We’ve all heard the old saying, “Change is the only thing constant in the world,” and that goes double for content marketing and the digital landscape. Diversifying is the name of the game when it comes to using content to boost audience engagement. If you overly rely on one platform or format, you risk selling yourself short and not making the most out of the work you put in.
Like an artist who is always in pursuit of other skills and interests to create a body of work, a marketer should also strive to leverage different types of content to reach a wider audience. The trick is not to try to be a jack of all trades. Instead, try to master some of the basics that will complement your core marketing strategy.
It’s important to know how to create different types of content for different segments of your audience. An excellent way to go about it is to tweak the format to meet the flavour of the environment, and then see what happens. In this guide, we’ll talk about the basic content types and formats and how you can use them to drive traffic and engagement.
Blog Posts
Blog posts are consistently a top performer for brands. Latest figures from Hubspot show that 55% of marketers rank blogging as a top priority in their inbound marketing efforts. They reap enormous gains from blogging, as those who do prioritise this format are 13 times more likely to have a positive ROI.
Blog posts are beneficial for boosting SEO, especially if you have high-quality, well-crafted content that dives more in-depth than the average article online. These also help you build a relationship with your target audience, solidifying your status as a thought leader who provides helpful, valuable content.
Plus, you can try a variety of lengths and types of blog posts to attract more people. Styles can range from short yet witty and entertaining listicles, how-tos, and step-by-step guides to thought-provoking, in-depth think pieces that include stats, research, interviews, and best practices.
Check out Buffer’s Blog on online marketing and Acorns Grow Blog for great examples of blog posts.
- Difficulty to make: 4–5/10 (depending on the topic)
- Evergreen score: 5–10/10 (depending on the topic)
- Most effective in: Boosting SEO
Infographics
Nothing like visually appealing and easily digestible infographics to keep your busy digital audiences hooked and wanting more. Visual content like infographics is actually “liked” and shared on social media three times more than any other type of content, according to the Nielsen Norman Group. Statistics from Demand Gen Report, meanwhile, show that infographics can increase website traffic by 12%.
Infographics should be part of your digital content mix because it easily drives engagement by breaking down an otherwise overwhelming yet useful data into digestible icons, graphics, and charts.
Your target audience will appreciate it if you put together useful statistics, facts, or figures within your industry and present it in a shareable format. The trick is to keep the design simple and clean and use plenty of white space. Catchy titles and content organised into distinct sections make it easier for your audience to follow the image.
Check out this fun and compelling infographic from LinkedIn Marketing Solutions that helps marketers work smarter.
- Difficulty to make: 4–6/10 (depending on the topic)
- Evergreen score: 5–10/10 (depending on topic)
- Most effective in: Increasing brand engagement
Videos
Videos are more effective than most other content types because of the visual format and ease of digestion. In addition, a video that tends to be more personalised can be a huge boost, especially if you’re dealing with a complicated subject. More and more people prefer to watch videos, so much so that Cisco’s Visual Networking Index predicts that videos will make up 80% of all global Internet traffic by 2019.
Videos keep your brand competitive in a busy digital marketplace because they are dynamic and engaging. The easiest way to use them is to upload them on YouTube, coordinate them with blog posts, and embed them in your relevant posts.
How-to product videos, behind-the-scenes footages, and customer testimonials can educate your audience about your brand. Ending with an appealing CTA adds value to it by letting viewers take the next step in your marketing funnel.
Check out LEGO’s page for tons of awesome videos. Hootsuite’s Game of Social Thrones video takes it to the next level with fun and creative messaging and visuals.
- Difficulty to make: 6–7/10 (depending on the topic)
- Evergreen score: 7–10/10 (depending on the topic)
- Most effective in: Brand engagement and driving web traffic
Case Studies
Case studies give your audience real-life examples of how your brand adds value to your customers’ lives or businesses. This type gives an in-depth look at how your brand stands out from the competition and how you provide solutions that work. Case studies provide both knowledge and actionable information. They should be part of your content marketing strategy because they can be instrumental in convincing leads to try your products or services.
With case studies, you also let your audience know that you are a thought leader in your industry. By highlighting unique and compelling results, case studies can demonstrate a challenge faced by a customer and show how your brand helped that customer solve and overcome the problem.
Check out how Mastin Labs and the Marketing Insider Group used case studies to show how content marketing leads to massive ROI.
- Difficulty to make: 9/10
- Evergreen score: 9/10
- Most effective in: SEO and conversion rate optimisation
GIFs and Memes
GIFs and memes are innovative content types that are increasingly becoming some of the most popular content formats today. They are animated images that can be embedded as easily as JPEGs. They can quickly grab your audience’s attention because they are amusing, engaging, and easy to share.
GIFs and memes help you communicate and connect to your audiences by giving them fun, light-hearted content. They are ideal for posting on your social media channels, blogs, and email. Give your audience GIFs and memes that are creative and witty, and you are sure to excite your audiences and get them interested in what you have to say. In addition, these images can make your brand more relatable.
Here’s an excellent example of a morphing GIF that went viral for showing the evolution of Miss America since 1921. Grammarly also gives perfect examples of how to use memes to boost engagement.
- Difficulty to make: 4/10
- Evergreen score: 4/10
- Most effective in: Brand engagement and driving web traffic
White Papers
White papers are long-form, information-heavy, data-driven, and detail-focused content. This type focuses on a specific problem or subject and offers an opinion or the best possible solutions. White papers are effective in building and proving your industry expertise because it shows how you can provide educational information, backed up by hard evidence and statistics.
These are useful tools for gaining new leads and email sign-ups. In fact, 76% of buyers say they are willing to exchange information for a white paper, according to data from the 2018 Intercom Report. You can offer your white paper as downloadable content, or one which the audience can access by giving information about themselves. It can be published online as PDFs, or as a content upgrade on one of your blog posts.
Check out how LinkedIn and SnapApp use white papers to educate and gain attention.
- Difficulty to make: 7/10
- Evergreen score: 7/10
- Most effective in: SEO and lead generation
Webinars
A webinar can be highly effective in engaging different types of audiences because it can be used at all stages of the funnel. According to a report from the Content Marketing Institute, 66% of B2B marketers cite webinars as one of their most powerful content marketing strategies.
Webinars not only give you opportunities to go out of the written content format and come up with casual yet informative and valuable content, but they are also some of the most unique ways to get highly qualified leads. They can also drive people to learn more about your product. You can also work with industry experts to discuss trends and developments to get your audience to feel connected to your brand in a way that reading alone cannot give.
The key to generating results from your webinars is to make them stand out from others by providing real, lasting value. Dive deep into topics your audiences want and need. Plus, content from webinars can be repurposed into blog posts and graphics.
Here are examples of interesting webinars from Lyfe Marketing and Harvard Business Review.
- Difficulty to make: 10/10
- Evergreen score: 8/10
- Most effective in: Lead generation and brand engagement
Ebooks
Ebooks are powerful lead magnets that can help you grow your email marketing subscriber list and boost engagement opportunities for your sales team. They are typically offered either as gated content or as free digital downloads.
Ebooks are long-form content that can take more time and money to make, but they are worthwhile investments that enable you to guide your audiences past the awareness stage and move them deeper into your sales funnel.
Whether it’s five or 30 pages long, your ebook should offer value. Ebooks should not focus on hard-selling, but on providing insights and in-depth or background information about a topic that matters to potential customers. By providing real solutions, you’ll be able to convince leads to convert later on.
Hubspot’s Ebook on Visual Content Creation and Kuno Creative’s The ROI of Content Marketing are interesting reads.
- Difficulty to make: 8/10
- Evergreen score: 8/10
- Most effective in: Lead generation
Podcasts
Podcasts are growing in popularity because they offer the right mix of education and entertainment—and that’s just the type of content that millennials are tuning in to. According to a 2016 research by Bridge Ratings, 45% of people in the 18–34 age group admitted to having listened to a podcast.
An engaging podcast holds the listener or viewer’s attention because of casual conversations that are thought-provoking but easy to understand. With podcasts, you’re educating your target audience by enabling them to gain insights from subject matter experts and personalities.
These bite-sized audio or video shows are excellent when it comes to reaching your audience and serving as a go-to resource. The most popular forms of podcasts are those that feature experts and personalities coming together to give their take on various topics or trends.
Goldman Sachs’ leadership hub Our Thinking features excellent podcasts. You’ll also get insights into the world of digital marketing from the Social Media Marketing Talk Show.
- Difficulty to make: 8/10
- Evergreen score: 8/10
- Most effective in: Brand engagement
Quizzes
Quizzes win big on shares—8 out of the top 10 most shared articles are quizzes, according to BuzzSumo’s analysis of the social share counts of over 100 million articles. The study also found that on average, this content type gets about 1900 shares.
The questions can be as fun and creative as asking users what type of animal they are or which city they should be living in, or they can also be factual. Quizzes engage audiences because they are highly entertaining and it boosts people’s identities and egos. Content marketers can use them as tools to generate leads and better understand their audiences in terms of their preferences, values, and tastes.
“What Career Should You Actually Have?” and “Which Decade Do You Actually Belong In?” are two of the most shared online quizzes.
- Difficulty to make: 3/10
- Evergreen score: 2/10
- Most effective in: Lead generation and brand engagement
Product Demos
Product demo videos do wonders for your content marketing by influencing purchasing decisions among consumers who are already deep in your sales funnel. According to Wyzowl’s Video Marketing Statistics 2018 report, 72% of people would instead use video to learn about a product or service even when both video and text are available on the same page.
Product demo videos engage audiences by showing your product in action while also making potential clients feel like they are getting an exclusive inside look. Get creative and try mixing animation and live-action to highlight your product’s key features. Let audiences know precisely how they can use the product and how they can benefit from it.
Headspace and Zendesk Sunshine are successful in gaining leads with their modern, relatable animated product demo videos.
- Difficulty to make: 8/10
- Evergreen score: 6/10
- Most effective in: Lead generation and brand engagement
Checklists
Checklists can be the easiest types of content to create and promote, yet they offer significant value for your brand and target audience. It helps audiences achieve the desired outcome through a concise, step-by-step process. Checklists are also excellent lead magnets that serve as go-to resources for potential clients.
For checklists to be more effective, they should be clear, organised, and informative. You can make the most out of your investment in checklists by offering them in exchange for an email subscription sign-up or repurposing and promoting them at the end of your blogs and videos.
Here’s an excellent example of a checklist that will help you plan your marketing campaigns.
- Difficulty to make: 3/10
- Evergreen score: 7/10
- Most effective in: Lead generation and brand engagement
How-To Tutorials
How-to tutorial videos are very similar to product demo videos, but they provide more detailed instructions and actionable insights. These are very useful for target audiences who are visual learners. Carefully-crafted how-to videos help affirm your brand’s credibility and expertise, as well as raise awareness on your capability as a thought leader.
Michelle Phan’s make-up tutorials are great examples of how this content type can amass a huge following
- Difficulty to make: 5/10
- Evergreen score: 7/10
- Most effective in: Brand engagement
Final Thoughts
As a brand marketer, you must be willing to experiment and put in the work as you move forward and try to find the most effective ways to reach more customers. A diverse content marketing strategy will help you gain the long-term, sustainable, and significant results that you need.
When going about it, keep in mind to set goals in terms of reach, traffic, exposure, and engagement. Ensure that you track your progress so that you’ll get a better picture of your ROI. Diversify your marketing mix, and you’re well on your way to reaping the rewards of more leads, better engagement, and increased sales.
The different types of content may be a bit too overwhelming, but we’ve got you covered. At SEO.uk, we have content marketing experts who can help you decide which formats will best generate leads and improve conversions for your business.
