From our research at CoSchedule, we found that planning awesome content is a major challenge for most content marketers.
That’s why we recently launched a new feature for our content marketing editorial calendar tool that helps marketers plan any type of content they could possibly want to publish. Really! So that got me thinking:
I’m a huge planner, and I’m sure you are, too. That’s why I like to know how torepurpose any content we publish at CoSchedule to get the most out of the hard work that goes into the content creation process. I also like to mix up our content types to keep our editorial calendar fresh for our audience.
So I asked myself:
Why not pull together the world’s largest list of types of content to help you get the inspiration you need to fill out a super-diverse and detailed editorial calendar to kick butt at content marketing?
Here ya go.
What Types Of Content Will Help You Tell Your Story?
Let’s talk about stories—messages, if you will. These types of content can be used in multiple different content formats (which are all in this post, too).
It might be helpful to think of these story ideas as angles or hooks for your content.
1. Lists
This is a classic for marketers, magazines, and sites like Buzzfeed. Pull together content in the form of a list and name it thusly (take this post as an example).Lists are one of the most effective types of content, especially when applied to blog posts.
Some of the most popular content on the Convince & Convert blog is in the form of lists posts. Just take a look at “25 Ways to Create Shareable Content” for an example, which was the inspiration behind the post you’re reading right now.
2. How-To
How-to content offers step-by-step, process-driven information to help your audience do something better. It’s specific and to the point. Like list content, this is a very effective form of content marketing according to our research.
Nearly every post on the CoSchedule content marketing blog includes how-to content. We’ve found posts with the words “How To” in the title perform really well for evergreen content.
3. Questions and Answers (Q&A)
Google’s Matt Cutts has tons of great examples of Q&A. Done mostly in the format of videos, Matt reads through Google users’ questions and simply answers them from Google’s perspective.
4. Why
“Why” content explains in detail how something came into existence, or more generally, why things are the way they are. It can be extremely powerful when combined with fact-driven information, or even a controversial flare.
Just take a look at this “why” post that is based on research, which has gotten 9,633 social shares and 45,884 pageviews at the time of this writing.
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Find a keyword your audience is looking for, and publish content to provide that information. While SEO is typically a part of most content you publish online, it can be a powerful angle to help you generate traffic from huge referral sources like Google.
True story: When we started really prioritizing our content to target keywords at CoSchedule, our #1–3 search results increased by 248% with the most basic types of optimization.
Moz’s keyword difficulty tool can help you find the terms your audience is searching for so you can create content they’re actively seeking.
6. Case Studies
You don’t have to tell your story all by yourself. Case studies tell the story of how you’ve helped your customers solve their problems—and they can be extremely influential in helping prospects make a purchase decision.
7. Testimonials
Testimonials are very similar to case studies, except that a specific customer of yours tells the story directly from their perspective. These are their own words—a form of word of mouth—that you use to inspire interest in your company, products, or services.
8. Quotes
Think of quotes as short-form testimonials. Alternatively, you can use quotes from influencers to complement your content—which works particularly well in shareable graphics embedded in your content.
When Michael Hyatt gave us a quote of how he used CoSchedule and wrote a post on his blog (a testimonial), we saw a huge increase in sales.
9. Interviews
While interviews may be an avenue to gather testimonials and quotes, you may also use them for gathering insight from industry influencers you may have never met before. Late night shows are famous for their interview content, and an easy way to incorporate that into your content marketing is through podcasts.
Influencers like Pat Flynn are well-known for their podcasts featuring folks throughout the industry. Even if you can’t do one yourself, consider being a guest.
10. Demos
I’m constantly amazed that our audience loves CoSchedule’s marketing calendar so much that they want to share it with their networks. Demos are like a show-and-tell for your product or service, and are particularly powerful when combined with user-generated content.
11. Product Review
Have a product you love that you think your audience will really dig? Do a review of it, telling your audience how it’s helped you solve your challenges, and how you think it’ll help them out, too.
Pro Tip: Ask an influencer who’s a customer of yours to help you out by reviewing your product or service. When Michael Hyatt rocked an awesome product review and testimonial for CoSchedule, we saw some great growth.
12. Comparisons and “Versus” Content
You may see this a lot for product reviews, comparing one product to another. However, you can apply this storytelling tactic in many different ways to compare or contrast topics to help your audience learn the better option to pursue.
13. Company News
Your company is ever-changing. Share your latest adventures with your audience to show your business is made of humans who are dedicated to making their lives even better every single day. Even silly, simple news can help your customers feel a connection with your company.
This an example of a post we wrote at CoSchedule to announce a new feature in our marketing calendar.
14. Industry News
Monitor your customers’ industry, and report on the biggest news that may likely impact them. Your audience will notice when you are the first to market with great news consistently. Just take a look at the growth of blogs like The Next Web.
15. Roundups
Roundups: the content of choice for marketers who may not have a ton of time on their hands. Like newsjacking, take a look at the most popular and impactful content in your industry, and compile a comprehensive list for your audience to save them from doing the research themselves.
16. Book Reviews
If your continuing education is anything like mine, you’re reading new material constantly to stay ahead of the curve. When you read something amazing that your customers will love, share it with your audience.
17. Opinions and Rants
Controversy is one of the ways to publish viral content. Now, that shouldn’t be your goal, but rants have the potential to be super-interesting. Take a stance on a popular belief, and turn it on its head.
This is a cool comment from someone who read our post about the best blog post length. Some folks have found this a cool way to establish a relationship before asking to guest post.
18. Metaphors
I love to see content that begins with an unrelated story and includes that unique angle as the foundation of the content. There is too much “How To Write A Blog Post” out there but not enough “What My Stubborn, Opinionated Grandma Could Teach You About Writing An Awesome Blog Post”.
19. Personal Stories
When Greg Digneo laid out his life story on Copyblogger, the audience responded. He told the story of why quitting was the most profitable thing he’s ever done, and it was super-inspiring for me and for tons of other readers. Connect the dots between your personal story and what your readers really care about, and they’ll eat it up.
Greg Digneo laid out exactly how he quit his job to pursue his passion in this successful post on Copyblogger’s blog.
20. Predictions
Joe Pulizzi is notorious for making content marketing predictions. They’re always interesting to me, a member of his audience, and he jokes about them on his podcast when they don’t come to fruition. So he gets to become a thought leader while also showing his humanity—creating a personal and somewhat humorous connection with his readers—all at once. It’s brilliant.
21. Successes
You’ve seen these awesome headlines from folks like Neil Patel and Brian Dean: Tell your audience how either you or someone you know was successful using the tactics you recommend.
Neil Patel is awesome at writing list posts that focus on successes to help his audience learn how to do something better like this post.
I’m a huge data nerd and understand my own success will differ from what these headlines say. But! They draw me in because they cover tactics that really workand are backed by data.
22. Failures and What Not to Do
Just as successes are fun for your audience to read, outlining techniques that don’t work well is also interesting—particularly when your product or service solves the challenges presented from the failed techniques.
There is an element of controversy to this type of content that people crave. Turn a generally-accepted-as-true idea into a lie, and people will read. Like this: Proof That Publishing More Content Won’t Grow Your Blog Traffic (And How To Do That).
23. Company Goals
Groove has caught our attention at CoSchedule because they’ve laid out exactly how they want to grow their business and give reports on their progress. How cool is that?!
Groove lays out their goals out and tells the story of their progress.
Every post seems like a story on their blog that helps you understand how they’re reaching their goals all while drawing you in to become a customer. It’s a brilliant, bold, and super-unique type of content.
24. Transparency
Similar to Groove’s blatant outlining of its goals, transparency in the form of open information on your business’ financials and growth in general can build trust with your audience. Buffer does this well with its “Open” blog, telling their story as a startup while building a connection with their audience.
Buffer’s Open blog is an example of transparency.
25. Research
Your customers and audience are a perfect source for your own research. Become the source for industry research and studies. Judging from experience at CoSchedule, it helps you understand your audience better than ever while helping you become a credible and respected source in your industry.
26. Facts and Stats
Similar to research, this is when you heavily research a topic with existing studies and present the findings to your audience. This can save you a bit of time from doing the research yourself, while also helping you become the go-to source that has compiled all of the information available on a specific topic.
We recently tried this technique at CoSchedule, scrutinizing the best times to post on social media. The results were incredible, with more than 30,000 pageviews in the first week of publish.
What Content Formats Will Work Best to Tell Your Story?
Now you’re ready to rock tons of different angles and hooks with your stories. So what content formats will help you tell them?
27. Guides
Guides, sometimes called ultimate guides, dive deep into detail on a topic to help your audience do something better than ever before. Some awesome guides use the skyscraper technique to provide more robust information than any other source.
28. Worksheets
Worksheets are perfect for turning the actionable advice from guides into printable materials for note-taking, brainstorming, and ideation. Think about elementary school and your teachers’ handouts for homework—it’s the same thing, just helping your audience work through the material you’re helping them learn.
29. Checklists
Checklists are a type of worksheet that helps your audience follow a step-by-step process to achieve a desired outcome. Think about using checklists to complement list posts, for example.
30. Templates
Templates may combine information from guides, worksheets, and checklists all into one type of content to walk your audience through a step-by-step process, blatantly telling your users how to do something. These are great as free downloads in exchange for email addresses to help you build your email list.
At CoSchedule, we frequently complement our blog posts with templates to help our readers implement the advice they just learned from reading the posts. This example is an email list building template.
31. Tear Sheets
One of our most-downloaded pieces of content at CoSchedule is a tear sheet compiling a massive list of emotional words that help folks using our headline analyzer get even better scores for their content. Think of this as a quick-glance document to help your audience do something better, faster.
32. E-Books
If you’ve been blogging, e-books are a perfect way to use individual posts as chapters in a larger content format. Make e-books to provide long-form content that tells a bigger, comprehensive story, all while helping you share your messages in avenues like Amazon’s Kindle Store, Barnes & Noble’s Nook Store, Apple’s iBook store, and even as PDFs on your own blog or website.
33. Audio Books
Now that you’ve written your e-book, complement it with an audio version for your auditory learners. Pitch it to your audience as a way to maximize the time on their commute to work—just listen and learn to use your time even more efficiently.
34. White Papers
Often used to provide robust technical information, white papers are perfect for telling complex stories in a concise format, often appearing as PDFs. They are also a perfect format to complement case studies to show the problem, solution, and outcome of how you help your customers overcome their challenges.
35. Infographics
Some of your audience’s learning styles lean heavily toward visual content. Infographics help tell a story by showing key statistics, facts, and short-form text in a visual format.
Infographics are awesome for showing data in a visual way to take a relatively dry topic (text-wise) and add some vibrance to it, like this infographic example of the best times to post on social media.
36. Data Visuals
For research-intensive content, data visuals bring pie charts, bar graphs, line graphs, and more to life to prove the points you’re making throughout your content. This is a great type of content to complement your written information in blog posts and white papers.
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