Types of Blog Content for Content Marketing
Everyone talks about posting regularly to your small business blog and how important content marketing is. But what exactly does that mean? Should you be writing long-winded articles every week? This is a lot of text but gives you plenty of opportunities to target keywords. However, the general public doesn’t want to do a lot of reading. So, where does that leave your blog? Do you write content for the search engine bots or produce content for the people actually checking out your blog? The answer is both. Using different types of blog posts helps you make the most of your blog. Get inspired with this ultimate guide that gives you the complete list of blog content types.
Articles
This is probably the most popular of the types of blog content. Articles are text blog posts. They typically consist of an intro, body with headings, and conclusion that contains a call to action. While you can make your articles as long or as short as you want, there are some best practice guidelines to keep in mind. Try to write at least 500-600 words, though most top-performing articles in Google search these days are at least 1,000 words. Try to choose article topics that you can effectively explain without going too in-depth, off-topic, or staying shallow in your information. Articles are valuable content because they help you establish a successful blog that reaches your target audience. Do keyword research and target a group of keywords for each piece of content that you write. This helps you generate organic traffic to your WordPress website.
Case Studies
If you’re running out of post ideas for new content, consider writing case studies. This lets you optimize your website while also producing high-quality content. This would be a long-form post that features a success story from a client or customer that uses your product or service. This provides your reader with a good example of what your business can do for them. Unlike a typical case study, a great blog post that is also a case study will feature data and story telling. Include where the client was before they utilized your business and then how performance improved afterward.
Checklists
Help your readers by giving them a checklist. Perhaps it’s a list of things they need to do or have. Number your checklist to make it easier for the reader to work their way through the list. In some cases, it’s smart to have a printable version. Then the reader could download, save, and print the checklist for later use. Producing checklists is good for a variety of industries. For example, real estate agents make checklists for what homeowners need to do to prepare their homes for sale. Estate planning lawyers give clients a checklist to gather important documents to help them prepare the necessary documents. Automotive manufacturers and dealers provide checklists to vehicle owners for routine maintenance.
Clickbait
Do not make all of your content clickbait. While it’s highly effective at pulling in traffic, it’s also like a bait and switch. Your audience will quickly catch on to your tricks and lose trust in you. This is not the reaction you want if you’re trying to build engagement for your business. However, if you have your heart set on creating some clickbait, you’ll want to hone your skills. Clickbait uses specific language and psychological theory to entice people into clicking on the link. You can use text and images together to create an enticing link.
Co-branded
You don’t have to do all of the work yourself. Working with another brand or blogger can help you produce co-branded content that both companies can use. Not only does this get you different content, but it helps share the load of content production. You can also strengthen your professional relationships with industry-related brands. Think about other brands that make sense for you to partner with, and then reach out to make an offer to work together. This can strengthen the relationship between you and the other company.
Evergreen
Content that is considered evergreen isn’t necessary a type. The term comes from the tree, as evergreens grow for hundreds of years, making them essentially everlasting. The idea is to make your content like an evergreen tree, long-lasting. The goal is to create content that feels fresh and relevant to the reader for years into the future. This helps the content to produce traffic flow for longer and reduces your workload on updating old content. You can make different types of content evergreen, such as tips, how-to, reviews, articles, and listicles. Things like news articles, pop culture, trends, and statistics are not evergreen because these things quickly become outdated and old.
Guest Post
Not all of the blog content that you produce will get posted on your website’s blog. Guest blogging allows you to post on another website and then include a link that points back toward your website. This increases the number of backlinks that point to your website, helping your SEO efforts. If you decide to write guest posts, review Google’s user agreement first. It is against Google’s policy to pay for backlinks and guest posts. If Google finds out you’re paying for them, you could get blacklisted, which will majorly harm your SEO efforts. Instead, do some outreach to websites that are topically relevant to your website and business. Then contact the content manager or website owners and make a proposal for a guest post opportunity. You can also accept a guest blogger to write a new blog post for your website.
How-To
People love information that teaches them something. How-to tutorials are the perfect solution. These are articles that typically have a step-by-step guide of something that will walk the reader through a process. If you sell a product, then how-to videos help potential and current customers use your product better. These articles are also useful for troubleshooting, which empowers customers to confidently tackle issues on their own by placing answers at their fingertips. The trick to a successful beginner’s guide is to have someone unfamiliar with the process follow the how-to guide before you post it. If the writer is intimately familiar with the process, they unintentionally skip steps and key information, which makes the how-to articles more frustrating than helpful. Include plenty of visuals in your how-to, such as screenshots, real-life pictures, and video.
Infographics
You’ve probably seen this type of content as it’s been used for years now. Infographics are long scrolling images that are a pictorial representation of information. They work well when used in combination with an article. The idea is that the article will be a lot of in-depth information. The infographic reduces this information down to an easily digestible information format that someone can quickly scroll. You’ll typically see a large number/statistic/percentage that is paired with a pie chart/graph/map. Each piece of information is separated visually by a color change or graphic. If you have a blog post that has a lot of data, it’s smart to pair it with a post that expresses the same information in an infographic. You’ll find that the infographic is shared more often on social media, making it better at driving traffic to your blog.
Interviews
Are there influential people in your industry? Then you can interview them and post the interview on your blog as content. This type of content is good because you can turn it into an article, podcast, or video. Interviews are also an opportunity to increase engagement by sharing success stories that inspire others. Reach out to your audience and let them know you’re planning to interview someone and ask for questions that your audience wants to be answered. You can then ask submitted questions during the interview. Stay open-minded about who you interview. Share the personal stories of industry professionals, influencers, customers, or even an employee.
Listicle
This article could be considered a listicle. This type of content is literally a list of something. It’s one of the easiest types of blog content to produce. To make your listicle successful, add plenty of pictures. If you can, add one for each item on the list. However, this isn’t always possible. Another trait of successful listicles is narrow topics. Too broad, and your list posts will go on forever. Keep it neat, keep it tight. Typically, a listicle is a roundup of about ten, but don’t hold yourself to this. Sometimes it makes more sense for it to be shorter or longer. For example, there are many types of chairs, so this will be quite long. However, the topic is specific, so it won’t include other types of seating.
Pillar
You should have a plan for your blog content. Randomly producing content and posts without a plan results in a messy blog with content all over the place. Instead, plan out your content and create posts that walk your audience through the marketing funnel. This creates a system and organization. Pillar content is the central point to building out your content plan. These articles are long with a TON of information. Plan to write 3,000 to 5,000 words for these articles. You can then link off from the pillar article to other shorter articles that go more in-depth on particular topics. For example, a motorcycle insurance company could have a pillar post that talks about why it is important to have insurance and mention the different types. Then, it can have several posts that link off the pillar post. Each of these posts can dive deeper into each type of insurance.
Product Roundup
If you are interested in affiliate marketing, one of the most common approach to this type of content is with Amazon. You’ll write a review post that features several products within a category. Curate the list by choosing products that are high quality and you can honestly recommend to the reader. Another option is to write comparison posts where you focus on two or three products. You can then go more in depth in your review of each product. This also give you more space in the post to write a buying guide and faq section. Embed your affiliate links that track how many people come to your website and then click through to the eCommerce website and make a purchase.
Templates
Typically, you don’t post a template on your blog on its own. This would be slightly confusing and make the template look random. Instead, write an article that explains the template and how someone would use it. Then provide a download link to allow the reader to obtain the template and then use the template as cheat sheets in the future. When creating your templates, think about how the user will implement them. To build your subscriber list, you can place gateways that require someone to submit their email before being able to download the template.
Videos
Let’s face it, the majority of people don’t like to read, and they won’t spend long hours reading long informational articles online. This is why videos have become one of the go-to types of blog content. The amount of video content that people watch has doubled since 2018. You can create original video content using the same information and data that you speak about in an article and have created an infographic for. This strategy works well because one type of content won’t resonate with everyone. A video is sharable and engaging, making it a good tool for driving traffic to your website and increasing followers. Your videos don’t have to be long or professionally produced. The latest iPhones and the right video editing apps are all you need.
