How you can better define the types of content you create? Learn how to create more effective content by looking at some specific areas of content creation.
Content marketing is all about getting your audience to read and share things — even if it's just something small and notable. Content is like the foundation of your marketing strategy.
With content, you can reach new audiences and build your brand. But it can be hard to figure out exactly what kind of content to create, and how to break it down into pieces that will be valuable to readers.
In this post, I'll share a few rules you should follow when creating content, along with examples of how I've used them.
How you can create better content?
The content must be interesting. It should be fascinating. It should be enjoyable. You should be truthful about the information you provide. There should be a lot of information or content that is informative and up to date.
These are the six principles of great content. So, to begin, let's go over the six principles of great content.
Many times, customers who find a lot of content on social media platforms do not always find content worthy of engagement. Rather than simply disseminating content that people will see but not really pay attention to, you must create content that people want to engage with.
And when I say engage with, I'm referring to content that people want to interact with. They should watch the entire video you've provided. They should spread the word about the content you're providing. They should enjoy the material.
It should pique people's interest enough for them to leave a comment. It should be something they can relate to, so they will want to share it with their friends and family.
You may have noticed that there is content that comes out that makes you want to tag your friends on Facebook and say, "See, there is an experience like yours, see this video, let's go to this tourist destination," and so on.
So the first requirement for creating content is that it be engaging. Connecting to this content should also be interesting because it will be of interest to a large number of people. They must find some element of interest in it, or else no one will pay attention to it.
People come to many of these social media platforms and social media sites for entertainment. In one of the previous sessions, when we discussed key motivations for people to engage or participate in social media platforms, we mentioned that entertainment or finding ways to entertain themselves is one of the most basic reasons why people come to social media.
So, if you have entertaining content, people are more likely to engage with it and find it more appealing. Brands frequently overlook this aspect, but the content must be truthful. You should be open and honest about the type of communication you're using.
Remember how, when we talked about the satisfaction model, we said that your content will suggest what your brand is, and your content will now set a lot of expectations in the customer's mind?
So having content, suggesting things, or saying things honestly will be very important because there are often risks in suggesting things without being completely honest.
In addition, there is a drop in credibility and a lack of trust that has developed if customers suspect that you are not being honest with the content that you are providing.
Finally, there are a lot of people on these platforms who are spending time learning more about products and services and determining whether or not they should buy products and services.
So, rather than just being entertaining, engaging, and so on, your content should be informative because, if it is more informative, there is a higher likelihood that it will be retained by customers or shared with other customers who are interested in this content or interested in gathering this information.
Finally, you should understand that the content strategies you choose or the content development you do are not one-time events. The content should always be current.
You may have noticed that some brands have static content or a large number of advertisements that do not change over time. As a result, the novelty factor fades over time. As a result, people lose interest. People lose interest in engaging with this type of content.
If you're contemporary, if you are able to relate to things that are present in the customer's mind at that point of time, then there is a higher likelihood that your content will be much more appreciated.
So to be engaging, to be interesting, to be entertaining, to be honest, to be informative, and to be contemporary are the key principles of how you should design content.
Define different types of content
Now, let me define the various types of content that you can consider. When we think of content, we usually think of a picture, a video, a small piece of text, and so on. However, the variety of content with which you can experiment is enormous.
1. Articles
Articles are one of the simplest types of content to create. Articles are pieces of information about a specific topic that you may want to write about.
So many times, you'd find that people with specific expertise, say, if you go on a Himalayan expedition, or if you take a bike ride to Ladakh, you might want to write a small article that could be published on a third-party platform, or it could be part of your social media community page that you're providing.
So the first and most basic way to create content is with an article.
2. Blogs
You may want to create blogs on a regular basis. Blogs are dedicated platforms where you can share a large amount of content that is related to specific elements.
Both articles and blogs are more individual-specific than company-specific or product-specific.
Many times, you may have noticed that there are a large number of companies, primarily those involved in the B2B domain or business to business activities, that may be creating case studies.
3. Case studies
Case studies are examples of previous solutions or engagements with other clients that they have provided. Case studies, for example, can help prospective customers or future customers understand the types of offerings and capabilities that this company has.
As a result, in many cases, case studies become rich marketing collateral and content that can be used in the B2B or even B2C space. Case studies are frequently used to inform customers about the capabilities of the company and the types of offerings it provides.
Case studies, once again, are a type of content that businesses prioritize.
4. Newsletters
There are numerous digital newsletters available. You may have noticed that when you visit the websites of various companies, there are forms available on these websites. When you fill out these forms, you will receive digital newsletters.
So, on a regular basis, such as monthly or weekly, you would receive a plethora of updates about the industry and the company. It could be an association of specific industry practitioners who send you digital newsletters.
Again, these digital newsletters contain a lot of information. It could be a combination of different articles that are part of the digital newsletter, but it could also be something with a lot of content, which you can workaround.
5. E-Books
There are some e-books that have been written. Many times, brands that focus on creating solutions in the digital space or any other industry, for example, digital marketing software as a relatable example here, create content in the form of e-books. It could be an e-book, a tutorial, or an e-book about a specific topic.
So there could be a software provider that offers software that allows you to easily create e-commerce platforms. So this company may want to create an e-book, content that resembles an e-book, or a PDF file, which basically has a lot of different things that you have to keep in mind while creating an e-commerce platform, and every time they do so, they will also provide a "how-to" with respect to the software that they are providing in the marketplace.
So, in one sense, it is more information that they provide to a large number of people who are interested in e-commerce. On the other hand, they provide a lot of tutorials and "how to" activities for how to use the software.
As a result, it becomes manual as well as informative, rich content that people will want to buy and read. This type of content is frequently used by businesses.
So e-books are something that is commonly used by companies that are creating something novel, are highly technological, or want to create something that is not widely known. Something extremely new can be captured in an e-book format and distributed to people.
6. Infographics
Infographics are images with a lot of information associated with them. You've probably noticed that there are images or picture formats that have graphical representations and different ways of capturing data.
Many times, they will tell you a story, and other times, they will provide you with rich information in the form of an infographic.
As a result, this graphic is very appealing. So many times, without the customer or the audience having to spend time reading through the entire content, they can understand what data is being provided or what message is being communicated simply by looking at the graphics.
When you look at platforms like Twitter, for example, rather than writing the entire content down, it is very easy and very effective for you to provide a small infographic.
Consider an infographic about a price decrease. Previously, your product was available for 80 rupees. Now that you're offering a 50% discount, the infographic becomes something that can be easily provided there.
For example, if you are a company that has now begun retail presence in ten different states in India, you can provide a map of India with your presence and all of these ten states, and the information that can be provided becomes very rich.
If you're a rapidly expanding company with an e-commerce platform that has doubled or tripled the number of customers doing business with you. You can probably show a graph that shows how much growth we have.
Again, by doing so, you can capture information in a graphical format and present it in a way that customers can easily understand. As a result, it is something that does not require a lot of time for customers to go through, but customers can understand the gist of everything that you provided.
So, once again, it is a different type of content that you can work with.
7. Micro-site
Now, a micro-site is a website that has been reduced in size or is a shorter version of a website that is created for a very specific campaign for a very short or specific period of time that may or may not exist later on.
For example, if you're running a promotional campaign, you might want to create a separate website for it. This could be a subdomain or a subdomain of your main website. As a result, this is commonly referred to as a micro-site.
Now, the microsite may have a different theme, a different appearance, and may contain different content than the main website that you are using. And, because it is typically created for a specific purpose, you may be able to create a different theme for the microsite.
For example, if you are a toy manufacturer, you might want to create a microsite during Diwali or Christmas to promote toys for kids during this festive season, and you might be able to promote this microsite, and the content on this microsite might be the core focus of the entire activities that you're going to do during this festival season.
As a result, microsites are also examples of content that you create.
8. Podcasts
You've probably seen a lot of podcasts used by comedians in India. In general, popular comedians on YouTube use podcasts, which are audio transcripts of people discussing with one another, and this content is available for a larger audience to listen to.
Many businesses use podcasts as well, where there may be discussions about a specific technology, discussions about available products, and discussions about industry experts.
And this audio content is then used to reach out to a broader group of people, including company stakeholders and prospective customers. Industry experts may be invited to participate in a panel discussion, and the content may be made available as a podcast for people to listen to. This type of content can also be used.
9. Social media content
One of the most important and widely seen types of content is that found on social media. When it comes to social media content, there is content that basically goes into social media communities where the content is written as part of the status messages by the brand pages, the kind of tweets that the brand pages put out, the kind of pictures that are shared on Instagram. As a result, all social content is a type of content.
You frequently use video content. I'm not just referring to television commercials or traditional media content, but also to videos created specifically for social media or the digital space.
For example, if you're considering a traditional media television advertisement, you may have time constraints, etc. So you may have an advertisement that is 10 seconds or 30 seconds long, but if you have a YouTube channel, you may have more flexibility in terms of duration.
So you could have content that is a minute or two minutes long, which would be impossible in traditional media.
Conclusion
So, in summary, I've given you a lot of different details about the various types of content that you can experiment with.
Content is still one of the most important things you can create for your business, whether that's on your website, social media, or even on Instagram. Making sure that the content you create helps others attract new customers, refer friends, and increase overall engagement is key.
You must understand that, while you have all of these types of content in your toolkit, you do not have to use all of them. It is determined by the five key elements discussed previously: your brand ethos, your audience, the type of media you use, the type of content creation process you have in mind, and the type of content rules you have in mind.
Depending on that, you must select one or more types of content from the lists provided to you. Then, create content that is most effective for you.
