Content Marketing - 12 Types of Content Marketing Tools eBook

12 Types of Content Marketing Tools
That Go Beyond Your Website

About the Author
Marcia Kadanoff is the CEO & Founder of OpenMarketing, an online marketing services Marcia Kadanoff, CEO of Open Marketing
agency based in San Francisco. In her role, Marcia works with clients ranging from
professional service firms to clean technology companies in creating compelling content
and lead-generation campaigns.

When she’s not helping clients get found online, Marcia is a frequent contributor to
many tech publications such as Marketing Profs, Clickz, and Mashable. Also, Marcia is
recognized speaker on SEO, marketing automation, and return-on-investment marketing.

Previously, Marcia worked as a marketing executive at Apple, as VP of Marketing at Sun
Microsystems, and co-founded the largest independent direct marketing agency on the
West Coast Miller/Kadanoff/Huber Direct & Interactive. She has an MBA from Stanford
and a BA from Harvard. But please don’t hold that against her.
You can follow her @openmk

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www.openmarketing.com | 415.578.7060
© 2012. Open Marketing Solutions, LLC. All rights reserved.

Introduction
One of the questions we get asked most often starts like this,

“OK I think I ‘get’ content marketing and why it works. You publish content about
your product or service and – through search and social media – that content gets
found by people who need what you are selling. But what kind of content works
best?”

The short answer is that there are 12 essential types of content you can utilize as part of any content
marketing plan. Throughout this eBook, our focus will be on content that can extend your brand’s reach
beyond your website or blog. There’s no single type of content that works best for all companies and
prospects. The key is having a diverse portfolio of content you can pull from.

Publish
Publish Choose
Choose Diversify
Diversify Extend
Extend
Your Content Content Type Your Portfolio Brand’s Reach
Your Content Your Brand’s
Content Type Portfolio Reach

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Here are the 12 types of content and
a brief run down on each of them
1 Videos & Motion Graphics 7 Podcasts

2 Webinars & Webcasts 8 Reviews

3 Infographics 9 Presentations

4 Q&A Content 10 Apps & Tools

5 Case Studies & Success Stories 11 Curated Content

6 eBooks & White Papers 12 eNewsletters

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12 Types of Content Marketing Tools That Go Beyond Your Website 5

Videos & Motion emot

1
ion
a

Graphics

le
nga
gement
deo cont
Yes, video belongs in your content plan, but not for the reasons
you think. We hesitate to create video with the intent to “go viral.”
th vi en
Instead, we typically recommend to our clients that they use wi t

ing
video early on to create awareness. After all, no other medium
engenders emotion the way video does.

market
Consider this video – actually properly speaking this is an example
of motion graphics – from a Palo Alto-based start up called
WealthFront. Here, the company’s objective was to attract a world-
class designer to their team:

http://www.wealthfront.com/designerwanted

This video did not go viral but it did get seen by almost everyone
in their target market (web/UI designers in the Bay Area). There’s a
pony in there folks.

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Webinars & To see a video of the webinar, click here. This webinar wasn’t your

2
usual talking heads. What we have here is Scott Abel (who blogs as
The Content Wrangler) and Val Swisher (CEO of Content Rules) with

Webcasts the Grammar Girl herself Mignon Fogarty.

Tired of webinars? Well so are we. We thought this was an old war
horse worth retiring until recently when we fielded a webinar
that saw 1500 people (!) sign up to learn more about grammar.
That’s right–Grammar.

Tips For Appealing Webinars

1 Avoid talking heads.

Make the webinar appeal to your prospect by focusing not on
2 your objectives but on the types of problems your prospects
are facing that your product or service can solve.

Don’t go at it alone. Consider reaching out to your favorite
3 blogger or pundit and ask them to act as the MC, with your
brand acting as the sponsor.

And remember, no one ever bought anything because you
4 bored them to death. Webinars should be informative,
educational, and perhaps even entertaining.

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Infographics
3 I have a confession to make: I have a love/hate
thing going on with infographics right now. On the
one hand, I love ‘em. Done well infographics will drive
a ton of traffic to your website. How this happens is through the
velocity of shared links – I share a link to an infographic with you
over Twitter, you find the infographic useful and retweet it, and
this behavior repeats itself hundreds, thousands, or millions of
times.

Now Here’s Where the Hard Part Comes In
Infographics are… well graphics. So if you make yours compelling, it
will get picked up and showcased on sites like Cool Infographics or
GOOD. This sounds like a good thing until you realize that everyone
is sharing links that reference back to coolinfographics.com and Source
not your site. So whose traffic are you driving here? (This question http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1206/the-generation-
falls into the Jeopardy category: Traffic Building Initiatives That that-doesn-t-shut-down/flash.html
Don’t Drive Traffic) To make sure you are driving traffic to the right
places, such as your website, always post your infographic with an
embed code. Don’t know how to create an embed code? Here’s a
blog post that we prepared that can help.

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Q&A Content
4 Q&A content is found on sites like Quora or in the
Answers section of LinkedIn. The content here isn’t
Does this content
make me look fat?

all that sexy (it tends to be all text) and it may not be
findable in a search engine like Google. Still, we like Q&A content
a lot, mostly because we know that people who post questions
here tend to be further along in the buying process.

Answer the Question!
When answering the questions on these sites, make sure you
answer the question (Duh!). People get mighty irritated when
you try to sell them on “your stuff” prematurely—so don’t. Be
helpful, pay it forward, and make it apparent where your product or
solution addresses their needs. Got a great example of a dialogue
that worked for you and one that backfired? We’d love to see it.
It’s easy to see the dialogues on Quora and LinkedIn, but it’s not
so easy to close the loop and understand how the conversation
resulted into a lead or sale.

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Case Studies &
5 Success Stories
Customers can’t generalize worth a damn. Which means you are
going to need multiple case studies, sometimes called “success
stories,” for every demographic or business segment you have
penetrated. Ideally, you’ll serve up these case studies in a way that
allows your potential customer to see or experience their problem
being solved through your product or service. A Case Study Without SEO: A Lost Opportunity
Consider this case study on “best design” From Sun Power (not our
client). This case study is one of a series by Sun Power presumably
designed to speak to a specific benefit. But when we did a search
on “best design solar panel” or “best designed solar panel” Sun
SERVICE OR SUCCESS Power did not show up on page 1 of the search results. Studies
PRODUCT STORY from Optify and others show that 60-70% of buyers aren’t going to
get any farther than page one.

This is an opportunity lost. Case studies work throughout the
buying process but especially during the early stages when the
Shows solution to customers’ problems buyer is still trying to define their problem and the products and
solutions that can solve them. Make search engine optimization a
priority when it comes to case studies.
Where Do They Belong?
Case studies can be content you place in the media, on your own
website, or behind a web form in which case – to pun terribly – you
are using the case study as lead bait.

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eBooks & White The market research firm Sirius decisions has found that –

6
depending on your category—some prospects will visit your website
up to 60 times before making a purchase. For this reason, we use

Papers visitor tracking/analytics software to collect data from the prospect
each time they visit. We interpret the data in such a way to tell
us where the prospect is in the buying process. Some leads are
eBooks are what back in the day we called “White Papers.” But in nurtured until they are ready to buy; others are handed off to sales
today’s post-literate age, buyers aren’t going to sit still long enough so they can get involved to answer the prospect’s questions and
to read long-form content. eBooks recognize this by re-inventing close the sale.
the boring, old White Paper into a fun read. Remember, no one
ever bought anything because they were bored to death. Here’s the latest eBook we produced for our client, Content Rules.

EBooks can make sense both early and late in the buying cycle
SIMPL RUL #6
E E Flabby Content Will Cost You Dearly
The buyer is looking to get educated about the category
Early and how your product or service can solve their I have said this so many times before: When it That’s real money. If you can trim
even 10% of your words, you will start
comes to localization, keep your content short and
problem. sweet. Mainly short. The sweet part is up to you.
to see significant savings:
500,000 – 10% = 450,000 words A savings
450,000 words × 15
¢/word × 8 languages
= $540,000
of $60,000.
Why? Because flabby content is expensive
to translate. Let’s review the way you pay for
The buyer is comparing your product or service to
Later others on his or her short list.
translation. Translation companies charged by the
word/by the language. For example, you need to
translate 1,000 words into 8 languages. The average
To make your content skinny, remove all needless words. A needless word is any
word that does not affect the meaning of the sentence. Here are a few examples
of flabby sentences:

cost per word is $.15. The math looks like this:
• Our so�ware is absolutely the simplest to install.
• This so�ware is very easy to install.
• It can be seen that the installation is simple.

Either way, it makes sense to make eBooks available only AFTER 1,000
words
15¢ per
word
8
languages
• First, create a new form.

your prospect has filled out some kind of form.
Another place to trim your copy is to substitute single, simple
$1,200 words for phrases.
That doesn’t look too bad, does it?
But, let’s say you have 500,000 words. For example Instead try
Here’s the math: Our software works on a variety Our software works on various
of platforms. platforms.

500,000 15¢ per 8
words word languages If you eliminate needless words from over 40 companies. I have found
and simplify your writing, your that it is easy to eliminate 10% of the
$600,000 readers will have a much easier time words. Often, we can eliminate 20% of
understanding your content. Increased the words. The savings really start to
comprehension as a side benefit add up.
writing skinny copy.
So, put your content on a diet. Your
I have analyzed over 5 million words wallet will thank you.

www.contentrules.com
© 2012. Content Rules, Inc. All rights reserved.

Download this ebook on Slideshare.
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Podcasts
7
Your Podcast

Podcasts are video or audio programs you can
stream ondemand or make available for download. iTunes Spread
Podcasts are relatively easy to create and are easy for
Store Content
people to watch or listen on iTunes.

Currently, there isn’t much competition for “shelf space” – if you
want to call it that – for a podcast than there is for an iPhone Clean and Non-Commercial Content
application. However, a podcast does have to get submitted and If distribution through iTunes is your goal, you need to keep
approved in much the same manner as an iPhone application. your content clean, have enough technical chops (you’ll need
to prepare an RSS feed), and make sure the content you produce is
Here’s a great example from Etsy (not our client) called “Handmade not blatantly commercial.
Portraits: Alabama Chanin”:
Target Buyers with In-Depth Content
Produce your podcast targeted buyers later in the buying process
who are eager to go in-depth on your product or service. Podcasts
are particularly good at delivering what we call “the back story”
behind your product or service.

Watch this with your eyes closed and you’ll “see” that this podcast
works equally well in audio-only mode.

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Reviews Here’s an example from Zendesk (not our client).

8 Reviews are the type of content that attract buyers
in the later stage of the buying process, when the
In switching to Zendesk, we've seen a dramatic spike
in customer satisfaction right oﬀ the bat.
Ryan Riddle, Customer Support Manager, Box
buyer is comparing products or services on their
short list. The best reviews are objective and come from people
who are seen as either:

1 2 3
Similar to Someone who has Someone the
the buyer expertise that the buyer trusts
buyer values

Think Walter Mitte (everyone’s favorite “everyman”), Walter
Kohn (the Nobel-Prize-winning chemist) or Walter Mossberg
(Principal Tech Columnist of All Things Digital in the Wall Street
Journal). If you can’t get reviews from one or more of the “Walters”
then go for another “W” with the “wisdom of crowds” approach.
Basically, this means getting a lot of reviews and making most of
them positive.
This works if the review is short but as we’ve all seen before,
Effective Review Placement some reviews are quite hefty. If you have a longer review such as
Reviews can be used on your own site. Often we place excerpts an analyst report, handle it the same way you’d handle an eBook:
from the best reviews on landing pages because testing shows that put the review behind a form and make the download something
this placement lifts response by as much as a full percentage point. you can leverage to generate leads.

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Presentations Slideshare and Optimization

9 Business-to-business buyers and consumers
who are making a considered purchase will troll
We recommend that companies set up a channel on Slideshare
to house presentations previously given at trade shows and other
industry events. By doing this, Slideshare will not only optimize
your content for organic search but will drive additional traffic to
the web looking for information to aid them in the your website due in part from the slide hosting service’s 60 million
buying process. Presentations can help buyers get educated about monthly unique visitors. In the end, you get findability without
the category in early stages of the buying process and understand having a pay a dime for it. One of our friends calls this “marketing
your product and services and what it can offer at later stages. using other people’s money”.

Bigger Audience Optimize Content

Drive Trafﬁc Increase Findability

Marketing Using Other People’s Money

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Apps & Tools The Tool’s Purpose

10
The Wealthfront tool is for people working at startup companies
who have just gone public and need to diversify out of their
company’s stock. The idea is to bring people to the tool so as
Apps & Tools are often used early in the buying
to acquaint them with the need to diversify out of their own
process when the buyer is not yet aware they
company’s stock. Notice how the Wealthfront is pretty low-key
have a problem. A great example of this can be found
when presenting its service as the solution to the buyer’s problem.
at Wealthfront, a company we talked about earlier when we
This is intentional. If you are too commercial at this stage of your
discussed videos.
relationship with the prospect you
risk turning them off.
Post-IPO Stock Simulator EMBED

Google IPO Date: 19 Aug 2004 IPO Price: $85 By Wealthfront Going Above and Beyond
$700K Stock value if never sold Reach out to bloggers and get
them to write about your tool or
Strategy A
$600K Sell 10% each quarter for 10 application.
quarters

$500K Allow Bloggers To Embed
Strategy B
Sell 10% of the remaining shares Even better, do the extra work to
$400K each quarter

10% solid for $55K
make your application a widget,
Value $300K
Strategy C so it can get embedded on the
Sell 50% up front and 10% each
of Stock Stock blogger’s website.
quarter thereafter
at IPO: $200K
Strategy D
$100K Sale Proceeds Sell all immediately post-lockup
$100K
Proceeds earn:

$0K 6% per year
S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S12/18/06 A M J J A
O F M
2004 2005 2006 2007 Selling Permitted
Note: This simulation cannot predict or guarantee the performance or outcome of any pending or future IPO. Selling Prohibited

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Curated Content Share-Worthy Organized Content

11
Take a bunch of blue objects, carefully collect them, and organize
them into a pinboard on Pinterest called “azure” and what have
We were thinking Pinterest when we created this you done? Created an entirely new form of content worthy of
category although there are many other forms of sharing.
curated content we could talk about. For those of you
not familiar with Pinterest, this is a newish site where you can While curated content could fit almost anywhere in the buying
create a pinboard of visuals and make them available to others process, we think that Pinterest specifically works well early on to
in the Pinterest community. The site has experienced skyrocket create awareness. This is especially true for products or services
growth and has come out of nowhere to become one of the 3 or 4 with a visual component and/or with a strong appeal to Pinterest’s
largest web properties in the US. primarily female demographic. A longer discussion of Pinterest is
available on the “Open Parachute”, OpenMarketing’s blog.

What happens when you pin content and organize it into a pinboard on Pinterest?

“Pin It” to a Board
Share it with
the community

Find similar content Organize content

Community
“Likes” & “Repins”

Create Awareness

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eNewsletters
12 Does anyone read email newsletters anymore?
Is this still a valid form of content? Yes and yes.
eNewsle er

Every single one of our clients uses email and every
single one of them generates more leads the day we drop an email
Clickthrough Link
newsletter and for a handful of days afterwards.

Readership Development
Once a month seems to be the minimum frequency required to
Direct trafﬁc to
stay top-of-mind with most customers and prospects. One of our your website
clients – the naming firm Eat My Words – gets terrific results from
an emailing that goes out 3-5x per year tops. However, this is more
the exception to the rule. User Friendly Design
Make your eNewsletter design easy to skim with links that direct
Mailing Frequency Buying Cycle
people back to long-form content on your website. There can be
links that take people offsite, but the majority should direct traffic to
your website.

Make Sure They Match Turn Customers Into Advocates
E-mail works to keep you top of mind with prospects and existing
customers, throughout the buying cycle as well as afterwards, when
you want to turn customers into advocates and evangelists for your
Mailing Frequency
brand.
Consider the category. A lot of companies need naming but not
very many companies need naming services 1X per month. So a
Keep Track of the Results
frequency of 3-5X per year may work well precisely because it better
To measure results, you are going to need some kind of visitor
matches the buying cycle.
tracking and analytics software that goes beyond Google Analytics
to support inbound marketing and/or marketing automation.

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Learn
More
Get More Leads. Accelerate Sales. Go beyond your
website with content marketing + inbound marketing.
Website Facebook E-mail
openmarketing.com facebook.com/openmk getleads@openmarketing.com

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Resources
1 Designer Wanted

2 The Content Wrangler • Content Rules • Grammar Girl

3 Cool Infographics • GOOD • How To Create Embed Code For Your Infographic

4 SunPower is Good for the Planet and the Blackwood Family’s Pocketbook

6 8 Simple Rules to Globalize Your Content Now

7 Handmade Portraits: Alabama Chanin

10 Strategies for Selling Your Stock Post-IPO

11 Where does Pinterest fit in your content marketing strategy?

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Content Marketing - 12 Types of Content Marketing Tools eBook

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