Simply having a blog strategy in place is no longer enough. If you want to be successful with content marketing, you need to invest in a variety of different content mediums and approaches. The challenging thing is to keep track of these different types and how they change from year to year. For your convenience, weโre providing an updated listed of the types of content worth investing in this year.
How-To Posts
The how-to post is the quintessential blog post in modern content marketing. Regardless of which industry you operate in or who your target market is, how-to posts are effective and high returning. Hereโs a good example worth checking out.
The key is to make sure youโre tailoring the subject matter to the audience. You can get away with very basic how-to articles in some instances, whereas other situations will call for heavily researched, in-depth content. Make sure youโre meeting your readers where they are.
Infographics
Infographics will continue to be effective in 2016; however, look for a new strategy to arise. Instead of just creating infographics and sharing the images, many leading brands will begin to create written blog posts around infographics. You can see what this looks like in this example.
The infographic has been broken down into a few different isolated images and then the writer posts additional content to frame the subject and provide context. Another great thing about adding content around an infographic post is that it provides an SEO boost. Whereas the infographic itself may be largely unsearchable for search engine bots, the content around the image sends out positive contextual signals.
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Live Streaming Video
In 2015, live streaming video emerged as a progressive content medium. Platforms like Periscope, Meerkat, and Twitch all have millions of users who collectively watch millions of hours of video every day โ and this is only the beginning.
If you want to position your brand as modern and in-touch, then you donโt want to ignore live streaming video in 2016. When implementing live streaming video into your content strategy, think about ways to really engage users. Potential uses include behind the scenes footage, Q&A sessions with customers, and new product demonstrations.
List Posts
Itโs hard to imagine list posts ever going out of style. Sure theyโre evolving, but it would be foolish to ignore the value that this type of content holds in a world dominated by social sharing.
Thereโs something psychological about a list. If you read a headline that says, โ5 Steps to Deep Clean Your Home in Under an Hour,โ youโre probably going to be drawn to it. Furthermore, itโs unlikely that youโll stop reading halfway through. Your mind tells you that you arenโt finished until you reach number five. Hereโs a good example of a successful list post.
Memes
One very simply piece of content that seems to remain popular is the meme. These simple images with text are simple to make and publish, yet frequently go viral. People connect with images and enjoy the fact that they can quickly consume the message before moving on.
Donโt have graphic design skills? Donโt worry. There are plenty of tools and generators on the internet that allow anyone to create and share popular meme images. Just make sure youโre using them sparingly. Overuse can devalue your content strategy.
Diversify Your Approach
Successful content marketing requires a strategically diversified effort. You canโt simply throw together a bunch of blog posts and assume youโre going to make any noise. If you want to attract traffic, engage readers, and see a return on your investment, then youโll need to focus on a handful of the different types of content referenced above.
Photo credit: 10ch via Visualhunt.com / CC BY
Photo credit: Ricky Aponte via VisualHunt / CC BY
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