In the past year there’s been a greater emphasis on more visual, interactive, scrollable and ultimately, larger pieces of content marketing. It’s a trend that more and more businesses are picking up on, and one that’s going to continue in the coming months. So if you’re using content to market your brand, should you invest in these bigger pieces, and how exactly will they benefit your campaigns? Let’s take a closer look.
Advanced Forms of Content Marketing
Content takes many forms, ranging from a 250 word blog post, to a HTML5 interactive or technical-based piece which actively encourages user engagement.
Higher and more advanced forms of content usually incorporate all, or a range, of the following:
- Moving visuals and graphics
- Imagery
- Text
- Animation
- Videos
- Scrolling or clickable sections
- Sound clips or music
- HTML5 coding
To put this into context, here’s a look at four examples that factor in a number of the above elements.
GJW Titmuss – Cats vs Dogs
Thomson – Man’s Fascination With Flight
Thomson: Man’s Fascination With Flight
St George International – Must See Sights In London
St George International: Must See Sights In London
Phillips – Designed to Play
Using the above examples, it’s easy to see the distinction between these pieces in comparison to other, more basic forms of content, such as blog posts or press releases.
It’s also likely that you’ve probably noticed similar examples of this form of content being used online before too.
So now you know what bigger pieces of content entail, what value do they hold for marketing your brand?
The Power and Influence of Bigger Content
If you work in a competitive industry, such as car insurance, there will already be a vast amount of content online, presented in a range of formats.
For your target audience, this means that there’s a huge quantity of information to digest, so how do they decide which pieces to consume and which pieces to ignore?
Creating interactive and bigger pieces of content is one way to stand out from the crowd and ensure that your brand’s messages are heard over the noise of everyone else’s. In order to do this however, you need to come up with a decent, justified and targeted idea to work with first.
Whether simple but effective or elaborate and creative, ideas presented in this way can make your campaigns more successful by:
- Encouraging greater social engagement
- Increasing brand awareness
- Driving more traffic to your site or blog
- Acquiring more links through content promotion PR and outreach
- Generating more leads for business
- Increasing revenue and sales
All of these benefits combined seem like a worthy reason to invest in this form of content – however there are some potential limitations and restrictions to be aware of beforehand.
Budget and Time
Like any campaign, you’ll want to see work being carried out, as well as results pushing your business and brand forward at the earliest stage possible.
If you don’t have budget available to create bigger content in one go, it can still be achieved, it just simply means that the work will be spread out over a longer period of time.
In this instance you still have the potential to achieve the above listed benefits, but due to this restraint, your results won’t be observed until much further down the line.
This isn’t a substantial reason to neglect bigger content, because the results you gain can be far greater than utilising smaller pieces of content on a more frequent basis.
As long as the content meets the goals of your business, you shouldn’t be afraid to wait a little longer for results.
Content Promotion
It’s also important to remember that because a bigger piece of content takes longer to create, you need to invest more time in promoting it. Why? Because great content won’t just promote itself.
In order to see results, you need to outreach to industry influencers, communities and journalists and use your social and branded profiles to get your content seen.
The amount of time you invest in promotion will ultimately depend on the resources you have available, as well as the content you’ve produced. If your content is evergreen (meaning it doesn’t have a timescale or deadline to it) then there’s no harm in continuing to promote the same piece on a regular basis.
Remember, it’s not just about investing in the creation of bigger content, you also need to spend time promoting it too. The more you put in, the more you’ll get back.
What if You Lack Resources?
If you don’t have the resources available in-house to focus on writing, producing and promoting larger content, then using designers or a digital marketing agency are your next best options.
This will free up time internally and allow you to either focus on creating other forms of content alongside bigger pieces, or letting a marketing team manage your whole campaign.
In both instances you’ll still be able to benefit from these advanced forms of content, regardless if they take longer to create or the cost is spread out across a wider timeframe.
Consider if your business would need to use external resources in order to really benefit from this type of content creation and promotion.
Final Thoughts
Every industry can benefit from creating bigger pieces of content marketing.
In instances where budget and time are limitations, results can still be achieved, but over a longer period of time.
Business shouldn’t let these potential restrictions act as a barrier for creating larger forms of content, because if it meets their goals, then it can ultimately pay off in the long run.
There are a number of benefits to producing content of this nature and as long as enough time is invested in promotion alongside creation, businesses can reap the rewards.
If your business is looking to invest in more advanced forms of content marketing, speak to Koozai today. Check out our Content Marketing Showcase for examples of successful interactive content.
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John Waghorn
John used to be in a band. Hey, if he can still go on about it, so can we! He’s an Apple Sour drinker, a positive thinker and we’re always mesmerised by how he styles his hair. Answers on a postcard if you think you know how he does it.
Thanks for your comments. I agree, it does depend on time and resources and if you are lacking either or both then it’s a good reason to let a Digital Marketing Agency take over this part or all of your content campaign.
The results will depend on how strong the content is and also how long you spend promoting the piece you’ve created. Naturally, pieces with more promotion time invested in them will nine times out of ten perform better.
A wonderful article John. I think investing in bigger pieces of content depends upon how much time and resources you have, and you may not always get the same result so you have to think both ways.
Some great points here. Digital marketing really is becoming more and more about creating interactive content in order to make brand’s messages really stand out. Budget is obviously an issue, but now’s the time to get creative with social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube – there really isn’t much excuse not to branch out into other content forms like photography and videography. And ‘big’ doesn’t have to actually be big, as said here simplicity can often be highly effective. It’s about being at the front of the game, generating new ideas, increasing brand awareness and ultimately driving more traffic to your site.
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