A to Z of Content Marketing

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- N is for Newsletters: Even though Facebook has risen like anything but one cannot neglect the crash of similar platforms such as AOL, Friendster and MySpace. Email however has consistently been the primary form of communication for most internet users since it all started and it’s not going anywhere any soon. Social networks are filled with distractions, while newsletters give you the chance to create a unique environment where the brand controls the conversation. Newsletters are one of the best ways for email marketing. Also the days of boring newsletters with regurgitate information are over. These days it’s all about engaging your audiences in a meaningful way beyond traditional advertising.

- O is for Online Communities: Similar to discussion boards, online communities provide a platform for everyone to share their thoughts. The only difference is that online communities are more feedback oriented and customer centric rather than being brand centric.

- P is for Presentations, Photographs and Podcasts: With the advent of the sites such as Slideshare and Prezi, people are able to share executive presentations for providing information to the young minds. Looking at the level closer at this point, many MBA students while doing any project on a particular domain of a brand first look up on Slideshare to find any relevant information. Moreover it’s another way for brands to share information about themselves to the audiences.

Photographs add the visual appeal to any website, blog, etc. Photographs can never be replaced by comics or cartoons or photoshopped images as the reality associated with photographs are unmatched and not replicable.

Podcasts: If anyone thought that content marketing is just written communication for the audiences, the philosophy shall be called very narrow because for media such as radio and youtube, video and audio content is also very relevant. Capturing the attention of the viewers and listeners has become extremely important. With the availability of too many options on radio and the 5 second space on Youtube, it is becoming extremely difficult for brands to compete for customer’s mind share.

- Q is for Q&A sites: Consumers are looking for information these days but the information must be extremely credible and reliable. Hence sites which have the most credible and precise answer will be high on SEO and shall be appearing first on the list of search results. Examples of such sites are WikiHow, Yahoo Answers, AskmeFast, etc.

- R is for Research and RSS Feed: Research is of utmost importance for any marketing activity and to arrive at a great marketing strategy. Hence gathering of consumer insights becomes the basis of relevant content.

RSS feed stands for Rich Site Summary. It’s a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it. RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy by not needing to join each site’s email newsletter. The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing rapidly and includes big names like Yahoo News.

- S is for Social Media Releases: In traditional promotions, advertisers were able to create synonymous print and TVCs for their communication because there were only few channels for advertising. But the present time calls for innovation as the audiences have different platforms to get information from and not all audiences are present on all social media platforms, hence similar content cannot be promoted on all platforms. That is why it is imperative to create different content for different platforms as per the requirement of the audience present.

- T is for Trade Press: Trade press also called Trade Magazine, trade journal, professional magazine are magazines and newspapers written and published for a target audience working in a particular trade or industry. This content is highly specific to the industry and hence any publisher needs to be very effective in the content for it.

- U is for User Manual: The first thing that comes to everyone’s mind when hearing the word user manual is “boring”. The same thing is said for any manuals, be it the standard manual for visual merchandising by brands for maintaining standardization in all their stores and outlets. Content in these manuals is highly informative, but the only thing that sets it back is its presentation. Moreover it is too verbose to make the audience engaged.

- V is for Video: As mentioned earlier, marketers do not have to deal with written content but audio and video content too. These days YouTube ads have been given a 5 second window to capture the viewers’ attention or else they will skip and get rid of the ad. It has become very important to make a mark in these 5 seconds so that people become engage to your ad and opt for your brand.

- W is for websites/webinars/white-papers: The one thing common between these three elements is that they deliver important information about your firm and is crucial because viewers look minutely at every detail mentioned.

- X is for X factor: X factor in marketing terms means the unknown elements that can through a brand’s marketing plans. This X factor can be any new competitor trying to compete on the space or a new platform altogether for marketers to create a new strategy on.

- Y is for Youtube: YouTube is the 900 pound gorilla of video sharing. From entertainment videos to tutorials to news to info guides to therapeutic suggestions, one can find anything and everything on this platform. Hence the content on this platform must be useful for users, viewers and listeners.

- Z is for Zebra: Zebra is a term used by marketing executives to describe compromised executions that incorporated a variety of view points and lost their effectiveness. Nobody wants their content to be a zebra.