Beginner's Guide: Unlocking the Power of PDFs in Your Content Marketing Strategy
While portable document formats (PDFs) are a staple in our digital world, it wasn’t always that way. Before the advent of the file type in the 1990s, it was challenging to share documents across disparate systems. Adobe Systems revolutionized the concept of document sharing in 1993, and the file type remains one of the most popular ways to share content in an accessible way.
It’s no wonder then that PDFs are such a mainstay in content marketing strategies. If you’re wondering how to best integrate them in your marketing plans, we’ve got the beginner’s guide for you below.
Why Do Content Marketers Use PDFs?
Marketers love PDFs because they are:
Visually appealing: PDFs allow you to lay out content, graphs, and images in a way that’s easy to read, professional-looking, and understand.
Shareable: PDF stands for portable document format after all! It’s easy to share these docs between users and devices.
Simple: These files are relatively easy to make, making creating ebooks, whitepapers, guides, and more simple.
Optimizable: You can make your PDF searchable by search engines by using keywords.
Creating Effective PDFs
Because PDFs work so well for content marketing, there’s a lot of competition out there! That’s why it’s key to optimize your PDFs to make sure they stand out. You want to strike the right balance of providing high-quality content with eye-catching graphics and a well thought out layout.
To help you do just that, follow these best practices:
Use a cover page and table of contents.
Create a structure that’s easy to follow with headings, subheading, bullet points, and numbered lists.
Tag headings, paragraphs, lists, and images to provide a logical structure.
Make your PDF accessible by using descriptive alt text for all images, charts, and graphics.
Apply consistent branding (e.g., color palette, fonts, and logos) throughout the PDF and your marketing materials as a whole.
Check color contrast ratios to make the PDF easier to read. Likewise, use high-resolution images whenever possible.
Lean on charts and graphs to bring data to life.
Experiment with textures and layers to add depth to your PDF.
Optimize your content for search engines with keywords and relevant links.
Once you create a PDF that reflects your brand, use it as a template for future editions.
Which Resources Can You Format as PDF?
Here’s the good news- just about any resource in your content library can be formatted into a PDF, such as:
How-to guides: Walk your lead through a challenging use case or scenario step-by-step.
Ebooks: Use chapters to share your most comprehensive documents in a digestible way.
Infographics: Keep your most visual reports organized and easy to access with a PDF.
Newsletters: Archive past external or internal newsletters on your website by converting them into PDFs.
Decks and slides: Convert your most effective presentations into PDFs to give them more legs.
Whitepapers: Have a fascinating report to share? Make it a PDF so it’s simple to access and share.
Forms: Take in insights from your target audience by making a fillable form into a PDF.
Case studies: Showcase your best results for clients.
One of the neat things about PDFs is that you can package all or some of these materials into a set of files for your target audience. A cohesive package is an effective way to capture a lead attention by providing extra value.
When to Use PDFs in Content Marketing
So, when do you use PDFs in content marketing? The most effective way is to leverage them as lead magnets. A lead magnet is a high-value piece of content that a prospective client (or lead) receives after filling out a form, which “gates” the content and keeps it locked until the contact information is supplied. The lead magnet supplies the marketer with the lead’s contact information to funnel them along the buyer’s journey. Any of the resource types listed above can function as a lead magnet.
The key here is to have all of the elements of your campaign working together. You’ll need a targeted, SEO-friendly landing page that draws in prospects, high-quality content within the PDF, and an optimized lead nurture campaign to continue to convert and delight the prospect. You can even sweeten the deal by including a special promotion, exclusive insights, or discounts inside the PDF.
How to Market Your PDFs
When it comes to marketing PDFs, it pays to do some research on the front-end. The most important consideration to have in mind is — you guessed it — your target audience. When we say target audience, we don’t just mean a general, vague idea of who your content is written for. We mean the nitty gritty aspects of your personas including their pain points, goals, potential objections, interests, communication channels, and stage in the buying journey. Understanding this information and compiling it into an accessible document for reference is the most important thing you can do to ensure you’re creating content worth reading.
From there, make sure you’re saying something different from your competitors. If your content is merely a remix of the first page of results on Google, it won’t stand out to your audience. Try including quotes from interviews with your organization’s subject matter experts (SMEs) and proprietary research you’ve collected. Draw inspiration from your brand’s key differentiators if you need a little spark to get the ideas flowing.
Here’s another thing to keep in mind: if you build it, they won’t necessarily find it. There’s so much content out there that you can’t just assume your target audience will come across it. Instead, you have to devote just as much time to content distribution (or maybe even more) as you do to content generation.
Think back to your target audience — where do they go for content? Make sure to promote the content on those channels and platforms. From there, develop targeted campaigns around your PDFs that includes:
Dedicated, optimized landing pages
Social media posts with tracking links directing leads to your landing page
Email marketing content
Retargeting ads to nurture those leads who engaged with but didn’t download the PDF
Industry influencers or SMEs
Blog posts and articles that highlight your PDF in the call-to-action (CTA)
Caveats to Consider
As useful as PDFs are for content marketing, they aren’t without caveats. Before going all in on using them in your campaigns, know their limitations. First, PDFs aren’t as optimal as webpages for SEO. You can certainly optimize your PDF and supporting content (e.g, landing pages), but you won’t want to lean on them entirely for your SEO strategy.
PDFs sometimes render poorly on mobile devices. Always double check that your docs are responsive before releasing them into the wild. Marketers also find versioning PDFs difficult as you often need to recreate the document from the start to update. This is where it’s important to have a standardized process for updates. If you have content that needs to be frequently updated, you may want to choose another format.
Ultimately, PDFs fit well into content marketing strategies as long as the content within them is valuable, engaging, and professional. At Comma, we can help you create content across all formats that resonates with your target audience. Schedule a free 20-minute consultation with our team today to learn more.