Content Strategy 101 – Understanding Content Types

Written by on January 18, 2012 — 7 Comments
So, you’re creating a brand new blog or website, and like everyone else, you want an efficient content strategy that can reach a broad audience.

To help you achieve this goal, we’ll list the most popular Web content types today. We’ll also  try to explain how these types work and when to use each of them, so you can craft your editorial mix and remain ready to address your readers’ needs. We’ve put up a basic guide for content types, but we’d love to have your help in keeping it updated.
Once you understand the most common content types, you can analyze each of them before you create your own publishing schedule and editorial guidelines, so you can choose the best formats for you. It doesn’t matter if you have an evergreen content website or if you are a breaking news publisher (most blogs/portals/sites are somewhere in the middle), these content types can be mixed in dozens of ways to help you create a unique editorial style. Here we go:

 

 

How To & Tutorials

 

What is it: These  instructional articles help readers achieve their goals and conclude their tasks. By addressing a constant  and specific demand, you can create an engaging brand, and users will return to your website if you can be effective in providing the assistance they need.

Sample headlines and articles:

When to use it: Frequently, how-to articles and tutorials are the main component of an evergreen site strategy. Instructional articles meet a constant demand and create an engaging brand. Your main goal when you compose a how-to article is to create a brand relationship with the reader so he will come back to your site whenever he wants to learn something.

Type: Evergreen

Cases:

Ehow - Demand Media’s hugely successful site produces thousands of how-to guides in text and video formats every day.

Wikihow - Wikihow took the wiki approach to creating “how-to guides,” so any user can contribute, similar to the process at Wikipedia.

Resources compilation

 

What is it: In general, it is a list of resources targeted toward a specific topic. It is designed to allow the reader to find “all he needs to know” about a specific topic or access a variety of examples for a simple concept. The key concept here is aggregation.

Sample headlines and articles:

When to use it: When you have a thriving community or want to become a resource for a specific topic, curating information and compiling resources is a great way to go. If you want to spice it up, you can create freebies, ebooks and downloadable goods and watch as you virally become a topic expert.

Type: Mostly evergreen, but it could also be related to a specific event or date.

Cases:

  • Smashing Magazine - SmashingMag is an amazing community resource hub for the design/UX/Internet professional. Resource compilations often serve as a huge channel for user acquisition for them.
  • Glam.com - Glam operates a great content hub for women and frequently creates resource compilations focused toward women’s needs.

TopX – Rankings List

 

What is it: You’ve already seen many examples of this one. It is common to see a list called the Top 5 or Top 10 that targets a particular topic.

Sample headlines and articles:

When to use it: This is probably the most classic link-baiting tool in the world. If you mention somebody’s album, website or appearance as one of the best (or worst) in a particular category, the site will probably link back to you. So this is a great link-baiting hook.

Type: Mostly Evergreen.

Cases:

  • Listverse & Cracked- Features great curated list articles.
  • Ranker – Leverages user generated content to rank Top X lists.

 

Topic Analysis/ Summary

 

What Is - These are educational articles featuring an in-depth approach of the topic covered.

Sample headlines and articles:

When to use it: his is a great resource if you are willing to teach your readers in a “Wikipedian” way. It gives your brand trust and confidence, because they will surely remember where they learnt about a particular topic. Currently, big media brands are moving into this approach by adding topical pages that aggregate a topic summary plus related news on the topic.

Type: Evergreen

Cases:

  • The New York Times - They have a great topical collection that helps them leverage organic search for a lot of topics, beating Wikipedia at many of them.

Topical opinion

 

What is it: Not everybody loves Apple. In fact, a lot of people care about it enough to hate it and write about it. Others have strong opinions about Android. A topical opinion is an explanation about why you have/love/care about some particular topic.

Sample headlines and articles:

When to use it: When you express your opinion about a brand topic or a tribe, you are probably engaging with a big community of fans and haters. In general, if somebody is interested in a topic you write about, they will probably care when you also care about it, so this is a great approach for creating a more personal connection with your readers.

Type: Mostly Evergreen

Cases:

News

 

What is it: This is the most popular and common content form on the web today. Fresh news means straight reporting based on hot topics.

Sample headlines and articles:

When to use it: Do you want your website to be perceived as the most well informed in town and reach a legion of early adopters? If so, go break some news! It’s a hard way to get traffic fast, but the reputation gains are very worthwhile.

Type: Fresh

Cases:

  • TechCrunch - The hottest tech blog in the world became a reference because of the fast and furious reporting skills of Mike and Sarah Lacy. If there was tech news to break, they would at TC.
  • TMZ - They are really great at getting the inside scoop, and this is the reason why they grew so fast.

News Opinion and analysis

 

What is it: This approach is a mix of current events and related opinions or advice.

Sample headlines and articles:

When to use it: If you can’t break the news, you can always make it richer by adding your own analysis. This personal aspect of news coverage may help you create a personal brand for the author and also stimulate great discussions among your readers.

Type: Fresh

Cases:

  • Almost all tech blogs, like TechCrunch and ReadWriteWeb, are very hooked on this approach. As soon as someone breaks the news, a whole new horde comes to add their opinions and get more traffic from the topic or event.

Reviews

 

What is it:  Any product, movie or place analysis is in the reviews category.

When to use it: It’s a great way to become better trusted by your user base. It can also be used as a sales leverage tool and as an SEO tool for communities and ecommerce websites.

Type: Evergreen

Cases:

  • Amazon.com - Uses a mix of editorial and user-generated content to enhance its product pages’ SEO as well as to persuade users to buy its products.
  • Engadget –  A great gadgets blog with amazing editorial product reviews.

Interviews or Profile

What is it: It is usually an interview or a profile report about celebrities, specialists, and other well-known people.

Sample headlines and articles:

When to use it: Profiling someone important is a great way to attract their fans and generate pageviews. An in-depth profile or interview is a great way to connect with a new, broad audience, and establish yourself as a well-connected individual.

Type: Evergreen

Cases:

Personal Stories/Testimonials/Endorsements

 

What is it: This reporting style is based on sharing personal experiences, tales and testimonials, and it creates personal connections with the readers.

Sample headlines and articles:

When to use it: This is an amazing way to create personal brands and establish yourself as an influencer or expert. Getting personal on your blog is a great way to develop trust and spread your goals, experiences and ideas.

Cases:

  • Altucher Confidential from James Altucher) and AVC ( from Fred Wilson) are great examples of personal blogs that have become awesome communities.

Event Reporting/Live Blogging

What is it: Writing live about a particular event. Generally, this kind of content is produced in a single page that is constantly updated.

When to use it: If you want to capture the freshness of an event and break the news, live blogging will work very well for you! Companies like CoverItLive, offer out of the box solutions for live blogging.

Type: Ultra Fresh

Case:

Well, there’s quite a list here, don’t you think? So, have we forgotten anything? Do you disagree with anything? Let us know in the comments section.

 

About the author
Diego Gomes is an online marketer, blogger and co-founder @everwrite. He loves web analytics, copywriting and reading about the latest trends in the media industry. You can follow him at Twitter or Linkedin .