Content marketing is a powerful tool. It's how your customers find you, how you differentiate yourself from competitors, and how you engage with your target audience. Content types range from short form to long, audio to video, posts to papers, and everything in between.
What types of content should you create to support your content marketing needs? What content types will best meet your goals and objectives?
In this post, we'll cover the top 10 types of content that are likely to grow in popularity in 2023 and over the next few years.
What is Content Marketing?
Content Marketing is a type of marketing focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience and drive profitable customer action.
Content marketing is an ongoing and iterative process involving creating content, such as blog posts, eBooks, infographics, videos, podcasts, and more, aligned with the company’s values and goals.
Content Marketing is also used to connect with customers, build relationships, and establish a brand identity. It’s an effective way to engage with customers and create long-term relationships.
What is a Content Type?
A content type is a classification of content used in content marketing. It is used to classify different types of content to organize, optimize, and measure a content marketing strategy. Common content types include blog posts, videos, podcasts, and webinars.
Content Types are also used to define each piece of content's target audience and goals. By classifying content into specific types, marketers can create more effective content strategies, identify improvement areas, and track their efforts' success.
Top Content Types: Blogs & Blog Posts
Blogging is a form of online publishing that regularly posts new content in text, photos, videos, graphics, or any combination. Blogs are also sometimes called “web logs” or “vlogs” depending on the content type being used and where they reside.
A blog post can be about anything you want and can be written by anyone, including you. You can have an amateur blog or blog for profit.
Blogging is an excellent method for promoting your business, developing your brand, driving traffic to your website, and establishing credibility with your audience.
Blogging has been around for decades, and it's not going away anytime soon! It's an excellent way to garner attention and increase interactions with customers.
Here are a few reasons a blog post is among the best content types you can capitalize on in 2023.
A blog post can accomplish the following and much more:
- Your professional excellence expands significantly
- Search engine optimization and content growth
- Improving engagement and lead generation
- A fantastic source of income
- Building credibility and branding
Blog posts can be short-form or long-form content, meaning they vary in length, and the length aids in deciding the blog post's intent. A blog post is often created with intent. Some of the most common intentions for a blog post are:
- To raise brand awareness
- To support something or someone
- To engage an audience
- To instruct
- To prospect
- To generate leads
- To improve thought leadership
Regardless of your intent, following best practices for creating a blog and using blog content should be an integral part of your content strategy.
Read Next: Essential Elements of Good Content Marketing – More about good content marketing.
Top Content Types: Ebooks
An eBook (short for electronic book), often known as an e-book or eBook, is a digital edition of a book that can be accessed digitally. Some e-books do not have a printed counterpart, although e-books are sometimes defined as “an electronic reproduction of a printed book.”
E-books can be read on specific e-reader devices and desktop PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones, having a viewable display that can be controlled.
If you are a thought leader with a wealth of knowledge that can be shared with the world but don't know how to share it? The answer is an eBook!
E-books are a great way to share your expertise with your audience. They are easy to share and can be downloaded instantly, which makes them a great lead-generation tool if you sell services or products related to your expertise.
They also allow you to build authority and trust with your audience as they learn more about what makes you unique from other experts in the same space.
An e-book doesn't have to be book-length either—you can create shorter versions that introduce an industry or niche topic if you want more control over who reads it (i.e., only those who opt into your email list).
You can also repurpose content, such as blog posts, to build an eBook. Multiple posts on the same topic rolled up into one eBook makes for efficient use of content types to support an overall content marketing strategy.
There are a lot of avenues for selling eBooks, such as eCommerce platforms like SendOwl, Payhip, or Ecwid.
Top Content Types: Webinars
Webinars are a great way to get an audience excited about your content. While they may not be the most effective way of building traffic, they can be used to build relationships with clients or customers and increase brand awareness.
A webinar is an online seminar where you can share information on a specific topic related to your business through live streaming. It's essentially like a virtual classroom where attendees can ask questions and interact with the presenters while viewing slides or other visual aids in real time (or after).
They're usually recorded, so you can still benefit from them even if you can't attend them live. You can make money off webinars by promoting products and services to your attendees and providing them with the information to take action.
Some excellent webinar software is available to power your webinars, including GrooveWebinar, WebinarNinja, and Demio.
Top Content Types: Podcasts
The podcast is a digital media file that may be downloaded to a computer or mobile device. They are a great way to engage with your audience, increase traffic to your website, and keep visitors coming back!
Although podcasts have existed for some time, their increased popularity recently has caused listeners to have high standards. With the proliferation of podcasts, listeners will quickly abandon your content if your content is subpar.
However, compared to YouTube videos and blogs, there are not nearly as many podcasts available. There is significant pressure on podcasts to increase their popularity by producing high-quality content.
Among the qualitative factors to be considered are the following:
- Audio quality
- Choice of subject matter or relevance
- Video quality (if a video podcast)
- Marketing and advertising
- Branding
A CNBC study found that 78% of podcast listeners approve of podcast advertising, 63% of podcast listeners have purchased something after hearing a podcast ad, and approximately 67% of podcast listeners recall products or brands from podcast advertisements.
As the podcasting industry evolves, more brands will advertise their products on podcast shows or even create their own podcasts, demonstrating that advertising and marketing will continue to play an increasingly important role.
Top Content Types: Video Blogs
Video blogs, or vlogs as they are sometimes referred to, are the perfect vehicle for building trust with your audience. They're also a great way to show off your expertise in a specific field or teach people something new video blogging can be an efficient approach to communicating with them and growing your network frequently.
To demonstrate the effectiveness of video, let's examine the trends in videos. 86% of businesses use video marketing as part of their marketing arsenal. This is an impressive statistic. In addition, 93% of these marketers cite video marketing as one of the essential components of their marketing strategy.
Further research has revealed that marketers believe in the power of video marketing, and consumers are also on the lookout for it. 84% of respondents to a survey stated that marketing videos frequently persuade them to purchase a product or service.
Additionally, they are more likely to share videos than other forms of content. Cisco has even predicted that by 2023, approximately 80% of all online traffic will consist of video content.
Read Next: How to Create Video Marketing Content on a Budget
Top Content Types: Social Media Posts
A social media post is a brief statement or piece of content published on social media channels such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, and many others. The combination of text, photos, videos, hyperlinks, and audio files results in various formats.
Social media posts are an excellent method for interacting with your audience and can also be utilized to create leads. If you're not using social media, you may want to consider it.
A social media post is your own content that you share on one or more social networks. These posts usually aim to engage people and get them talking about what you do, but they can also help generate leads if the right elements are included in the copy or image (like a CTA).
Talkwalker, Marketing Interactive, Media toolkit, and Finances Online concur that in 2023, customers will demand complete openness and authenticity. In addition, they report that many customers believe businesses should take the initiative in addressing societal, environmental, and political issues. In the meantime, the public will respond with an even stronger backlash to fake news and greenwashing.
Therefore, brands will have to exert more effort to base their social media image on high social standards. And in 2023, brands taking a public stance on the values and conduct they deem acceptable will be a growing social media trend.
Talkwalker predicts that multisensory social media will be popular in 2023. Multisensory media combines various formats, including audio, video, text, and fully immersive environments. This helps to provide social media users with fresher and more engaging experiences.
Read more on the top social media platforms to promote your brand.
Top Content Types: Strategic SEO
SEO has been essential since Google's inception and even before. But you cannot simply stuff a blog post with keywords or optimize tags and call it SEO any longer. As search engines become more intelligent, you must adapt your SEO strategy for 2023.
While this content marketing trend may make your life more difficult, you must revisit your SEO strategy to rank highly in search engines.
Prioritize writing for humans over search engines. Although it seems counterintuitive, search engines have determined what users want. Many marketers are now focusing on creating high-quality, customer-relevant content and allowing Google to promote it to the top of search results naturally. The idea is to use strategic keywords to rank on the first page and then allow the quality of the content to speak for itself.
Instead of creating a keyword-heavy attempt to rank for a query, you must become the subject matter expert. Strive to be the most knowledgeable source on the subject you're discussing. Focus on your click-through rates and engagement metrics rather than your URL's position alone. This is what search engines will prioritize in 2023.
Learn more about Google's E.A.T. becoming E.E.A.T. and what it means for your content.
Top Content Types: Shorts, Stories, & Reels
Originating on Snapchat, social media stories have since spread to nearly every social media and communication platform. These are brief, typically 10- to 15-second photo or video clips that offer a slightly different look at a person or business and are deleted within 24 hours.
While feeds are carefully curated, social media stories are typically unplanned. This can include behind-the-scenes footage captured on a smartphone, company announcements, and more.
The most distinguishing characteristic of stories is that they are temporary. On most platforms, stories only exist for 24 hours, but Instagram allows users to save certain stories to their highlights reel, where they can be viewed repeatedly.
Social media stories are ideal for sharing the less curated and styled aspects of your products and services. Numerous platforms for sharing stories offer stickers that allow your audience to interact with your stories. This indicates that it is a good idea to poll or ask your audience questions to obtain their direct feedback.
Top Content Types: Interactive Content
Interactive content is any material that requires user engagement to communicate its message effectively. It transforms the content experience from passive consumption to active participation.
Calculators, quizzes, e-books, videos, and animated infographics can all feature interactivity. They are not required to be digital. On the Internet, however, this type of content acquires a variety of formats and generates new user interaction opportunities.
As a content marketing tool, interactive content is gaining popularity because it is more engaging than traditional, static content. It allows the audience to actively participate in the content rather than merely observe it.
Interactive content gives your audience useful and relevant content. It simplifies difficult information for consumption. You can divide lengthy content into manageable and entertaining chunks. Interactivity in content helps to make information more engaging.
The personalization of information is made possible by interactive content. This results in an excellent user experience. You can obtain in-depth information about a user via quizzes and assessments. This will allow you to provide them with customized information, goods, and services.
The majority of internet users are seeking information. They seek real and accurate information that is easily consumable.
Being on the incorrect page or confronted with pages of text can be aggravating. Therefore, interactive content can be extremely rewarding. It benefits your audience by providing information in manageable and appealing chunks. Additionally, it helps them obtain customized information and services.
Top Content Types: User-Generated Content (UGC)
User-generated content (UGC), sometimes known as user-created content (UCC), refers to any form of content produced by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion forums, and wikis, such as photographs, videos, text, testimonials, and audio.
Consumers create a product to disseminate information about online products or the companies that market them.
There are numerous applications for user-generated content, including problem processing, news, entertainment, customer engagement, advertising, gossip, and research.
What do you believe builds customer trust in your brand? Existing customers' reviews and recommendations provide the answer. Customers are approximately 92% more likely to trust peer reviews and recommendations than advertisements.
People believe the statements of others. As more than ninety percent of people seek out authentic customer reviews and recommendations, it is crucial for brands to display user-generated content on their websites and other platforms.
86% of businesses have incorporated user-generated content (UGC) into their marketing strategy because it is effective content that helps build trust and authenticity in your brand and business.
As customers will not purchase a product unless they are completely satisfied, marketers must concentrate on what makes customers happy and fosters their trust.
Learn more about how social proof is changing the eCommerce landscape on Shopify.
Top Content Types Wrap-up
Investing in these content types is the only way to stay relevant in 2023. You can also mix and match these content types to create your own custom content types that you might find perform better for your audience. Much of the content you produce you will produce to repurpose multiple times across your digital marketing mix.
Whether you need content to support a landing page, a sales funnel, your own blog, or email marketing, the digital content types outlined above will be extremely valuable as you work through your content plan and execution strategies in 2023 and beyond.
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