How should you approach content creation for marketing to engage your audience?
Businesses that aren’t growing their audience or generating leads through engaging content — or aren’t creating content at all — are in danger of falling behind competitors who know how to get prospects’ attention in ads and through organic search results.
The simple answer is that all of your marketing content should include clear and direct messaging, with words and images that either provide value or compel action – ideally both.
Beyond that number-one rule, however, you’ll need to figure out what types of content your audience is looking for, and how you should maximize that content’s impact to further your business goals.
That’s why we’re here: to go over actionable tips for all content types that brands can use to clarify their messages and reach audiences successfully. KWSM has been creating content to support brands in many different industries since 2010, and we’ve learned a thing or 13 about what works and what doesn’t.
What Types of Marketing Content Should I Create?
Content creation for digital marketing can be broken up into two categories: written and visual.
Written content includes long-form content like blogs, email sequences, and robust sales pages. In contrast, short-form content covers text like social media post captions, ad copy, SMS messages, and post-purchase thank-you pages.
Visual content, on the other hand, is image-driven. This includes static images like photos or graphics, as well as any videos you create for marketing and advertising.
There’s a significant overlap, of course, between these categories. Words and images have to work together to get your message across. But if you and your marketing team take the right approach to creating captivating content, these building blocks will be able to support your brand across channels, and even in offline collateral like brochures and person-to-person sales.
We’ll start by examining short-form content and the ways you can improve your written marketing to engage audiences more effectively.
Short Form Written Content
Short-form content is the standard for written online communication these days.
Common forms of short-form content writing include:
- Website copy
- Landing pages
- Ad copy
- Video captions and supplemental text
- Sales and marketing emails, including subject lines and preview text
- Calls to action
- App notifications
- Infographics
These outputs are just the tip of the iceberg. Purely pictorial marketing outputs are rare because they can be confusing. You’ll need some words with your pictures to get your message across.
And if you want your audience to consume and engage with your content, you’ll need to internalize a few fundamental grammar rules — or at least know them well enough to know when to break them.
3 Tips to Make Short-Form Content More Engaging
Short-form content has to do a few things well in a small space to be engaging.
First, the message itself has to be relevant to and resonate with your audience. (If you sell dog toys online and a cat mom sees your ad, it won’t matter how good your copy is. She’s not going to engage.)
But it’s not just about what you say — it’s about how you say it.
Short-form copy needs to be active, clear, and intentional. Let’s take a look at what that means.
1. Use Active Language
Creating short-form content means that every word, even every character, is important.
Using active rather than passive language is essential to make your writing more direct, reduce your overall character count, and get your message across more efficiently.
Spotting and correcting passive language isn’t difficult when you know what to look for.
The most important rule is to place the subject before the action, or the “do-er” before the “do-ing.” “The batter hit the ball” is active, for example, while “the ball was hit by the batter” is passive voice.
Let’s say you’re drafting a press release for a new product. Instead of saying “[Product] has been released by [Company],” it’s much more clear and direct to start with “[Company] has released [Product]” and go from there. The “do-er” is before the “do-ing,” and you’ve said the same thing with eight fewer characters.
Passive voice can sneak into, and should be removed from, every written marketing output.
(Actually, let’s rephrase that.)
You should remove passive voice from every marketing output.
(See how much better that is?)
2. Be a “We”
This tip is also important for establishing your brand identity.
Most people who post regularly on social media write from a first-person singular or “I” perspective — “I saw,” “I think,” “I want,” etc.
This tip also comes from the Grammar Traditions of Yore, but it’s important for establishing your brand identity.
Most people who post regularly on social media write from a first-person singular or “I” perspective — “I saw,” “I think,” “I want,” etc.
While this is natural for personal posts, it’s not always right for brands.
After all, most brands aren’t a one-person shop. And even when they are, they don’t necessarily want to be seen as one.
That’s why short-form branded content should always be written from the first-person plural or “we” point of view.
There will always be exceptions, of course. A “message from the founder” email or a first-person POV video post should be from the “I” perspective, as should anyone writing about their unique personal or professional experiences. Those exceptions aside, however, speaking from the plural perspective should be the rule for your brand.
Referring to your brand as “we” reinforces your credibility because it implies there is a team working behind the scenes to solve customer challenges and deliver results.
3. Begin With the End in Mind
As we mentioned above, every word and character counts when you’re writing short-form content.
If you’re drafting a product announcement, a thank-you email, or an ad campaign, your audience won’t have the patience to read a wandering, half-baked train of thought. You need to say what you need to say without any wasted space.
In the spirit of that idea, let’s move on.
Long Form Written Content
Long-form content is one of the best ways to share the people and ideas that make your organization successful with your audience.
Long-form content can include how-to guides, ebooks, white papers, and other forms, but the most widely used type is blogging.
Blogging is a form of marketing that builds your audience through inbound traffic when your posts appear in search engine results.
In a marketing context, your blog posts should answer questions and provide the information prospects need to get over objections and take action. Since they’ve chosen to take the time to read your content, this is your chance to show them that choosing your brand is the right decision.
Think about it — when someone lands on your website or reads your blog, it’s not just because they want to know about your business. What they really want to know is how you’re going to help them solve the problem that brought them to your site in the first place.
Put Your Prospects First in Long-Form Content Creation
This customer-first mindset shift is essential if you’re creating long-form content for marketing purposes.
Instead of creating announcement posts that talk about new services or equipment, frame that announcement as an opportunity for your customers to enjoy the benefits of your upgrades through quicker fulfillment times or more responsive customer service.
Similarly, posts that discuss topics relevant to your industry should take a backseat to information that educates or supports your target audience — even if they aren’t directly tied to what you do.
For example, instead of writing about trends in your industry, write about some of the common pain points that your audience is facing. Empathize with their challenges and frustrations before presenting your brand as the solution they need to get over the hump.
Posts like this are more engaging and are more likely to get traction in search engine results because you’re using the same language as your prospects to discuss the problems they’re experiencing.
3 Tips for Engaging Your Audience with Long-Form Content
“This is a nice idea,” we hear you saying, “but no one wants to read long blocks of text on a blog.”
That’s true. But there are ways to format your long-form content to keep audiences engaged and ensure that they get the information they’re looking for.
1. Format for Readability
If you’re sharing big ideas or long lists with your online audience, formatting the information correctly is key.
Keep in mind that a significant portion of your audience will be reading your text on mobile devices, so keep sentences and paragraphs short. More than two or three sentences per paragraph will take up an entire smartphone screen and cause readers to disengage.
Also, breaking up sections with headers and bullet points can make longer posts and articles easier for audiences to skim. This is important because it’s how many prospects will ingest the information you provide.
If you make it easy for your audience to find what they’re looking for or solve a problem through your content, that positive brand impression is more likely to turn into a lead or a sale.
2. Original Information
It’s happened to all of us at some point. You’re reading a blog post or online article and realize that what you’re reading isn’t telling you anything new. Worse, the content is simply a rehash of novice-level ideas that could be found in any of a thousand other articles.
The widespread use of AI-generated content has kicked this trend into overdrive.
Unreliable articles created by ChatGPT and other tools have become so common and controversial that Google has publicly announced efforts to reduce the appearance of AI-driven websites in search results.
The antidote for businesses that want to engage audiences is to add original information to long-form content that audiences won’t find anywhere else.
This information can appear as:
- Internally generated data from a case study
- Exclusive quotes from team members or customers
- Results from surveys or tests conducted by your brand
Google has also stated that its algorithm looks for four indicators when deciding what content to elevate in search rankings: Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness, or E-E-A-T.
Original information in your long-form content can satisfy several of these categories all at once, which makes it extremely valuable for both engagement and reach.
3. Use Visuals
This might seem hypocritical in a section about written content, but this also won’t be the last time that visuals and copy come together to make each other better.
Similar to adjusting your formatting for readability, incorporating visuals like graphics, pictures, and even the occasional GIF can keep your audience engaged throughout a long-form piece of content.
Visuals are especially useful for illustrating technical or complex concepts that are unique to your niche.
Also, if you or your marketing partner add original graphics and images to your post, you’re creating more E-E-A-T content that should help further boost your content’s rankings.
Visual Content: Images
Digital marketing content that relies on words alone won’t get you very far. You’ll need visuals to define your brand, show off your products, introduce your team, and engage your audience.
As we mentioned above, visual content breaks down into two broad categories: static images and video. You’ll need both, sometimes in tandem, to create effective marketing assets.
We’ll start with how to make your brand’s images, which include both photography and graphic design, more engaging. We have a few more actionable tips to help you create and develop images that engage your audience and highlight your brand.
3 Tips For More Engaging Images
Let’s get real for a second.
Most of your marketing audience isn’t looking at your images, or any of your content, with a scientific eye. They aren’t examining design choices, contemplating color schemes, or thinking about what your font selection says about your brand’s persona.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do those things, of course, or that you don’t need to be intentional about your choices. (As you read on, you’ll find that the opposite is true.)
What it does mean, however, is that you shouldn’t get so lost in the details that you become paralyzed by indecision or take weeks to approve creative assets.
Also, remember who these images are for. You’re not trying to impress your friend group on the ‘gram, you’re trying to give your brand’s audience a reason to take action. That’s why our first tip is a simple one: your images have to meet your audience’s expectations.
1. Meet Audience Expectations
If you want your images to appeal to potential customers, you need to show them what they want to see. Images that reinforce what your audience wants from your brand are more likely to incentivize actions like clicks and conversions.
What does this look like in practice? The answer is different for every business, but it’s usually safe to make educated assumptions.
If you’re a law firm, for example, pictures of your partners wearing suits in an office are more likely to meet audience expectations than pictures of the same group in shorts and T-shirts at a backyard barbecue. Your audience is looking for professionals who know what they’re doing, and pictures of a casual hang-out don’t give off that impression.
Similarly, an outdoor products brand is much more likely to garner engagement with lifestyle images of the products in use than relying solely on studio photos against a white background.
In simple terms, the marketing images you create should convey the experience or outcome you want your audience to have so that they will be compelled to engage with your brand.
2. Brand Consistency (Mostly)
One of the best things about having a cohesive Digital Marketing Strategy for your brand is that it creates consistency.
Your messages and persona should stay the same across platforms and throughout customer interactions, and committing to a strategic approach ensures that your marketing team and internal departments are on the same page.
This consistency should also apply to your brand’s visual identity. Your logo, brand colors, fonts, and other elements should make it easy for your audience to recognize that it’s your brand that they’re seeing.
That said, there will always be times when impact trumps consistency. Colors, fonts, and graphics outside of your brand guidelines can be useful for generating urgency for limited-time offers or other FOMO-inducing announcements.
3. Optimize Your Text
We ended the long-form content section above by recommending visuals to break up your text. Let’s take a moment to discuss the text that should go with your visuals to drive engagement.
Every image placement available to your brand includes a space for words that explain what your image is all about. Graphic- or image-based ads include text and calls to action. Social media posts include captions, even if there’s no text on the image itself. Even when text isn’t visible, it’s still important — sometimes even more so.
Websites with images that don’t have captions still use text descriptors for the image itself, which is input as alternative or “alt” text in the website’s back-end.
Alt text ensures that visitors with accessibility issues, such as visual impairments, can connect with everything on the page and enjoy a complete user experience. This text also gives context for search algorithms that need to understand what an image contains to index it as part of its results.
Case Study: Portland Cider Co.
An award-winning handcrafted cider company in Oregon wanted to leverage digital channels to boost sales and distribution through retail outlets and its own tasting rooms.
KWSM created content for an omnichannel digital campaign that included recipes, short video clips, blogs, and an engagement-based giveaway.
Our marketing goals were to improve brand awareness and generate repeat subscription revenue, which we achieved with a five-fold increase in Instagram followers, about 3,000 fan-generated monthly posts, and 250 new recurring memberships.
“I’m blown away. I didn’t know what to expect, but I just read the strategy, and your deep analysis, insights, and suggestions are amazing! I believe this will literally change our lives.”
Tim Malott, Board Member, Portland Cider Company
Click here to learn more about this project.
Visual Content Creation: Video
Video is the last piece of our content creation puzzle, but it’s certainly not the least.
Video has become an integral part of just about every marketing strategy, from “About the Company” videos on websites to organic and paid social posts to everything in between.
Many of the engagement tips we’ve covered so far also apply to video marketing content. Your branding should be consistent, your language should be direct, and you should provide original information, just to name a few.
But you can also make some specific moves to ensure that the videos you create are as engaging as possible for your audience.
4 Tips for Engaging Video Content Creation
Video is one of the most competitive forms of online marketing content because you’re not just trying to pull attention from other brands.
You also have to compete with the organic video posts that appear in user feeds on platforms like Instagram and TikTok — and convince your viewers that they shouldn’t swipe immediately to the next post.
Let’s look at some tips for creating engaging marketing videos for the platforms your audience uses. We’ll start by looking at some of the technical components of video content for each of those platforms.
1. Go Native
If you want your audience to engage with your brand on channels like Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube Shorts, you need to post videos that look native. In other words, your videos need to look like they were created within, and for, each of those platforms.
The first way to do that is by getting your aspect ratios right. If you’re planning to post a video on one of the channels mentioned above, you’ll need to shoot it with a vertical (9:16) aspect ratio to fill a smartphone screen.
Further, keep in mind that a segment of audiences on mobile-first platforms will watch videos with low or no sound. Adding captions of your own, rather than relying on auto-generated text, can also help you keep viewers engaged and interested in your message in those circumstances.
Finally, don’t be afraid to use the editing tools and features that platforms like Instagram and TikTok provide to video creators. These extra flourishes can make your videos on specific platforms look even more native, which further breaks down potential barriers to engagement.
2. Grab Viewers with a Hook
We’ve already mentioned that video can support and enhance all of your marketing outputs, including your website, social media presence, and ad campaigns.
If you create videos for these audiences, however, you’ll need to remember that they aren’t as invested in your offer as you are.
That’s what makes your video’s hook so important. The first three to five seconds of any marketing video are crucial because those are the moments when a viewer decides if they want to hear what you have to say. In fact, those initial 2-3 seconds are so vital that most social media platforms track them as their own metric.
In other words, don’t waste time with a cinematic five-second fade-in on your brand logo. By the time the important part of the video starts, most of your viewers will already be on to something else.
Developing engaging video hooks is worth a post of its own, but the best rule of thumb is to find ways to surprise and delight your audience.
Give them a reason to get excited and stick around. Show them the outcome they’re looking for, for example, and then explain how your product delivers that happy ending.
3. Keep Viewers with Tight Editing
Once you have hooked your audience, you’ll need to keep them engaged for the duration of your video if you want the best chance at inciting action.
The details of each video will vary depending on your audience, your brand voice, and your offer, but one element that serves all marketing videos well is sharp editing.
Good video editing is an underappreciated but essential component of marketing videos.
Editing ensures that your videos maximize the impact of your message by injecting pace and visual appeal. Reliable editors also make it easier to mix and match content segments for repurposing across campaigns and platforms.
4. Choose (Or Create) A Compelling Thumbnail Image
Everyone knows that a picture is worth a thousand words.
But if you’re trying to get your audience to watch your video, the right picture is worth a thousand clicks — or, hopefully, a lot more than that.
Most video platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, allow you to choose or upload a preview image, commonly known as a thumbnail, that serves as a title slide for your video when it appears on your page or in playlists. Popular social media scheduling tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social also allow users to choose or upload a thumbnail before posting.
Choosing or creating a compelling thumbnail image can increase engagement by generating more clicks, but there are more benefits too.
Your thumbnail is another opportunity to reinforce your brand’s visual language (see “Brand Consistency” above), and you can use it to keep viewers watching until the end of your video by teasing the unexpected outcome or twist that appears in your hook.
Some advertisers test their thumbnail images as rigorously as any other element of their campaign to maximize ROI. Google also enabled thumbnail testing within YouTube for some creators recently, with plans to make the testing feature accessible to all YouTube Studio users by the end of 2024.
If your goal is to increase engagement with your audience, adding a compelling thumbnail to your videos is a must.
How Will You Engage Your Audience with Marketing Content?
All of the recommendations above will be valuable for any brand that is pursuing content creation as part of a marketing plan.
But unfortunately, even though this post is VERY long, there is still a lot to know and understand about content marketing.
Also, the tactics that work for a given platform can change faster than you can say “Zuckerberg.”
That’s why the best choice for most brands and businesses that want to engage with their audience is to work with a full-service marketing agency. You’ll get the combined knowledge of a professional team, including dedicated professionals who specialize in each of the outputs discussed above.
If you’re ready to create strategic content that engages your audience and achieves your business goals, contact KWSM to get started.
Fill out the form below to start discussing your content creation needs with us as part of your digital marketing strategy.
