Content Types that Will Help You Accomplish Different Business Goals

by Taylor Moore, Guest Contributor

Adopting a content creation strategy is a great way to pave a path that will incrementally lead prospects from interest to acquisition. Guided by your business plan, you can create content that serves as stepping stones that end at the doorstep of your business - each stepping stone meeting a specific need of your business.

Below, you will find some helpful information that will summarize different content types and how you can make them work for achieving particular business goals:

Goal 1: Promote your business or brand

Content can go a long way for promoting your business, under the condition that it’s useful and valuable to your prospects. When consumers start to associate a business with useful, valuable information that addresses their needs, they usually start developing positive sentiments that gradually grow into loyalty.
 
Content strategy that favors this kind of beneficial content at the same time helps establish your company as an authority, setting the stage for long-term business relationships.
 
The following content types work well for promoting your brand:

Video: Video content can take a lot of time to produce, but it can pay off well. Video appeals to vast audiences, and it appears in more than two-thirds of all search results. Web sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter make video content accessible to share, so your content can go farther than you might have thought possible.

Infographics: A graphic depiction of your information helps your audience visualize your message in ways impossible with words alone. Occasionally, the simple and entertaining nature of infographics causes them to go viral, gaining a lot of exposure and driving loads of traffic.

Images and memes: You can employ humor to establish emotional connections between your audience and your brand. When done right, people will feel compelled to share your wit with their friends.

Interviews: Your brand can get noticed by sharing conversations with respected figures such as industry leaders, thought influencers, VIPs or even high-ranked individuals from your own company. Their expertise and position will do the promotion and help you reach a wide audience.

Newsjacking: Take advantage of news events in your industry by creating content that responds to them, for example an opinion piece on a hot topic or a major issue. Doing this will attracts visitors interested in headlines and expose them to your brand and its message.
 
Goal 2: Develop trust

When people trust you, they are more receptive to your message and feel more inclined to purchase from you. Inspire confidence by promoting positive experiences your customers have had with your company and its services or products, and let unbiased individuals speak their opinion about you. Prospects will tend to believe it more than if it came directly from you.
 
Here are content types you can use to inspire trust in your prospects and existing customers:
 
Expert articles: Having experts in your field present their opinions about your business in an unbiased way is actually an act of respect towards your audience. It allows them to base their opinions on facts and definitely earns you a point on trust scale.

User reviews: Encourage existing customers to write and share reviews of your business and your products. Make a simple request through social media, email newsletter or a blog post and then collect this feedback to later display it on your website or landing pages.  You might even ask customers to directly share their opinion through social channels. Although you take a chance that some people might have unflattering things to say, you let the world see that you have enough confidence in your company to let your customers share their experiences with the world.

Local media: Get the media involved. Reach out to local reporters, news outlets and journalists in need to let them know what your company is expert at, what it does to help the community and to meet the needs of your market. This way you can get free publicity from trustable sources. 

​And there are many other content types you can use to help your business. Next week I'll share three more goals, and the types of content you can use to achieve them!

Taylor Moore is a freelance marketing writer interested mainly in small business and retail. Follow her on Twitter @taylormtweets or reach out at taylorjanemoore@gmail.com.

IMAGE CREDIT: 10CH