Blogs and articles and infographics, oh my!
Choosing content can sometimes feel like choosing dinner from a seemingly endless restaurant menu. There are so many types of branded content that could serve your website well–the trick isn’t finding an option but choosing the one that’s just right.
If you need branded content for your site, your first step isn’t writing. Your first step is figuring out what type of content you’re writing, why you’re writing it, and how to write it well. Here’s a closer look at some of the common types of branded content you can leverage for your marketing efforts.
Blogs
Blogs are the bread and butter of the Internet. Every website owner and their brother has a blog these days, and for good reason. Blogs are one of the easiest ways to work toward stronger search engine ranking.
Your blog is your online hub and the cornerstone of your online marketing. Blog posts can include things like:
- Opinion pieces
- Listicles
- How-tos
- Instructional content
- Advice
- Checklists
Regardless of the type of post, a good blog post is interesting to read and educates the reader in the process. Most of the time, readers come to a blog to answer a question. If you can answer that question better than anyone else, you’ll rank better than your competitors.
Articles
At this point, we should distinguish between blog posts and articles, which are another important type of branded content.
Blog posts are mostly your own opinion and thus do not cite research or quote subject-matter experts. In articles, however, your opinion isn’t enough–if you’re going to make an argument, it has to be supported by research and expert input. Blog posts are generally published on your own site, while articles may be printed in a magazine or industry journal.
Articles are a good choice if your business is significantly affected by ongoing changes in law or research. Law firms and insurance companies are good examples of this. On the other hand, if your goal is to rank in search engines or build a relationship with your readers, blogs are a better bet.
Infographics
Infographics are fun to look at. Better still, they display a ton of useful information in a fun way. If you design them correctly, that is.
A bad infographic can run the gamut from boring to confusing to outright humiliating. Sometimes all at once.
Most bad infographics are bad because the creators didn’t know what they were trying to convey or the best way to convey it. Having data isn’t enough–you have to know what story you’re trying to tell with the data and how to use your words to present visual information successfully.
The best way to approach an infographic story is a lot like a blog post–a strong headline to hook the reader, provide context for your data, guide the reader through the story logically, highlight the most important points, and tie it together with a strong conclusion so the reader knows what they’re supposed to take away from this.
Case Studies
Case studies have been a staple of marketing departments for, like, forever. The problem is that many marketing departments approach case studies all wrong.
Case studies are NOT press releases. They’re not advertisements either. They’re not about your company at all. They’re about a customer overcoming a problem (and how you helped them do it).
In this sense, case studies are a type of marketing storytelling. They just package the story a little differently.
If you’re writing a case study, you first have to know your objective and your medium. From there, you can figure out the perfect subject for your case study and get their permission to be included in the case study. Once they agree and sign a release form, you can start asking questions–make sure to work with the marketing team to ask the right ones. From there, you can format your results into the case study.
Whitepapers
Whitepapers are a fantastic choice for capturing high-quality leads. And despite the whitepaper’s dry origins in politics (it used to be a legislative document supporting a political position) whitepapers have taken on a life of their own in marketing.
They’re no longer legislative documents but thought pieces. They’re best used for complex product pieces where you need to sink your teeth into the meat of the issue. They’re persuasive, authoritative, and in-depth.
However, they are not to be confused with product pitches. They’re not long blog posts or e-books either. A good whitepaper is way more in-depth than a blog post or e-book–it can take a few weeks or a few months to create a truly outstanding whitepaper worthy of the title “thought leadership”.
Why bother writing them, then? Because whitepapers are a fantastic way to show your expertise in solving a problem for customers.
Need to Create Branded Content?
As you can see, branded content isn’t one-size-fits-all. So why approach your content as any old written piece will do?
If the answer is, “I don’t know how to create content,” then the truth is, your website is suffering for it. I know content like you know your business–inside and out. And we can help create content that takes your business to the next level. Get in touch today to let us know how we can help.