Generate leads with digital publishing

If you feel like you’ve been hearing more and more about content marketing over the past few years, you’re not alone! Although this strategy has been around for at least 100 years, it’s become especially important in the Internet age. Today, digital content marketing is working for businesses of all kinds—all over the planet.

Have you been wondering whether the time is right to try digital content marketing? In this article, we’ll explain everything you need to know about getting started.

1. What is digital content marketing?
2. How does it work?
3. Why is this kind of marketing so popular?
4. Where should I start?

What is digital content marketing?

First, let’s look at content marketing in general. Content marketing promotes a brand or business by offering people something useful: information, entertainment or insight. In other words, it’s about creating content that potential customers will discover and enjoy. This content can help them explore your products and solutions. Or it can simply introduce your company to new audiences.

Traditional content marketing includes things like guides, magazines and professional reports. However, digital content marketing has a much wider range of possibilities. For example, blogs, newsletters, infographics, videos, GIFs, slideshows, white papers, webinars and podcasts are all great formats for content marketing online. All you need is ideas to share!

How does it work?

The strategy behind digital content marketing is straightforward. Because billions of people go online to look for information, every search is an opportunity for your answer to be found. Ideally, you should focus your content around the interests of the people you want to reach. That way, when your target audience is browsing the web, they’re more likely to see results and posts from your company.

Next, capture their attention with engaging content. You can do this in all sorts of different ways, from a fun meme to a presentation of your business services. Most importantly, users who engage with your content will learn something about what your company offers. And after they’ve found your content, give them plenty of opportunities to keep exploring! More browsing means spending more time with your brand.

Finally, help your audience choose to purchase from your business. High-quality content builds trust, but you should also think specifically about questions that future clients might have regarding your solutions. Provide them with all the information they need to make an order. An extra bonus? Such well-informed users are more likely to be happy with their decision to buy and become repeat customers.

You may have seen this digital content marketing strategy described as a customer path or journey: Awareness > Consideration > Decision.

Why is this kind of marketing so popular?

Today, digital content marketing is more popular than ever. A recent study found that 84% of companies had a content marketing strategy. (And that includes both B2B and B2C businesses, as well as non-profits and other organizations!) Even better, most companies surveyed were happy with their strategy. Over 60% rated its performance as excellent or good, and 71% saw an improvement compared to the previous year.

There are a few reasons why this trend is so powerful. For one, digital content marketing can be more efficient than traditional marketing. Instead of using advertising to find potential clients, businesses create content that allows potential clients to find them online. Plus, a good content marketing strategy doesn’t require huge resources. With just your website, knowledge of your business and a few useful tools, you’ll be all set to get started.

Where should I start?

Before we dive in, keep in mind that content marketing is not usually a strong short-term strategy. That is, it takes time to make great content, show up in search results and build an audience. To stay on track, don’t forget about other marketing actions like promotions while you work on these long-term efforts.

Here are 5 steps to develop your digital content marketing projects.

Find out what content you already have

If you think you don’t have any content, think again! Take a few minutes to review the material your business already uses to communicate with prospects and customers. This might include social channels, like your company Facebook page, as well as website content like videos, About pages and more. Write everything down in one place and note which content you consider most successful.

💡 TIP: Remember “offline” formats like brochures, annual reports and sales documents. In many cases, you can transform these printed material into digital publications to use in your content marketing.

Analyze what your customers need

Once you know what content your company already offers, it’s time to find areas to grow. Think back to questions you’ve received from customers over the years. What did they want to know more about before buying? Which factors helped them decide? When did they need extra support?

At this stage, you may also want to request feedback from your customer service and sales teams. Make a list of all the information potential clients need and notice where you can create new content.

Brainstorm content ideas

Now that the subject matter to cover is clear, schedule a brainstorming session to come up with content ideas. For example, imagine you’ve discovered that prospects often want to see real-world references of your product in use. Here are a few types of content you could make to address that need:

• Customer case studies
• Customer interviews
• User-submitted photos of your products
• How-to guides to using your products
• Statistics about customer use

For each idea, there are a number of different formats available. A customer interview could be produced as a blog post, video or podcast. On the other hand, use statistics could be published in a report, infographic or animation. Let your creativity run wild and try to suggest as many content ideas as possible.

Evaluate what you can do

Hopefully, your brainstorm session has resulted in a lot of fantastic ideas for your digital content marketing strategy. However, it’s important to stay realistic when getting started. It may be easier to set up and write posts for a company blog than to launch a video series! Check the content that you’d most like to create against the resources it requires. One of the most cost-effective options? Embed a polished digital publication in your website for users to browse. You can be generating leads online in no time.

Make a plan

The final step is to organize all of your hard work into a single content marketing plan. Although these can be very complex, you should feel free to focus on the basics. Summarize the main points of your strategy:

• Audience you’ll address
• Topics you’ll cover
• Types of content you’ll make
• Channels to publish and promote content
• Timeline for content production

From there, you’ll be in great shape to begin creating content!

Of course, this quick guide is just to show you where to get started with digital content marketing. To build out your strategy, there’s lots more to consider from social media to SEO. But you can try out digital publishing right now, for free! Join Calaméo and publish your documents online in seconds.

What better way to start the year than by setting resolutions? For 2023, you’ll be required to include updating your content marketing strategy, and you’ll need to put in the work to make sure it’s flawless and eclipses those of your competitors.

Videos, articles, photos and online magazines will need to be more impactful than ever! And to support you in your resolution, today we’re sharing the top content trends for 2023.

1. Short videos

The video format has a promising future. Notably, because it can easily adapt to changing fashions and shape itself according to needs. In 2023, it is the short videos that will be honored. Made popular in turn by Vine in 2013, then by Tik Tok in 2020, the format of short videos continues to conquer social networking platforms in recent years, such as Instagram and its “Reels”.

YouTube has also introduced a new specific format of short videos on its platform, named “Shorts”. In 2021, more than 1.5 billion monthly users watched Shorts. It’s not a surprise that YouTube has decided to monetize Shorts. Indeed, these are very engaging contents with a strong viral potential, they can reach thousands or even millions of views much more easily than traditional length videos thanks to their faster pace and more engaging vertical format, which keeps the audience’s attention from the beginning to the end.

So short videos are a must-have format this year to add to your content marketing strategy.

2. Podcasts

The podcast has become a must-have format for content creators and brands alike. Not only is it an easy format for the public to consume, to listen to on the go, or while cooking, for example. But it also allows you to position yourself as an expert in your field and attract new prospects.

In France, 1 out of 2 people have already listened to a podcast, which shows how important the format has become in recent years. It is therefore essential for you to create your own podcast in 2023.

Choose your formula according to your resources: with or without guest, on which platforms to host it, etc. Then go for it!

3. Behind-the-scenes photos

In 2023, on social media, the people expects to see more authenticity. Gone are the filters and retouching, the trend is towards “reality”. To reach the new generation of young adults, generation Z, you must now necessarily play the natural card. The trend has even allowed the birth and growth of the new social network BeReal, which offers to share photos to its network instantly, without being able to retouch them.

For companies, a good idea to meet this new expectation will be to offer more ” behind-the-scenes ” content, which reveals what goes on behind your brand and presents the faces that make it work day by day. This will make your customers feel closer to you and improve your brand image, in just a few posts.

So, don’t hesitate to share your company’s daily life on social networks in 2023.

4. Content that show your values

If the year 2020 was marked by the COVID virus, it was also marked by major social movements like Black Lives Matter. During the summer of 2020, we saw many brands and public figures get involved by sharing statistics or information with their audiences in support of the movement.

Thus, brands are now expected to get involved in social movements: gender equality, racism, environment, social inequalities, etc. In France in 2022, 89% of people expect brands to do something for the common good.

This demand for brand involvement can also be explained by the trend described in the previous point: an expectation of more naturalness, and more transparency from brands, but also, ultimately, of more humanity.

If generation Z is the most sensitive to environmental issues, it demands a real commitment from brands. Thus, it will no longer be possible to display a false commitment and to do Greenwashing because it will necessarily lead to bad buzz, or even boycott by an entire generation.

In 2023, creating socially-engaged content that reflects your brand’s true actions and beliefs is essential to attract new consumers to your products.

5. Sustainable content

It has always been advisable to create high-value content, however, in 2023, the bulk of your content will have to provide interesting, timeless and highly useful information to your audience to be considered green and sustainable.

Indeed, it is in response to environmental concerns that this trend was born. We will therefore prefer quality to quantity. Your contents must be original and offer original and imperishable information to be qualified as sustainable.

If the lifespan of content is often very low on social networks, you will have to think about the use you make of your various channels. To increase the lifespan of your content, it is advisable to use sites such as Pinterest, YouTube or digital publishing platforms such as Calaméo. Offer formats like videos, infographics or online magazines to ensure you offer quality content that lasts over time.

Authenticity will be the keyword for your content in 2023. Less perfect publications, less retouched, but more real and more useful. Show the true face of your brand (and your employees) by supporting the causes you care about and create a podcast on the subject, or film short videos of your actions. In conclusion, rework your content marketing strategy to reflect the expectations of new consumers and to remain effective in 2023.