Bop Design Releases Creative Content Types for Business’s Content Marketing Plans
San Diego, CA (PRWEB) March 03, 2014 -- According to a recent Forbes.com article, a clear content strategy is a key ingredient to supporting a business’s SEO efforts in today’s online marketing landscape. San Diego web design company Bop Design has released a list of creative content types for marketers who want to round out their content marketing plan. “Creating a steady stream of relevant and compelling content for your business can be challenging. Well-researched, helpful articles take time to write and edit and if you’re not working with a professional content marking company, generating such a large ongoing volume of content can be overwhelming,” explains Bop Design business principal Jeremy Durant.
Bop Design wants businesses to know that word-heavy articles are not the only type of content that is part of a successful content marketing plan, so they released ten creative types of content that are not article-based.
Q&A Videos
Marketers should interview their company’s top brass or other experts in their field to create short web videos that address questions that would interest clients. Each video should be kept under three minutes in length for brevity’s sake; longer videos should be broken up into multiple parts and posted as a series.
Infographics
“Infographics are a great way to convey information in new and interesting ways,” explains Durant. “This is your chance to get creative and stand out, especially if yours is an industry that isn’t generally perceived as particularly creative.” Marketers should pick topics and data that their customers will be interested in and get creative with their infographic titles. If they have no in-house services, businesses should work with a reputable design company to create branded Infographics that tie back to their company aesthetic.
Maps
Depending on the industry, maps (like infographics) are a fun and unique way to engage clients. For industries like travel our outdoor fitness, online branded maps of real places can help clients plan their trips or customize their workout. However, marketers in less exciting industries should consider creating a more fantastical map that can allow their company to infuse a unique spin and attitude on content, such as a “Guide Map through the US Tax Code” or “Navigating this Year’s CES Conference in Two Hours or Less.”
Slide Shows/Presentations
Marketers can adapt their most successful industry presentations for their websites. Slideshows are a fast and easy option because they do not require extensive additional work, since the content has already been written. Marketers can use a service like Slideshare to upload their complete presentation decks. “Be sure to redact any confidential or proprietary information that relates to your business or your clients,” advises Durant.
Before-and-After Photos
Before-and-after photos are unique and highly sharable content. They are also a good way to show the benefits of a change and promote the services a company offers that will enable said change for their clients. “Even if you work in an industry that isn’t known as ‘creative,’ don’t let that stop you from creating interesting Before-and-after topics,” says Durant. “In finance, that might be contrasting balance sheets. In general contracting or construction, it might be pictures of a remodeled room or backyard space.”
Podcasts
Podcasts inject a more human element into a business. They are also a good opportunity for promotion leading up to the broadcast. After the podcast’s initial air-date, businesses can store the audio file on their website and allow users to listen at their leisure.
White Papers
White papers are helpful professional tools that contain useful and informative content for clients and should be a healthy part of any business’s content marketing plan. Marketers can simply reuse articles from their blog posts to generate the content, saving time and energy. When including case studies in white papers, businesses should be sure to remove any content or references that would compromise their clients’ anonymity. “White papers can also be used as incentives to grow your mailing list,” continues Durant. “Offer a free promotional white paper in exchange for a user’s email address. It’s a fast, easy, and cost-free way to add more business contacts.”
eBooks
eBooks take the depth of content deeper than white papers. They require further development, since they’re generally longer, but they lend themselves perfectly to a company’s unique branding and design process, and are an additional piece of content businesses can offer in exchange for a user’s email address.
Live Twitter Chats
If a business has a healthy Twitter following, marketers can engage their fans in a live Twitter chat at a pre-set time. Businesses can lead up to the event with promotional Tweets and live Twitter chats are a great way to answer questions in a live, real-time (albeit a 140 character) format.
Contests, Promotions, and Giveaways
Valuable prize packs can be a great way to entice clients into spending more time online with a business. Offering a high-value prize can garner lots of interest, or even offering a gratis suite of the company’s services can incentivize clients into evangelizing for a business. Writing about the contest and profiling the winners (in writing, images or video) are creative ways to flesh out a business’s content marketing efforts.
“Your company’s content marketing plan should contain a variety of creative content types, not just basic articles,” concludes Durant. “By mixing up your content offerings, you engage your clients while having more fun yourself.”
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Bop Design is a San Diego web design and development agency with offices also in Orange County, CA and the New York metro area. Specializing in B2B marketing, Bop Design creates holistic marketing plans geared toward lead generation and business development. Bop Design offers services in branding, logo design, website design and development, responsive web design, SEO, PPC, social media, and content marketing. http://www.bopdesign.com
Jeremy Durant, Bop Design, http://www.bopdesign.com, +1 (619) 330-0730 Ext: 801, [email protected]
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