Blogs should discuss or introduce an issue or topic relevant to your audience. They should express a point of view, focus on bigger ideas related to your solution area or industry, or offer something that your audience hasn’t considered or may not know. Blogs should not try to overtly sell a product, but rather position subject matter experts at your company as thought leaders. Blogs are not announcements; they should be constructed as a conversation. When developing a blog, use keywords within the blog so that the content will appear in internet searches.

In digital marketing, a landing page is the web page where visitors land immediately after clicking a link in a campaign email, search engine result or social media advertisement. Landing pages should contain compelling information and a clear call-to-action (CTA) with explicit next steps. These elements help visitors quickly assess whether what you are offering meets their needs.

Single-asset landing pages are effective later in the journey when a customer is aware of or experiencing an issue that the content directly addresses. Even if these visits don’t convert to leads right away, you have contact information and can send them more content related to their pain points. It’s ideal for email campaigns or paid campaigns.

Click-through landing pages are a more immediate form of a lead-generation landing page, often used by e-commerce and SaaS businesses. These pages are a little riskier than single-asset pages since they lead prospects straight to a subscription or direct sale. On this landing page type, clients can simply click a call-to-action button, such as “Buy now” to move forward with a transaction.

One of the best ways to show off your expertise, market impact and client result is through a success story or testimonial. Ultimately a success story can stretch across the buying cycle to support your sales efforts and attract new clients.

Well-written success stories—portions of which can be used in all types of assets, including case studies, blogs, videos, social media, presentations and more—are an effective way to convey the impact you had in a particular situation. You’re taking the audience through the opportunity, challenge and success of what your solution accomplished. Your client should be the hero of the story, but it’s your company that enabled their success. Don’t be afraid to talk about the challenges that were faced—it’s honest and real.

IBM has several resources to help you share your story and reach a global audience.

Email communication, despite heavy use, is effective when you focus on the benefits to the recipient. Include the benefit in the subject line, opening paragraph, and call to action.

In writing the email, answer the question: Why does my audience care about this information? For example, an email with the subject line, “Join us at the trade show,” conveys no benefit for the recipient. Be specific and speak to your intended audience: “Join us to build and manage secured cloud solutions.” Also, ensure the CTA is clear and prominent. Include a version of the CTA in your opening paragraph so the reader doesn’t need to scroll to the bottom of an email to take the action: “On 23 April, you’re invited[←hyperlink] to learn about an innovative approach to secururity-rich cloud environments.

Events, both in person and virtual, are incredibly effective ways to engage client and prospects.

Events allow you to engage with your user community in different ways. This level of engagement goes beyond name recognition or branding. It builds trust and rapport with existing and prospective clients. It demonstrates that you are a serious contender in the marketplace, but also have something more than your product to offer.

However, events can require significant resources in terms of time, money or both, whether the event is small or large. We’ve put together a set of event templates and guidance to assist you during all the phases: pre-event, during and post-event.

A short, easy-to-read document—typically a PDF for digital delivery—can highlight your business overview, solution or service information on a single page. Provide a brief outline of your solution, describe what your solution is about, what problem you solve and, ultimately, what your audience can achieve with your company. Strive for the clearest and most direct language you can use to connect with your audience. Consider creating an executive version and a technical version and let your audience choose which one they prefer.

Press releases are primarily used when you want to make an announcement. Examples would be for new partnerships, new products, major releases and general news. You can drive or link your audiences to a press release as the CTA in a campaign but understand that press releases provide very low opportunities for engagement and are better served for general awareness. Press releases are most effective when they include a quote from a client or partner.

Creating a dialogue with your audience through social media can be powerful, though it requires attention and planning. It can appear to be casual, but the social media assets you put in market should be part of a marketing strategy. Whether you tweet about a new innovation, post a thought leadership article on LinkedIn or use paid social tiles on a platform, what you communicate should have a purpose that’s tied to a marketing objective.

The social content you post can include provocative statements to get attention and elicit a response, for example, “Cloud security gets it all wrong.” You can also post simple declarations or announcements, for example, “ Looking forward to the Forrester event—we’ll be there.” The point is to engage and pull your audience into a conversation you’d like to have—appropriate for the phase of the buying journey.

How-to videos are a good way to increase your audience’s engagement with your solution. Demonstration videos showing your products in action can also be a valuable way to increase interest in them.