most sense.
And there are many options beyond blogs and traditional social media posts—which are still highly valuable. For example:
- TikTok has exploded because it’s all about short, easily consumable videos, even on complex topics. And financial trends regularly go viral. In fact, there are currently 3.8 billion views attributed to the hashtag #finance.
- Infographics are a great way to disseminate complex information in a simplified visual form. 84% of companies that use infographics find them effective.
- Short videos are an effective way to break down complex topics in an elevator pitch format. And video is trusted by 40% of millennials, helping marketers gain 66% more leads per year.
- Podcasts are another way to disseminate information that your customers can listen to in the car, while they work, and during chores. Keep in mind that 45% of global internet users aged 25-34 listen to podcasts.
4. Make Your Content Interactive
Just as your digital content should be accessible, it should also be interactive. 93% of marketers see interactive content as effective. But what exactly does being interactive mean?
Host polls on social media, develop a walk-through of your business or product on your app, or implement a website tool that helps consumers visualize what they need depending on their lifestyle. The possibilities are endless.
The idea behind interactive content is to engage your audience directly through comments, clicks, and other actions.
- Produce a LIVE webinar to generate more leads, which is effective for 87% of companies. And remember, 2-5% of webinar attendees make a purchase.
- Share quizzes to gain customer feedback about your products and services. Quizzes are the most engaging type of interactive content, according to CMI.
- Host a contest offering a free month of service, a product upgrade, free training, and more. An average of 34% of new customers are acquired through contests.
5. Engage with Micro-Influencers
Influencer marketing has been a content marketing trend for a while, but many companies think that you should only engage with digital influencers who have hundreds of thousands of followers. That’s not true. Smaller influencers with fewer than 10K followers can actually have a more profound impact on your brand.
Over 82% of surveyed consumers said they were likely to buy something a micro-influencer recommended. The key is to find authentic digital content marketing influencers whom you can work with to reach your highly targeted audience. Then, with the help of a digital marketing consultancy, create a formal agreement that outlines:
- The guidelines for the type of content they will create and distribute to their audience.
- The compensation they will receive for their efforts.
- The dates that the campaign will be online and how often the content will be shared.
- The approval process for the final content as well as content usage rights.
Partner with a Digital Marketing Expert to Implement the Right Content Strategy for Your Business!
There’s no doubt that digital content marketing is here to stay, and it’s only getting more complicated. The problem is that 60% of companies find it hard to produce content consistently. And 32% of marketers think their content creation workflow is poor. That’s why your brand cannot afford to leave your efforts up to chance.
To keep consumers coming back for more, take advantage of a digital marketing consultancy’s ability to help you with your content marketing needs. They have in-house specialists who can take over all of your content needs, from writing blogs to developing videos, website creation, social media posting, and more.
Digital marketing consultancies know how to build an entire digital marketing strategy around your company’s needs, which means you won’t waste any time or effort on content production that doesn’t add value to your bottom line.
By hiring a digital marketing consultancy to help your company keep up with the latest content marketing trends, you can show your audience that you know what you’re doing and you’re paying attention to what’s on the horizon. Let’s talk today!