Top 10 Content Types For Content Marketing

When most people think of content for a web site or blog they immediately think of writing. They gravitate towards writing blog posts, articles or eBooks, etc. While writing should definitely be a part of your content marketing plan, it’s far from your only option. In fact, if you only use writing you are probably going to miss out on reaching a large portion of the audience you are aiming for. Audiences on the internet today are used to rich media and depending on the age group you are targeting, they prefer different methods to consume information. Some viewers will scan the headers in your blog posts to find the information they feel is relevant. Others find it easier to view a video presentation. With such diverse audience preferences, how do you structure your content to reach the largest possible audience and appeal to the many different preferences in how information is presented? You probably don’t want to try and be everything to everyone, as that would dilute the time you have to create content. You do want to choose several ways to present your content and then try testing others to gauge the audience response. To help you with finding the best ways to present your content, here are the top 10 content types for content marketing.

1. Blog posts

Blog posts are an essential component of a successful content marketing strategy. When you blog consistently, you establish your brand as an authority and people can quickly see all the other posts you’ve published on your site. Just remember that blog posts don’t always have to be written. You can incorporate infographics and video or audio into your blog to make it more interactive and reach more people. Just make sure always that your blog content adds value or solves a problem for your audience.

2. Case studies

People love case studies. If you’re selling a product or a service, you can do a case study on how your product was able to help people. If you remodel houses, for example, you could shoot a video showing the before and after of the remodel of a home or a particular room. Or it can be as simple as snapping some before and after photos of the job. You could even snap some photos or shoot video as the job progresses to completion. Media content has become the norm on popular blogs and sites on the internet. Use that to your advantage.

3. Videos

Referring to #2 above, some people dislike reading and prefer watching videos. In addition to the case studies mentioned above, why not choose your most popular content and repurpose it into video format. You don’t have to be on screen talent for the video. You can simply hire someone to create a graphic presentation of the information with a voice over. Now you have a video to post on your blog and social media accounts, and you can post the video to YouTube. These can help the SEO of your site as well.

4. Infographics

Infographics are becoming popular due to sites like Pinterest. They make it easy for people to see your content’s main points in just a few seconds. People don’t have to read an entire blog post, they can scan your infographic, and they get useful information. At that point they may decide to read your entire post for additional information.

5. Checklists

Setting up a checklist of steps in a process can be highly popular. People like checklists. Checklists are especially useful for highly actionable content. It gives people a framework of what they need to do. For instance, if you were writing a travel blog you could include a checklist of essential things you need to pack for a cruise. You can also use this as a content upgrade to request people to join your mailing list.

6. Social media posts

You can turn your content into graphics that make it easy for your audience to share your content on social media. Graphics are easy to share and make a great addition to those social media share buttons you see alongside blog posts. Also make sure you use graphics or photos with your posts so they show up on the preview in social media shares. The graphics catch the attention of social media users much better than written words in previews when shared.

7. Presentations

With presentations, you can simply copy and paste the most important points in your content into a visually attractive PowerPoint template. Then upload the entire presentation to sites like SlideShare. This also gets you a link back to your site, which is helpful for SEO.

8. Quizzes

Quizzes and other interactive content help keep your audience engaged. Nothing helps your search engine rank more than a low bounce rate and visit duration on your site being high. Search engines can detect the time a person spends on your site. The longer they spend the more value search engines place on the content of your site. This can improve the ranking of your page or post. Keeping people engaged on your site is a major goal of content marketing.

9. Online courses

You can put together an online course using one of the services online designed for course creation. Online courses are a huge hit. They’re easy to consume, and people can find all the information they need in a single place. If you have information that people would like to learn, creating an online course could earn you a huge following online and help with your reputation as an expert in your field.

10. Memes

Memes are popular on social media. Create a meme that catches on with your audience and your meme may even go viral!

So there you are, a list of the top 10 content types for content marketing. Choose several that may work with your audience and mix them in with your written content to boost your content marketing efforts. If you have other suggestions for additional content marketing types let me know in the comments section.

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