Learn about different ways to monetize your content.
Content Monetization
Content monetization and content management are intricately connected in our digital ecosystem.
Mastering the art of content management sets the stage for successful content monetization, unlocking new and exciting opportunities for revenue generation in the competitive digital landscape.
In this series of lessons, we look at different methods you can implement to monetize your digital content.
Understanding Content Monetization
Content monetization is not only a strategic avenue for businesses to disseminate valuable content but also to generate revenue.
Content monetization refers to the process of leveraging content assets to earn money, transforming the creation and distribution of content into a profitable venture.
This means strategically capitalizing on the content you produce, whether it be articles, videos, or other forms of media, to cultivate new revenue streams.
The symbiotic relationship between content monetization and content management is crucial for success in the digital realm.
Effective content management lays the foundation for organizing, optimizing, and distributing content seamlessly. This, in turn, streamlines the content monetization process by ensuring that valuable assets are easily accessible and can be strategically leveraged for financial gain.
By recognizing that the efficiency of content management directly impacts the effectiveness of content monetization strategies and adopting robust content management systems and practices, your organization can not only enhance its content creation and distribution processes but also maximize the revenue potential of its valuable digital assets.
The Basics of Content Monetization
Whether you create video content, blog posts, podcasts, social media posts, e-books, online courses, email newsletters, webinars, or subscription-based content, there are various strategies you can utilize to generate revenue from your content.
One of the most common ways to monetize your content is through advertising. This can include placing ads on your website, YouTube videos, podcasts, or social media posts. You can also partner with brands for sponsored content, where you promote their products or services in exchange for payment.
Another popular monetization strategy is affiliate marketing, where you earn a commission for promoting products or services on your platform. This can be done through affiliate links in your blog posts, social media posts, or email newsletters.
Creating premium content is another effective way to monetize your website. This can include offering online courses, e-books, webinars, or subscription-based content that users can access for a fee.
By providing valuable and exclusive content, you can attract a loyal audience willing to pay for your expertise.
It’s important to diversify your monetization strategies to maximize your revenue potential. Experiment with different tactics to see what works best for your audience and niche.
Remember, building a profitable website takes time and effort, but with the right strategies in place, you can turn your passion into a successful online business or boost your existing website’s revenue.
Why Monetize Content?
Your business may have invested a lot of time and effort into creating valuable content for its audience. It’s very important, therefore, to realize the importance of monetizing this content effectively and getting the most return on investment.
Content monetization is essential for businesses across all niches and offers a myriad of benefits for businesses, bloggers, digital marketers, and individuals with an online presence.
Here are just of the benefits and reasons to consider monetizing your content:
1. Diversify Income Sources: Monetizing content provides an additional revenue stream, reducing dependency on a single income source and offering financial stability and protection against fluctuations in the market and changes in consumer behavior.
By implementing one or multiple content monetization strategies, you can also turn your passion or website into a profitable and sustainable business.
2. Increase Reader Loyalty: By introducing subscriptions or micropayments, content creators can establish themselves as an authority in their niche and enhance reader loyalty, fostering a dedicated audience base. This can lead to increased traffic, engagement, and ultimately, more opportunities for monetization.
3. Tap into Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing through content monetization allows businesses and bloggers to earn commissions by promoting products or services on their platforms.
4. Optimize Digital Marketing Efforts: Monetizing content aligns with digital marketing strategies, helping businesses optimize their efforts and generate returns on their marketing investments.
5. Enhance Brand Collaboration Opportunities: Monetized platforms attract brands seeking partnerships, leading to collaborative opportunities and sponsorships for content creators.
6. Maximize Social Media Presence: Content monetization on social media platforms enables individuals and businesses to leverage their audience and transform their online presence into a lucrative venture.
7. Drive Website Traffic and Engagement: Monetized content often attracts more traffic, increasing engagement and interaction with the audience, which is beneficial for SEO and overall online visibility.
8. Establish Thought Leadership: Monetizing content positions businesses and individuals as thought leaders in their respective fields, enhancing credibility and trust among their audience.
9. Adapt to Changing Business Models: In the ever-evolving digital landscape, monetizing content allows businesses to adapt to new business models and stay competitive.
10. Unlock Creative Opportunities: Monetization can provide the financial support needed for content creators to explore innovative and creative projects, pushing the boundaries of their content offerings.
Always prioritize the needs and interests of your target audience. This will ensure long-term success in your content monetization strategies.
Content Monetization Methods
Whether you choose to monetize through ads, affiliate marketing, sponsored content, or other strategies, there are numerous ways to earn money from your valuable content.
Let’s now go through some of these methods…
This is the end of part 1. To continue reading this article series, click on the pagination section below.
Learn how to maximize your content production efforts and resources with content repurposing strategies.
Content Repurposing
Learn how to maximize your content production efforts and resources with content repurposing strategies.
Creating high-quality content on a regular basis involves a significant investment of time and resources.
With a little planning, you can get more value from the time and effort you have invested and recycle and breathe new life into your existing content by repurposing it into other content types.
In this lesson, we’ll look at the benefits of repurposing content and provide different examples of content repurposing.
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What Is Content Repurposing?
Content repurposing is re-using your existing content and presenting it in a new or different format to expand its reach and maximize its lifespan.
Essentially, content repurposing is the process of taking existing content and adapting it for use on different platforms or in different formats.
This can include things like turning a blog post into a video, republishing an article on a different website, or creating an infographic from a research report.
The goal of repurposing content is to get the most out of the content you have already created and to reach new audiences.
Benefits Of Repurposing Content
Repurposing content has several benefits, including:
Increased reach: By republishing content on different platforms, you can reach new audiences and expand your reach. For example, republishing a blog post on LinkedIn can help you reach a professional audience.
Cost-effective: Repurposing content allows you to get the most out of the content you have already created, which can save you time and resources.
Reinforcing brand awareness: By republishing content on different platforms, you can reinforce your brand and make it more familiar to your target audience.
Increased engagement: Repurposing content in different formats can lead to increased engagement. For example, a video version of a blog post can increase audience engagement.
SEO improvement: By republishing content on different platforms and linking them to your website can help to improve your website’s SEO.
Audience targeting: Repurposing content in different format and platforms allows you to target specific audience. For example, republishing a podcast episode on YouTube can help reach a younger audience who may not listen to podcasts.
Long-term value: Repurposing content can provide long-term value, as the content can continue to be useful and relevant to your audience even after it’s first published.
Content Repurposing Examples
Once you have created a great piece of content, all the hard work involved in researching, planning, and creating it is already done. You have an asset you can use to help promote and grow your business.
Sometimes, content created for a very specific purpose can have a limited lifespan. For example, let’s say you put a great deal of effort into researching and writing a great blog article, which then gets promoted to your newsletter subscribers and posted on your social media channels.
For a week or two, your blog article gets a lot of attention and attracts a good number of visitors, thanks to your team’s promotional efforts.
Then, new content gets published on your blog, pushing the article down the list, and traffic to your post drops. If that post isn’t ranking high on the search engines, traffic can dwindle significantly.
Now, you have a great piece of content with lots of useful information sitting on your site doing very little for your business.
What if you took that great content and reused it in different formats?
For example, let’s say you create a really great series of blog articles with well-researched statistical data, detailed screenshots, memorable quotes, etc.
With a little planning, you could easily repurpose these blog articles into new content types, such as:
Long-Form Content: Compile your blog posts into a guide, eBook, online course, or report.
Emails: Turn your blog content into full email newsletter articles or email snippets pointing to your articles, or compile these into an email course (e.g. a “7-day course”)
Videos: Turn your information into sales videos or video tutorials (tip: turn your blog posts into a slide presentation and use screen capture software to turn your slide presentation into narrated videos).
Audios: Use Text-To-Speech software to create audio narrations for accessibility purposes, turn your articles into podcasts, etc.
Content repurposing lets you turn your existing content into different content types.
You can do the same thing if you create a more comprehensive piece of content like a guide or eBook (i.e. turn the content into a series of blog articles and all of the above content types).
More Content Repurposing Examples
Repurposing a blog post into a video for social media.
Repurposing a webinar into a podcast episode.
Repurposing a whitepaper into an infographic.
Repurposing a podcast episode into a written article for a blog.
Repurposing a research paper into a slide deck for a presentation.
Repurposing a video tutorial into a written guide.
Repurposing a live event into a recorded video.
Repurposing a social media post into a graphic for a website.
Repurposing a keynote presentation into an ebook.
Repurposing a product demo video into a gif for social media.
Republishing a blog post as a LinkedIn article.
Creating a YouTube video from a podcast episode.
Turning a webinar into a white paper or ebook.
Repackaging a series of tweets into an Instagram post.
Transcribing a video into a blog post.
Creating an infographic from a research report.
Using quotes from a podcast episode in a social media campaign.
Repurposing a presentation into a series of slides on SlideShare.
Turning a case study into a testimonial video.
Creating a podcast episode from a Facebook Live Q&A session.
As you can see, you can get a lot of mileage from content repurposing.
In fact, the more time and effort you invest into researching and creating high-quality content with useful in-depth information, the more valuable content repurposing becomes as a content marketing strategy.
Here are frequently asked questions about content repurposing:
What is content repurposing?
Content repurposing involves adapting your existing content into different formats or for different platforms to expand its reach and lifespan.
How does content repurposing differ from cross-posting or reposting?
Content repurposing is about transforming content to suit different formats or contexts, while cross-posting involves sharing the same content across various platforms without modification. Reposting generally means re-sharing the exact same content on the same platform.
What are the benefits of content repurposing?
It can extend the life of the original content, reach a broader audience, enhance SEO, save resources, and provide more value from the content already created.
Which types of content are best suited for repurposing?
High-performing content such as popular blog posts, videos with high engagement, and content with timeless relevance are ideal candidates for repurposing.
What are some effective strategies for content repurposing?
You can turn blog posts into podcasts or videos, create infographics from data-rich content, use webinar content to produce guides or e-books, or convert a series of related posts into an email course.
How does repurposing content impact SEO?
Repurposing helps target various keywords, increases content visibility across platforms, and can generate more backlinks to your original content.
What challenges might I face while repurposing content?
Finding the right balance between reuse and freshness, maintaining the quality and relevance of the content, and ensuring it fits the new format or platform can be challenging.
How can I measure the success of repurposed content?
Track metrics such as engagement rates, traffic sources, conversion rates, and overall reach compared to the original piece of content.
Summary
Content repurposing is a great way to maximize the value of your content and your organization’s resources and reach new audiences.
Content repurposing can also be used to increase your reach and visibility online using different content channels, help improve your SEO, nurture lead generation streams, improve engagement and retention, and garner new insights to help you continually refine and improve your content strategy.
With the right strategy and approach, repurposing content can be a powerful tool for growing your online presence and driving results.
Action Steps
Take a great piece of content that your team has invested time and effort into creating, list all the ways you can repurpose it, and turn it into new content types.
Rinse and repeat this process with other additional existing content, and begin to incorporate content repurposing into your content planning.
Resources
Free Content Ideas Course– Learn how to never run out of great content ideas for your blog, website, or email newsletters.
Video Courses – Links to video courses on content creation for different content types (e.g. blogging, videos, emails, podcasting, etc.)
Tools & Resources – Useful tools and resources for planning, producing, and promoting different content types.
Learn about the different types of content you can create to help meet your organization’s strategic goals.
Content Types
Learn about the different types of content you can create to help meet your organization’s strategic goals.
The type of content your business or organization decides to create will depend on its content strategy and its audience’s content preferences.
In this lesson, we cover the following:
Why Create Different Types Of Content
Content Types vs Content Deliverables
Overview Of Content Types (with a summary of best practices and challenges of creating this content)
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Why Create Different Types Of Content
Different users learn and consume content differently. While some users may prefer reading text on a screen, others may want something more visual like videos or infographics. Another group of users may find that they engage better with information via audio content formats, such as podcasts and narrated articles.
Content preferences also vary depending on the type of business you are and the audience you are targeting (e.g. B2B, B2C, etc.), the phase of the customer or buyer journey they are at, their search intent, and trends over time.
For example, according to a B2B content survey carried out by sales and marketing research company Demand Gen Report, B2B customers report relying increasingly more on well-researched content backed by data filled with insights to research and make their purchasing decisions, such as webinars and research-based content (e.g. survey and third-party analyst reports), ebooks, blogs, white papers, case studies, and community-based sources, such as industry newsletters.
The main forms of content B2B companies are consuming. Source: Demand Gen Report
Additionally, the research showed that users preferred different content at different stages of their buying journey.
For example, the most popular content formats for early-stage research were informational content like infographics, blogs, and podcasts, while assessments, webinars, and case studies were the preferred content types they researched during the mid-stage. For late-stage research, buyers cited the most useful content types being those that present concrete evidence such as user reviews, third-party analyst reports, and ROI calculators.
Types of content that B2B companies consume at different stages of their buying journey. Source: Demand Gen Report
While B2B companies seem to choose content types backed by data and research, B2C companies make different choices.
For example, research from the Content Marketing Institute shows that B2C companies focused on creating content like short articles, videos, and infographics to reach their audiences.
As mentioned earlier, it’s also important to be aware of changes in content preferences over time.
For example, if you look at content marketing trends before and after the global pandemic, you can see that there’s been a change in the content types favored by B2C companies, especially in areas like social media content and in-person events.
Which phase of the buyer journey are you addressing?
What type(s) of content are companies similar to yours currently creating to reach your target audience?
Content Types vs Content Deliverables
According to Draft.dev, content types set the overall tone of an article, help the writer understand what perspective they should write from, and sets client expectations, while content deliverables define the actual contents of the article.
So while a content type helps to define the difference between creating an article as a “tutorial” or as a “guide,” the elements that will be included in the article, like screenshots, stock images, diagrams, code samples, etc. are the content deliverables.
Understanding this difference is important, because…
“Defining content types and deliverables helps to assign articles to the writers best suited for them, resulting in great content.”
For resources on sourcing content deliverables like stock images and screenshot/image editing software, see our Tools & Resources section.
Now that we have looked at why businesses may need to consider creating different types of content and the difference between content types and content deliverables, let’s look at different content formats and different content types.
Content Formats
There are many different types of content formats, including:
Text: This is the most basic and common type of content and includes anything from articles and blog posts to emails and social media updates.
Images: This type of content includes photographs, illustrations, and infographics. They can be used to supplement text or to convey information on their own.
Video: This type of content includes anything from short clips and animations to full-length films and documentaries. Video can be used to tell stories, provide instructions, or demonstrate products.
Audio: This type of content includes podcasts, music, and sound recordings. Audio can be used to tell stories, provide information, or entertain.
Interactive: This type of content includes quizzes, polls, and interactive infographics. It allows the audience to engage with the content and can be used to gather information from the audience.
Virtual reality (VR) and Augmented reality (AR): This type of content provides immersive experiences, allowing the user to explore and interact with a digital environment. It can be used in gaming, education, and other industries.
Live streaming: This type of content is a real-time broadcast of an event or activity. It can be used for events, news, and entertainment.
Content Types
Content can be delivered in digital or printed (i.e. physical) formats. The type of content and format your organization chooses to create will determine the content production process and content workflow to follow.
Articles are a form of content suitable for publishing on the blog section of a website or as a page of the website itself (e.g. a landing page, company page, or product/services page).
Different types of articles can be written to suit different purposes. For example:
Tutorials
Tutorials are “how-to” articles that provide information showing readers how to complete certain tasks and how to achieve specific results. Tutorials can include detailed (or bullet point) step-by-step instructions videos, screenshots, examples (e.g. before and after images), etc.
You can write “how-to” tutorials on just about anything and everything. Simply open your web browser and type in “how to” into Google and you will see all kinds of suggestions popping up for “how to” searches that users are looking for.
A listicle, or “list post,” is an article written in list format. Listicles (also sometimes referred to as “Roundups”) provide a list of comparable products, tools, or items where each item is typically only a few sentences or paragraphs long and aimed at educating or entertaining readers.
Listicles can be fun or informational and typically have titles like “The 100 Best Rock Album Covers Of All Time” (fun), or “9 Essential Ingredients Every Cook’s Kitchen Should Have” (informational). Great listicles often get shared widely online.
Comparison articles are educational pieces that compare different products and services to help potential buyers assess their options and make a decision.
Comparison articles are similar to listicles but are much more in-depth, typically focusing on comparing two or three options only across different categories or competing brands, and presenting the “pros and cons” of using the products or services.
These articles typically focus on reviewing products, services, events, etc.
Writing product review articles (or creating product review videos) is a strategy that is often used in affiliate marketing.
Ideally, the review writer will have used the product, experienced the service, or attended the event they are reviewing. Review articles typically define their target audience (e.g. people interested in home cooking, moviegoers, etc.), list the upsides and downsides or good and bad aspects of the product, provide visual proof (e.g. photos, videos, etc.), try to take a balanced and honest approach, and offer some form of helpful conclusion.
Persuasive Writing
According to Grammarly, persuasive writing “is any written work that tries to convince the reader of the writer’s opinion and point of view. Persuasive writing tries to appeal to emotion alongside factual evidence and data to support its claims.”
Business-related content like sales copywriting uses persuasive writing to influence readers to choose the company’s products or services over their competitors.
Other types of articles you can create include press/news releases, essays, opinion pieces (op-eds), question and answer articles (e.g. interviews), skyscraper articles, personality profiles, and short posts (e.g. news, company announcements, tips, etc.).
Best Practices For Creating Blog Posts And Other Types Of Articles
Use a clear and attention-grabbing headline: The headline is the first thing that readers will see, so it’s important to make sure that it is engaging and makes them want to read more.
Organize content into short paragraphs and use subheadings: Breaking up the text into smaller chunks and using subheadings makes it easier for readers to scan and understand the content.
Use images, videos, and infographics to break up text and make the post more visually appealing: Adding multimedia elements can help to make the post more engaging and make it easier for readers to understand the content.
Optimize for SEO by including keywords in the post and meta description: This will help search engines understand the content of the post and make it easier for people to find it.
End the post with a call-to-action, such as asking readers to leave a comment or share the post on social media: This will encourage engagement and make it more likely that the post will be shared.
Challenges Of Creating Blog Posts And Other Types Of Articles
Coming up with new and interesting topics to write about: Finding new and engaging topics to write about can be challenging, particularly if you are writing on the same subject over a long period of time.
Creating engaging and well-written content: Writing content that is interesting, engaging, and well-written can be challenging, particularly if you are not a natural writer.
Optimizing for SEO: Incorporating keywords and optimizing for search engines can be a time-consuming and complex process.
Staying consistent: Creating regular blog posts can be challenging, particularly if you are busy or have a limited budget.
Keeping up with industry trends: Staying up-to-date with the latest industry trends and changes in search algorithms can be difficult and time-consuming.
eBooks And Guides
eBooks and Guides provide readers with a more comprehensive understanding of a specific topic or a particular area of interest and can be used as a high-value asset in lead generation (e.g. offer the eBook or guide to potential clients in exchange for giving you their email address and subscribing to your newsletter).
In terms of content planning, an effective way to write an eBook/guide is to start by creating an outline of all the chapters you plan to include arranged in a logical sequence and then write each chapter as an in-depth and self-contained article.
This approach lets you repurpose the chapters of your guide later on as separate articles or as an article series on your blog or website, or even expand the content into an eBook.
Alternatively, you can start by creating an in-depth article series with some foreplanning, and then publish these collectively later as a downloadable guide or eBook.
Use a clear and attention-grabbing title and description: The title and description should be engaging and make people want to read more.
Use a consistent format and design throughout the eBook: A consistent format and design will make the e-book easier to understand and more visually appealing.
Use well-researched and engaging content: Make sure that the content is well-researched, accurate, and engaging, to keep readers interested.
Use images, videos, and infographics to break up text and make the eBook more visually appealing: Adding multimedia elements can help to make the e-book more engaging and make it easier for readers to understand the content.
Include a call-to-action at the end of the eBook, such as directing readers to a landing page or asking them to subscribe to a newsletter: This will encourage engagement and make it more likely that the eBook will be shared.
Challenges of Creating eBooks
Creating a clear and attention-grabbing title and description: Creating a title and description that is engaging and makes people want to read more can be challenging.
Writing well-researched and engaging content: Writing content that is interesting, engaging, and well-researched can be challenging, particularly if you are not a natural writer.
Finding the right images and graphics: Finding the right images and graphics to supplement the text can be time-consuming.
Staying consistent: Creating regular eBooks can be challenging, particularly if you are busy or have a limited budget.
Keeping up with industry trends: Staying up-to-date with the latest industry trends and changes in technology can be difficult and time-consuming.
Online Courses
Online courses are a type of digital learning experience that can be delivered over the internet.
Online courses can also be used to generate leads, and also to nurture leads through the funnel, by providing more in-depth and comprehensive information.
Online courses can include a wide range of content such as videos, audio, text, images, and interactive elements such as quizzes, assessments, and forums. They can be self-paced or instructor-led and can range from a few minutes to several hours in length.
Examples of using online courses as part of content marketing include:
Product or service training: Create online courses that provide training on how to use your products or services. For example, a software company could create a course that teaches customers how to use their software effectively and how to optimize their performance. Or, a company in the finance industry could create an online course that provides training on financial planning, investment strategies, and other related topics.
Industry-specific education: Create online courses that provide education on a specific industry or topic. For example, a marketing agency could create a course that teaches the principles of digital marketing.
Self-Improvement And Personal development: Create online courses that provide information and guidance on personal development topics such as leadership, time management, and stress management. For example, a company in the health and wellness industry could create an online course that provides information and guidance on topics like nutrition, exercise, and stress management.
Thought leadership: Create online courses that provide insights and advice on industry-specific topics, which will position your company as a thought leader in the industry and increase your visibility and credibility. For example, a company could create an online course that provides insights and advice on industry-specific topics, which will position the company as a thought leader in the industry and increase its visibility and credibility.
Certification: Create online courses that provide training and certifications on a specific skill or technology. For example, a company in the technology industry could create an online course that provides training and certifications on a specific technology or programming language.
Best Practices For Creating Online Courses
Define your target audience: Understand your target audience and their needs, interests, and pain points. This will help you create content that is relevant and valuable to them.
Create a clear learning outcome: Define a clear learning outcome for the course, and make sure that all the content and activities support that outcome.
Keep it interactive and engaging: Use interactive elements such as quizzes, polls, and discussion boards to keep the course engaging and interactive.
Use multimedia: Use a variety of multimedia elements such as videos, images, and audio to make the course more engaging and to appeal to different learning styles.
Use storytelling: Use storytelling to make the course more engaging and to help learners relate to the content.
Provide assessments and quizzes: Provide assessments and quizzes to help learners check their understanding and to provide feedback on their progress.
Use feedback and testing: Use feedback and testing to assess learners’ understanding and to identify areas for improvement.
Provide support and assistance: Provide support and assistance to learners, such as answering questions, providing feedback on assignments and offering additional resources.
Be mobile-friendly: Ensure that the course is mobile-friendly and accessible on different devices and platforms.
Monitor and analyze: Monitor and analyze the course engagement and completion rates to understand the effectiveness of the course and to identify areas for improvement.
Keep it updated: Keep the course updated to ensure that the content is accurate and relevant.
Challenges Of Creating Online Courses
Creating online courses can be a powerful way to provide valuable information and education to customers, but it can also present some challenges.
Here are a few examples of the challenges of creating online courses:
Developing high-quality content: Creating engaging and informative content that is relevant to the audience can be time-consuming and challenging. It requires a good understanding of the topic, the target audience, and the format of the course.
Maintaining consistency and quality: Online courses often include multiple modules or lessons, and it can be challenging to maintain consistency and quality throughout the course.
Designing and developing interactive elements: Online courses should be interactive and engaging, which requires the development of interactive elements such as quizzes, polls, and interactive videos.
Marketing and promoting the course: Once the course is created, it needs to be promoted and marketed effectively to reach the target audience.
Tracking and measuring success: Measuring the success of the course can be challenging, as it requires tracking engagement, completion rates, and other metrics.
Keeping up with technology: Online courses should be designed to be mobile-friendly and accessible across different devices and platforms, this also requires keeping up with the latest technology trends.
Providing support and assistance: Online courses often require support and assistance, such as answering questions and providing feedback on assignments.
Staying current and up-to-date: The topic of the course may change rapidly, and it’s important to keep the course updated to ensure that it stays relevant and valuable to the audience.
Creating online courses can be a significant investment of time and resources, but it can also be a powerful and effective way to educate and engage customers and position your company as a thought leader and authority in your industry.
Internet marketers often state that “the money is in the list.”
Emails are a great way to keep readers informed and updated about new products and services, useful tips, training, and more.
Running a regular email newsletter and email campaigns is one of the most effective ways to build a subscriber list and nurture leads. Email marketingconsistently delivers great ROI and is a proven method used by B2B and B2C organizations to generate sales and grow their business cost-effectively.
Writing a series of short, concise emails with compelling headlines and calls to action with links to more detailed website pages (e.g. landing pages, sales pages, e-commerce or product information pages, tutorials, etc.) can be very effective when used as lead nurturing follow-ups or short email-based subscriber/customer training courses (e.g. a 7-day course on using your products).
Emails can also be triggered by user behavior and used to rescue sales and reduce eCommerce shopping cart abandonment.
Most reputable email service companies provide email personalization, campaign segmentation features, and statistical data reporting tools that allow you to analyze the results of your email campaigns and improve the content of your emails and your sales process.
Best Practices For Creating Emails
Segmenting your email list: Segmenting your email list allows you to send targeted, personalized messages to specific groups of people. This can increase the relevance and effectiveness of your emails.
Keeping the subject line short and clear: The subject line is the first thing that people see when they receive an email, so it’s important to make sure it’s clear and to the point.
Creating a clear and compelling call to action: Make sure your emails have a clear and compelling call to action, such as a link to a landing page or a button to make a purchase.
Optimizing for mobile devices: More and more people are checking their email on mobile devices, so it’s important to make sure your emails are optimized for mobile devices.
Testing and analyzing: Test your emails and analyze the results to see what works and what doesn’t. This will help you improve your emails over time.
Challenges Of Creating Emails
Standing out in a crowded inbox: With so many emails being sent every day, it can be difficult to make your emails stand out.
Avoiding spam filters: Spam filters are designed to block unwanted emails, so it’s important to make sure your emails are not flagged as spam.
Maintaining high open and click-through rates: High open and click-through rates are key indicators of email success, but they can be difficult to achieve.
Creating content that resonates with the audience: Creating content that resonates with your audience can be challenging, as you need to understand their needs, interests, and pain points.
Keeping up with regulations: There are a number of laws and regulations that govern email marketing, such as the CAN-SPAM Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), so it’s important to make sure you are compliant with these regulations.
Videos
Video is everywhere and video marketing is one of the most effective forms of content marketing available. Millions of online consumers worldwide are reached using videos and the demand for video content is increasing each year (see the “Infographics” section below).
There are many forms of video content you can create, including:
Explainer videos (short videos explaining products or services)
Simple Sales Videos (e.g. video narrations of PowerPoint slides)
Vlogs (video blogs)
Video interviews
Video presentations and recorded webinars
Video tutorials
Product reviews
Product demos and walkthroughs
Live stream recordings
Video testimonials
Video ads
As the chart below shows, video content serves a wide range of purposes.
Video production for your products and services doesn’t have to be expensive. Businesses can produce videos cost-effectively in-house (i.e. shot on smartphones or recorded and edited using screen capture software), and even outsourced inexpensively on freelancer sites (e.g. explainer videos).
For tools and resources to help you create or source video content, see Media Creation Tools.
For the latest video marketing statistics, see these articles:
Keep the video short and to the point, ideally less than 2-3 minutes: The attention span of viewers is limited, so it’s important to make sure that the video is concise and gets to the point quickly.
Use a strong and clear script: A script will help to keep the video on-topic and make it easier for viewers to understand the message.
Use high-quality visuals and audio: Good lighting, sound, and editing are essential for creating a high-quality video that is visually appealing and easy to understand.
Optimize for search by including a title, description, and keywords: This will help search engines understand the content of the video and make it easier for people to find it.
Include a call-to-action at the end of the video, such as directing viewers to a landing page or asking them to subscribe to a channel: This will encourage engagement and make it more likely that the video will be shared.
Challenges Of Creating Videos
Ensuring that the final product is high-quality and visually appealing: Creating high-quality videos can be time-consuming and require specialized equipment and skills.
Script-writing and storyboarding: Writing an engaging and compelling script and storyboard for the video can be challenging for non-creative people.
Producing videos can be time-consuming and expensive: The process of creating a video, from pre-production, filming, post-production, and editing, can be time-consuming and costly.
Staying on top of industry trends: Keeping up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in video production can be difficult and time-consuming.
Measuring the performance of videos: Measuring the performance of videos can be difficult, as it’s hard to track how many people have watched the video, how long they watched it for, and how engaged they were with it.
Webinars
Webinars gained a significant increase in popularity as a preferred content type for many audiences after the global pandemic.
As the charts at the top of this lesson show, 67% of B2B and 48% of B2C consumers prefer watching webinars. The research also shows that while most buyers typically spend between five to 30 minutes reviewing nearly all
content formats, many are willing to invest 30 to 60+ minutes watching
a webinar.
Here are some additional stats you may want to know about using webinars as content…
Lead Generation: Webinar participants typically register with their contact information before attending. You can capture their information, then follow up with content on topics that you know they’re already interested in (e.g. using a sequence of pre-written, personalized emails).
Community Building: Webinars can be very engaging and a great way to build relationships with customers. They allow you to position your brand while users interact with experts and thought leaders in your organization. Most webinar tools allow participants to chat and ask questions, providing instant engagement and a way to address concerns and objections directly in real-time.
Cost-effective Marketing: Webinars may not be as powerful or effective as live events, but when you consider that webinars require far less time, money, and resources to coordinate and put together than a live event, even if you get a smaller return on investment, running a successful webinar should more than offset and justify the risks vs trying to run a live event. Additionally, consider the downsides. There is less risk of experiencing a significant financial loss if you cancel a webinar due to low registrations than canceling a live event. Also, should you decide to run a webinar with fewer attendees than expected, this will give you more time to answer their questions and address their concerns, resulting in better engagement and interactivity with your target audience than live events.
Repurposing Content: You can repurpose webinar content for use in other distribution channels. For example, you can turn webinar topics into a series of blog articles, a video course, or sharable tweets (using memorable quotes or stats), and turn questions from attendees into new content like FAQs, tutorials, etc. Additionally, you can turn your webinars into slides for sharing on sites like SlideShare.
Evergreen Content: Record your webinars and add them to a “Resources” or client training page, or use them as high-value content for your lead generation campaigns. Webinars can continue delivering results long after making an initial investment of effort to create them.
Use a clear and attention-grabbing title and description: The title and description should be engaging and make people want to attend the webinar.
Use a consistent format and design throughout the webinar: A consistent format and design will make the webinar easier to understand and more visually appealing.
Use a clear and engaging presentation: Make sure that the presentation is clear, engaging, and easy to understand for the audience.
Use images, videos, and infographics to break up text and make the webinar more visually appealing: Adding multimedia elements can help to make the webinar more engaging and make it easier for attendees to understand the content.
Include a call-to-action at the end of the webinar, such as directing attendees to a landing page or asking them to subscribe to a newsletter: This will encourage engagement and make it more likely that the webinar will be shared.
Challenges Of Creating Webinars
Creating a clear and attention-grabbing title and description: Creating a title and description that is engaging and makes people want to attend the webinar can be challenging.
Preparing a clear and engaging presentation: Preparing a clear and engaging presentation can be challenging, particularly if you are not a natural speaker or presenter.
Finding the right images and graphics: Finding the right images and graphics to supplement the text can be time-consuming.
Staying consistent: Creating regular webinars can be challenging, particularly if you are busy or have a limited budget.
Keeping up with industry trends: Staying up-to-date with the latest industry trends and changes in technology can be difficult and time-consuming.
Audios
Audio-based web content creates new opportunities for content creators and content publishers to expand their range of products and services.
Audio content can help government, corporate, and business websites by:
Increasing online user engagement
Strengthening social responsibility
Expanding content reach and consumption by making information available in different formats for different types of users, and
Helping to create a more inclusive internet for everyone.
Podcasts
Podcasts are a highly engaging form of content and podcasting is becoming increasingly popular as a source of entertainment, education, and news.
Currently, there are over 2 million podcasts available and hundreds of millions of podcast listeners worldwide.
As the chart below shows, listeners prefer some podcast genres over others, so depending on the industry and niche of your business, creating and distributing podcasts could be an effective way to reach new audiences.
Most popular podcasting genres. Source: BuzzSprout
An effective way to market your business with podcasts is to interview experts or leaders in your field to get advice and helpful information, discuss hot industry trends, provide useful tips and ‘how-tos’, etc. This lets you build your reputation as a reliable source of information your audience can trust.
New AI developments in voice technology allow text-to-speech to convert your text files and documents into lifelike audio narrations, deliver realistic-sounding voice narrations to your web content, and provide audio content to help make the web more inclusive by giving users with special learning needs, visual impairments or disabilities access to information in a format that they can more easily consume and digest.
The latest AI text-to-speech voice technology also allows you to translate your text files and documents into dozens of languages and turn these into high-quality voice narrations using hundreds of different male and female AI voices.
You can use text-to-speech voice recordings to create audio-based content like:
Educational videos, sales videos, training videos, explainer videos, product review videos, webinars, etc.
Narrated audio presentations and documentation.
e-Learning courses
Audiobooks and audio-based digital products.
Podcasts.
Spoken web pages.
Online/video/social media/radio advertising.
Translating your training or HR documentation into different languages
Creating audio content for visually-impaired users
Recording document drafts that can be listened to and reviewed on the way to and from work
Recorded greetings and announcements.
Other content and media formats
In summary, some of the benefits of using text-to-speech for content creation include:
Save time and money creating and publishing content. Getting text-to-speech voice narrators to enunciate your courses or narrate your podcasts or audiobooks is an economical and time-saving solution compared to hiring voice talent.
Create e-courses and audio products faster with less time and less cost.
If you plan to use human voice talent for your finished product, text-to-speech allows you to create drafts and audio scripts for professional narrators.
Create better content. If you plan to create an audiobook, podcast, e-learning product, or training course, listening to an audio draft helps to improve content structure and layout, fix spelling or grammatical errors, and generate new ideas.
Write more effective content. Hearing your sales pitch or content read aloud helps you to focus on your message, improve your copywriting and writing skills, and write more effective sales or training video scripts and presentations, web content, radio ads, and many other forms of content.
Create and deliver content to a global audience by making it easier to create multilingual audio content and audio products from language translations.
If you need help creating audio-based content using text-to-speech, see this excellent Text-to-Speech Course (narrated entirely using AI voices) or see the Content Production Tools section for text-to-speech software.
Best Practices For Creating Podcasts
Use a clear and attention-grabbing title and description: The title and description should be engaging and make people want to listen to the podcast.
Use a consistent format and theme throughout the podcast: A consistent format and theme will make the podcast easier to understand and more engaging for listeners.
Use high-quality audio equipment: Good sound quality is essential for creating a professional-sounding podcast that is easy to listen to.
Use engaging and well-researched content: Make sure that the content is engaging, well-researched, and relevant to the audience.
Include a call-to-action at the end of the podcast, such as directing listeners to a landing page or asking them to subscribe to the podcast: This will encourage engagement and make it more likely that the podcast will be shared.
Challenges Of Creating Podcasts
Creating a clear and attention-grabbing title and description: Creating a title and description that is engaging and makes people want to listen to the podcast can be challenging.
Preparing engaging and well-researched content: Preparing engaging and well-researched content can be challenging, particularly if you are not a natural writer or researcher.
Finding the right equipment: Finding the right equipment to produce a high-quality podcast can be expensive and time-consuming.
Staying consistent: Creating regular podcasts can be challenging, particularly if you are busy or have a limited budget.
Keeping up with industry trends: Staying up-to-date with the latest industry trends and changes in technology can be difficult and time-consuming.
Promoting products and services using specially crafted content for social media platforms can be a powerful way to increase brand awareness, build a community, create engagement with your target audience, and drive traffic to your business.
Additionally, some of the most popular social media platforms in the world are not primarily targeting English speakers, so creating content for users on these platforms may require an entirely different approach altogether.
Not all of the most popular social media platforms target English speakers. Source: Shopify.
Use a clear and attention-grabbing headline: The headline is the first thing that readers will see, so it’s important to make sure that it is engaging and makes them want to read more.
Use a consistent brand voice and tone: Use the same brand voice and tone throughout the post to ensure that it aligns with the overall brand image.
Use images, videos, and infographics to break up text and make the post more visually appealing: Adding multimedia elements can help to make the post more engaging and make it easier for readers to understand the content.
Use relevant hashtags and keywords: Use relevant hashtags and keywords to increase the visibility of the post and make it more discoverable.
Engage with your followers by responding to comments and messages: Engaging with your followers will help to build a sense of community and encourage engagement.
Challenges Of Creating Social Media Posts
Staying consistent: Creating regular social media posts can be challenging, particularly if you are busy or have a limited budget.
Finding the right images and graphics: Finding the right images and graphics to supplement the text can be time-consuming.
Keeping up with industry trends: Staying up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in social media can be difficult and time-consuming.
Measuring the performance of social media posts: Measuring the performance of social media posts can be difficult, as it’s hard to track how many people have seen the post, how engaged they were with it, and how it influenced their decision to buy.
Managing multiple social media accounts and platforms: Managing multiple social media accounts and platforms can be difficult and time-consuming, especially for small businesses or those with limited resources.
Images can be used as content in many ways, including:
Infographics
An infographic (or information graphic) uses engaging images, data visualizations (e.g. pie charts and bar graphs), and minimal text to communicate information or data quickly and clearly in an easy-to-understand overview format.
An infographic about the importance of video marketing. Source: Impact+
Study any successful infographic carefully, and you will see that it typically combines 5 essential elements:
Infographics can be used in any business to explain anything that would be too hard or take too long using words only.
You can create infographics to provide a quick overview of just about any topic, make complex information easier to understand, summarize long articles or reports, display research findings or survey data, compare different options, raise awareness of an issue or cause, etc.
To view some great examples of infographics, go here.
For tools that will help you create infographic content, see Media Creation Tools.
Best Practices For Creating Infographics
Use a clear and attention-grabbing headline and description: The headline and description should be engaging and make people want to read more.
Use a consistent format and design throughout the infographic: A consistent format and design will make the infographic easier to understand and more visually appealing.
Use high-quality visuals and colors: Good visuals and colors are essential for creating an infographic that is visually appealing and easy to understand.
Use a clear and logical structure: Organize the information in a logical and clear manner, using headings, subheadings, and bullet points to break up the text.
Use a consistent brand voice and tone: Use the same brand voice and tone throughout the infographic to ensure that it aligns with the overall brand image.
Challenges Of Creating Infographics
Finding the right data and statistics: Finding the right data and statistics to include in the infographic can be time-consuming and difficult.
Making sure that the final product is visually appealing and easy to understand: Creating an infographic that is visually appealing and easy to understand can be challenging.
Staying on top of industry trends: Keeping up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in infographic design can be difficult and time-consuming.
Limited scalability: Some infographics may not be scalable to different languages or formats.
Measuring the performance of infographics: Measuring the performance of infographics can be difficult, as it’s hard to track how many people have viewed the infographic, how long they spent looking at it, and how engaged they were with it.
Memes
My gardening philosophy!
Memes can be great for getting your business noticed, especially if the subject of the meme relates to your brand.
Here’s a practical and useful definition for businesses looking to promote their products or services using whitepapers…
“A whitepaper is a persuasive, authoritative, in-depth report on a specific topic that presents a problem and provides a solution. Marketers create whitepapers to educate their audience about a particular issue, or explain and promote a particular methodology. They’re advanced problem-solving guides. “
Whitepapers are great for capturing leads. However, they are not meant to be used as “product pitches.” Their aim is to promote an in-depth level of expertise and industry knowledge and inform and persuade readers based on well-researched facts and evidence.
Whitepapers tend to be more serious in tone and better researched than other long-form content like cornerstone (i.e. authoritative) articles, ebooks, and reports. Whitepapers also tend to be around 3,000 to 5,000 words long and are generally made available as downloadable PDFs (preferably delivered after capturing the reader’s email details).
For an excellent resource on this topic, check out this guide: What Is A Whitepaper?
Best Practices For Creating Whitepapers
Use a clear and attention-grabbing title and abstract: The title and abstract should be engaging and make people want to read more.
Use a consistent format and design throughout the whitepaper: A consistent format and design will make the whitepaper easier to understand and more visually appealing.
Use well-researched and engaging content: Make sure that the content is well-researched, accurate, and engaging to keep readers interested.
Use images, charts, and tables to supplement the text and make the whitepaper more visually appealing: Adding visual elements can help to make the whitepaper more engaging and make it easier for readers to understand the content.
Include a call-to-action at the end of the whitepaper, such as directing readers to a landing page or asking them to subscribe to a newsletter: This will encourage engagement and make it more likely that the whitepaper will be shared.
Challenges Of Creating Whitepapers
Creating a clear and attention-grabbing title and abstract: Creating a title and abstract that is engaging and makes people want to read more can be challenging.
Writing well-researched and engaging content: Writing content that is interesting, engaging, and well-researched can be challenging, particularly if you are not a natural writer.
Finding the right data and statistics: Finding the right data and statistics to include in the whitepaper can be time-consuming and difficult.
Staying consistent: Creating regular whitepapers can be challenging, particularly if you are busy or have a limited budget.
Keeping up with industry trends: Staying up-to-date with the latest industry trends and changes in technology can be difficult and time-consuming.
Case Studies
Case studies and client profiles use “success stories” to showcase your business and your services and provide readers with concrete data as proof of your company’s value, authority, and expertise in helping clients get results.
Although case studies usually require a great deal of time and energy to create (and reaching out to past customers/clients to get their consent for using them in your case study), they can be influential in helping B2B buyers make more informed purchasing decisions.
As shown in the graph at the top of this lesson, almost half of all B2B consumers prefer case studies over other types of content when researching information about products or services they are looking to purchase.
As content, case studies work well when used as lead magnets, landing pages, repurposed blog posts, and video testimonials.
Use a clear and attention-grabbing title and description: The title and description should be engaging and make people want to read more.
Use a consistent format and design throughout the case study: A consistent format and design will make the case study easier to understand and more visually appealing.
Use real-world examples: Use real-world examples to illustrate the benefits of a product or service, this will make the case study more relatable and convincing.
Use a problem-solution-result structure: Organize the case study into a clear and concise format, such as a problem-solution-result structure, to make it easy for readers to understand the main points.
Use testimonials from customers or clients: Use quotes from customers or clients to provide credibility and social proof for the case study.
Challenges Of Creating Case Studies
Finding the right real-world examples: Finding the right real-world examples to illustrate the benefits of a product or service can be challenging.
Gaining permission from clients or customers to use their information in the case study: Obtaining the necessary legal permissions to use client or customer information can be a challenge.
Writing a clear and concise format: Creating a clear and concise format, such as a problem-solution-result structure, can be challenging.
Staying on top of industry trends: Keeping up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in case study creation can be difficult and time-consuming.
Measuring the performance of case studies: Measuring the performance of case studies can be difficult, as it’s hard to track how many people have read the case study, how engaged they were with it, and how it influenced their decision to buy.
Content Templates
Content templates are pre-designed layouts or structures that can be used as a starting point for creating new content helping to save valuable time creating content from scratch.
Templates can include text, images, and other elements, and can be customized to suit the specific needs of the content being created.
Examples of content templates include:
Blog post templates: Blog post templates provide a structure for creating new blog posts, including sections for the introduction, body text, and conclusion.
Email templates: Email templates provide a structure for creating emails, including sections for the subject line, header, body text, and call to action.
Social media post templates: Social media post templates provide a structure for creating social media posts, including sections for the text, images, and hashtags.
Landing page templates: Landing page templates provide a structure for creating landing pages, including sections for the headline, body text, and call to action.
You can use different kinds of templates to create content for website pages, blog posts, infographics, ebooks, videos, slide presentations, etc.
Depending on the type of business you are in, you can also create and distribute your own templates (or checklists) as content and use these to help your clients, generate new leads, or even sell them as information products.
For example, Nusii provides a selection of free, professional, online proposal templates that let you add your company branding and bid on various projects.
Keep it simple: Create templates that are easy to use and understand. Avoid using complex layouts or design elements that can make the template difficult to use.
Be consistent: Use a consistent format, design, and style throughout your templates to ensure a cohesive look and feel for all of your content.
Make it customizable: Allow for enough flexibility in the template to allow for customization, such as adding brand colors, imagery and fonts.
Optimize for usability: Ensure that the template is user-friendly, with easy-to-find elements and intuitive navigation.
Test and iterate: Test the templates with a small group of users and make necessary adjustments based on their feedback.
Challenges Of Creating Content Templates
Balancing consistency and creativity: Finding the right balance between consistency and creativity can be difficult when creating templates.
Limited flexibility: Creating templates that are too rigid can limit the ability to customize and adapt to different types of content.
Limited scalability: Some templates may not be scalable to different types of content, such as different languages or formats.
Time-consuming: Creating templates can be time-consuming, particularly if you need to create multiple templates for different types of content.
Requires technical skills: Creating templates often requires knowledge of graphic design and layout, which can be a challenge for those without the necessary technical skills.
Keeping them up-to-date: Templates, especially those that are code-based, need to be updated frequently to avoid errors or incompatibility issues with the software being used.
Interactive Content
Interactive content refers to digital media that allows users to actively engage and participate in the content, rather than simply consuming it passively.
Examples of interactive content include quizzes, polls, surveys, assessments, interactive infographics, and games.
Interactive content can be used in many different ways to increase engagement, boost brand awareness, and generate leads.
For example:
Quizzes And Assessments
Examples:
A company in the health and wellness industry might create a quiz that helps users determine their “health age” based on their lifestyle habits, this not only provides valuable information to users but also collects information about their health and wellness interests that can be used for targeted marketing efforts.
A skincare company could create a quiz that helps users determine their skin type, and then provide personalized recommendations for products.
A company in the finance industry may create interactive financial calculators. This would allow visitors to make calculations on their own and see the results while providing valuable information on the company’s products and services.
Interactive Polls And Surveys
Polls and surveys are a great way to gather feedback from customers and gain insights into their preferences and opinions, provide valuable feedback for companies, and allow customers to share their thoughts with other potential customers.
Examples:
A company could create a survey asking customers about their experience using their products or services.
A company in the service industry might create an interactive survey that allows customers to rate their satisfaction with the service they received.
Interactive Infographics
Interactive infographics can be used to present data or information in an engaging and interactive way.
Examples:
A company in the real estate industry could create an interactive infographic that shows the most popular neighborhoods in a city and allows users to filter the data by different criteria.
An e-commerce company might create an interactive infographic that shows the different features and benefits of its products. This allows users to explore the products in more depth and learn more about what sets them apart from the competition.
Interactive Videos And Webinars
Companies can create interactive videos and webinars that allow users to engage with the content through polls, quizzes, Q&A, and other interactive elements.
Example:
A software company might create an interactive video that provides a step-by-step tutorial on how to use its product. This allows users to learn how to use the product at their own pace and provides a more engaging experience.
Interactive Games
Companies can create games that are related to their products or services.
Examples:
A company that sells outdoor equipment could create a game that challenges users to complete different outdoor activities, such as hiking or camping, using their products.
A company in the entertainment industry might create a game that allows users to interact with the brand and learn more about the company’s products or services in a fun and engaging way.
Interactive eBooks
An educational company might create an interactive e-book that allows users to interact with the content in various ways, such as by highlighting text, taking notes, and answering questions. This allows users to learn in a more engaging and interactive way.
Virtual Reality And Augmented Reality Experiences
Companies can create virtual or augmented reality experiences to showcase their products or services in an interactive way.
Examples:
A company in the automotive industry could create a virtual reality test drive experience for its customers.
Best Practices For Creating Interactive Content
Use a clear and attention-grabbing headline and description: The headline and description should be engaging and make people want to engage with the content.
Use a consistent format and design throughout the interactive content: A consistent format and design will make the interactive content easier to understand and more visually appealing.
Use interactive elements such as quizzes, polls, and games to engage the audience: Interactive elements such as quizzes, polls, and games can make the content more engaging and increase user participation.
Use a clear and logical structure: Organize the information in a logical and clear manner, using headings, subheadings, and bullet points to break up the text.
Use a consistent brand voice and tone: Use the same brand voice and tone throughout the interactive content to ensure that it aligns with the overall brand image.
Challenges Of Creating Interactive Content
Finding the right interactive elements: Finding the right interactive elements, such as quizzes, polls, and games, to include in the content can be time-consuming and difficult.
Making sure that the final product is visually appealing and easy to use: Creating interactive content that is visually appealing and easy to use can be challenging.
Staying on top of industry trends: Keeping up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in interactive content can be difficult and time-consuming.
Measuring the performance of interactive content: Measuring the performance of interactive content can be difficult, as it’s hard to track how many people have engaged with the content and how engaged they were with it.
Limited scalability: Some interactive content may not be scalable to different languages or formats.
User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) refers to any content that has been created by users of a product or service, rather than by brands, publishers, or the company itself.
User-generated content can include text, images, videos, and other forms of media. Examples of UGC include social media posts, product reviews, blog comments, testimonials, forum discussions, and ratings.
User-generated content can be an effective way to build brand trust and credibility with potential customers, as well as to provide valuable customer insights.
Examples:
A company might encourage customers to share their experiences with a product or service on social media, and then repost those reviews or testimonials on their website. This can help to build trust with potential customers who are considering purchasing the product or service.
A company creates a hashtag for their customers to share their photos and experiences with the product. This would allow the company to use the customer’s photos and experiences in their marketing campaigns.
A clothing retailer might showcase customer photos of people wearing their clothing on their website or social media pages. This not only provides social proof that their products are popular, but it also allows customers to see how the clothing looks on people with a similar body type.
A company that runs a blog allows customers to submit their own articles. This would not only provide a different perspective but also increase customer engagement and loyalty.
Best Practices For Creating User-Generated Content
Encourage users to share their content: Make it easy for users to share their content on your platform by providing clear instructions and guidelines.
Use a consistent format and design throughout the user-generated content: A consistent format and design will make the content easier to understand and more visually appealing.
Use a clear and logical structure: Organize the information in a logical and clear manner, using headings, subheadings, and bullet points to break up the text.
Use a consistent brand voice and tone: Use the same brand voice and tone throughout the user-generated content to ensure that it aligns with the overall brand image.
Use a clear and attention-grabbing headline and description: The headline and description should be engaging and make people want to engage with the content.
Challenges Of Creating User-Generated Content
Encouraging users to share their content: Encouraging users to share their content can be challenging, particularly if they are not familiar with the platform or are hesitant to share their personal information.
Managing and moderating the content: Managing and moderating the content can be time-consuming, particularly if you have a large volume of user-generated content.
Ensuring that the content is accurate and reliable: Ensuring that the content is accurate and reliable can be challenging, particularly if it is not reviewed or moderated by an expert.
Measuring the performance of user-generated content: Measuring the performance of user-generated content can be difficult, as it’s hard to track how many people have engaged with the content and how engaged they were with it.
Limited scalability: Some user-generated content may not be scalable to different languages or formats.
Content Types – FAQs
Here are frequently asked questions about content types:
What are content types in digital marketing?
Content types in digital marketing refer to the various forms of content used to engage audiences, such as blogs, videos, infographics, podcasts, and social media posts. Each type serves different purposes and is used in different contexts to maximize impact and reach.
How do I choose the right content type for my marketing strategy?
Choosing the right content type depends on your audience’s preferences, the goals of your campaign, the message you want to communicate, and the platforms you are using. Analyzing audience data and previous engagement metrics can guide your decisions.
What are the benefits of diversifying content types in a marketing campaign?
Diversifying content types helps to reach a broader audience, cater to different learning styles and preferences, and enhance engagement by keeping the content fresh and interesting. It can also boost SEO performance by providing multiple ways to feature keywords and backlinks.
Can the same content be repurposed into different content types?
Yes, repurposing content into different formats is a cost-effective strategy to maximize reach and reinforce messages. For example, a series of articles can be turned into an eBook, or a blog post can be turned into a video, a podcast episode, or an infographic, each appealing to different segments of your audience.
What tools can help manage multiple content types effectively?
Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla can help manage and schedule different types of content efficiently. These tools often come with features that allow for easy editing, organization, and publication of diverse content types without extensive technical knowledge.
Summary
There are many different types of content you can create to help promote and grow your business. The content type you create depends on factors like the audience group you are targeting, which phase of the buying journey your customers are at, and different content trends and preferences.
Your content strategy should help you decide which content types your production team should focus on creating.
Action Steps
When choosing a specific content type to create, it’s helpful to study examples of how other organizations in your industry or niche have used that type of content to promote their business successfully.
Build a ‘swipe file’ of ideas for different content types and make sure to check out the ‘Resources’ and ‘References’ sections below.
See the tutorials below to learn how to use the above content types in your content marketing strategy:
Learn about using videos and video marketing effectively as part of your content marketing strategy.
Video Marketing
Learn about using videos and video marketing effectively as part of your content marketing strategy.
Research from leading online sources shows that people are watching more videos online than ever before.
According to sites like Wyzowl and Statista, for example, around 500 hours of new videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and more than 1 billion videos get viewed each day on TikTok.
It’s no wonder, then, that videos are an important part of marketing a business online effectively.
In this lesson, we provide a brief overview of video marketing and the challenges of managing your video content as part of your video marketing strategy.
We’ll look at:
What Is Video Marketing?
Your Video Marketing Strategy
Different Types Of Videos You Can Create
Managing Your Video Content Effectively
***
What Is Video Marketing?
“Video marketing is using videos to promote and market your product or service, increase engagement on your digital and social channels, educate your consumers and customers, and reach your audience with a new medium.”
More businesses are turning to video marketing and investing in the creation and distribution of video content to promote and market their services online.
And there is a good reason for this. According to Wyzowl, customers overwhelmingly prefer watching short videos to learn more about a product or service and buy physical and digital goods than reading text-based articles or blog posts, viewing infographics, downloading ebooks or manuals, attending webinars, receiving sales calls or trialing demos.
Also, the same research shows that people watch on average 2.5 hours of online videos and are twice as likely to share video content than any other type of content, including social media posts, blog posts, articles, or product pages.
In short, videos can be a powerful and effective way to:
Increase traffic to your website
Increase dwell time (the amount of time a user takes analyzing a web page before clicking back to search results)
Increase a user’s understanding of your product or service
Generate new business leads
Increase sales
Reduce support calls
Increase brand awareness
Generate good ROI
To reap the above benefits, however, you need an effective video marketing strategy.
Your Video Marketing Strategy
Video marketing is an effective way to promote and market your business online, but there are also challenges.
Online consumers are inundated every day with all kinds of marketing, advertising, and sales messages, and exposed to other types of interesting, and engaging visual content like live streaming, interactive 360 videos, augmented reality, and more.
On top of this, many competing businesses are also using videos.
For your video marketing strategy to be effective, then, you may need to create different types of branded video content and distribute these through different channels to reach your target audience and achieve your goals, taking into account the fact that most online consumers have very limited time and short attention spans, that there may be a lot of competition, and that your business may have very limited resources, such as a small budget, and a content team that lacks the time and the video production and editing skills to create really polished videos.
It’s also important to think about the purpose of your videos and where you plan to display these.
For example, some of the places you may want to display your videos include:
Landing or email-capture pages
Sales pages
Social media platforms
Social media ads
Private membership sites (e.g. welcome page, training pages, etc.)
Crowdfunding sites
Affiliate sites
etc.
Factors like your strategic goals, the story you want to tell using a video format, your budget, etc. will determine the types of videos your can produce and how you will distribute these.
For more information on creating an effective video marketing strategy, we recommend reading these excellent guides:
Most widely used video distribution channels. Source: Wyzowl
Research shows that in addition to posting videos on YouTube, more businesses are now planning to include channels like LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok in their video marketing strategy.
For the latest video marketing statistics, including the most widely-used video distribution channels, go here.
Types Of Videos
What are the different kinds of videos you can create and what types of videos should you create for your business?
This all depends on your video marketing strategy.
According to Wyzowl, here are the most popular types of videos being created
The main types of videos being created. Source: Wyzowl
As the graph above shows, most video types fall into these groups:
Live Action – Live action videos are quick to film and edit, and can be made quite inexpensively (see description in the next section below).
Animated – Animated videos let you control every aspect of what viewers will see (see description in the next section below).
Screen Recorded – Screen-recorded videos essentially capture what you can see on your entire screen or a section of your screen, and can include mouse movements, callouts, annotations, in-picture videos, background soundtracks, etc. in the editing process. These types of videos are great for “looking over the shoulder” how-to tutorials.
And here are the most popular types of videos being created according to their purpose…
These are the most popular types of videos. Source: Wyzowl
Let’s go through these different types of videos:
Animated Videos
As stated earlier, with animated videos, you have complete control over all aspects of what will appear in your video.
You control the video’s look and feel…from background scenery to main characters, design, text, callouts, colors, timings, transitions, soundtrack, special effects, and more.
Additionally, animated videos can be created completely in-house on your computer. You don’t have to hire actors, scout for shoot locations, or worry about bad takes and reshoots. You can tweak and refine animated videos to your heart’s content and go back and edit them at any time.
You can also use animated videos to create almost all other types of videos, including video ads, teaser videos, sales videos, explainer videos, product demos, event videos, training videos, onboarding videos, and more!
Here is an example of an animated video used to explain food safety cross-contamination…
For more information and examples of animated videos, go here:
App demo videos (also called app explainer videos) show off what a mobile app can do…how it works, how it looks, how it feels, and all the features and benefits users need to know and understand to download or buy and use your app.
App demo videos are often made using direct screen recordings but can include footage of the app, elements of animated or live-action video, 3D device animations, illustrations, and more!
Many app demos can also double up as explainer videos by introducing your target audience to the features and story behind your app.
Check out this animated app demo video for a children’s learning app:
For more information and examples of app demo videos, go here:
“Behind the scene” videos let viewers meet the people working in your company, see your team at work, and gain valuable insights into your business processes and your company culture.
“Behind the scene” videos are not only great for personalizing your business and building trust but they can also act as an effective recruitment tool for your company.
Here is a great example of a “behind the scenes” video:
For more information and examples of “behind-the-scenes” videos, go here:
A corporate or business video refers to the production of video content for brands and companies that can be used for everything – from educating and persuading new customers, to providing informative walkthroughs and demos of your website or solutions, to training and onboarding new employees.
Corporate videos can include a mix of different video types – animated, live-action, screen-recorded, interactive, and more.
They are also quite versatile, in that the final video can be used for a wide range of purposes (e.g. social posts, emails, adverts, trade shows, etc.).
Here is an example of a corporate video created by a University for viewers who are deciding on which higher-learning institute they should attend:
For more information and examples of corporate videos, go here:
Onboarding videos welcome, educate, and empower customers and users about the full benefits of your company, products, services, and features, help them get their accounts and administrative settings up and running, show them how to assemble and use physical/digital products, and give them the knowledge and tools they need to get up and running quickly.
Onboarding videos also help to improve user experience and increase customer satisfaction, retention, loyalty, and revenue by upskilling and empowering them and providing them with timely information and support, reducing product returns due to buyer’s remorse.
Onboarding videos range from simple welcome videos to software demo videos, product walkthrough videos, detailed educational videos, etc.,
They can also be used in a range of different ways. For example, you can make them available as an on-demand “learn at your own pace” type knowledge portal, upload them to YouTube and add them to a ‘User Onboarding’ playlist, build the video content into your customer workflow as an interactive guide, and more.
Here is an example of a “bite-sized” customer onboarding video from Asana:
For more information and examples of customer onboarding videos, go here:
Customer service videos help customers troubleshoot and solve problems, answer questions about your products or services, and reduce support queries.
Customer service videos can include FAQ videos, video tutorials, and feature or product demos.
Publishing customer service videos publicly can also help to build trust with users and reassure them that your business will be there to support them.
If you are wondering how to create customer service videos that will help get you and your customers out of a pickle, watch the video below:
For more information and examples of customer service videos, go here:
Demo videos are short, educational video clips that showcase your products or services, highlight their key benefits, and explain or show how your products or services work.
Demo videos typically encourage viewers to purchase the product or service after watching it in action and can be done in the form of a tutorial, a showcase, or an animated video.
Here, for example, is an animated demo video offering an innovative solution to a problem that many new parents have to face (some do it bravely, and some just suck it up):
For more information and examples of demo videos, go here:
Event videos are great for grabbing the attention of viewers and passersby at events like exhibitions and trade shows and providing them with product highlights or a visual summary of what your business does.
You can also use event videos to generate a buzz (and sell tickets) before an event, add impact to award ceremonies (e.g. to introduce nominees, review “best moments”, celebrate winners, etc.), enhance sales presentations or investment pitches, give audiences a “behind the scenes” tour at internal events like annual team meetings, sales conferences, sales kick-offs, etc.
Businesses of all sizes can benefit from event videos and produce these as animated event videos or live-action videos with event videography.
Here is an example of an event video aimed at participants with a lot of dough to throw around:
For more information and examples of event videos, go here:
Explainer videos are designed to save companies time and help viewers quickly understand their business, product, or service by communicating key concepts and key points concisely.
Explainer videos are one of the most popular and versatile types of videos. They can be any length, but many are typically 1-2 minutes long, and once created, can be used repeatedly in multiple ways, such as:
Your home page
Social media
Email signatures
Paid social/YouTube ad campaigns
Events
Introduction to training or onboarding new customers or new team members.
Additionally, you can use elements from your explainer video as web graphics (e.g. a screengrab) and other print/digital assets.
Here is a video that tells you nothing, yet explains everything about what this company does:
For more information and examples of explainer videos, go here:
Unlike “linear” videos where users can only play, pause, rewind, and fast-forward content, interactive videos put users in control of their viewing experience by allowing them to click and interact with your video content to make decisions, answer questions, complete forms, buy products, and more!
An interactive video is essentially video content overlaid with interactive elements so the choices viewers make while watching determine how the video plays out.
Some of the most popular interactive features & functionality of interactive videos include branching stories with clickable hotspots and outcomes that depend on the choices viewers make, navigating to specific chapters in the video content, interactive quizzes, and built-in eCommerce allowing users to fill out forms and buy products on your ‘shoppable video’.
It’s important to note that interactive videos need to be hosted on a special server for the overlaid interactive functionality of the video to work.
Click on the image below to view an interactive video that walks you through Amazon’s company onboarding process using a gamified approach.
Amazon’s interactive onboarding video.
For more information and examples of interactive videos, go here:
A live-action video is essentially recording people talking on camera. This can be the company CEO, members of a team, clients, customers, etc. telling a story in their own words, and sharing their expertise or experiences (e.g. testimonials).
Featuring real people in your video puts a face to your brand adds a personal touch, and helps to build trust and credibility
If you are looking to create a high volume of video content (e.g. for social media), live-action videos are ideal, as they are relatively quick to film and edit.
Here is one of the most successful live-action explainer videos of all time:
For more information and examples of interactive videos, go here:
Microinteractions are trigger-based events where a user interacts with your website or mobile app through animation.
No doubt you have seen microinteractions on websites and social media. Simple examples are the ‘heart’ or ‘thumbs up’ animation that comes up when you like someone’s post or text message, and the animated ‘loading’ icon you see when you are waiting for a web page to load.
Microinteractions are designed to provide users with instant and relevant feedback, add “emotion” and status updates, and encourage user interaction (e.g. sharing, liking, and commenting on your content). They can help to improve site navigation and user experience and make your website more interesting and engaging to users.
Product demo videos let you educate, explain, entertain, and sell products by building customer confidence and removing barriers to purchase.
Product demo videos work in a similar way to explainer videos by showing users product features, explaining their functionality, and involving them so they can understand what the product does, how it works, and visualize themselves using it.
You can include live-action footage (e.g. someone presenting and giving a product demonstration) and/or animation (e.g. cross-sections, close-ups, etc.) in your product demo videos.
In addition to helping you sell products directly to consumers, product demo videos can also be used to educate your sales team, distributors, affiliates, clients, etc.
Here, for example, is a slick video aimed at coffee-loving consumers who want to enjoy barista-style coffees at home:
For more information and examples of product demo videos, go here:
Sales videos support your sales process by helping to convert leads into new customers.
In addition to educating potential customers about the benefits and features of your products or services, they help to build rapport, address frequently asked questions, and proactively overcome objections, inspiring and persuading prospects to become customers.
Sales videos are also great for people that don’t like being “sold to” as these can work for you as your 24/7 sales team, delivering a perfect sales pitch consistently, and allowing prospects to inspect what you have to offer in a place where they feel safe, comfortable, and at a time that is suitable and convenient for them.
Sales videos can save your sales reps time (by helping them spend less time on the phone taking and making sales calls), used instead of an actual sales team member, or included in a sales presentation.
Sales videos can be created using a blend of animated or live-action footage, and include text slides, testimonials, product demos or showcases, screen recordings, interactive elements, and more…whatever is required to get someone interested in your brand to the point where they make a decision to buy.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with injecting a little humor in your sales videos, so you can sell without actually saying much about your company or products, as shown in the video below:
For more information and examples of sales videos, go here:
Social media videos are short-form videos designed to tell stories that will attract viewers on social platforms and drive engagement actions.
Various types of videos work well on social media, including interviews, Q&As, live videos, announcements, reveals, behind-the-scenes, product demos, user-generated videos, giveaways and contests, promos and deals, event videos, and tutorials.
With most social media platforms, you can simply upload your regular videos, like the example video shown below, sourced from Facebook:
In addition to posting videos on social platforms, you can use animated videos and animated social graphics in status updates, profiles, news feeds, and other areas to keep followers interested.
Note: You may need to adjust your video formats and filesto use some of the advertising and promotional features available on various social media platforms.
For more information and examples of social media videos, go here:
Just like movie trailers, teaser videos give viewers a sneak peek of a product or service and are designed to raise awareness and build anticipation about new and upcoming features, products, and events (live events, online courses, etc.).
You can create a teaser video if you haven’t yet finished building your new product, service, feature, or idea. This allows you to get your promotion going and build momentum and anticipation for it earlier, as well as providing an opportunity for feedback from your audience.
You can then gauge the feedback and response to refine your development process and improve the chances of success for your final product.
Alternatively, if you are creating a teaser video for a more complete and fuller video-based product (e.g. an online course), here is an effective format for creating ‘sneak-peek’ videos:
Script and produce the full (i.e. complete) version of your video first
Identify an ideal spot in your video timeline to insert a break
Create an additional ‘click here to learn more’ slide
Produce two versions of the video: your full video and the shorter teaser video ending with the ‘click here to learn more’ slide.
You can also create the above sneak peek video by editing highlights of your course and compiling these into a “compilation teaser” video.
Once you have your teaser video done, make sure to share it on your website and social media platforms…maybe even consider boosting it with an ad spend or going offline (e.g. video billboards, events, TV, etc.) to generate maximum impact and awareness.
Below is a video compilation showcasing various product teaser videos:
For more information and examples of teaser videos, go here:
Allowing your satisfied customers and clients to promote and champion your business through testimonial videos (and case study videos) is a powerful way to build trust, boost credibility, and provide social proof for your brand, and ultimately increase sales of your products and services.
Just as many consumers check product reviews from other users before making a decision, many people also watch video testimonials to learn more about a company, product, or service and to help influence their purchasing decisions.
Testimonial videos are especially effective when your business can demonstrate through customers or client testimonials how your solution, product, or service has helped solve their problems and address their pain points, as many of your target audience will experience similar issues and challenges.
There are various ways to create testimonial videos. You can:
Create low-budget testimonial videos in-house by collecting written testimonials from satisfied customers, adding these to a slide presentation with a voice-over and/or soundtrack, and presenting these as a screen recording
Use video testimonial software (see further below), or
Create live-action recordings using a professional video production company.
You can add testimonial videos to product/service pages on your website, share them on social media, include them in video ad campaigns, and various other ways.
Here is an example of a low-budget yet compelling video testimonial you could shoot with just your phone and basic video-editing software:
For more information and examples of testimonial videos, go here:
Training videos are a powerful learning tool, especially “look over the shoulder”-style how-to screen recordings and videos that combine audio and visual elements with written text such as bullet point reminders, key concept summaries, checklists, diagrams, flowcharts, etc.
One of the main benefits of creating training videos from a business point of view is that these provide consistency in your organization. Videos can be used to train individuals or whole teams and explain your processes, policies, products, production workflows, and troubleshooting, as well as the culture, values, behaviors, and standards your organization expects from all team members.
They are also extremely cost-effective, as you can use the same video to train new team members or new customers or clients.
From the viewer’s point of view, there are many benefits too. Viewers can learn at their own pace and usually at a time that suits them, rewind over points repeatedly, and demonstrate in a couple of minutes what could take hours to explain.
Training videos encompass a wide range of purposes and can use different styles (e.g. screen recording, animation. live-action, or a combination of all of these) to communicate their information.
For example, you can create the following types of training videos:
Product training videos to demonstrate how products work.
Demo videos to provide an overview of how a software application or product works.
Orientation videos to welcome new members to your team and help them learn about their new roles.
Customer relations videos to showcase customer interactions and improve customer experience using ‘roleplay’ scenarios.
Sales training videos to empower your sales team to present effectively, handle objections, and convert prospects into new sales.
Retail training videos to show your team how customers should be treated and help them learn skills like upselling and cross-selling, dealing with difficult customers and complaints, etc.
Safety training videos to demonstrate how to operate safely and follow correct procedures.
HR training videos to explain your policies and make your rules and expectations clear.
Explainer videos to help your team members, customers, distributors, reps, affiliates, etc. understand your business, products, services, solutions, etc.
Training videos can also be of varying lengths. In some cases, long videos may be required, such as recorded presentations or webinars. In other situations, it may be more effective if the information is broken down into bite-size digestible short videos.
For example, here is a comprehensive video tutorial on using Photoshop that delivers almost one hour of training content…
And here is an example of a short instructional video dealing with workplace bullying:
For more information and examples of training videos, go here:
Video advertising is using video content to sell products or services.
Video ads are typically promotional-type videos introducing your brand, product, or service, which are created specifically for sharing outside of your business, where you pay for audiences to view or click on it.
Video ads can be quite effective if done right. The key is to capture the viewer’s attention within the first few seconds, and then keep them engaged with content that tells the right story without ‘hard selling’ them, and then asking for the purchase at the right moment.
Typical examples of video ads include:
Video banner advertisements appearing on a landing page or website.
Pre-, mid-, or post-roll video advertisements that are played before, during, or after an online video or a video posted on social media.
TV video ads aired as traditional commercials on TV or streaming services.
Live video ads shown as part of a real-time streamed event, conversation, or product launch.
Sponsored video ads (e.g. “This video is brought to you by…”) placed within other videos or marketing content.
Below is an example of a video ad aimed at mobile phone users and created to promote Android:
For more information and examples of video ads, go here:
“Videographics are an engaging visual representation of compiled data put forward in a graphically appealing and easy-to-understand way…
A videographic provides the audience with valuable information while entertaining them at the same time. It is a short, informative type of video that helps your audience digest your reports or statistical numbers better in a matter of minutes. “
Essentially, a videographic makes information easier to interpret by taking complex data and data-driven messages from statistics, polls, and survey results and turning them into compelling and concise visual information made simple, quick, and easy to consume.
Informative videographics encourage sharing on multiple platforms, resulting in better brand recall.
Below is an example of a videographic-based video:
For more information and examples of videographics, go here:
Here are some useful tools tat can help to improve your video marketing results.
Hookle
Hookle – Social Media Planning App
Hookle is an app that lets you manage all of your social media marketing in one place and lets you schedule and publish your videos to all your social media platforms.
Check out the video below for an overview of this tool:
For more social media management tools that you can use to track video performance across multiple platforms, see this section of the course: Social Media Tools
Create Cartoon Explainer Videos Easily
Cartoon explainer videos can be very effective when it comes to grabbing and keeping a viewer’s attention.
They can also be used to inform, educate, and convert viewers into prospective clients and customers, train users, simplify complex subjects, tell engaging stories, etc.
As stated earlier, explainer videos are great for getting your point across quickly, reducing customer support calls, and getting your videos shared online.
Cartoon explainer videos can also be expensive to create. A digital agency will typically charge thousands of dollars to create a short animated video for your business, and some will even charge thousands of dollars per minute of video!
For an inexpensive and easy-to-use cartoon explainer video creation software that you can use to create animated explainer videos in-house, check out Toonly.
Animated Video Creation Tool
If you are looking for a powerful video creation software tool that can help you create 2D & 3D animated marketing, explainer, and training videos, doodle sketch videos, and motion videos in-house in minutes, check out Doodly.
Live Action Video Animation
If you are looking for a video animation tool that lets you easily create stunning live-action video intros and logo stings with no video editing or production skills, check out Viddyoze.
Use any of the tools below to collect video testimonials from happy clients and customers and promote these on your website, blog, social media, etc.
Vocal Video
Vocal Video – All-in-one video testimonial software platform.
Vocal Video is an all-in-one platform for collecting, editing, hosting, and sharing testimonial videos.
This tool lets you easily and quickly collect testimonial videos, edit them, and apply your branding.
You can also trim your video, add graphics and licensed music, switch from video to audio, and create a video transcript directly from the tool with no additional software required.
VideoAsk is a “video conversation” platform that lets you and your customers quickly send video, text, or audio replies back and forth.
Essentially, it’s like communicating via emails but using videos instead.
You can use this tool to collect customer feedback, add video welcome messages for respondents, and use conditional logic to send pre-recorded questions to customers based on their previous responses.
VideoPeel allows users to click, record, and submit video testimonials automatically via mobile or desktop using a video capture link. The tool also automates thank-you messages.
VideoPeel displays all of your questions on one screen and offers you the option of choosing different video campaign templates (profile message, photo message, or video message). You can use their editing tools to add your logo, a simple text overlay, a star rating, and a disclaimer.
Collected video responses are held in a single repository for easy management.
VideoPeel also offers Shopify integration, Amazon syndication, and other eCommerce and social media publishing options.
Vouch is a video testimonials tool that lets you add questions and send a single link to one or many users.
You can review your video responses and transcripts, trim your videos or stitch them together to create a playlist using their video editing software, and publish or share these via a link, embed code, or integration.
The tool features speaker notes, calendar reminders, and unlimited takes, allowing users to easily record their video responses and send these back to you.
Vouch lets you add your own logo, colors, and styling to control your brand experience across all touchpoints, and integrates with many popular workflow tools, allowing you to collect and share video testimonials from tools you are already using.
Video monetization platforms allow you to get paid for the videos you publish online. When audiences view or download your content, you get paid, so the more that people watch, the more you earn.
If you would like to monetize your videos, consider using a tool like the one shown below.
Uscreen
Uscreen is an end-to-end white-labeled video monetization platform that supports subscription and pay-per-view models and is designed to generate revenue on OTT streaming services similar to Netflix or Hulu.
Uscreen provides everything you need to monetize, distribute and scale your streaming service business: video hosting, streaming, built-in billing, monetization, analytics, and even end-user support.
Uscreen also provides membership sites for your subscribers, fully-branded apps for mobile and TV, tools to host live streaming events, community and course features, and more than 1,000 integrations (e.g. Mailchimp, Salesforce, Constant Contact, ActiveCampaign, and many more!)
Video marketing is not only essential when it comes to promoting your content online effectively, it is also extremely challenging to track and manage effectively without the right strategy, systems, processes, tools, resources, and budget.
Before you start producing videos for your business, make sure that you have the following in place:
Your Content Strategy and Content Plan to ensure that any videos you create will contribute to achieving your business objectives.
A documented content production workflow – whether you decide to create videos in-house or outsource the creation to an external agency, it’s important for your video creation processes to be documented.
Content Documentation System – where are you storing all digital assets, files, and elements used in the production of your videos? Make sure these are easily accessible as you will need to update your videos in the future.
Video Metrics – Have you defined the important metrics you will be tracking for your videos? You will need these metrics to know which videos and video topics are generating the best ROI and to improve your results.
Tracking System – Your tracking system will help you monitor, measure, and evaluate the effectiveness of your videos and your video marketing campaigns.
Summary
Most businesses with an online presence today need to engage in video marketing. There are many types of videos you can create for your business, so it’s important to develop a clear video marketing strategy for your business.
Action Steps
Create a video marketing strategy aligned with your overall content strategy and objectives, set up the systems you need to manage it effectively, and schedule regular reviews to make sure that your video marketing strategy is consistently delivering your business its expected targets, continued growth, and a positive ROI.
Resources
The Ultimate Video Marketing Starter Pack – Download a free video marketing starter pack containing videos, templates, resources, and tips on how to get your video marketing strategy going.
Social Media Video Specs Guide – Visit this guide for up-to-date video formatting and file specifications for all the major social media platforms.
Also, see the sections below for additional information and video-related tools and resources that can help you create professional videos and video content inexpensively:
Learn how to drive more traffic to your site and more customers to your business by getting your videos to rank higher on YouTube and on Google’s search results.
Here are frequently asked questions about video marketing:
Why is video marketing important?
Video marketing is essential because it enhances engagement, boosts brand awareness, and improves conversion rates by delivering compelling content that resonates with audiences more effectively than text alone.
How do you properly execute a video marketing strategy?
To execute a video marketing strategy effectively, start by defining your goals, understanding your target audience, creating compelling content, optimizing for search engines, and analyzing performance to refine future strategies.
What types of videos are most effective in video marketing?
Product demonstrations, tutorials, customer testimonials, live streams, and company culture videos are among the most effective types because they engage viewers and provide valuable information in an accessible format.
How long should marketing videos be?
The optimal length depends on the platform and your audience’s preferences. Generally, shorter videos (1-2 minutes) work well on social media, while longer formats (up to 10 minutes) can be effective on platforms like YouTube for more detailed content.
How do I measure the success of my video marketing campaigns?
Measure success using metrics such as view count, engagement rate (likes, shares, comments), watch time, click-through rates, and conversion rates. Analytics tools can help track these metrics and provide insights into viewer behavior.
Can video marketing help with SEO?
Yes, videos can significantly boost SEO by increasing the time visitors spend on your site, reducing bounce rates, and providing content that can be ranked in search results, particularly if the videos are properly optimized with the right keywords and meta descriptions.
What platforms should I use for video marketing?
Use a mix of platforms for maximum reach and impact, including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. The choice of platform should align with where your target audience spends their time and the nature of the content.
How often should I release new videos?
The frequency should be based on your capacity to produce quality content and your audience’s appetite for new videos. Consistency is key, so choose a sustainable schedule, whether it’s weekly, biweekly, or monthly.
What budget should I allocate to video marketing?
Your budget should reflect your marketing goals, the quality of production required, and the expected ROI. Start with a manageable budget and adjust based on the outcomes of your initial campaigns.
How can I make my videos stand out?
Focus on storytelling, use high-quality visuals and sound, ensure your content is authentic and relatable, and consider incorporating interactive elements like Q&A sessions to engage your audience more deeply.
Create and edit product, sales, promotional, and training videos with these video tools and resources.
Video Tools
Create and edit product, sales, promotional, and training videos with these video tools and resources.
This section covers media creation tools referred to in various lessons throughout this course.
Use the tools and resources on this page to create and edit media like:
Screencast videos
Product videos
Explainer videos
Sales videos
Promotional videos
‘How-to’ training & tutorial videos
And more
***
Video Creation Tools
Use the tools and resources below to create videos to suit a wide range of purposes.
Screen Recordings
Screen recordings are great for video tutorials and video-based training content. Use the video tools below to create screen recordings.
Camtasia
Camtasia – Screen recording and video editing tool.
Camtasia is the leading screen capture video recording and editing software tool on the market.
You can create professional screen capture videos, record on-screen activity, customize and edit content, add interactive elements, import media, and create high-quality videos in a range of formats and sizes.
Create professional screen capture videos with Camtasia Studio.
AI video creation tools provide a time-saving, cost-efficient, and affordable alternative to traditional video creation.
Use the AI video tools below to create your marketing videos inexpensively:
Synthesia
Synthesia – AI video creation software
Synthesia is an AI video creation platform that allows you to easily create professional videos in 120 languages without requiring any video editing experience.
This web-based platform is affordable and intuitive, making it easy to turn plain text into engaging training, how-to, or product marketing videos.
With Synthesia, you can save up to 80% of your time and budget when creating videos. You can localize your videos for a global audience by choosing from over 120 languages and accents. The app is accessible in your browser and it’s an affordable option suitable for beginners.
Synthesia offers a time and cost-efficient alternative to complex and expensive traditional video creation processes that allows you to create professional videos 10 times faster than ever before, without any prior knowledge of video editing.
With Synthesia, you can use digital twins of real actors known as Synthesia AI avatars to get professional actors without studio time. You can also turn text into professional voiceovers without the need for a microphone, thanks to Synthesia’s digital clones of real voices, known as Synthesia AI voices.
The video below provides an example of Synthesia’s AI technology in action:
Creating and updating videos is quick and easy with Synthesia. You can edit or update your video at any time, without needing any prior video editing skills. You also have access to over 60 fully customizable video templates, a built-in screen recorder and media library, and closed captions are included.
With over 100 diverse AI avatars to choose from, you can get an exclusive AI avatar for your brand or create your own custom AI avatar. Synthesia ensures consistent audio quality at scale and offers a range of features, including PowerPoint to Video, Text to Video, AI Video Generator, and Online Video Maker. Over 40,000 training, support, and marketing teams trust Synthesia for their video creation needs.
With Synthesia, you can easily create professional videos from plain text in just minutes. You can edit or update your video at any time and localize it in over 120 languages and accents. Synthesia is 10x faster than traditional video creation processes, and you don’t need any prior knowledge of video editing. Share, embed, or download your video as an MP4 with this powerful AI video generator.
Use the tools below to create professional animated marketing videos, cartoon videos, and “whiteboard” hand-drawn sketch videos.
Toonly
Toonly – Drag-and-drop explainer video creation tool.
Toonly is a simple, inexpensive, and powerful drag-and-drop explainer video creation software tool that lets you create professional cartoon explainer videos quickly and easily without requiring video creation skills, animators, illustrators, etc.
Toonly was developed by the creators of Doodly, another powerful video creation tool that lets you create doodle videos.
Toonly is available for PC and Mac users. After installing and launching the software, simply login…
Toonly login screen
And you will come to the main dashboard (‘My Videos’) section, where you can create a new video or edit an existing video…
The Toonly dashboard
Toonly has an intuitive interface. You don’t have to be a video designer to start creating videos, as the software provides a growing library of built-in scenes, backgrounds, animated characters, text, objects (including the ability to upload your own images), royalty-free music backgrounds, and more. You can also add voiceovers directly into your videos…
Build your explainer videos using Toonly’s simple video creation interface and drag-and-drop tools.
To create your video storyline, just drag and drop text or images (called objects) into a ‘scene’, adjust timelines, specify settings for your objects, preview and save, then create the next scene…
You can build an animated explainer video with multiple scenes.
Toonly provides many different scenes, scene transitions, characters, props, objects, etc. to build your video storylines. All characters are custom drawn by the software’s own graphic design team, and you can import your own images into the program to add to your videos.
Animated characters come with dropdown menus allowing you to select the activity you want them to engage in during your scene. You can even make characters engage in multiple actions within a scene (for example, they can walk into a room, shake hands with another person, talk on a cellphone, then sit down and start working on their laptop, while other characters and objects are also performing their own actions…
Animate your video characters with different actions.
Toonly also provides keyboard shortcuts to help make creating and editing videos faster…
Toonly keyboard shortcuts
Toonly is well supported. As a user, you get access to video tutorials where you can learn how to use all the features of the software, a Facebook group where you can post questions and engage in discussions with other users, FAQ and customer support sections, a feature request page, and more…
Toonly provides access to tutorials and support.
The software is also regularly updated with new features and new elements…
Toonly is regularly updated.
Toonly is an ideal and inexpensive video creation tool that can be used in any niche, industry, or profession. It suits users such as:
Small Business Owners & Service Providers
E-Commerce Store Owners & Digital Marketers
Information Technology Companies
Human Resources Departments
Trainers & Presenters
B2b Sales
Non-Profits
Etc.
Here is a cartoon explainer video we created from scratch using Toonly in just a few hours…
If you are looking for a powerful and inexpensive video creation tool that lets you create professional-quality engaging animated cartoon explainer videos quickly and easily without requiring any video design skills, then consider using Toonly.
Create Cartoon Explainer Videos Easily With Toonly
Explaindio
Explaindio – Animated video creation tool
Explaindio is an all-in-one video editor that lets you easily create HD videos with animation, hand-drawn whiteboard (doodle-sketch) videos, combine text overlays, animated slides, images with videos, and more.
Explaindio includes features like:
Simultaneous multiple animations
Full multi-timeline editing
Full 3D animations
Import external 3D elements
3D models and animation customization
180+ pre-made text animation elements
140+ pre-made videos, images, and doodle objects animations
Keyframe animation
And more.
The demo video below shows what you can do with Explaindio …
If you are looking for a powerful video creation software tool that can help you create 2D & 3D animated marketing, explainer, and training videos, doodle sketch videos, and motion videos, then Explaindio is a tool that can do this for you in minutes.
Viddyoze lets you easily create stunning live-action video intros and logo stings with no video editing or production skills, and eye-catching professionally branded video intros and logo stings that command attention.
The video demo below shows the software in action.
Viddyoze Live Action’s video animation engine uses groundbreaking point-and-click automated technology that combines high-quality live video action effects, professional actors and models, and custom 3D digital animation to create beautifully branded eye-catching videos.
Add your own images and logos to create stunning live-action effects.
No video production experience is needed to use this tool. Just choose your live-action template, upload your logo and customize text and colors, and click a button to create an HD-quality video. Your video will be fully rendered and ready to use in minutes.
Create amazing live video intros using point-and-click.
The video below provides a tour of Viddyoze’s video creation process.
Watermarks: Add watermarks to videos that only you can remove.
Audio: Every Viddyoze Live Action template includes a custom-created audio track to match the video footage.
Cloud Service: Viddyoze Live Action is entirely cloud-based, so there is no software to download and no video animation equipment to purchase. You can create your videos anywhere using your smartphone.
Designer Template Library: Viddyoze includes dozens of professional video templates suitable for a wide variety of niches and office-based businesses, like restaurants, coffee shops, gyms, beauty salons, tech firms, creative and professional services, etc.
Full Training: The member’s area includes full training, including user-friendly set-up videos showing you how to get the most from the system.
Easy Customization: Choose the color palette to match your logo and add text to your videos. The software will do the rest.
100% compatibility: Viddyoze Live Action renders all videos in MP4 format, allowing you to use these with other video editors and web platforms.
Support: Viddyoze provides access to a dedicated support team 24/7 and is supported by a full-time team of designers, videographers, and developers.
Unlimited usage rights: Use the animations as many times in as many videos as you like.
Licensing options: Viddyoze offers personal and commercial licensing. Choose the commercial license if you want to create videos for other businesses.
If you’re looking for a way to create video intros that will help your business stand out from the crowd, grow more sales and get more clients, then definitely check out Viddyoze’s live-action video intro-maker.
You can use hundreds of built-in characters, props, images, fonts, and sounds, or upload your own images, fonts, and sounds, then export and share your videos in multiple formats and quality levels.
Klippyo is a time-saving cloud-based video creation tool that lets you create highly engaging videos optimized for social media marketing.
With Klippyo, you can edit videos directly from your phone and create amazing video content without relying on video templates.
Klippyo was developed by the same team that created the Viddyoze live-action video animation tool, which lets you create animations such as logo stingers, video intros, and outros with the click of a mouse, in consultation with Derral Eves, a successful video producer and YouTuber with over half a million subscribers and clients including Red Bull, Google, Amazon, and Adobe and whose advice has helped thousands of fans build successful YouTube channels that attract millions of views.
Viddyoze is an ideal complement to Klippyo. Both integrate seamlessly, so you can add visually stunning video animations directly into your Klippyo projects.
Check out Klippyo’s video promo below to see just some of its amazing features …
This software includes all the features you need to create videos that will deliver you more engagement, better conversions, and more channel subscribers, as well as commercial rights to all the videos you create using Klippyo’s Studio version.
Create engaging videos optimized for social media with Klippyo.
With Klippyo, you can easily shoot, edit, and post engaging, exciting, and dynamic videos directly from your phone in formats that are correctly optimized for social media, such as:
Square videos
Social video memes
Emojis and Stickers
Intros and Outros
Captions
Quotes
Filters
And more!
Klippyo offers a professional video editing suite with direct social media integration and a huge library of video objects and elements like stock video clips that lets you create classic videos, square videos, vertical videos, captioned videos, meme videos, compilation videos, banner ad videos, and videos with multiple aspect ratios from a single app, without the need to record a single frame of footage.
Social media and video marketing research show that videos that use features like the ones built into Klippyo can increase viewer engagement by 100% or more, reduce video ad costs by 35%, and get viewers watching your video all the way to the end.
Klippyo lets you create every type of video you want!
Klippyo is 100% web-based, so you can log in from anywhere, work from your mobile device, tablet, Mac or Windows laptop, or PC, shoot your video with your camera, upload your footage or import a pre-existing video into the Klippyo editor, then easily add professional intros, outros, filters, emojis, and interactive captions to your videos, as well as audio tracks and visual elements from its vast built-in library (300,000 stock video clips), and publish your finished video to multiple social media accounts like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. right from inside the app.
Klippyo offers a 30-day risk-free, full money-back guarantee, and 24/7 customer support.
Moovly is a that lets you create your own videos ads, product videos, marketing videos, explainer videos, and company videos in-house without a big budget or design skills.
Moovly provides many customizable video templates where you can adjust anything you want to match your company brand style, including text, colors, images, footage, and music… even create your own templates!
Customize templates to create all kinds of videos for your business.
You can also easily automate the production of videos using Moovly’s automated video technology to offer your team or customers customizable video templates, create personalized videos and product videos generated automatically from your CRM, email client, or marketing automation tool, and connect to RSS feeds and news streams like Twitter to create videos when new tweets are sent.
Vyond is a video creation software tool that lets you create engaging videos with characters to fit any context, customizable templates, and whiteboard animations.
You can also create MP4s or animated GIFs for social media, host your videos wherever you like, or import them into other platforms.
Here is an example of a video created using Vyond:
Animoto is a free drag-and-drop video maker that lets you easily create promo videos, slideshow videos, social media videos, tutorial videos…even birthday, graduation, and wedding videos with no design skills required.
Animoto provides a huge library of time-saving templates, stock images and videos, music, fonts, video editing and voice-over tools, and more.
The free plan lets you use all of the tool’s standard features to create unlimited videos, while paid plans allow you to create videos without Animoto’s branding, access millions of stock images and videos, and more!
Lumen5 is a video content creation tool that combines powerful artificial intelligence (A.I.) with a simple drag-and-drop interface to help you create professional video content in minutes. It offers customizable templates to help you communicate effectively and consistently, while also staying on brand, on budget, and on time.
One of the standout features of Lumen5 is its ability to turn written content, such as blog posts or whitepapers, into videos using A.I. and machine learning. Simply enter a link to your blog post, and Lumen5 will automatically fetch content from the link and begin transforming it into a video. The A.I. will summarize the content and match each scene with relevant stock footage, while also algorithmically determining the timing of each scene based on average reading speed.
Once the video has been generated, you can access a variety of tools to make your own edits and enhance the video with your finishing touch. You can switch up colors, add watermarks, or reformat into different aspect ratios in seconds. Lumen5 also offers features for adding talking head content, callouts, cutaways, and captions to enhance the video further.
The transcript-based editing feature of Lumen5 makes it easy for anyone to create amazing content in minutes. Simply select words in the transcript and match visuals directly to the timing of the audio.
With Lumen5, you can create professional video content without the need for expensive equipment, technical knowledge, or time-consuming editing.
Motion Objects – Powerful Animated Objects For Video Marketing
One of the challenges of promoting your business using video marketing is that your videos have to engage viewers and stand out from the crowd of ‘me too’ video graphics and templates.
Adding engaging animated objects to videos can help boost your conversions.
Motion Objects saves you time and money hiring a high-end professional video production team or graphic designers to create custom video graphics.
The copy and paste animated objects are designed to work with all video creation tools, including:
The entire collection includes over 100 animated objects grouped into the following modules:
Module 1: Online Business – Animated Objects
Module 2: Online Business – Static Objects
Module 3: Offline Business – Animated Objects
Module 4: Offline Business – Static Objects
Module 5: Health & Fitness – Animated Objects
Module 6: Health & Fitness – Static Objects
Module 7: Relationships – Animated Objects
Module 8: Relationships – Static Objects
Module 9: Home & Kitchen – Animated Objects
Module 10: Home & Kitchen – Static Objects
Module 11: General – Animated Objects
Module 12: General – Static Objects
(Motion Objects animated video objects sample)
All objects work on Mac and Windows environments and come in 4 different formats: 3 animated (MOV, SWF, GIF), plus 1 static PNG. These graphics can be used anywhere, even uploaded straight to WordPress and inserted directly into your pages and posts. Video training is also provided on how to edit the templates.
The graphics collection comes with personal rights, allowing you to use these images in all of your own video projects. A developer’s license is also available if you plan to use the images in client videos.
Learn how to drive more traffic to your site and more customers to your business by getting your videos to rank higher on YouTube and on Google’s search results.
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The type of content your business or organization decides to create will depend on its 
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