Subscribe to our newsletters

3 Types of Visual Content Missing From Your Content Marketing Mix

Social media has this way of hitting me like a tidal wave sometimes. I don’t know if you’re the same way, but I’m gonna make an assumption.

I log into Pinterest and see that someone had time to make a handmade garland, perfectly iced cake, and hand-drawn invitations … the stylized photo shoot of which gained her another 1,000 monthly visitors to her home decor blog. Or I log into Facebook and see post-graduate ceremony photos just everywhere. Or LinkedIn is telling me that guy got a job as the VP of Awesome for The Council of The Universe. Instagram tells me my house isn’t clean enough and doesn’t get enough natural light. Google+ reminds me that I’m not trilingual like I hoped to be at this age.

Social media can send messages of inadequacy for brand marketers in the same way. If you’re an aspiring content marketing superstar, you might be following content powerhouses like Hubspot, JESS3, or Salesforce — who seem to put out a new 30-page how-to guide every single day.

If you’re in this deep — feeling overwhelmed by the Michael Jordans of content marketing — you have two choices. You can a) ignore what they’re doing and keep plugging along, knowing after some time goes by, you’ll have a content ecosystem of your own, or b) learn a few tricks to kick-start your own content life cycle.

Here’s 3 types of low-involvement, repurpose-able content you might be overlooking:

1. Put together a presentation of curated quotes or stats on a relevant topic.

Hubspot took 100 quotes on marketing and made a presentation that is easy to share and digest, requiring a low-involvement (hosted without a form on Slideshare) from readers.

If you’re in the mobile learning market, for example, you can put together a presentation of 25 inspirational quotes on the importance of learning and education for a low-involvement, shareable piece of content.

2. Involve the influencers and bloggers in your market.

In this #in10years project from Achievers [below], their team reached out to analysts, bloggers, and other influencers in human resources asking the same question: What will HR look like #in10years?

They put together a presentation with the responses and shared it through their digital properties.

If you’re managing marketing for marketing automation software, for example, you can ask your social fans, bloggers, customers, analysts, and other influencers what has become the modern day pop-up ad. Using a hashtag like #modernpopup to gather responses will make your job easy when it’s time to create and share the presentation.

3. Create a visual how-to guide just to help your audience out.

Salesforce put together this blueprint for a perfect Facebook post as an easy checklist for marketers to make sure every post is spot-on.

Do you have a hack for something in your space? Can you create an essential checklist for conference SWAG to look for at HR Technology Conference or Dreamforce?

Now what?

Get comfortable with the idea that not every piece of content published has to be deemed worthy of the “thought leadership” award. Sprinkle in some conversation-starters — engaging content that promotes dialogue and entertainment — in the content marketing mix and your audience will be far more likely to engage with your higher-investment content offers (white papers, webinars, eBooks).

Keep it fun, keep it light, and keep people engaged while you’re working on your next mammoth of a white paper or eBook.