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A highly creative storyteller who can come up with inspired ideas and turn them into even more amazing marketing campaigns, TJ Kiely leads Meltwater's global content efforts. For the past 10 years, he has been executing marketing campaigns and content programs that drive measurable results for some of the world's largest brands. 

Director of Corporate Marketing & Global Content

See all blogs written by TJ Kiely, Director of Corporate Marketing & Global Content at Meltwater. Social media management ★ digital marketing ★ ...

Author: TJ Kiely

What is PR? Public relations is an important role that is dedicated to increasing public awareness for a company or brand. It primarily uses media relations to earn press coverage, though there are many tactics that PR pros employ for achieving their PR KPIs.

What are the different types of PR? Covered in detail in the article are: media relations, social media, strategic comms, internal PR, and social responsibility. 

How is PR measured? Sentiment, share-of-voice, SEO rankings, earned traffic, and active media coverage & potential media coverage ratio are all commonly used metrics to measure PR impact within PR Reports.

The Meltwater Suite offers comprehensive PR software, including AI-driven insights for brand management, brand tracking, social listening, and sentiment analysis. 

Public relations and media relations add significant impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.

But here's the deal: most PR doesn’t happen organically. It’s something that brands must proactively and intentionally pursue.

So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide tells you everything you need to know for building a strong public relations foundation.

Why Should Companies Care about Public Relations?

Advantages and Disadvantages of Public Relations

Best Public Relations Tools to Build Your Image

Let’s start with the very basics: a public relations definition.

Public relations is defined as the practice of increasing awareness around a company or brand. It relies on media relations to earn press coverage, as well as content and KPIs to measure your PR performance.

Another PR meaning can be this: The planning of activities designed to shape the public’s view of your brand or company.

However you define PR, it’s important to think of the reason behind your PR activities. With intention leading the way, you can start shaping your audience’s opinions for your desired outcomes.

What does PR stand for, and what is the meaning of PR, you ask? Spelled out, it’s public relations. Or in some cases, it can stand for press release.

Both of these are used in the world of PR. You can usually figure out which is which by looking at the context in which they’re used.

PR is an indirect type of promotion. You’re not trying to capitalize on sales with public relations. Instead, your goal is to build brand awareness and positive sentiment around your company.

In some cases, sales will become a natural byproduct. That’s because PR helps to drum up interest and put you in the spotlight. As more people start talking about you and checking you out, some people may give you their business.

Another benefit of PR is that it steals the spotlight away from your competitors. You write a press release or go viral on social media, and BAM! Suddenly, people forget your competitors exist because they’re too busy looking at you.

Further reading: The largest US newspapers, the most popular US magazines, and the state of print media in South Africa.

Brands use PR for various reasons. The three most common use cases include:

Of course, there is also always a different approach to both B2C and B2B PR.

Brands sometimes have to do damage control and crisis management to avoid the erosion of trust with their customers. PR activities and communications can put you back in the spotlight for the right reasons.

Download the Ultimate Guide to Crisis Communications

Brands that want to grow their customer base can use PR to generate interest and reach a wider audience. It helps the public get to know your company beyond your marketing messages and products.

PR strategies can also cater to your internal audiences (think employees, shareholders, etc.). This is especially important for companies with multiple locations or remote employees.

Besides the typical use cases for PR mentioned above, there are several other buckets that one's PR expertise could fall into. These include:

Perhaps what springs to mind first when it comes to the definition of PR is the idea of media relations. This is a very important facet of traditional PR that involves building relationships with journalists and building a media coverage profile of mentions in top publications. 

A newer arm of PR in the digital age, social media PR expands upon traditional media relations to include shares by online influencers, blogs, and digital publications. 

PR that deals with strategic communications is typically zeroed in on sensitive topics such as new leadership hires, or highlighting key areas of disruption in comparison to competitors (such as a product update) and other important announcements. It relies on lock-step coordination with other departments and teams to ensure a united front is presented to the public.

Internal comms is another key area of PR that shares important news and announcements internally rather than externally. It's important for maintaining employee morale and loyalty, and it goes a long way toward establishing trust between leadership and the broader company by exhibiting transparency in key business areas.

Another more recent aspect of PR communications comes from the expectation of social responsibility on the part of businesses, by consumers. This type of PR typically involves building public trust in brand authenticity when it comes to various causes, such as LGBT+ rights, environmentalism, and DEI. It might tiptoe into crisis comms at times if a brand experiences backlash due to inaction or accusations of "green-washing" or "pink-washing".

Public relations and marketing (and advertising) share a lot of overlap — but PR and Marketing are different. The most important thing to remember is that PR is considered part of marketing communications. There are fields that are important for both PR and marketing divisions; social media, for example, has changed PR.

Unlike marketing, public relations activities focus solely on brand image. By comparison, marketers are more concerned about the total package: sentiments, reach, conversions, acquisition costs, etc. That is also why the skills needed to be successful in a PR career path differ from the marketing skillset.

For example, as PR increases awareness, marketing and advertising leverage that awareness to drive revenue. PR builds recognition through press relations and speaking events (like PR conferences), and marketing capitalizes on those leads to create paying customers.

It’s a common saying that people don’t buy products — they buy brands. Some people are even willing to pay more for a brand they like. When you build up the brand, marketing goals are easier to achieve.

Marketers wear a lot of hats, and public relations is just one of them. That’s why many teams prefer to hire a PR agency or specialist with dedicated resources.

<table class="table-primary">
<caption>PR vs Marketing vs Advertising</caption>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Aspect</th>
<th>PR</th>
<th>Marketing</th>
<th>Advertising</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Definitions</td>
<td><strong>Builds brand perception</strong> through relationships and earned media.</td>
<td><strong>Promotes products or services</strong> to attract and keep customers.</td>
<td><strong>Paid messaging</strong> that highlights an offer to drive action.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Goals</td>
<td>Strengthen reputation and trust with the public and media.</td>
<td>Generate demand, leads, and revenue for the business.</td>
<td>Capture attention and prompt responses or sales.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Formats</td>
<td>Press releases, events, thought leadership, influencers, community engagement.</td>
<td>Campaigns, content, SEO, social media, email.</td>
<td>Ads, sponsored posts, print, TV, radio, display banners.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>KPIs</td>
<td>Media mentions, sentiment, share of voice, reputation impact.</td>
<td>Conversions, engagement, lead quality, ROI.</td>
<td>Impressions, clicks, conversion rate, cost per acquisition.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

 "Advertising is what you pay for, publicity is what you pray for.” (Forbes, 2014)

Public relations is heavy on content — specifically written communications like press releases. However, when you build your PR strategy, your content usually falls into one of three buckets:

Tip: Read this blog to learn more about the PESO concept, learn about the top Asian news channels and websites to follow, and check out our free PR in the Age of Influence Report and our list of best PR campaigns

Earned media is the holy grail of public relations because it’s essentially free publicity. Rather than pitching reporters and news outlets, your audience is promoting you on your behalf. Word-of-mouth marketing is powerful because consumers trust it more than traditional marketing messages.

That said, earned media is also the hardest to come by. You can encourage your customers to leave reviews and share on social media, for example. But ultimately, it’s up to them how and when they choose to promote you.

Paid media is one of the easiest types of media for PR agencies and specialists to control. Once you create a press release or other content, you can promote it just as you would your other marketing. Channels might include PPC ads, social media ads, or influencer marketing, for example.

Naturally, paid can also be the most expensive. In addition to paying for content creation, you’re also paying to publish it.

Your owned media is any content that your company controls. Blog posts, case studies, social media copy, original images, website copy, and email newsletters are all examples of owned media.

Your owned media serves as the foundation of your PR campaigns. You can control when, how, and where it’s published, make changes to the content, and track its performance.

Tip: For help creating a press release, read our blog post: 10 Examples of Effective Press Releases + Template. Make sure to also read our blog on the 10 of the Best PR Campaigns! 

Why Should Companies Care About Public Relations?

It’s true that you don’t necessarily need PR to shape your audience’s perceptions. But companies invest in PR because it allows them to have a say in those perceptions.

Maintaining a strong public relations strategy can help you find opportunities to build and grow your brand. It allows you to create a relationship with media outlets, influencers, and other key people who can advocate for your company. Consistency in your public relations campaigns can help to reduce the cost, time, and effort of your marketing team without sacrificing sales and revenue.

Plus, it gives you a chance to establish emotional connections with your target audience. One of the top digital marketing trends for 2026 is values-driven content. 46.8% of marketers are exploring how to apply brand values (Hubspot, 2026). Emotional connections can be powerful in terms of building brand loyalty. As mentioned previously, people buy from brands they like, even if those brands cost more!

Of course, we also have numbers for you to underline the importance of public relations for a company. Check out the most important PR statistics.

Get more insights, benchmarks, and practical takeaways to strengthen your strategy and secure your seat at the leadership table. Download the 2026 State of PR Report to stay ahead of what’s next for PR. 

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An early part of your PR strategy should include building good media relations, and then learning how to manage relationships so they don’t turn stale. Many companies will hire a media relations manager or an agency solely for the purpose of fielding media inquiries, building a media list, and managing a media outreach plan.
Conducting media outreach is never a one-and-done activity. You need to stay on their radar so that when a PR opportunity arises, you have a better chance of getting their attention.

A generic email pitch is easily overlooked in the inbox, which remains the top tool to connect with media sources. But one that’s personalized will certainly catch the eye. If possible, use the person’s name and publication.

1. Personalize your pitch

When you’re getting free press advertising, what’s in it for the reporter or editor? Your email pitch should be relevant. Include an incentive or two, such as meeting a tight deadline or a promise to share the content with your own audience. If you are vying for a guest post, let them know you're happy to include links to their content.

2. Give them a reason to comply

Digital media outlets often have different people to handle different beats or topics. If you want to get published, make sure you’re sending your pitch to the right editor or reporter. Someone who covers crime isn’t likely to share your story about a fundraiser unless someone is embezzling.

3. Pitch your idea to the right person

Sending one email one time isn’t always enough to land on someone’s radar. Repetition and consistency are key, so try social media outreach to connect with your sources. Connecting in multiple ways can help build familiarity.

4. Connect with media professionals on social media

Your media contacts are doing you a favor by publishing your content. The least you can do is to make your requests easy on them. Proofread your content and give them good quotes and sound bites so they have less editing to do.

5. Make it easy to say yes

Media reporters are usually working against deadlines. If they need to follow up with a question, make sure you’re ready to respond. Give them ways to reach you directly and let them know you’ll respond quickly to their questions or comments.

6. Be accessible

How to Build Strong Press Relations

What is PR? Public relations definition and examples. Learn PR advantages & disadvantages and improve your media relations strategy.

The Basics of Public Relations (PR): Meaning & Examples

Companies that know how to effectively leverage public relations have a strategic advantage over their competitors. But what exactly is PR and what does it entail? This blog breaks it down so you'll have all the tools you need for a successful PR & comms strategy. 

Also get our free Ebook: Guide to Modern PR

Customer Journey definition: the customer journey can be defined as an accumulation of every step a customer takes, both prior to and after purchasing from a company.

In general, there are 5 stages to the customer journey: awareness, consideration, transaction, engagement, and loyalty.

Understanding and tracking your customer journey leads to better targeting, more optimized campaigns, and enables better cross-functional collaboration.

The customer journey is typically not a straight line. So learning what messaging to deliver at key points (and how to deliver it) is crucial for maximizing sales and encouraging customer loyalty. This is where a customer journey map comes in handy.

Customer journey maps help identify areas of friction, drop-off, and customer motivations.

Effective marketing is about being obsessively customer-centric. You need to have your customers’ pain points and desires at the center of everything you do. And you need to do it in a remarkable way.

Wes Mathew, Head of Marketing, UKI and India, Meltwater

The online customer journey describes a consumer's path throughout all product, brand, and company touchpoints that help decision-making. Consumers usually look at a product or brand several times before deciding to take action. They can also flow both forward and backward through the various stages in response to different stimuli and sources of information.

To set your digital customer journey up for a win, you need a clear understanding of all components involved. These include your target group, customer behavior, optimal communication channels and content formats to use, and most importantly, the user intent at each stage of the journey.

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

What Does an Online Customer Journey Look Like?

Who Does the Customer Journey Map Follow?

Analyzing the Customer Journey by Personas

Optimizing Customer Journey Mapping by Stage

What are the Benefits of Creating a Customer Experience Map?

What are Customer Journey Mistakes to Avoid?

How Do I Know if I’ve Been Successful at Optimizing the Online Customer Journey?

How to Use a Customer Journey Map Template

A customer journey is the accumulation of every step a customer has taken before and after purchasing from your company, and the various emotions they felt each step of the way. These steps are often signified by touchpoints, or moments where the customer interacts with your brand in some way.

Customer journeys are relevant for any company, regardless of the product or service they sell. 

Two examples of what a customer journey could look like include:

B2C Customer Journey: You’ve moved cities and need new weather-appropriate clothes. You’re scrolling through Instagram and see an ad that you click on. You decide not to buy anything, but you sign up for that company’s email list. After you receive an email coupon, you go to the site to finally buy the item that initially caught your eye. 

B2B Customer Journey: You need to get new software for your PR team. You Google the options, see the top results, and click through to a G2 Crowd report. You find reviews on some of the options and then go straight to their respective websites to schedule demos. Due to budget constraints, you wait a few months and then eventually purchase your top choice.

These may sound relatively straightforward in writing, but tracking this process is often not so simple. 

Sales and marketing teams are not the only departments in your company that should be actively using your customer journey to drive business activities.

Customer journey maps are a necessary communications tool for a variety of reasons. They help you:

Target your efforts: PR and comms pros need to understand how to reach their company’s target audiences effectively. Budgets are often tight, and every activity needs to deliver a proven ROI. If comms professionals keep pitching publications that their ideal customers are not actually reading, then you’re just wasting resources, or vanity pitching top-tier publications to feed the ego of your client

Uncover content ideas: Responsible communication activations should keep customer needs and pain points in mind. By keeping your comms team versed in the customer journey, you can more easily identify the best storylines to pursue

Enable cross-functional collaboration: Any customer-facing or customer-targeting department in your company (so, arguably, everyone) can benefit from some version of a customer journey map. More specifically for comms, your marketing and sales teams are likely creating resources to help move customers along their journey and down the marketing funnel. Comms teams need to know about these resources to ensure they’re not duplicating efforts, take the lead in using them to secure more backlinks to the company’s website, alongside company interviews in those earlier-determined key publications

Mira is Meltwater’s AI-powered teammate. It helps teams track brand impact, identify trends, and respond to media shifts in real time, providing clearer insight into how communications contribute across the customer journey. Take a self-guided tour to see how Mira can support your team.

When defining what the online customer journey looks like, brands should try to consider all possibilities. There are tons of paths that lead to the same destination, and not every path is linear.

Let’s say you want to purchase a new pair of headphones. You might start thinking about how and when you plan to use your headphones. For example, do you want to be able to connect to a mobile device? If so, does your mobile device support a wired connection, or will you need Bluetooth headphones?

From there, you might do a simple Google search to get a feel for the available styles, brands, colors, and price points. Then you might narrow down your options, watch some product videos, and then look at some product reviews from other users before making a purchase. Some people even look for coupon codes or discounts before deciding where to buy.

See how many different actions a consumer might take before choosing their headphones? This approach applies to just about any product your customers buy online. They might take these actions in this order; they might not. There might be other steps they take.

As a brand, your job is to learn more about consumer behavior and the steps your customers take when making buying decisions. This is where customer journey mapping tools like the Meltwater Suite can add value to your strategy.

Before we discuss tips for optimizing the online customer journey, let’s first briefly discuss the steps involved. In general, there are five main stages to explain the customer journey:

During the first step of the customer journey (awareness), the user becomes mindful of a need or want. Sometimes, they come to this realization on their own (e.g., their headphones break). Sometimes, the brand presents a problem the user didn’t know they had.

At this stage of the journey, the person is actively looking for options. The second step is defined by the user’s intent to gather all the relevant information to make good decisions. The user has all the basic information about a subject already from step one. The consideration/evaluation stage is about narrowing down options and comparing.

During this stage, the user is ready to make a decision. At the transaction stage of the customer journey, it’s important to keep things as simple as possible, so as not to overwhelm the customer and thereby prevent the sale from going through.

It’s at this stage of the B2B online customer journey that the ‘second moment of truth' takes place. The second moment of truth refers to the customer’s experience with the company they’re considering after they’ve become aware. This can occur both before purchasing the product, such as experiencing a hands-on demonstration on TV, but it may also happen after a purchase. This is usually the case in the modern age of online and live shopping when a customer doesn’t truly experience the product until after it arrives.

A second moment of truth that occurs before purchase will have a greater influence on whether a customer will pay for a service or product. On the other hand, a second moment of truth that happens after purchase will have a bigger impact on their satisfaction and continuing relationship with a brand, therefore affecting reputation.

During this stage of the cycle, two-way conversation is key. Customers and prospective leads need to be kept "warm." Even if the lead didn’t respond to further call to actions, there’s still an opportunity to re-engage with them.

What happens after the transaction? The customer's journey should be seen as a loop – just because the transaction is complete doesn’t mean it’s game over. For instance, there might be further needs that come with the purchase, like repair services or upgrades.

Tip: Learn more about how to build and maintain customer loyalty and watch our free on-demand webinar to learn how to map and visualize your customer journey.

Every map is designed to help users find their way to a specific place. In the business world, a customer journey map fulfills this same purpose. But instead of guiding customers, it serves as a blueprint for brands to better understand and optimize the customer buying experience.

A customer journey map can be defined as a visual representation of how customers discover and buy products. It plots all the possible actions a customer might take to reach a decision.

Items that make up a customer journey include:

All other touchpoints between customers and brands

Putting all of these things onto a single map makes it easier for business owners and brands to see connections between them. By understanding the paths your customers take and the relationships between touchpoints and actions, brands can improve these paths to create optimal outcomes.

Customer journey maps work for all types of customer touchpoints, whether you’re a business-to-business or a business-to-consumer brand.

However, there’s a difference in user journey mapping when you’re serving clients vs consumers vs customers.

A person who anticipates professional support and/or consulting from a business, often the case with professional service providers like attorneys, tax professionals, and financial institutions.

The terms ‘customer’ and ‘client’ are often used interchangeably, but the difference between customer and client matters in the buying journey. Using the word ‘client’ implies a long-term relationship between the buyer and the business. Clients typically receive ongoing advice or product and service recommendations from a business. This isn’t true for customers, who typically deal in transactions only. The relationship may end when they complete the purchase.

A person who buys goods and services from a business, either for personal or professional use.

Customer classification matters because priorities can affect customer values. For example, an end-user who is buying something for a business might have to consider more than their personal preferences. The buying journey is usually longer, involves more decision-makers, and the decision may affect the business as a whole.

Also, what the customer is buying can indicate how much information and how many touchpoints they need to make a decision. For example, choosing an oven for a home is a much costlier investment than choosing a new shelf. Customers will need plenty of information from the manufacturer to select their oven, will likely compare many options and brands, and read lots of reviews.

Tip: Read about the most common types of customers and learn how to approach them.

A person who purchases goods and services for personal use, usually in a repetitive cycle where items are continually consumed and replenished.

The consumer buying process looks and functions differently from the customer journey because items are usually low-cost and not intended to last forever. Examples of consumer purchases include toothpaste, food, household items, and clothing. The stakes for making a “right” decision are low and don’t often require a lot of research and comparison shopping before choosing to buy.

Client vs Consumer vs Customer in the User Journey Mapping Process

Knowing the difference between customer vs consumer matters when getting inside the customer journey. Knowing the type of customer you’re selling to can help you better understand their needs and priorities. Brands can anticipate shorter or longer buying journeys, provide enough helpful resources, and conduct more effective, proactive outreach to send buyers to the next stage.

Buyers begin their journeys in different places. Adding to the previous example, a buyer who has never had a set of headphones may have more research to do than a person who is trying to replace their favorite headphones that recently broke. Someone who found a set of headphones they love might already have brand loyalty, which can lead to a faster user journey. 

So, as there are different types of customers, there are also different types of customer journey maps. 

Let’s look at four customer journey map examples:

<table class="table-primary">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Type</th>
<th>What it is</th>
<th>What it includes</th>
<th>How it helps</th>
<th>When to use it</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>Current-state customer journey map</strong></td>
<td>A view of how customers experience your brand today</td>
<td>Touchpoints, actions, emotions, and pain points across the journey</td>
<td>Identifies gaps, friction, and areas for improvement</td>
<td>Assessing existing experiences or planning improvements</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Day-in-the-life customer journey map</strong></td>
<td>A broader look at a customer’s daily activities and context</td>
<td>Customer routines, behaviors, needs, and challenges beyond your brand</td>
<td>Provides deeper insight into customer motivations and priorities</td>
<td>Exploring unmet needs or new opportunities</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Future-state customer journey map</strong></td>
<td>A vision of the experience you want customers to have</td>
<td>Ideal interactions, desired outcomes, and improved touchpoints</td>
<td>Aligns teams around a shared goal for the customer experience</td>
<td>Planning changes, launches, or long-term strategy</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Persona-based customer journey map</strong></td>
<td>A journey mapped for a specific audience segment</td>
<td>Persona goals, behaviors, touchpoints, and expectations</td>
<td>Supports more relevant messaging and targeted experiences</td>
<td>Different audiences follow different paths</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Dive into what a customer journey framework entails, and learn how to create a customer journey map to help customers at every touchpoint.

The Importance of Customer Journey Mapping for Brands

Brands need to get into the mindset of their customers to know how to create the right experiences for them. Knowing what your customers need and want helps you decide which products to sell and how and when to communicate. A customer journey map organizes this process so you can optimize the customer journey at every touchpoint.

See also: Mapping Unpredictable Customer Journeys

Content marketing is a multi-faceted approach to attract new business, maintain a competitive advantage in SEO, communicate with current customers, build a thought-leadership profile, and more, all through content production.

"Content" can refer to blog articles, social media posts, landing pages, case studies, white papers, reviews, influencer content, UGC, slide decks, and more.

The benefits of content marketing include the fact that it (can be) cost-effective, serves to strengthen your brand, improves SEO, inspires greater trust in consumers by building authenticity into your marketing, and influences higher quality leads. 

Bill Gates wrote these famous words in a 1996 essay: "Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting."

This was back when the internet was still in its infancy. Businesses and consumers alike were still testing the digital media waters. The internet wasn’t yet on our phones, much less in nearly every household. So much has changed since 1996, but Gates’ prediction remains truer than ever — content is the king of digital marketing.

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online (DemandSage, 2025), it’s no surprise that many marketers embrace a content-first perspective.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever.

What Do Content Marketers and Content Managers Do?

What Are the Different Types of Content Marketing?

What are the benefits of Content Marketing?

Digital Content Creation and Content Marketing Examples

How Meltwater Can Help with Content Marketing

Tip: Stay on top of content marketing trends and make sure you learn about the most important content marketing metrics to measure.

Don’t BS your audience. Content marketing is supposed to be all about answering the audience’s questions. Giving them what they’re looking for.

Truth be told, the whole internet could technically be considered “content.” What sets regular content apart from digital content marketing is intention.

A hallmark of content for marketing purposes is that it steers away from traditional marketing messages. Rather than promote an item or brand in a sales-y way, content marketing focuses more on providing value to audiences and less on immediate sales.  

Content marketing is the intentional approach to creating valuable, useful, relevant content for online audiences that encourages a specific action from the viewer.

The idea is that when brands can promote value to the user above anything else, users will be more informed, and sales will naturally follow.

Marketers have a goal in mind, whether it’s to build brand awareness, improve lead generation, drive sales and other conversions, gather audience feedback, or similar goals. From there, a content marketing manager, also known as a content marketer, decides which type of content will help them achieve that goal.

Tip: Every content marketer should perform a content audit every once in a while to make sure their content is always up-to-date.

Regardless of how you market to your online audience, content plays a key role in your strategy. It’s the images, videos, and posts you share on social media. It’s the landing page people see after they click on your pay-per-click (PPC) ad. It’s the variety of links that show up on search engine results pages to match a user’s query and guide them to your brand.

The good news is that you don’t always have to start from scratch. 82% of marketers repurpose content across various social media channels (Meltwater, 2025). Repurposing content helps you get more mileage out of your best-performing assets, saving time and effort while keeping your messaging consistent across every platform and touchpoint so your brand shows up with the same story, no matter where buyers find you.

From SEO to inbound marketing, social media to PPC ads, brands rely on quality digital content creation to get seen and boost conversions. Here are some of the different types of content marketing you’ll want to explore:

<table class="table-primary">
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Content type</th>
      <th>What it is</th>
      <th>What it’s used for</th>
      <th>Why it works</th>
      <th>Examples</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Blog posts</strong></td>
      <td>Written articles published on a brand’s website</td>
      <td>Education, SEO, thought leadership</td>
      <td>Builds authority over time and attracts organic traffic</td>
      <td>How-to articles, explainers, opinion pieces</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Infographics</strong></td>
      <td>Visual representations of information or data</td>
      <td>Simplifying complex topics, increasing shareability</td>
      <td>Easy to scan and understand, highly shareable</td>
      <td>Data visualisations, process diagrams</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Videos</strong></td>
      <td>Visual and audio content designed to inform or engage</td>
      <td>Awareness, engagement, education</td>
      <td>High engagement and strong storytelling potential</td>
      <td>Explainer videos, tutorials</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Ebooks</strong></td>
      <td>Long-form, in-depth written content</td>
      <td>Deep education, lead generation</td>
      <td>Provides high-value insights that justify sign-ups</td>
      <td>Topic deep dives, practical guides</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>White papers</strong></td>
      <td>Research-driven, authoritative documents</td>
      <td>B2B education, credibility building</td>
      <td>Positions brands as experts using data and analysis</td>
      <td>Industry research, solution-focused papers</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Case studies</strong></td>
      <td>Real-world examples of customer success</td>
      <td>Consideration and decision-making</td>
      <td>Builds trust through proof and results</td>
      <td>Customer success stories</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>User-generated content (UGC)</strong></td>
      <td>Content created by customers or users</td>
      <td>Trust-building, community engagement</td>
      <td>Seen as more authentic than brand content</td>
      <td>Social posts, testimonials</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Influencer content</strong></td>
      <td>Content created with or by influencers</td>
      <td>Reach, credibility with niche audiences</td>
      <td>Leverages existing trust and influence</td>
      <td>Sponsored posts, collaborations</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Reviews</strong></td>
      <td>Customer opinions and feedback</td>
      <td>Purchase influence, social proof</td>
      <td>Helps audiences make informed decisions</td>
      <td>Product or service reviews</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Checklists</strong></td>
      <td>Step-by-step actionable content</td>
      <td>Practical guidance, task completion</td>
      <td>Simple, useful, and easy to apply</td>
      <td>Planning checklists, process lists</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Slide decks</strong></td>
      <td>Presentation-style visual content</td>
      <td>Education, storytelling, idea sharing</td>
      <td>Clear structure and visual clarity</td>
      <td>Strategy presentations, educational decks</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

A content marketing blog is among the lowest-hanging fruit for brands. Blog articles provide customers and potential customers with relevant and useful information, and as a bonus, they provide a natural way to promote your products or services. For example, if you sell a software product, your blog might include articles about its unique features, tips on how to use it, or answers to common questions.

Blogs also boost your brand’s search engine optimization (SEO), which is essential for helping people find you via search engines like Google. Your articles help you reach people who are searching for what you offer. Do some keyword research to come up with content ideas that will resonate with your users. Build each blog around a unique keyword to keep your ideas focused and relevant.

To get even more mileage from blogs for your content marketing strategy, you can share posts to social media and in your emails. Sharing your articles with those audiences gets more exposure for your blog.

Tip: You can also leverage videos for SEO on YouTube

Infographics are like blog posts but more visual. Instead of sharing information in an article format, you can turn your ideas into graphics. These are light on text since the images do most of the talking. They’re ideal for turning complex or boring topics into engaging content.

These are especially helpful for tough subjects because the human brain processes images much faster than text. Information that might take a person several minutes to read and understand can be presented in an infographic and understood in a fraction of the time.

Infographics are 30 times more likely to be viewed compared to text-based content (DemandSage, 2026), plus colorful graphics can increase conversions by up to 80%. Finally, infographics are super shareable!

It's no secret that video content has taken the online world by storm. Video now accounts for 82% of all internet traffic and is one of the most popular content types (Synthesia, 2025). 

Videos help bring ideas to life, are easy to digest, and turn complex concepts into easy-to-understand topics. For instance, you might offer a step-by-step look at how to perform a specific task with your product.

Because of their widespread appeal and ability to share lots of details quickly, videos are a great way to bring more value to your audience.

Tip: When creating videos, make sure to follow the correct social media video sizes and specs! Get inspiration from 50 ideas for video content.

Ebooks are excellent tools in any content marketing strategy focused on generating qualified leads. Pick a topic that relates to your brand and requires a more in-depth explanation than the average blog post can offer. Then let your audience download the ebook in exchange for a small fee or their email address. That way, you’ll generate leads who are truly interested in the topic, and you can continue helping them learn more about your brand and product or service.

For middle and lower funnel leads, case studies can pack a powerful punch. Case studies give an in-depth look at a customer who has used your product or service and the results they gained. They rely on real stats and figures to illustrate the story and usually contain quotes from the customer about their experience.

Similar to ebooks, white papers offer another way to build trust with your audience. The difference between a white paper and an ebook is that white papers tend to be more data-driven. They’re filled with research and present information factually. They are a great way to highlight original research you have that other brands don't. Because the data does the talking, you can use white papers to promote your brand in a non-salesy way.

User-generated content (UGC), is content created for your brand by real users or customers. It might be a video or photo of them using your product or a tutorial showing others how something works. UGC carries a lot of weight because it’s made by real people, not your brand. Users trust UGC and see it as raw, honest, and unbiased.

Tip: Check out these user-generated content examples.

Influencer content is similar to UGC. The difference is that influencer content is usually commissioned by the company or brand, whereas UGC happens organically.

You can hire influencers to promote your product or service to their audience. This helps you expand your reach and adds a layer of authenticity to the process because you’re not creating the content yourself. It's one of the most effective content formats because it's like getting a personal word-of-mouth recommendation rather than a typical marketing message. 49% of consumers rely on influencer recommendations, and 69% trust what influencers say and recommend (Meltwater, 2024).

Another form of UGC, online reviews and customer testimonials, is an example of high-converting content. They give direct insights into your product or service, are created by your customers, and shed light on their personal experiences.

For instance, someone might leave a star rating and review on your Google Business or Facebook pages. Or, you might ask a customer to record a video testimonial that you can post to your brand’s home page.

Online reviews and testimonials are like getting celebrity endorsements for your brand, but from your customers instead of celebrities. People don’t want to attach their name to a recommendation if they don’t fully support a product. That’s one reason why most people trust online reviews as much as they trust referrals from family members or friends.

Another opportunity to collect qualified leads, checklists are easy to make and offer lots of value to your users. Instead of putting together the nuts and bolts of a particular topic or task, you can save them the trouble by making a checklist. They have something concrete to follow since you’ve taken the guesswork out of the equation for them. And similar to an ebook, you can require your audience to sign up for your email list to access the downloadable checklist.

Another growing type of content asset is online presentations. Using tools like SlideShare, brands can create on-demand slide decks to share information in a presentation format. This is a great way to break topics down into bite-sized chunks and let the user go at their own pace.

To understand the full role of content marketing campaigns, look no further than the declining value of traditional marketing. Billboards, direct mail, and print publications just don’t have the same appeal or impact that they once did.

People learn to ignore ads — we’ve had to, given that the average person sees thousands of ads per day. When we get overwhelmed by companies competing for our attention, we learn how to tune them out.

That’s what makes content marketing different. Its primary goal isn’t to sell or promote, but rather to offer real value to the viewer. This helps remove some of the internal ad-block reactions consumers have developed and helps brands get noticed. Once you earn some visibility through your online content, you have a chance to make a lasting impression on your audience.

There’s also been a shift in the buying process that marketers should note. In the past, buyers would follow a fairly predictable path: discover an issue, explore various products, and then make a buying decision. Today, that process isn’t as linear as it once was.

Buyers are doing more and more research on their own. They’re using Google to find information about different solutions to their problem. They’re reading online reviews of companies before they buy. More than half of internet users research brands and products online before buying (Meltwater, 2026).

Brands need to accommodate this new buying journey, and content is a viable way to support it. Brands can present content to users that speaks to wherever they are in the process.

Content marketers can expect a wide range of benefits with high-quality content. Here are a few benefits you can expect from a well-crafted content strategy:

Want to boost your online presence and engagement? How content marketing helps your brand stand out from the competition.

TJ Kiely

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