Top 10 Types of Content You Need To Use for Your Business
Many businesses fail to see the value of creating content. Most of them will just set up a website that offers their service without giving their audience any clue as to what sets them apart.
We’re here to tell you that you shouldn’t commit this same mistake. Creating high-quality content establishes trust by providing your audience with an experience of what and who you are as a company. Because of your content, your audience is constantly engaged, and it prevents your brand from stagnating.
We’ve compiled the best content types that you can use for your business. Some of them require specialized skill, while some of them are doable even with zero experience. There is something for everyone here. We’ll explore these examples of content that can skyrocket your brand’s online presence.
Why Written and Visual Content Are Valuable for Your Business
Many types of content can help in scaling your business. Not only do they maintain your online presence, but they also serve as a dealbreaker for most of your audience.
In fact, if your content doesn’t offer value to users, then you’re only setting up your business to fail in the digital world. Many successful brands today use written and visual content to influence consumer behaviour. And there’s no reason why you shouldn’t do the same. Content marketing is easily one of the foremost strategies you can deploy to scale your business online.
But what exactly can you create, and how would you leverage it for your success? Here are examples of content that you can use to kickstart your content marketing strategy today:
Blog Posts
Let’s start with the bread-and-butter of content marketing: blogs. No matter their length, blog posts are an excellent choice for a business that wants to build its authority and presence online.
Posting content on relevant topics in your industry will help establish yourself as an expert in that field. After all, many Internet users love someone that takes the time to write something helpful for them. Whether it’s a step-by-step tutorial, a subject primer, or just a general post, blog articles are an excellent addition to boosting your website’s online presence. What’s great about this content type is that you’re doing this with no additional cost for software and advertisement if done right.
So, how can you maximize a blog post, then?
First, you need to make sure that it is optimized for search engines. This is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO), a strategy that ensures your content ranks high in search engine results like Google. This includes using the right keywords throughout your blog, which helps search engines understand your content's relevance to a search result. Optimization, however, isn’t limited to just stuffing your blog with keywords. This still entails writing high-quality content that is readable and user-friendly. Otherwise, your content will not be prioritized by search engines.
Secondly, you must identify what type of blog post you want to create. There are two general types of blogs that you can make:
- - Short-form blogs
- - Long-form blogs
Short-form blogs are typically driven by a big idea and suit individuals who can only spare a little bit of their time reading. On the other hand, long-form blogs provide in-depth analysis and step-by-step tutorials to help you through a subject matter.
If leveraged correctly, these blog post best practices can drive more traffic to your website.
Social Media Posts
- The rise of social media also presents an opportunity for businesses to connect with more audiences than ever. By maintaining a consistent social media presence, you’re likely to build relationships that can lead to sales and website traffic.
But there are many questions that a business should answer before they start building their social media presence. These questions include what social media to use, how often social media postings should be, and how much money to spend on social media.
The answer to these questions depends on your target market. For instance, if you’re looking to build relationships with casual users, then platforms like Facebook and Instagram are great starting points. If your audience prefers more visual content like videos and images, then you can try Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. Platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter can connect you with businesses and professionals.
Each social media platform gives you a unique set of tools to engage with your community. In fact, it’s a perfect option if you want to augment your online presence and siphon more traffic towards your website. You can post relevant content on your social media accounts and redirect them to your website to get more value. Many online shops and businesses use this strategy. Generally, you can post content like:
- - Images
- - Videos
- - Podcasts
- - Short and long-form copy
Carefully curate your content to your buyer persona so you can reach maximum engagement with your posts.
Videos
Video content marketing is also rising in popularity. You’ll be missing out on a lot if you’re not using videos as part of your marketing strategy. This is because social media algorithms favour video content over images and text-only posts since videos are more engaging compared to these two content types.
Your video content is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge in a field or the processes inside your business. This way, you are sparking more interest from your audience while still giving them value. Many people like educational content, especially if it’s demonstrated through a visual medium. Like a blog post, you can also use video content to do tutorials and primers on various topics in your industry. However, video content can be more labour-intensive since it requires scriptwriting, video editing, and the incorporation of other creative elements. When done correctly, though, a high-quality video can yield phenomenal results for your team.
Emails
This marketing strategy is advantageous in connecting with an already engaged audience. A user that fills in an email subscription form is likely to read your emails and be nurtured by your business to convert sales.
As such, emails can be a valuable marketing tool if you’re looking to improve awareness of your brand, offers, events, and other promotions. This is because the audience that you’re catering to with this type of content is no longer at the top of the funnel. They are likely to be informed users that are already aware of your brand and are deciding whether to try you or not. Some of them might have already been your company’s loyal patrons.
However, it would be best to make sure that your emails don’t get sent to the spam folder. Furthermore, you have to make sure that your emails are worth opening and reading. You can do this by following email best practices. This includes:
Creating a subject line that catches the attention of your readers. Personalizing your subject line is also a good idea. Furthermore, you should avoid being too salesy in your email or even try clickbaiting as a strategy. These two instances can flag your email as spam and will fail to get delivered to your audience’s inboxes.
Above anything, creating a high-quality content email is anchored on serving your audience rather than outright selling your products and services. While there are instances where such an approach is appropriate, being too aggressive in making sales can turn off most of your audience.
Newsletters
Newsletters are the special kinds of emails that get your content right in front of the right audience.
Simply speaking, an email newsletter is an email that contains any news about your business. It’s an excellent way to keep your audience engaged by keeping them in the loop with your industry’s currently happening. Whether it’s a promotional campaign or another major company update, newsletters are utilized to bring traffic to your websites and social accounts.
Unlike other email content types, newsletters can be flagged as spam if not written correctly. Some of your audience might even flag your newsletters as spam if you send newsletters frequently.
That’s why it’s crucial to determine the right sending cadence and timing to prevent unsubscribes. You can also be creative with this content type. Newsletter design templates are a great way to encourage further reading from your audience and lead them to your websites. This strategy should be on top of a good subject line and high-quality content found in all email types.
User-Generated Content
If you’ve already got several audiences that engage with you on different channels, then it might be a good idea to use their content. People don’t want to feel like you’re constantly promoting your brand by yourself. In fact, they want to see authentic content from their fellow customers.
You can ask for an interview with a user. Ask them what they honestly think about your brand. Any images, videos, and texts generated by users can be shared with your audience, which adds to the authenticity of your brand. After all, users want to feel like they belong in a community. What’s a better way than showing them what other people think about you, right?
One great example of user-generated content is GoPro’s Instagram page, which features people who use GoPro in their adventures. The campaign was so successful that it contributed to the growth of GoPro from a small brand to one of the leading adventure camera brands in the world.
Testimonials and Customer Reviews
People who already know your offerings may still think twice about them because they want to see any first-hand experience and feedback. Testimonials and reviews are fantastic ways to gain credibility and trust from your audience. With these types of content, your audience will have an insight into the experience they’ll get when they work with you.
Take Zendesk’s testimonial page, for example. They demonstrated how their platform easily integrates with different types of business, which led to growth. These success stories entice your audience to try you out since hard and unmistakable evidence proves your reliability and awesomeness.
Case Studies
Case studies are a special kind of testimonials. Essentially, these are testimonials from customers backed by research and data to prove the benefit of a product or service.
This often provides an insight into the process of how a problem was identified, a plan was crafted, and a solution was implemented. Customers will then get a glance at the method inside your business. This content strategy, like testimonials and reviews, provides tangible references for how your business works and why a client should work with you.
Take, for example, Adobe’s Royal Bank of Scotland Case Study helped them. With a clear demonstration of how their system benefitted the bank, more businesses wanted to try their services to improve procedures as well.
Of course, this is a perfect way to show off the real-world applications of your services as well.
Infographics
Like any visual content, infographics can speak to viewers differently than written content. But what makes infographics different is that they create an overwhelming amount of information more manageable to consume. A good infographic uses striking and engaging visuals to quickly communicate data and other information.
But it’s not just about how the information is organized that makes it great. It should also be memorable enough to grab someone’s attention and encourage reading.
There are many ways to use an infographic which includes:
- - Summarizing a long blog post
- - Raising awareness on a cause
- - Translating research findings and data
- - Explaining a process
Infographics are a great way to compress your ideas and data into one consumable piece of content. This makes it easier for your audience to sift through your content and decide if you’re worthy of their time.
Whitepapers
While average users do not use whitepapers, these types of content appeal to more business-minded and professional individuals.
If your target market is individuals searching for answers for more complex, industry-related subject matters, you can write a whitepaper to appeal to them. Like blog posts, these content types establish you as an authority in that industry niche which can help you drive traffic to your business.
While they’re similar to case studies, whitepapers tend to be more extended and in-depth. They provide much more detail by highlighting a feature or solution of a product to influence customer and investor decisions.
Final Thoughts
Content marketing is a powerful strategy for any business. After all, the only way that a customer can glimpse your value is through the content you provide. We’ve explored numerous content types in this blog. Each of them has a specific purpose in mind. You can use them to consistently engage with your customers and guide them to making wise purchase decisions.
Remember that building content largely depends on your goals as a company and the audience you’re catering to. Content marketing offers endless possibilities for your team, so use it as much as possible to grow your business.
