When it comes to content, there is a seemingly endless list of possibilities of what you can talk about and create. This huge range of options sounds great in theory, but when you actually have to decide what to create… it can get confusing.
Thinking about content marketing in terms of “good, better, and best” can help clear up your options and lead you to the right kind of content creation for your business’s needs.
Below, we’ve broken down different types of content and ranked them in the “good,” “better,” or “best” category. That way you can have an easier time choosing what to create and when to create that type of content based on your specific needs.
Creating Quality Content Can Be Difficult
You already know how saturated the digital market is with loads and loads of content. This content is both good and bad, but regardless, it fills the space. Not only that but the resources available to pretty much anyone with a phone provide ample opportunity for all of this content creation.
The oversaturated digital space paired with the endless amount of content creation resources means that your content needs to be even better. Obviously, this can add an extra level of stress to you or whoever else is in charge of your brand’s content marketing efforts. But don’t worry, we’re going to cover everything to help you decide where to allocate your creative resources.
So, let’s look at what content is good, better, and best.
Content Types Broken Down By: Good, Better, and Best
Social Media Content
Good: Static Graphics
When it comes to social media, good content starts as a static graphic. This style of graphic can share any type of information from educational to announcements to quotes. Nice design, consistent branding, and valuable information make this a good piece of content. While not the best option all of the time, it requires far less resource allocation making it more attainable more frequently depending on your bandwidth.Better: Carousels and Motion Graphics
Now, to bump up your graphics, you can create multiple “slides” and turn them into a carousel or you can add animations to make it a motion graphic. Carousels and motion graphics are more intriguing, making them better than traditional still graphics. Similar to graphics, make sure they have high-quality design, consistent branding, and valuable information. This style of content also allows you to expand on whatever topic you’re discussing. You can include a lot more information and dive deep into a topic. Plus, they get more engagement than traditional posts, with a 1.92% average engagement rate per post.Best: Explainer Videos
The only thing better than an in-depth graphic post is a real person talking about a subject. People like to see other people, especially on social media. Therefore, the best type of content you can make are videos featuring people. This can be a thought leader video, interview style, clips from a podcast, or storytelling, the possibilities are endless. Just make sure that someone is talking about something interesting, educational, or entertaining. You’ll want to focus on the quality of these videos as well, meaning having good lighting, audio, and editing. It’s important to try out different editing styles to see which works best with your content. Should you do quick and snappy or slow and relaxing? It all just depends on your brand and tone. Try out different things, track the analytics, and then replicate what is getting the most traction.View this post on Instagram
Blog Content
Good: Valuable SEO-Friendly Articles
Informative and valuable articles should be a cornerstone of your content marketing strategy. These include thought-leadership articles, how-to’s, industry updates, relevant “round-ups” based on the news in your space and more. Good articles are between 500-750 words and provide tangible value to the audience. They also are written from an SEO-friendly perspective. SEO is critical for visibility and you’ll want to ensure you’re following all SEO best practices. This means including keywords in the correct way, consistent posting, internal and external linking, correct meta descriptions and tagging practices, and beyond.Better: Adding Multimedia
Amping up a “good” blog to a “better” one is easy with the use of more multimedia. This can include stock images that symbolize the section of the blog, specific graphic callouts highlighting important information, infographics, charts, or video examples. Just make sure the media is relevant to the blog and helps the viewer understand it more.Best: Diving Deep
The best, most effective blogs are much longer, deeper in-depth, and include tons of multimedia. Because of the time and resources these sorts of blogs take, they are not attainable as frequently, so they should be approached as “cornerstone content” aka some of the most important topics in your industry/space that you spend a lot of time and resources diving deep into. They are 1500-2500 words, include tons of links, examples, and custom multimedia, and lead to other resources like more specific blog breakdowns or lead magnets and case studies.Case Studies
Good: Basic Success Stories
A success story is always a good way to showcase the positive impact your business has had on customers. It helps to build authenticity and grow more trust with potential customers. People are more likely to take a chance on a business if they can see real accounts of other people with the same problems getting solved. Through even the most basic success story you can display the positive impact your business has made on others, therefore convincing potential customers to follow through and choose your business. This can be done through a simple graphic with a quote on your website or social media.Better: Data-Driven Insights
What makes a basic success story even better is including data to back up the testimonial. Stories are one aspect, but combined with analytical-driven facts, they are even stronger. Whenever possible, try to include statistical support with your success stories because they will be even more impactful. Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. If you hear about a business that has helped its customers fix a certain problem, you’ll most likely be intrigued. However, if you hear that they help 90% of their customers improve 60% of this and 75% of that, you’ll probably be even more convinced. By knowing that there is actual data to back up what a success story is saying, potential customers will have even more faith in your brand.Best: Multimedia Integration
The last way to boost a basic success story is to include engaging visuals such as videos, infographics, and other interactive elements. Visual elements help people stay interested in what you’re saying and it makes the information more memorable. As we already explained, success stories perform better when they are backed up by numerical data. A way to improve on that is to display that data through multimedia visuals. Feature graphs, charts, animations, and various other numerical displays of the stats that prove the success of your stories are accurate.Website Pages
Good: Basic Information
We don’t have to tell you how important your website is. It’s the digital storefront of your business and should be a place that features everything potential and existing clients need to know about you with complete clarity. If someone finds your social media accounts and wants to learn more, they’re going to visit your website. Your website needs to have every piece of information they would need to know about your business and what you can offer them. Don’t overlook your site because it truly is one of the most important pieces of your marketing strategy.Better: User Experience Focus
Unfortunately, having a basic website is not enough. You need to ensure that the user experience flows smoothly no matter what device is being used. With that, the mobile responsiveness needs to be extremely user-friendly as well. No one likes getting on a website just for it to be difficult to use. Personally, we just close out of a site if it’s annoying to use or if it doesn’t fit the device we’re on. Having a functional site is a core to your marketing being effective.Best: Conversion Optimization
Now if you have a website with optimal user experience, then you can leverage your site to improve your conversion rates. By implementing effective call-to-action placement, you can increase the number of conversions the site is gaining. Conduct A/B testing to determine which aspects of your site function better.YouTube Videos
Good: Simple Videos
A YouTube channel is another social channel that you can use to reach additional areas of your audience. YouTube is obviously best for long-form content, making it a great space to post educational or thought leadership content. Depending on your brand, you can also choose the more casual route, with things like vlog-style videos. Simple videos are a good start to building a successful YouTube channel.Better: Production Quality
After you start making videos, you can improve them by focusing on increasing the production quality. Easy changes that you can invest in include lighting, sound quality, camera quality, and editing. The quality of your videos makes a big difference in how your audience perceives them. Think about how you would feel watching two videos that cover the same information, but one of them is significantly better produced than the other. Most likely, you’re going to enjoy the one that looks and sounds better the most. So, make sure you’re videos are the ones people choose to watch.Best: Community Engagement
After making sure your video content is the best quality it can be, you can then focus on building a community with your channel. YouTube is a platform that is known for its strong community building. Leverage that with your business by growing a community that can then spread into your other social channels and brand outlets. Community can be built through collaborating with other YouTubers, brands, and thought leaders. Also, you can interact with your audience through the comment section and by creating content based on their feedback.Podcast Episodes
Good: Conversational Content
Having a podcast is a good way to reach a new audience and get closer to your existing one. Podcasts are the perfect way to turn conversational topics into a resourceful and entertaining piece of content. Authentic discussions through a podcast are easy for people to listen to and allow you to enter their lives. They can put on your podcast while they’re driving, doing chores, etc., making it an effective way to form a stronger relationship. Plus, podcasts are another way to share thought leadership and dive into the subject matter topics you’re an expert on.Better: High-quality Production
Similar to YouTube, you can amp up your production quality and have better results. Clearly audio is an absolutely crucial element of podcasts, so prioritizing it is necessary. Production value is important with all types of content, but the audio for a podcast is an unavoidable element. Luckily, there are a lot of affordable microphones available that would work perfectly fine and significantly improve your overall podcast quality.Best: Guest Features
After creating your podcast and finalizing all the finishing touches to make it as high quality as possible, something you can consider is featuring guest speakers. Podcasts are an easy way to interact with other industry professionals, thought leaders, and even clients. By having guest features, you can reach a wider audience, as you have the potential to gain the guest’s audience. Plus, guest features are a fun way to boost your podcast and make it a more comprehensive and engaging experience for your listeners.How Breezy Can Help With Your Content
What is deemed good, better, and best ultimately comes down to your specific content marketing strategy and target audience. In the end, do what works best for your brand and brings you the best results. Just make sure you’re continuously evaluating your content and making improvements where necessary.
If you’re still struggling to decide what types of content you should be making or the actual creation of that content, we can help.
Interested in working with a full-service marketing team that will take your content-related stress off your plate? We’d love to chat! Contact us here.
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You don’t need to hire multiple full-time employees to handle all of the strategy, planning, writing, designing, and publishing of content. You also don’t have time to wrangle tons of different freelancers to get this all completed. You need one expert team that can help get all of the amazing thought-leadership and subject matter expertise out of your head and into formalized, engaging content that keeps you top of mind with your audience.
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