The A to Z of Content Types

E – eBooks

Although lengthy, eBooks can work wonders for particular audiences if they want more depth on a topic.

Top tip: Make sure you do your research and calculate effort vs. reward. You need to know that by investing that amount of time in creating a piece of content, that your audience will really engage in it once completed.

One we love: Just take industry expert, Jeff Bullas. He creates eBooks as a way to help his audience save time on what he has already learnt. Now that’s beneficial!

FREE EBOOK: 8 Key Steps to Blogging Mastery – Learn in 4 hrs what took me 4 yrs of blood, sweat & tears
Grab it here >>> #Bloggingtips #blogging #contentmarketing #digitalmarketing #publishingtips

https://t.co/UJVh4LrqDI pic.twitter.com/uP94gmgSaY

— Jeff Bullas (@jeffbullas) April 11, 2018

F – Free tools, templates and resources

There are often high monthly search volumes on Google for a range of free tools, templates and resources, depending on the industry you’re in.

Get more from your free templates: Gate your free download with an opt-in email sign up. You’ll be able to capture important audience information and keep in touch with the engaged reader. It’s a win-win!

G – Google Answer Box Content

If you’re looking to reach position 0, you’ll want to be producing formatted content that appeals to the Google Answer Box structures. You can select from lists, short paragraphs or tables to try and appeal to Google’s intent.

Need help understanding where the SEO opportunities lie for your business? Get in touch and our SEO specialists can offer you some solutions.

H – How-To Guides

How-To Guides teach your audience how to do something, whether that be in an educational or practical manner.

Top tip: The trick here is to cover all the bases in your evergreen content, whilst looking for new ways to stand out through additional step that adds value or a how-to guide that hasn’t been done previously.

I – Infographics

Whether a static or animated infographic, both can be a powerful content type. They are a great way to display data and information, without having to read a lengthy guide.

Check out our animated travel and photography infographic that we ran for CEWE Photoworld…

J – Jokes, Memes and GIFs

With memes and GIFs being super-popular at the moment, now is a great time to capture your audience with engaging content types. Mix it up with humorous jokes, images, animations or captions to capture the hearts of your audience.

Consider the objective of this content: These types of content are perfect if your objectives are to gain engagement and shares.

K – Key Data Points

For more technical or mathematical audiences who are going to want to see the data, consider highlighting your key data points to really get them noticed.

Top tip: More than just highlighting them in ‘bold’, consider how you can incorporate them into shareable images to make more of a statement.

L – Lists

Listicles and checklists are a great content type, that the likes of BuzzFeed have really nailed. They do need to have a purpose though so ensure they are adding value and not just a list for the sake of it.

M – Maps

Who doesn’t like a good comparison?  And on a map? You couldn’t ask for more!

Go a step further: If the map is really useful or topical, consider making it into an animated map or looping GIF.

N – News

News is something we’ve obviously all heard of but isn’t always used in the best way to a business’s advantage. The ones doing it well are looking at new disruptive ways to get stories across.

Get prepared: It’s all about being highly reactive here and jumping on a story as soon as it arises. If you don’t have any brand monitoring tools, then set up free Google Alerts.

O – Opinions

Opinions and testimonials work well, particularly to help boost your thought-leadership or credibility in an industry. Look to get industry leaders commenting on your subject area to really boost your content.

P – Photo galleries

Photo galleries and images should be put into your content to split up blocks of text and make it overall more engaging. For a number of images look at implementing a clickable gallery that will assist the user in staying on the page for longer.

Q – Question and Answers

Displaying like in an interview, Q&A style content can be highly beneficial. It works well if you’re interviewing someone really influential in the industry where your audience will want to know what they said if they missed it.

It’s even better if… you can present the full video alongside it or snippets from the interview to add greater context.

Check out our Q&A with Google’s Gary Illyes from BrightonSEO 2017 as a good way to roll this out.

R – Reviews

Adding reviews to your site whether through an automatic feed or manually can add that social proofing element. This doesn’t just cement confidence in your brand or products, but it also adds fresh content to your site which is a factor Google’s algorithm is looking for.

S – Surveys

It’s always fantastic when you can get your own data. Whether you do a simple form through Google Forms or look to use a particular tool or service, there are plenty of options out there depending on how much time you have to spend on conducting and analysing one.

T – Timelines

Timelines can show historic data over a particular time period. Whether you opt for a static image or something more interactive is dependent on budgets or objectives.

U – User-Generated Content

User-generated content is a fantastic content type if you’re a brand who has an engaged audience.

Top tip: To encourage more of this behaviour, put stronger call to actions in your messaging so they know exactly what you want them to do.

V – Video and Vlog

With video and vlogging rising in popularity, businesses are looking for ways to produce them more efficiently.

Here at iThinkMedia, we’ve started exploring Loom, a new video platform which is not only free but the easiest bit of technology to use. We got in touch with the team at Loom to tell us more about the benefits…

“Loom is a new kind of work communication tool that helps people get their messages across through instantly shareable videos. With Loom, you can capture your screen, record your front-facing camera, and narrate your video all at once — no switching apps or upload required.

Whether it’s training new teammates or replying to a customer inquiry, Loom enhances the way people communicate at work by allowing them to send the next best thing to being there.” Susana, Team member at Loom

W – White Papers

Depending on your industry, white papers can sometimes fit your audience’s needs – it ultimately depends who you’re looking to target.

If you’re going to create one, look to ensure it is data-led with plenty of facts, data points, surveys and sources to allow for it to be as detailed and useful as possible.

X – X-factor Polls and Quizzes

Okay, so it was hard to come up with something for X! Polls and quizzes are content types that are quite under-used. These types of content allow for your audience to have a say and vote or be part of the conversation.

Y – Yearly Wrap-Ups

Yearly, quarterly or monthly wrap-ups are a great way to group information together in an easy to understand article. Many businesses use these to highlight their successes of the year.

Z – Zzz…

The impossible Z!

We came up with z-list celebrities and ZIP files, neither of which really are great content types. However, if you are using celebrities in your content do make sure you have a license to share the image to avoid any legal complications.

As you can see there are so many content types to explore. Don’t just get stuck on blog posts – really think about your audience and what they want to see rather than what you want to produce. This way your content will become far more valuable to your business overall.

Do you have any other suggestions for content types to add to our list? Comment below, we’re looking forward to seeing what you come up with!