We live in a digital age and spend most of our day interacting with the internet. For this reason, while we can actually ignore traditional marketing resources, we are intertwined with digital content.
We know that there is no content marketing without digital content. In this guide, we will examine what types of digital content you can use if you have an existing content marketing strategy. Even if you do not have a content marketing strategy, you can learn how to create your content marketing strategy by reading our article "Content Marketing Guide from A to Z".
What is Digital Content?
Digital content, in its simplest definition, is a type of content that is in the form of digital data and consumed in digital media. Let's explain this definition a little more:
Digital content is the name given to all content that can be received or distributed via the internet or other electronic media, regardless of written, visual, interactive or video.
Digital content types can be divided as follows:
Digital versions of traditional media, such as images and documents, in written and visual formatsAudiovisual content such as digitally encoded music and videoInteractive content due to the production area, such as web pages, software programs and social media postsWhy is Digital Content Important?
At the beginning of our article, we said that digital content now has an important place for all of us. So, what are the reasons that make digital content so important?
With the spread of the Internet and the transmission of all kinds of information through digital channels, users also transferred their research, recognition and learning habits to digital channels. Thus, digital content has turned into elements that educate, guide and shape users. From a brand communication perspective, you need content to explain the benefits you provide to your target audience. You can attract the attention of your target audience by providing solutions to their problems with the content you offer. Once you have their attention, they are ready to listen to you about your product or service.
Why is Digital Content Important?
At the beginning of our article, we said that digital content now has an important place for all of us. So, what are the reasons that make digital content so important?
With the spread of the Internet and the transmission of all kinds of information through digital channels, users also transferred their research, recognition and learning habits to digital channels. Thus, digital content has turned into elements that educate, guide and shape users. From a brand communication perspective, you need content to explain the benefits you provide to your target audience. You can attract the attention of your target audience by providing solutions to their problems with the content you offer. Once you have their attention, they are ready to listen to you about your product or service.
Digital content supports your marketing strategy in several ways:
Creates Brand Awareness
When you produce content that offers solutions to your target audience's problems, you provide value to your target audience. Additionally, these free contents make it easier for you to reach more people. In addition, you become a trusted voice on this topic based on the solutions you offer. So, what does a valuable content that offers solutions to problems look like?
It would be better to explain this through an example. Imagine you own a skin care products brand. Blogs about skin care routine, videos addressing skin problems and their solutions, interviews with experts and even skin type analyzes will benefit your target audience. In this way, they get to know your brand and think that you are a reliable voice in this regard.
In return for all this information, you only request their contact information to “stay in touch with them”.
Increases Conversion Rate
Attracting the target audience and creating a potential customer database is the goal that every brand wants to achieve at the end of the day. Digital content is one of the best solutions to achieve this goal.
Going back to our previous example, the content you offer to your target audience is part of the demand maturation process. If you have high-value content such as e-books, webinars, podcasts that you offer free of charge in exchange for your target audience's contact information, it is easier to convert your target audience into customers.
Helps Your SEO Strategy
It is almost impossible to consider Content Marketing and SEO separately. With a well-executed SEO strategy, you can rank high in search engine results or position your video on YouTube.
The higher you rank in search results, the more traffic you will attract to your website. Going back to our same example, you can research what terms people search for in search engines regarding skin care and problems. In this way, you can produce content regarding the solutions to these questions and problems.
Visitors arrive at your website after searching for something specific about the product or service you offer. For this reason, organic traffic is generally more relevant and higher quality.
Remember that you cannot achieve this overnight; developing an SEO strategy and producing quality content can take months.
What are the Types of Digital Content?
Now you know why you need strong digital content. Now it's time to examine the most common types of digital content.
In this section, we will explain what the most common types of digital content are and which channels are more efficient to use to publish them.
So let's start with the most popular:
Written Content
In the world of content marketing, video and image-based content continues to grow in popularity, but nothing has dethroned written content as the foundation of many brands' digital marketing strategies. There are many different types of written content, from the standard blog to social posts and more, and they all remain popular.
blogs
The most powerful and perhaps the most well-known examples of written digital content are blog posts. So, what exactly is the blog we keep hearing about?
A blog post is an individual web page on your website that focuses on a specific subtopic of your blog. It might seem a little confusing when you put it this way. Let's explain this with an example:
In the previous examples, we assumed that you have a skin care brand. We can assume that you are publishing a blog series on your website for these care products. You can write a blog with the title “Prominent Skin Care Trends of 2021”. Your post generally ties into your blog theme (skincare). It also addresses a very specific subtopic.
Thanks to blogs, you can inform your target audience, increase your brand awareness, build trust in your target audience and provide useful and valuable content for them.
So, how to write a blog or what kind of blog posts can you write? If you are wondering the answer to this question, you can read our article “The 12 Most Popular Blog Types”.
E-Books
The unique power of e-books is that they are downloadable. A downloadable ebook feels like a real object of value, rather than being ephemeral like a blog post or video.
You can use ebooks as lead generation tools and request contact information in exchange for the value you provide to your visitors. This will make it easier to run email marketing.
Writing an ebook also gives you the opportunity to showcase your authority on a topic more than a blog post allows.
Customer Success Stories
Customer success stories have an emotional undertone that highlights the customer's problem and the change that occurs as a result of using a product or working with a business. When buyers are exploring their options, they will prefer emotional impact over cold facts.
The use of characters, plot, conflict, and resolution in a customer story engages the reader and affects them emotionally. In this way, it is possible to achieve success in the evaluation phase of the sales funnel.
If you are wondering how to write a customer success story that will impress your customers, see “How to Write a Powerful Customer Success Story.” You can read our article.
Case Studies
The terms case study and customer story are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same. Both have their place in digital marketing and are useful at different points in the sales funnel .
The case study is technical and includes details about the problem and the solution the business offers to its customers. It ends with ROI, revenue growth, and cost savings data and reports. It is possible to think of a case study as a scientific report.
Case studies are perfect for the decision stage of the funnel. At this stage, decision makers want to see data on relevant use cases. They need to know exactly how the product or service can be implemented, confident that it will solve their specific problems and have a positive impact on their bottom line.
Product Content and Guides
Product content is the text, images, and other information a brand provides to describe its offerings. This includes product names, prices, sizes, descriptions, and anything else that helps consumers understand the items they're viewing.
Product content helps address potential customers' concerns to drive lower-funnel leads. In addition, they will include keyword phrases that are useful for SEO.
References
A recent Nielsen study found that 92 percent of people would trust a peer's recommendation, while 70 percent would trust a complete stranger's recommendation. Well what does it mean? A strong customer testimonial can increase trust and even increase conversions and sales.
By triggering herd psychology, also known as the majority effect, testimonials encourage people to act based on third-party approval and create trust.
Comparison Page
The product comparison page is a simpler version of competitor analysis. It compares the two products in a way that the reader can instantly grasp. It describes the features of two products separately, indicates their benefits and relevance to a particular customer. Comparing two products will also indicate the better option, supported by evidence and functions presented on a page or table.
A product comparison page allows you and your visitors to see if your featured items or products are better than competing companies or businesses.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
A frequently asked questions page is usually a list of common questions people ask about a particular product or service.
An FAQ page on your website can be effective in increasing leads. You can answer questions about your industry, products, services and more. Not only are these useful for potential buyers, they can save your staff time by reducing the number of routine questions asked.
Awards
Rewards work just like testimonials. Winning a business award provides reliable third-party support for your company.
Depending on how prestigious the award is, it creates the perception that your work has been approved by an authority. Showcasing your awards and achievements shows your audience that you are expert and trustworthy. Customers will feel better about their relationship with your company.
User Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is content created by the brand's target audience or relevant people rather than brands. Brands often share user-generated content on their social media accounts, websites, and other marketing channels.
Users create and share posts that highlight your brand and showcase your products and services to their target audience. Even better, you can share this content with your own audience, increasing your credibility with them.
Visual Content
Content is king for digital marketing, and written content still rules today. It is now very difficult to ignore the value of visual content, which is the biggest supporter of written content. So, what makes visual content so powerful?
Visual content conveys your message faster. (We can process visual information 60,000 times faster than text content.)Visuals are easier to remember.Images suit different business-customer relationships.Images
We all know that speed is important and our attention spans are pretty short now. If we have the opportunity to capture all the information with a single visual instead of reading long articles, we do not miss this opportunity.
The fact that you can find images on free stock sites is another advantage, but unfortunately this does not make you very memorable. If you want your brand and message to be remembered, you should take care to create original visuals.
Video
According to a report by HubSpot Research , more than 50% of consumers want to see videos from brands over other types of content.
Video is a powerful content medium for storytelling. It is also true that it has a huge impact on the success of your promotional campaigns and content marketing efforts.
Videos; Because it's a blend of visuals, movements, and sounds, it allows you to create deeper, more meaningful connections with people while positioning your brand in the best possible light.
We will examine the details and popular types of video content in the following sections of our article.
infographics
In its simplest definition, an infographic is a visual representation of any type of information or data.
Whether it's a study of market trends or a step-by-step guide on how to do your laundry, an infographic can help you present this information in the form of an attractive visual graph.
Infographics often creatively combine text and graphic elements to achieve a variety of goals, such as:
Making a complex concept understandableSummarizing information and contentMaking boring data and numbers look goodNipples
At a time when many consumers skip ads whenever they can, marketing with humor and familiar media can engage hard-to-reach consumers.
On social media, memes and memes often take the form of a GIF or static image that plays on a familiar theme, meaning, or scene, often with layers of text on top of the image.
For professional storytellers (digital marketers and entrepreneurs), the meme can be an extremely low-cost way to create engaging content that captures followers.
GIF’ler (Graphics Interchange Format)
GIF, simply known as Graphics Interchange Format, is a digital image that has been compressed to reduce transfer time. GIFs use multiple images or video clips to create short, silent animations.
Using GIFs in your content allows you to connect with your audience in a relevant and familiar way. It also shows the funny and human side of your brand personality.
With a smaller file size than other images, GIFs don't negatively impact loading times or viewing experiences on both desktop and mobile screens.
Screenshots
We mentioned that case studies, references, user-generated content and success stories are important in written content. Screenshots are another way to deliver this written content to your target audience.
Taking screenshots is an easy way to share fun, productive and memorable content. It's also a pretty easy way considering that almost all of us have a Print Screen button on our computer.
360 Degree Video
360-degree videos are created by capturing all aspects of a scene or physical environment simultaneously. Users can view the video from any angle. Turn and move the device; The 360-degree video will follow you and create an immersive, “virtual reality” type experience.
360-degree videos can be watched on both computers and mobile devices, but they are specifically optimized for mobile devices. This is an advantage when it comes to user accessibility and search engine rankings.
360 degree video is much more interactive compared to videos. The viewer has the control necessary to choose the content he wants to see. This allows for much higher audience participation.
Interactive Content
Interactive or interactive content is dynamic content that encourages user participation to convey your message.
These contents do not necessarily have to be digital, but it is thanks to the internet that such content takes numerous forms, such as quizzes and animated infographics, creating new possibilities for user interaction.
Interactive content allows brands to understand whether the potential customer is actually consuming their material while providing a much more exciting experience for the consumer.
Competitions
Contests are one of the oldest and most effective goals in the marketing playbook. If you want people to visit your site, read your blog, or buy your product, run a contest and give away prizes to the winners.
One of the best contests to run is one that requires you to use user-generated content. You ask why? Because your target audience interacts with your brand by creating and sharing original content for you, saving you time and money. These contests usually award a small gift (e.g. a gift card) or an introduction prize.
In addition, you can also request the e-mail addresses of the participants because you need to notify the users participating in the competition. Once you receive the necessary permissions, these email addresses will be important contact points for your subsequent marketing activities.
Surveys
Not only are surveys great for gathering audience insights, but they're also quick to read and hard to ignore.
Surveys not only attract your target audience to you, but also give you potentially valuable data in return.
The key to remember here is to make sure you structure your survey to get exactly the data you want from your users. Otherwise, you may face the risk of being ignored or analyzes that will not benefit your business.
Interactive quizzes are a type of content where the user can get the result they are looking for by answering a few questions. The final result is produced by calculating and classifying the user's interactions with the test questions.
Quizzes are used specifically to test the target audience's opinion or knowledge level on a particular topic related to the brand's universe, but can also be evaluated in other ways according to the marketing plan or sales strategy.
Calculators
An interactive calculator is an online tool that requires recipients to insert data into a form to get an instant, calculated answer. These answers are calculated according to a special formula defined by you that will help them turn a problem into a win. For example, your target audience might be interested in buying a home, creating a budget, losing weight, etc. They may be looking for help on issues, and you can help them by using calculators.
Interactive calculators are very useful for customers looking for quick answers to their problems. These customers have decisions to make and are looking to make their lives easier. You can also capture your target audience with the solution you offer.
Video Contents
In the previous section, we mentioned that video is a popular format and its popularity increases day by day.
Video content includes any video you create for marketing or advertising. Video content is one of the most powerful marketing tools you have.
Video content can be in many different formats and of any length. You can share video content on your own website, social media, email or advertisements.
Product Video
A product video is an explainer video that effectively demonstrates the benefits of a product. While some product videos focus on the features of the product, others focus on how the product solves the pain points these customers may face.
A demo video explaining product features increases conversion rates by providing a creative and compelling story that shows how your product works in the real world and what impact it has. By using narrative and metaphor, product videos can create a more lasting impression in the consumer's mind and encourage them to experience product features rather than explaining them.
Vlog
We mentioned that blogs have very powerful content. Why wouldn't vlogs or video blogs be so powerful?
Vlogs offer your brand a cost-effective platform to create a unique brand voice and compelling image that engages your target audience.
It's cheap and easy to shoot a short vlog with nothing but your smartphone or webcam and perhaps a simple script jotted down on the back of a napkin. This unique approach will also give your video content human emotions rather than a corporate production.
Company Culture Videos
Successful brand storytelling can differentiate a brand from its competitors. It can also motivate employees and attract consumers. That's why one of the best types of video content you can use is behind-the-scenes videos that reveal your company culture.
These types of videos provide an immersive experience that pulls back the curtain on your business to get customers and potential customers to connect with your brand.
Report
You may not be sure exactly how interview videos will improve your business. Interview videos are great for building brand authority for a few reasons:
It allows you to align your brand with a thought leader or inspirational person.It helps you establish authority with conversions from a respected voice.It offers your audience an intimate “one-on-one experience” where an expert from your business or market answers tough questions.Event Videos
Part webinar, part vlog, part trailer. In the age of social media, event videos are extremely popular, especially when they involve a sneak peek behind the scenes of a glitzy corporate event.
Event videos can be a great way for your brand to help minimize the risk of missing out by bringing even your most exclusive events to people who might not otherwise have the opportunity to attend.
Animated Movies
Animated movies are an engaging tool that can help you tell your story more fully.
Animated movies bring to life what written content or ordinary videos cannot. Think about it: You can have your non-human characters talk, fly, or time travel as much as you want. You can also show how mechanisms and processes work with the help of animation.
Brand Promotional Films
Most online users have short attention spans, but when it comes to video, there is much greater scope to take viewers on a journey. There's no better way to do this than with a brand trailer.
This type of video content, which is longer than a commercial, goes deeper into your brand vision and values. You can get creative with brand storytelling and cinematic production to present your brand in a light that appeals to your people.
Webinars (Webinars)
People attend virtual webinars or webinars as an easy way to learn from you and your guests about topics that are important to them. Webinars are an excellent tool for promoting with paid advertising.
You can use social media ads to get potential customers to register for your webinar, then leverage that traffic to generate more leads and eventually sell products or services.
Commercial Films
As on television channels and all other video broadcast platforms, commercials are short video content played before, during or after the content flow in digital media.
Commercials have much different criteria than all other types of video content. These films, which aim to capture the customer very quickly, generally aim to give the relevant message in less than 30 seconds and encourage the viewer to take action. These films, which we can watch dozens or even hundreds of times because they are short, are prepared by very detailed studies, taking into account even the smallest mistakes, and for this very reason, they are very costly.
Audio Content
Audio content is content consumed through listening. Music, radio, and podcasts are all examples of this type of media. Unlike video content, your audience doesn't have to look at the screen to consume information.
Even if your listeners are driving, cooking, or walking their dog, they can still enjoy audio content while they're on the go and doing other things. In this way, you can deliver your content to more people.
Podcast’ler
The advantage of the podcast format is that it offers endless variety and options. Any topic a person might be interested in can often be found online in podcast format. From a true crime podcast to a comedy podcast, from pop culture to news, it is possible to find a podcast on a suitable topic for anyone with a variety of interests.
Contributing monologues and engaging interviews, podcasts allow companies to attract customers with catchy ads, event promotions and subtle product mentions.
Audio Books
It can be difficult to stand out among podcasts and radio and get a lot of listens. However, audiobooks are a less studied area, making it easier to stand out to your target audience.
On the other hand, if you have e-books you have created, it is very easy to convert them into audiobooks. This is how you can reduce the effort you put into creating your content.
Jingle’lar
Actually, there is a reality that we all encounter in daily life: Those catchy little melodies that you start singing for no reason and that stick on your tongue all day long.
Jingles have always been an effective way to lock your brand into a consumer's brain. Your target audience may sing or hum these songs throughout the day without realizing it.
We live in a digital world, but completing your jingle still requires technical workers like musicians, singers, and sound engineers to put in real-life labor. So when considering producing a jingle, you should also consider its cost.
Radio Ads
You may be wondering how radio ads relate to digital content. What if we told you that radio ads work the same way in podcasts? Although there are many types of podcasts and podcast ads, they work similarly to radio ads. Ads are even more effective thanks to the data collected.
For example, Spotify uses data points collected from users, including where they are located, what type of device they use, and their age, to target podcast ads.
In short, audio ads that reach the target audience via radio broadcast or podcasts represent a magic moment for your brand. Voice is an important tool when a story is told convincingly and concisely.
As a result, the content; It's how you present information, engage audiences, drive traffic, start conversations, and communicate with your customers and prospects online. Therefore, choosing the right type of content for your business and target audience can take your content strategy to the next level and help you achieve the goals you want to achieve.
Don't be afraid to try different types of content and get creative. Over time, you'll learn what type of content resonates best with your target audience. You never know what works until you try it.
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