Switch it Up: The Many Types of Content
More eyes are on social media than ever before. So how do you make your brand’s content stand out from the crowd? To increase brand awareness, it’s important to embrace all forms of content.
There are tons of different types of content, so for now let’s broadly classify them into 3 categories.
Written Content
Visual Content
Interactive Content
Written Content
Blogs – Blogs play a vital role in content marketing. Not only do they help create brand awareness, but they can be very effective in improving your site’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization). With a blog post, you can share information which relates to the products and services you offer or even more broadly, your industry. Through sharing long form written content, you establish your brand as a thought leader. You show experience and knowledge. You also create a low-cost way to boost your organic traffic and generate leads for your business.
White Papers – What’s a White Paper? White Papers are a bit different from blog posts in terms of the level of detail. They focus on content that offers effective solutions and relevant facts, allowing companies and brands to display their expertise within a certain space. White papers can turn out to be a very valuable asset for business-to-business content marketing campaigns. I’ve never written a white paper, so if you want to learn more - check out this article I found helpful.
eBooks – Using eBooks in your content marketing strategy can also help establish your online reputation. To create one, you need a subject or topic in which your audience would be interested. Then you need a creative and engaging writing style that answers questions and concerns around that topic. To pick a topic, you can look at different facets of your industry and select something you think people will benefit from understanding further.
Visual Content
Example: Here’s a photo I took of a client, repurposed into a graphic.
Images & Videos - When something is visually attractive, we are automatically pulled towards it. Sharing your message visually can often be more captivating than just text. It’s statistically proven social media content which contains images or photos performs better. You can go even further and mix this up! Photos, graphics, plotographs, educational videos, filmed and produced videos.
According to Hubspot, “when people hear information, they're likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later.”
Infographics - Beyond images and photos, another way to visually display info is through infographics. They are a powerful tool you can use to simplify complex data and details, making them understandable in a visually engaging way. Apart from the information you want to cover, you can include your logo, website address and/or contact details to help increase your brand awareness.
Interactive Content
Contests - Contests can help you increase engagement across your following while promoting your products and services, generating new leads for your business, and driving brand awareness. The idea is to attract potential customers and create a community among current customers.
Polls - A poll is a simple way to engage your users and capture data quickly. It allows people to express their opinions, with one simple click. A good poll grabs the user’s attention, makes them think, and encourages them to interact.
Trivia/ Questions - With the introduction of the question feature on Instagram stories and other similar tools on social platforms, there are new ways to get your users engaged. Starting conversation by creating little quizzes or asking open-ended questions can be a great way to boost your engagement.
Switch It Up
As you can see, creating visual and interactive content can get more user attention and bring major benefits. So get out there and switch it up! Keep your feed (or your page or your site) fresh with new types of content every week!
Interested in more on content marketing? Leave me a comment on what we should explore next.