How to Create a Content Mix for your Marketing Strategy ?

Writing noteworthy content involves considerable research and analysis. To make content that resounds with your audience’s needs  you need to dig deep into your audience’s mindset. Your content marketing should create content that is closely related to your brand’s product and theme. A great piece of content is one which prompts user action i.e. to buy, subscribe, follow etc. Providing share buttons and call to actions in your posts aid lead generation. It should be share worthy so that it boosts online presence and it should target strong keywords.. A good piece of content not only pays due consideration to the target audience’s needs and interests but also ties well with its brand’s product and services.

The type of content you can include in your content marketing can be classified into various categories. Each type of content has its own downsides and benefits thus, it is recommended to have a clever mix of all types of content. Based on their demand and life time, content can be classified as:

Types of Content to consider in your Content Mix:

Evergreen:

This is the content that is always useful for your prospective customers, has a long life and is very closely related to the brand theme and services. This content is great for SEO as it stays for a long time on the site and thus has a better backlink profile. It is better not to include current dates, news lines or tech terminology in such content as it tends to give signal that the content is not updated.

Trending:

This is the content around the trending  topics which are capable of generating lot of buzz i.e. social media shares. Writing on these topics gives you the advantage of Google’s QDF (Query Deserves Freshness) algorithm which  focuses on presenting new updated content for trending topics.. This content is written keeping in mind the current interests of the prospective readers. Buzzsumo is a great platform for finding trending topics on your keywords. You may also consider Quora to get latest queries and concerns of your niche audience.

Seasonal:

The number of readers for such content rises sharply during a particular season or holiday. It is generally a good idea to get your content ready a week before the actual season so that you get ample of time to optimize content for SEO. Keep in mind that some seasonal content is actually needed much before the holiday. For example –  Decoration ideas for Christmas might be read more in November and in the first week of December.

General:

This is the content that caters to the regular audience, is currently relevant and has an average life span (somewhat shorter than evergreen content). Most of your site’s content would probably land in this category. It is a good idea to link your trending and seasonal posts to you general content to generate good crawling and improve site engagement.

 

A good content strategy includes all types of posts from the above categories. For example I found this web check-in website doing this to genearate different types of traffic. Bring diversity in your content mix by including following types of content in it:

Types of blog posts in Content Marketing:

List Posts:

A list post is an article in form of a list. It can be a list of tips, walkthroughs, ideas, trends, etc. It is a tried and tested content type. After infographics it the most shared content format. Example: list of books to read to be successful marketer, top ten posts, top ten qualities of high quality list posts etc.

How to posts:

These are the posts that describe the methodology to solve a particular problem or question. HOW TOs are very detailed posts and are written around a target question. It is very effective in targeting long tail keywords and generates great user engagement. Read this guide on how to write good blog posts. 

Interviews:

Interviews with the market leaders and testimonials from your current clients work great in generating trust and loyalty. They can be in the form of video or transcripts. These help in getting high level engagement with viewers as market leaders generate interest and social shares for your site.

Checklists:

Checklists is a list of items to follow for doing a specific job. It is a list post which offers a direct guide to get something done in a proper way. Checklists posts work well for a particular query of your target audience and great for targeting long tail keywords.

Checklist example: http://writtent.com/blog/ultimate-blog-post-checklist-hit-publish-button/

Case Study and White Papers:

White papers are factual documents about a product which discuss a topic in depth based on facts and figures. These are highly detailed essay type content that work well in B2B campaigns. Even several blog posts can be made from one single white paper and then they can link back to the main post. Know more about white papers.

Infographics:

Infographics are the most shareable form of content. They are pectoral representation of the information which might otherwise look boring and disengaging. It displays information with creative visualizations to keep users engaged till the end. It is the best way to gain popularity as it the most shared and linked type of content and there is huge buzz around it. Know more about infographics. Know More.

Targeting the right keywords is as important as writing great content. Know more on how to target right keywords to get the maximum SEO benefit.