Understanding Content Types

Our content strategy and success hinges on leveraging the right content types for every audience at every stage of the sales cycle. Campaigns include a mix of these assets for the best possible customer experience. Lessen has a lot of tools in our content marketing toolkit, here’s how to use them:

Ads

‍Whether digital or in print, our advertisements tease Lessen’s benefits for specific audiences in engaging ways to lead them to take action and learn more (to contact us or consume content leading them further into the sales cycle).

Blogs

‍Blogs help build brand trust and credibility; positioning Lessen as a trusted partner and leader while creating regular touchpoints with prospects and existing customers. They cover best practices and provide largely product-agnostic thought leadership without a hard sell or pitch on a service or product. Stylistically, blogs are less formal than white papers and are typically 700-1200 words long. Blogs are a great way (when they rank in search) to pull in new, organic traffic for exposure to fresh audiences who weren’t searching for specific products but might benefit from our technology and services.

Bylines

‍Industry bylines position SMEs at Lessen as thought leaders in the industry, sharing best practices or opinions on timely industry challenges and trends. These are produced for outside publications in coordination with PR firms and professionals.

Case studies (traditional)

‍Case studies show real results and are beneficial at any stage of the sales cycle—they can give decision-makers an extra push while they’re still evaluating options. Traditional case studies are one to two pages with a customer story that visually calls out industry stats and measurable customer accomplishments powered by Lessen.

Case studies (text treatment)

‍Case studies can leverage a visual one-page format that covers industry stats and high-level, quantifiable company achievements with sums and percentages using icons and stylized numbering. Content blocks are used more sparingly here.

Customer-generated content

‍With client permission when needed, customer content can include blogs, reviews, social postings, videos, and more from customers sharing their experience with Lessen and how they use our services. (Think influencer marketing but on a smaller scale.)

eBooks

‍Ebooks are a more “packaged” and sometimes expanded version of blogs—typically focused on best practices for smart approaches to respond to ongoing challenges and timely industry trends and changes. They are usually no longer than 5-8 pages in length and provide more space for stats and insights with iconography and other visuals than blogs do. They make an enticing lead-gen carrot to gate for download and are prime newsletter content.‍

eBlasts

‍Ideally personalized with both customer and company names, these emails bring visibility to easing pain points with our services and solutions, often linking relevant content. In addition to major company announcements, and general information on offerings or launches, eBlasts are also used to promote Lessen appearances at conferences, events, and webinars.

Industry reports

‍Industry reports utilize proprietary research from Lessen and our partners, (usually drawing on data collected from unbiased outside agencies) to share how business leaders aligned with our customer personas are transforming their businesses and responding to the latest market demand and changes. These reports also go into depth on the current market climate, including changing technologies, environmental factors, and current events with stats and percentages on the latest trends. They are ideal for placement in newsletters and for gated lead-gen content across Lessen landing pages and targeted digital and social campaigns. Industry reports are thought leadership that builds a case for Lessen’s services and solutions without referencing them directly overall. A final page or paragraph zeroes in on how Lessen can help and includes main benefits and quantifiable results along with a CTA that directs customers to take the next steps with Lessen. Industry reports position companies as industry leaders, experts, and trusted partners.

Infographics

‍Infographics are an engaging way to share best practices, (example: Five ways to increase resident retention), insights, and stats on the latest industry trends.

Interactive content

‍Interactive content uses prompts on customer goals and needs to direct them to the right resources or queue them up for next steps to evaluate Lessen with live demos and consultations.

Newsletters

‍Newsletters continue to bolster confidence and trust in Lessen and our subject matter expertise. They should be used to share largely thought leadership-focused content, (blogs, bylines, eBooks, best practice videos, and industry studies), but can include occasional links to Lessen news stories or press releases about new services, company milestones, and achievements or more sales-driven white papers, videos, and webinars.

News stories

‍News stories highlight Lessen milestones, awards, achievements, philanthropy, and new solution and service launches or upgrades. News stories are more informal than standard press releases and can hone in on more product-centric or lower-level announcements that either don’t warrant and/or aren’t appropriate for outside media. They can also provide a streamlined version of formal press releases.

One-pagers

‍One-page brochures or product or industry fact sheets can be used in the field and across sales communications to quickly provide Lessen’s details and high-level benefits to prospects higher up in the “awareness” level of the sales funnel. One-pagers are scannable and easily communicate the service and/or solution value. They are ideal for sales introductions, follow-ups, and leave-behinds. One-pagers live on the website for easy accessibility to prospects and quick links for Demand Generation initiatives.

Overview (tri-fold)

‍Tri-fold overview brochures usually target a V and C-suite level audience and are ideal for prospects and potential partners or investors. They can be delivered in print format. A trifold brochure incorporates a broader, sweeping view of our company and/or services and solutions across specific business lines, using full-sized pages. They make a sleek leave-behind at business meetings and engagements along with a relevant company member’s business card.

Two-pagers

‍Two-page brochures or product or industry fact sheets can help keep conversations moving with warm leads by focusing on expanded benefits, stats, and real customer results. They are perfect for prospects or existing customers proactively expressing interest in learning more about specific solutions and services.

Videos

‍Videos are a versatile tool that can be used across audiences and solutions. Here are most of the types we’d leverage:

• Customer story/case study videos are exactly what they sound like, an opportunity for customers and supporting Lesseners to talk about real results using our services and solutions.
• How-to videos can guide users across our platforms and act as demo previews.
• Informational product videos share quick value propositions and use cases for a specific product, (great for introducing new Lessen applications and other offerings).
• Motion graphic videos can use minimal dialogue or simply music while covering industry stats and trends and how to respond with compelling, moving visuals.
• “Talking head videos,” also known as vlogs, enable company SMEs to weigh in on best practices and industry trends—they can connect both to how Lessen can help.
• Teaser videos (15-30 seconds in length) tease longer videos. They are often used on social or even campaign landing pages as persuasive soundbites that pique the viewer's interest to learn more.
  

Webinars

‍Webinars are powerful educational resources that can be provided on the site and to prospects and customers looking to learn about responding to industry trends. Webinar presentations often highlight how customers use our services and solutions to respond to market evolutions and remain competitive, (ideally with the key decision-makers who selected Lessen). More general webinars can also respond to common challenges and misnomers with new approaches that plug into Lessen offerings. On-demand webinars are recorded webinars served up on our site and across customer communications and newsletters.

White papers

‍White papers incorporate thought leadership on industry trends and how our solutions and services can help customers respond. They often include real results across multiple customers and business types and sizes. White papers lead with thought leadership messaging and stats on business changes and disruptions before mapping out our solutions usually with data-backed proof points.