At Tyle, we love content marketing. And I think any digital marketer would be crazy not to take it seriously in today’s world.
Because of the growing popularity of content marketing, how to create killer content has always been a hot topic in the marketing community.
The problem though, is that most of conversations about content marketing focus only on written content. This type of content includes blog posts, press releases, emails, website copy and more.
Not all of us are great writers. And I bet not all our target audiences are interested in reading.
A good part of your target market may be more interested in visual content than textual content.
So while it’s great if you have an interest or skill in writing, there are other types of content you can create even if not.
Content marketing is about great content, not just great text content. You can still create and execute a successful content marketing strategy with other types of content.
This other type of content includes infographics, gifs, podcasts, videos, slideshares and more.
In this post, I am going to cover these other types of content in detail and also give you tips around how go about creating these pieces of content.
Podcasting (Audio Content)
A podcast is like having your own radio station, with regular episodes airing at a specific time each day or week. And after an episode has been launched, it typically stays available on your website for listening anytime and for everyone.
There are as many applications of a podcast as of a typical blog. With a podcast, you can educate, inspire or entertain your audience.
And since your audience will be able to hear your voice (including varying tones and expressions) instead of reading plain text, they’ll feel a deeper connection with you. You’re more likely to make them smile, cry of go through a number of other emotions over a podcast.
Many people love podcasts also because podcasts are time-savers. They don’t require as much attention to consume as written content.
They can to listen to podcasts while driving on their way to work, during their morning jog or gym, on a train journey or any other activity which they can pair with a good podcast. So they stay productive as well as updated on the topics they care about.
As per the latest research by Edison Research, a third of Americans 12 years or older of age and older have been through the experience of listening to a podcast. So it’s not as alien a concept as you might think.
Before you get all excited jump into more about podcast creation and distribution, it’ll help you immensely if you first take some time to listen to and learn from some popular podcasts.
The Growth Show - The Growth Show podcast is a great show for those interested in creating momentum in their business, a movement, their workforce or even an idea. This podcast is full of interesting and useful insights related to sales, marketing, management, productivity and more.
Social Media Examiner – If you’re involved with social media in any way, then the social media examiner blog is a must-read. On similar lines, SME’s podcast features exclusive social media tips and interviews from a leading social media community.
This Old PNR – No conversation about content marketing is complete without considering Joe Pulizzi and Robert Roose. The topics covered in their podcast, along with the playful banter, are the reasons you should subscribe and listen to their podcast whenever you get the time.
RainMaker.FM - RainMaker.FM is another podcast that should be a part of every digital marketer’s podcast list. The topics covered in the podcast range from content marketing, conversion, mobile and SEO to design, digital business and social media.
Content Curation
If you love researching, sorting through and organizing pieces of content in a way that tells a story or provides a complete guidance or resource, then content curation is for you.
You can arrange content like videos, articles, infographics and slideshares into particular themes. This will make it easy for your audience to understand the big picture and consume the content (which was otherwise scattered) in a more complete way.
Another benefit of curation is that you can build a community of content consumers and creators around your curation.
For instance, let’s say you are an interior designer. To become a thought leader in your community, you can start curating excellent content around themes such as home decoration ideas, beautiful color schemes etc. And you can regularly share the new content you add to your themes with your community.
For a real example depicting content curation, check out what Jared Pool does. As a part of his newsletter, he regularly shares a “UX Thought of the Day”, in which each thought includes an article he found on the web and his short remark on it.
Content curation isn’t just limited to blogs and newsletters. You can also curate content on social media by associating each theme with a hashtag. Whenever you post a tweet for instance, add a hashtag for the theme and category you have in mind.
You can also create lists of all the resources on a topic on your website like Saijo George has done by curating a full directory of various types of Website & Content Builders:
By curating all the great tool into a single page, he created a great resource that every marketer and designer would like to bookmark and refer to again and again.
As you can see, the content curation route is pretty easy for someone who likes to research and share interesting stuff, without going through the arduous journey of penning down a written piece.
Presentation/Infographic Design
Many people think of good presentations or infographics as chunks of text from one section to the next, along with some visuals on the way. But it’s actually the other way round.
You don’t need to write too much text to create a powerful infographic or presentation. Because the more attention your audience pays to your text, the less focus they’ll have on what you’re saying during the presentation or the big-picture message of the infographic.
Let’s see some more qualities of a good presentation/infographic:
It Is Visual – You saw this one coming didn’t you? It is vital that a presentation or infographic has images and other graphics that add to the narrative. Meaningful, well-chosen images will always connect better with the audience than plain text.
If your audience was interested in just text, they would have rather read a blog or a document. They chose to watch your presentation or infographic only because a it is more visual in nature.
It Is Easily Readable – Your presentation or infographic is not supposed to be all text, but it’ll still use some amount of text. Even the text will make more of an impact if it is well-adjusted visually.
Choosing ideal fonts, sizes, spacing, formatting and more will go a long way in ensuring that people are engaged.
It Has Relevant Data – The more you speak to audience’s interests and back up your claims with solid research and evidence, the better your content will be.
It Aligns With Your Brand – An obvious rule, but still ignored a lot. Along with having a logo (in a non-obstructive way), you should make sure that your content follows certain styling rules set forth in advance by your company.
If your business doesn’t have such a style guide, I’d highly recommend that you create one. Define things like what 3-4 colors you would primarily use, what fonts for headlines, bullets and text, and more.
While someone is watching your presentation or infographic, it should be obvious which brand is behind the content. Your business name, attitude, colors and fonts should work together to create and transmit a cohesive message for your brand.
A great example is the kind of infographics on QuickSprout. Look at how the branding on these infographics is instantly identifiable.
Other than that, most of the infographics that Neil Patel posts on QuickSprout stick to the same format on a broad level.
- Beginning with a hypothesis
- Presenting data which answers why the subject is important
- Tips & tricks to address the challenges faced in the topic
- Applications or examples where the tips can be applied
- A conclusion with a call to action
- Footer area with logo and citations
Your format doesn’t have to exactly the same. What’s important is that whatever the format you create and decide for your brand, stick to it for all your infographics.
It Has Breathing Space – The ugliest slides and infographics are those cluttered to too many visuals, too much text or both in a small amount of space.
Ample spacing between various elements and sections is important because it helps viewers consume and process the information easily.
Conclusion
From the list above, it’s obvious that you have a lot of options except writing when it comes to building and implementing a content marketing strategy.
And with a plethora of tools that you have available to help your create visual content, it’s pretty simple too.
But note that I said simple, not easy. Design is both an art and a science. So it’ll take a firm grasp on design principles and lot of practice to be able to create visual content that truly makes a difference.
I hope this information was useful and it’ll set you on the right path to get better results from content marketing without writing.
