The world of marketing is constantly changing, but one thing remains true: content is still the cornerstone of any marketing strategy. In a 2022 survey by HubSpot, 82% of marketers claimed to actively use content marketing, while 28% planned to increase content investment in 2022 – up 17% from 2020.
Yet with renewed investment, refreshed ideas must come, which reach out to new audiences and market sectors. No matter how niche your product or service, your audience comprises a wide range of individuals, each with their own cultural backgrounds, personality types, and buying habits.
By branching out and diversifying your content strategy, you can make your message resonate with people who would otherwise slip through the net. Consider creating content that meets different types of learners where they are: video for visual learners or podcasts for auditory learners. You can also diversify content to meet different audience needs.
Now’s the time to discuss your content strategy with your content editing and creating team. We’ve put together eight ways to diversify and enliven your content for a wider audience. All you need to do is decide which ones work for your audience!
Get long-term ROI.
We help you grow through expertise, strategy, and the best content on the web.
1. Mix up your social media
Social media has always been a significant aspect of digital content strategies. Where better to reach a targeted audience and give them a taste of the content they can enjoy on your blog or website?
However, businesses risk getting bogged down with the same social platforms, publishing safe posts that appeal to their current audience, but fail to draw in new people. Social media trends are constantly changing, and your content should be too.
Consider branching out to new platforms to gain new followers. While photo and video platforms like Instagram and TikTok may not suit all businesses, a little creativity could breathe new life into your messaging.
Move toward a social media content calendar that spins the same message in different ways for each platform. A product announcement on Instagram could take the form of a series of stunning photographs, while on LinkedIn a more traditional press release style will suffice.
Take things even further by creating your own social app, where loyal customers can receive news and form a conversation around it. Just be certain to conduct thorough web app testing to ensure an enjoyable experience for your audience.
2. Write a whitepaper
While social media only goes so far for B2B content marketing, it can be an ideal place to draw audiences toward desirable content on your website such as a whitepaper.
A whitepaper employs the reciprocity principle, giving your audience something for free and inspiring them to give you something in return. This could be their time, their custom, or a recommendation.
It will also have the benefit of boosting your reputation as an industry expert. A well-written white paper is likely to be shared between professionals, ensuring your brand reaches quality leads via word of mouth. By positioning your own product or service as a solution to the problem you explore you can guide those new leads further down the sales funnel.
Don’t forget: whitepapers make great gated content, encouraging readers to give their email addresses in return for access to expert insights. This can draw in new leads and form the basis for a concerted email marketing campaign.
3. Lead with video
Video was the number one format used in content strategies in 2021, and for good reason. We are increasingly conditioned by social media to expect information in the form of an engaging, bite-sized video.
Video has the advantage of an immediate emotional signpost that blog posts and articles can’t always achieve. Choose the right music, environment, and style of speech, and a message can become relatable in whole new ways. Just as local presence helps call centers strike an immediate chord of familiarity via phone, so can the right video content in the digital world. Additionally, incorporating a campaign calling center into your video marketing strategy can further enhance your outreach and engagement with your target audience.
Consider where in your content plan video will best serve you. If you’re looking for quick, punchy B2C messaging, look to social platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram Reels. If, on the other hand, you wish to do a deeper dive and promote your authority on a subject, consider creating a series of Youtube videos, or hosting episodes on your blog.
4. Repurpose winning content
Good evergreen content is the holy grail of content, giving you extra reach and engagement for your investment. Repurposing helps this content go the extra mile, giving it renewed relevance across different platforms.
Start by exploring your existing content, and finding out what has performed well over time. Once you’ve settled on a quality piece, consider how you can rework it into different formats. Consider the target audience for each piece, and make sure it adds value.
An excellent blog post could find new life as an infographic, a how-to video, or a Q&A post. The latter could be broken down into eye-catching text-based images on social media, print media, and customer service. You can even use a remove background API tool to create quick cutouts and add different elements to your images.
Repurposing isn’t just about breaking content down, though. You could also use your best ideas as the basis for a video series, an ebook, or even a physical book. This makes it an ideal part of a growth marketing strategy, as your content can scale with you.
5. Invite user-generated content
The true power of content resides in its ability to create conversation and community. How better to foster this engagement than with user-generated content?
UGC lets your audience do your work for you, spreading the word via reviews, social posts, guest posts, and collaborative projects. It’s a powerful and organic way to reach new customers. After all, 64% of consumers say that they’re more likely to share content about a brand if they see it liking and resharing content created by its audience. Don’t forget about content moderation to ensure that the content published on the site is not inappropriate, harassing, illegal, or harmful to others.
Consider turning quotes from positive reviews into graphics, sharing customers’ unboxing or how-to videos, or creating a contest as an incentive to share photos. Whatever you do, make sure it’s strategic and adds genuine value and relevance to other browsers’ experiences.
It also pays to take care when migrating data from your users. They’re trusting you with their personal details and images, so look for a secure solution.
6. Keep it bite-sized
Not all content needs to be epic in length. In fact, thanks to social media and mobile browsing, audiences are most comfortable with bite-sized chunks of information that can be quickly digested and shared.
Short and sweet content can come in many forms: a 30-second video with a humorous twist, an inspiring quote as an eye-catching image, or even a meme-style captioned image. If you’re keen to create an article, consider breaking it up into chunks: the tried and tested list format offers the opportunity for readers to resonate with a particular point and share it straight to their feeds.
Make sure each piece of content contains a call to action, so users can find out more about your brand or engage more deeply. A simple ‘click here’ will do, or a brief description of what more they can learn.
7. Create a podcast
Podcasts have taken the world by storm over the past few years, with 32% of Americans listening to one at least monthly. Chances are if you can think of a topic, there’s a podcast about it.
Let your audience consume information on the go, making your brand an unobtrusive part of their drive to work or their daily chores. You can even experiment with adding unique elements like text to speech narrations to create a distinctive auditory experience. Consider inviting guests who are respected in your industry to discuss topics relevant to your product or service. The information will place you as a thought leader, while the casual format will make for comfortable listening.
Podcasts are also an ideal platform for affiliate marketing, allowing you to partner up with like-minded brands to offer shout-outs and advertising slots including unique discount codes for your listeners.
8. Host a virtual event
Video content engages visual learners and podcasts chime with auditory learners. What about those who learn from experience, though? The answer is to create a virtual experience where they can join a community and experience your brand on a whole new level. All you need is a hosted phone service and a good video conferencing solution, and you can reach out to audience members across the globe.
Make sure your event is tailored to your audience, delivering real value and offering deeper insight than a video or whitepaper could. It could take the form of a seminar or panel discussion, an art exhibit, or musical performance, or even a creative way for attendees to try out your product like a cookery class or craft session.
You can even use your event as an opportunity for more content diversification: record a talk and publish it as a video, or ask an attendee to write a guest post about their experience and promote your event in various forms.
Conclusion
Don’t let your content stagnate in your blog archives. Instead, keep an eye on content trends and be ready to renew and repurpose your best ideas across a range of platforms and audience segments.
As long as you base your content strategy around a core goal and keep this at the forefront of each phase of project management, you will find yourself able to quickly create a structured and relevant library of unique multimedia content that meets your audience where it is.
