The types of content for blogs can be quite varied, ranging from classic written content to more complex content, such as interactive content.
Understand what each one is and how you can use them in your strategies.
Blogs are extremely useful sources of different types of content relevant to your business.
But do you know what content to publish and when to publish it?
There are a range of possibilities that can drive traffic to your blog, but they don't always spring to mind when creating materials for your posts.
It is important to note that different companies have different needs, and the content they create plays a very important role when it comes to generating leads and creating opportunities for your business.
For example, a startup with an innovative purpose needs to get leads early in the buying process to nurture them with relevant content until they are ready to close the deal.
On the other hand, an e-commerce has contact with potential buyers long before they start the buying journey.
Thus, these visitors are much more likely to buy, so they need a buying incentive and not educational materials.
In today's article, we'll give you the 14 types of content every blog should have and help you create your editorial calendar of posts.
essential content for any blog
1. Educational blog posts
Blog posts are the foundation of successful blogs.
If there is one thing that Inbound Marketing has taught us, it is that valuable and relevant information can never be too much.
For this reason, count on educational posts to attract traffic.
In fact, this type of content is excellent for positioning your business as an authority in the market, as well as helping you get top rankings in search engines, mainly Google.
A great advantage of blog posts is that they are fully customisable and comprehensive.
This makes it possible to deal with any topic in the space of a blog, from a small announcement about an event in which the company will participate to a long post about SEO, a description of a video or webinar.
As far as the ideal word count is concerned, there is no size limit.
According to Hubspot research conducted in 2020, to generate leads, an article needs to be 2,500 words.
This is educational, interactive content that keeps your blog up to date, full of new content and getting more and more traffic.
2. eBooks
If you are looking to attract more and more leads, this is the ideal format.
Ebooks can have the same amount of words as a blog post, or even less.
However, they are extremely targeted and have the advantage of being very useful for increasing your email address base.
In 2012, the average word count of a successful blog post was 600 words. Over time, this number has increased so that today, digital books need to be long.
In other words, an ebook should be at least twice the average length of a blog post.
These contents are presented in different formats, usually in the form of a PDF that can be downloaded by clicking on a link.
We must emphasise that they are virtual books, therefore, we must divide them into chapters to exploit the central theme in greater depth.
Thus, we can say that the design is the clearest difference between an e-book and a blog post.
Digital books need to be rich in images, graphics, colours and formatting - this is the basis of e-books that should be read!
3. White papers
White papers consist of a document format whose main objective is to go deeper into a certain problem, showing its causes, concepts and mainly its solution.
In this way, we consider it as a relatively more complex material.
It is important that your clients and readers have been in contact with your business for a certain period of time and faced some common problems within their market.
When we talk about a certain problem that our readers also face, the likelihood of converting them into leads and even new customers is much more expressive.
This is one of the reasons why the white paper has become a powerful tool for lead generation.
In fact, in some markets, it surpasses the efficiency and relevance of e-books!
To create good content, you need to understand in detail what the problem is and carefully research the best alternative solutions to solve the problem.
4. Webinars
More and more users are looking for new, interactive and informative content.
Videos tend to be excellent formats to meet the new market demands -we will talk about this later- and one of the most interesting ways to generate leads and share knowledge through webinars.
As they are real-time video chats, it is possible to bring together people interested in a topic to share their experiences and knowledge.
Thus, webinars are presented by a specialist who gives a kind of real-time informative talk on a specific topic.
After the end of the talk, the content is made available for consultation, thus enabling other users to access the webinar.
5. Videos
If you want to stand out from the competition and get into one of the best trends in content formats, you need to deepen your knowledge about videos.
Indeed, videos are very good tools by virtue of their interactivity, didactic potential and because they attract the attention of their users.
Their applications are also very extensive.
Short videos, between 60 and 90 seconds, are great because they allow you to share a lot of information, even more than a blog post that has the same reading time.
With an established audience, it is possible to create longer videos for followers.
This content will help them solve a specific problem or gain insights for their business.
An interesting feature is that you can combine videos with other content.
If you have a post that attracts a lot of traffic to your blog and ranks very well in search, create a video on that same topic and embed it in the post.
In addition to ranking for the keyword with more content -Google shows videos related to your search first-, your post will be even more complete.
If you want to make the wise decision to invest in videos, we recommend you read our article on interactive videos.
6. Lists
How many posts have you seen in the list format?
Lists are great because they show exactly what content you will learn.
For example, in a content whose title is "7 tools for social media", guess what you will find? 7 of the most interesting technological solutions to apply in your social networks!
In other words, when you click, you know exactly what content will be covered throughout the post.
One of the most interesting features of this format is that a list allows you to monopolise almost every topic such as specific information, tips or interesting tools for a certain application.
Use lists to organise everything and attract more visitors!
7. Infographics
It's a great idea to link written content to images!
And infographics synthesise this in the best possible way.
In essence, their relevance lies in the fact that they are shared, viewed and loved by more people compared to traditional blog posts.
It is a valuable way to present content to the world in an interactive dynamic and with a powerful and engaging visual.
Ideally, infographics should be designed by a professional, as good content needs specific knowledge in the area, so asking an "inexperienced friend" to support you in Photoshop can be a bad move.
Therefore, for truly relevant content, do extensive research on the topic, gather data, reports and any relevant content you can find along the way.
8. Reviews
If you think that your users and buyers always know how to use the tools you show - and even the products you sell - you are wrong!
Not everything is as simple as it seems and it is very common for people to have doubts in practice.
The best way to help them is to create reviews of tools relevant to your market and even of your own products.
Remember to be unbiased when doing reviews and avoid talking openly about the fantastic benefits of your products!
9. "How to"
Famous tutorials that show how to do something are extremely valuable for both the business and the users and readers.
By showing how to use a tool or create something, you position yourself as an expert in the field and help your followers to do the same, with quality.
The options are endless!
It is important to note that companies from various industries can use this type of content to grow their business, including Digital Marketing companies and freelancers.
Someone always has something relevant to teach and other people will always be willing to learn.
Try to create posts rich in images and details. If possible, create videos.
10. Case study
At the bottom of the funnel, readers want to know who your company helped grow.
At this point, case studies are extremely important - after all, they provide details on how your business has helped its customers improve, increase revenue and capture a larger portion of the market.
These studies allow you to explain more effectively and practically how your solution really helps people solve their problems.
When producing a success story, write it in a way that doesn't just include Content Marketing strategies.
Create a story and naturally include the qualities and benefits of your business.
11. Interviews
In the marketplace, there are a lot of companies with very interesting solutions and excellent growth techniques.
Undoubtedly, your audience is interested in getting to know the most successful professionals by listening to their opinions and taking into account their experiences as well as their specific knowledge.
This interest is much more intense when we talk about CEOs and CMOs.
In addition, we can take advantage of the instances to strengthen your business links, expand your network of contacts and attract more traffic to your blog by conducting interviews.
With various formats, through interviews you can share ideas, insights and how recognised professionals in the market think about topics related to their business and your company.
After obtaining the data, it is recommended that you create a blog post, podcast or videos in order to synthesise the information.
To structure a good interview, it is essential that you pay attention to the availability of the interviewee and reflect on the most relevant and useful content for your audience.
12. Research and studies
Data is an important asset for all organisations, but what is its relevance in Digital Marketing?
If your marketing department avoids dealing with numbers, it is time to evaluate whether this is a smart move.
Research provides much more than just numbers about the market or the business.
When you structure a comprehensive research on a certain segment topic, your company automatically positions itself as an expert in its field.
After all, you have tried to obtain valuable and relevant information about the most interesting issues in your field of study, haven't you?
This content will serve as a basis for many companies, as well as offering the opportunity to approach other businesses that may yield important partnerships in the future.
In fact, structuring research takes a lot of time, even more than the time required to produce a blog post or a video.
For this reason, it is essential to plan the questions considering the needs, expectations, desires and curiosities of the target audience.
As far as the types of research are concerned, they can be about:
- market;
- trends;
- company segment;
- customer results;
and many other topics relevant to the target audience and the individual!
A great example is Content Trend, our content marketing research - check it out!
13. Templates
Templates are very useful for creating buyer personas, defining editorial calendars, planning content, among other functions.
In addition to promoting lead generation, templates are fabulous resources to help readers maximise the use of their time.
Even ready-to-use templates are very useful to facilitate the completion of regular tasks such as structuring the editorial calendar.
14. Interactive content
Generally speaking, interactive content allows users to explore the information presented by interacting with the company by performing certain actions. Thus, this type of content makes it possible to capture and retain the attention of the audience and, consequently, to stand out from other blogs.
Among the main benefits provided by the format are:
- Increased interaction and engagement;
- definition of a differentiating factor;
- capturing data about the audience's preferences and demands;
- generation of qualified leads.
That's all there is to it!
Ultimately, your blog is a source of knowledge for your readers and you don't need to limit yourself to regular posts.
In this sense, you should consider that there are a lot of different types of blog content, such as the ones we have pointed out in this content.
Extremely attractive and with great engagement power, these formats serve to move the blog, attract traffic, educate the market and generate leads.
The secret to success and standing out is to plan these materials properly and understand their production capacity in detail.
It is not worth sacrificing regular blog posts for a one-off infographic that will take up too much of your team's time.
Try to plan the content that will be shared over a period of time and organise your production of these materials in the best possible way.
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