Tag Archives: Content Types

5 types of content that I write

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5 types of content that I write

5 types of content that I write

Although I have extensively explained on my website that being a writer I can write on a wide choice of topics and realms, many clients often ask me exactly what I do and what sort of writing I provide professionally.

I have spread my net quite wide in the previous years and I think this has been a mistake. There are many writing activities that are time wasting in terms of generating income. For example, email writing. Most of the clients think of email as number of words but sometimes, more effort is needed in writing a business email than writing a blog post. I’m gradually moving towards the payment model that is based on the effort and expertise rather than merely the number of words.

Broadly, I’m writing content for 5 types of requirements these days. I’m explaining below

1. Blog writing

I love writing blogs because it is mostly linear writing without fluff. It is educational. It is informative. It imparts value.

Although blogging requires research, in most of the cases clients these days send their own outline and sometimes even research material because I charge extra for that. As long as they are paying for my time, I don’t even mind extensive researching.

Although many clients hire me to write “SEO blog posts” I focus more on quality and relevance rather than simply stuffing keywords. This is primarily the reason why I charge slightly more than other content writers who don’t mind simply writing for SEO.

2. Web page writing

This involves writing for the homepage and other pages on the website such as the services page, the company profile, the about us page, or the product descriptions.

Web page writing is quite important, and I charge more than I charge for blog writing. This is where conversion happens. This is where you tell your visitors whether they should do business with you.

Web page writing or website writing is a mix of content writing and copywriting. You inform, educate, but more than that, you sell.

3. Email writing

As I have explained above, I’m shifting the focus to quality rather than the number of words. I like writing emails because I love to communicate. I can write convincingly. I can stick to the point. I can communicate what the client wants to communicate to his or her client or customer. The only precondition is, the client must be able to tell me what he or she exactly wants to communicate.

4. Case studies

A case study is a detailed examination of some problem a customer or client had been facing and how that problem was solved by a service or are product. Detailed method is described, including technologies.

A case study is like a story. You tell about a customer or a client and what problems he or she had been going through. Then how those problems were solved through your effort or through your product. It uses engaging storytelling to weave a narrative around what you offer.

5. Landing pages

Landing pages are very focused. Unlike the usual web page or the blog post page of a website, a landing page has a single objective – to prompt the viewer to take a particular action. This action might be buying a product, or a book, or subscribing to a mailing list.

Landing pages are used for PPC and email marketing campaigns. People are driven to landing pages by promoting the link to them. For example, if you want to draw people through Google AdWords campaigns or Facebook campaigns or even email marketing campaigns, you use a landing page.

Landing page is mostly copywriting.

Other than these five categories, I have also been writing e-books for some clients, but mostly it is blogging, website writing and landing pages.

35 types of content that require writing

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Content writing isn’t just about writing for blogs, web pages, email broadcasts, and social media updates.

Similarly, when it comes to content marketing, and writing for that purpose, there are multiple content forms where writing is required.

In one of the Quora updates, someone had asked if content writing is overrated. The sentiment originated from the fact that everybody seems to be providing content writing services these days.

It is like saying everybody walks, so walking is overrated. Everybody uses mobile phones these days, so, mobile phones are overrated. Millions of people drive around, so driving must be overrated. Almost everybody goes to doctors these days, so doctors are overrated.

Since everybody writes, sometimes people end up thinking that writing is overrated.

Writing was invented some 3000 years ago. Initially not everyone was crazy about writing. Socrates was dead against writing because he thought that if people started writing, they would use their brains less. Since knowledge could be preserved with writing, there was no need to memorize it. I wonder what he would think of mobile phones.

Most of the non-verbal writing exists in written format. Of course, you may say that you can use graphics and videos to explain concepts and I completely agree, but if everything turns into graphics and videos, what about those people who want to read?

Reading is a conversation. It provides multiple stimuli that are lacking in graphics and videos. When you are reading, you are imagining. You are not being provided audiovisual cues on a platter. Therefore, most of the people prefer to read, and since they prefer to read, content needs to be written.

As mentioned above, although content writing is mostly related to website content and blogs, there are various types of content needs that can only be met by writers. Listed below are some content types that require extensive writing.

  1. Blogs
  2. White papers
  3. Case studies
  4. Podcasts (writing script)
  5. Articles
  6. Email marketing
  7. Newsletters
  8. Social media campaigns
  9. Website content
  10. Guest blog posting
  11. Influencer interviews
  12. FAQs
  13. Testimonials
  14. News assignments
  15. Storytelling
  16. Product descriptions
  17. Product reviews
  18. E-courses
  19. Landing pages
  20. SEO content
  21. Press releases
  22. Wikipedia-type websites
  23. App notifications
  24. Lists
  25. How to articles
  26. Best practices
  27. Content repurposing
  28. Business forecasting
  29. LinkedIn posts
  30. Chat bots
  31. Paid advertising
  32. Sponsored content
  33. Guides
  34. Reports
  35. Educational content

Although these are different content types and they can all be used for content marketing purposes, they need talented writers to be effective.

Difference between static, dynamic and interactive content

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Difference between static, dynamic and interactive content

Your content marketing strategy often needs to be a steady mix of static, dynamic and interactive content. Yes, content is of different types and every type of content has its own characteristics, and pros and cons. Let’s see how these individual types of content can help you take your content marketing forward.

Static content

Static content never or rarely changes. It remains there on your website for weeks, months and sometimes, even years. It may include your homepage, website pages, eBooks, case studies and white papers, landing pages, videos, PPC campaigns and social media profiles.

Wondering how come videos and social media profiles become static? By static content we don’t mean content that doesn’t move. Although in video things move, but once a video is published, it rarely goes through changes. It is the same story, the same visuals, the same sounds. No matter how many times a person watches your video, it is going to remain the same and eventually, people are going to stop watching it.

Social media/networking profile means the profile, the main page, not the feeds.

Advantages of static content

  • Easier to create.
  • Easier to distribute.
  • Low-cost.
  • Lets you focus on highly targeted groups for better conversion.

Disadvantages of static content

  • Has no repeat value, people soon get bored of it and stop consuming it.
  • Doesn’t get indexed by search engine crawlers repeatedly.
  • There is one-way communication with no intent to engage the audience.

Dynamic content

Dynamic content is constantly updated according to the latest trends, available information and user input. Some examples of dynamic content are your business blog, the RSS feeds, your social media feeds, email newsletters, personalised website content (the content changes if a person is logged in or if he or she has become your customer), A/B test landing pages and syndicated content.

Advantages of dynamic content

  • It keeps your visitors interested in what you have to say by continuously serving them latest and updated content.
  • It gives you higher conversion rate because dynamic content keeps people interested in your website and blog and keeps them coming back to your website repeatedly.
  • Interesting, relevant and evolving content increases audience loyalty.
  • Dynamic content is shared often on social media and social networking websites.
  • It improves your search engine rankings as search engines like Google prefer to visit freshly updated and dynamic content rather than static content that never changes.

Disadvantages of dynamic content

  • Dynamic content is costly compared to static content.
  • Requires complete change in marketing outlook as all your content becomes customer-centric from product-centric.
  • Requires constant analysis because it needs to change and adapt according to its metrics.

Interactive content

As the name suggests, it evolves according to user input. Interactive content is usually not prepared or created by a single person or a single agency and often you have little control over it. Examples of interactive content include your blog comments, people’s comments under your social networking and social media profiles, Facebook updates and tweets, online service, online games and mobile apps, multi-participant webinars, customer reviews and social sharing buttons. Some content marketers also prefer to call it “crowd sourced content”.

Advantages of interactive content

  • Low-cost and easy to set up, for example the commenting section on your blog. Similarly, once you create your social networking profiles and start interacting with people and increase the engagement level, people begin to participate in various conversations, generating interactive content in the process. After a certain threshold level, it is practically set on autopilot.
  • Gives you more social credibility. If more people are encouraged (feel encouraged) to spend time generating content for you it means they are serious about your brand or at least have some serious views (whether negative or positive). It is a social proof of your online reputation.
  • Increases brand loyalty. When people repeatedly interact with you in lieu of generating content for you their sense of loyalty towards your brand increases.

Disadvantages of interactive content

  • You have little control over the quality of the content.
  • Trolls can easily take over especially on social media and social networking websites.
  • Lots of spam can be generated making your entire content marketing counter-productive.
  • It can become resource-consuming in the long run because you need to closely monitor the quality of interactions.

What should you focus on? Static, dynamic interactive content?

It depends on your target audience. As mentioned above, it should be a heady mix of static, dynamic and interactive content and all types of content should follow a clearly-defined path of evolution. For example, you can begin your online presence with dynamic content which is needed to create your presence and improve your search engine rankings. Once you have generated decent amount of dynamic content, you should focus on increasing the number of pages containing static content for consistent information. Eventually, as you become more famous on the Internet, interactive content begins to manifest. When this happens, you not only have to keep up with the momentum, you also need to monitor the quality of your interactive content.