What is data content and can it help you grow your data business? If you’re a data professional who is looking to expand your network and business, this post is for you! Discover how content can help you grow your own data business.

Even if you don’t know it by name, you’ve probably seen examples of content marketing before. It does a lot of the heavy lifting in public relations and search engine optimization.

Choosing the right kind of content to offer or sell is vital; so, when data, digital design or information services are your primary products, you need to think outside the box and showcase them in a way that translates well to the audio- and visual-heavy world of the internet.

What Is Data Content and Its Primary Types

There are two primary types of content you can put to work for your data business: paid and free content. Paid content is information products like e-books, reports, white papers, software, ads, online courses or market research. 

On the other hand, free content forms the heart of your marketing campaign because it proves to your audience and prospects that your whole lineup of data products is valuable and worth signing up or paying for. Some 87% of surveyed marketers say their company under-utilizes the data at their disposal and that means their content marketing efforts are almost certainly not as effective as they could be.

The Different Types

The following are several types of data content and how they can work for your brand.

1. Coding Demos

Coding and product demos help attract both new startups with IT needs and mature companies looking for products to help them scale. Furthermore, it also helps businesses see how a professional coder, product suite or automation tool will take their workflows to the next level.

However, not all coding demos offer the same level of content marketing value. One of the biggest mistakes is making the demo all about the product instead of the value it brings to the prospect’s operation.

This is where data science can help hone the perfect coding or product demo. Companies and their marketing partners should be exploring the questions and pain points frequently experienced by their target market, as revealed by keyword search data. By doing so, they can tailor product demos to different types of professionals and the sectors they represent.

Coding demos include:

• • Walkthroughs of enterprise-level software
  • Demonstrations of research processes or data forensics procedures
  • Showing how automation or machine learning products apply to competitive industries
  • Displaying graphic design or backend coding experience using digital mockups

Good demos of coding or software products should showcase the techniques used to safeguard clients’ intellectual property or personal data.

2. Blog Articles

Writing and publishing blog posts are some of the best investments professionals can make. To add, publishing regularly shows that the organization has its finger on the pulse of the industry, has advice and insights at the ready, and is committed to supporting its products with supplementary documents, guides and insights.

Types of blog posts include:

• • How-to guides
  • Checklists
  • Year-end roundups
  • Guest blog post
  • Infographics
  • Industry insight articles
  • Personal anecdotes and reviews

Blog posts are a great way to dial in your audience and find motivated buyers, but do note that conducting keyword research on what they are searching for lets you cast a wide net for customers who want what you have.

You can launch an especially successful content marketing campaign using blog posts if you take special care to target keywords your competitors aren’t utilizing.

Additionally, blog posts help brands grow effectively because they’re free. Whether you’re a data scientist with a proven track record or a contractor specializing in interior design, a blog post helps show off your skills, intuition, work ethic, and up-to-date knowledge about your sector.

3. Social Media Posts

Worldwide usage of social media has been on an uninterrupted upward trajectory for years, and the global pandemic caused a further 58% increase in people using these platforms.

The chief strength of social media posts is their versatility. So, data science can help PR specialists create a winning campaign. Content types may include:

• • How-to guides
  • Memes and funny content
  • Educational or research-based posts
  • Advance warning about upcoming sales and promotions
  • Contests and collaborations
  • Testimonials

YouTube and Facebook are the most popular, with 81% and 69% of U.S. adults using them, respectively. In addition, their audiences roughly represent the general population in age, gender and racial diversity.

The rest of the social networks have market shares in the same general ballpark as one another. Hence, you could potentially shift your spending from one network to another as you learn more about your audience.

4. YouTube Videos

As of February 2021, 81% of U.S. adults used YouTube regularly while on the one hand, about 95% of individuals aged 18-29 use YouTube, along with 91% of 30- to 49-year-olds and 49% of those over 65.

Some of the most successful video campaigns on YouTube fall into categories like these:

• • Ongoing vlogs
  • Product reviews
  • Walkthroughs and how-to videos
  • Funny animal memes or videos
  • Product features or unboxings
  • Educational content

Like other forms of content, YouTube videos position your brand as an authority in your sector. Moreover, they can also showcase your company’s products and give prospects on the fence a gentle push by showing them off in the real world.

5. Content-as-a-Product

Content-as-a-product, also called information products or data products, is paid-for information or a subscription that helps empower or transform your clients.

Here are some examples of content-as-a-product:

• • Online and continued learning programs
  • Photographs or stock images
  • Competitor or market research
  • Apps and software programs
  • E-books, white papers, PDFs and other longform texts

Think of YouTube and other free content as a preamble for the content you’ll sell. Content-as-a-product helps brands grow because it demonstrates that your insights and datasets are valuable enough to pay for.

Content products are also useful because they can target specific audiences and demographics or drive organic traffic through internet searches.

What is Data Content – The Business Growth Secrets

Data businesses have lots of opportunities to grow their client base using content marketing. These companies are also best positioned to realize a great ROI for their efforts since information determines what that content looks like, who will most benefit from it, and on which platform it will fare best.

How can content help your data business?

With the varied types of data content, pretty sure you can find the ones that fit most for your business. No matter what type of content you use though, what’s most important is the value of the information you share to existing and potential clients. So ultimately, that’s how content can help your data business grow.