What makes your heart beat skip? What gets you excited when you’re surfing the web? Do you fall prey to targeted advertising, or do you like to randomly explore the web for content? This week, nearing our one year anniversary, the team at Brenton Way thought we would put together a list of 15 types of content […]
What makes your heart beat skip? What gets you excited when you’re surfing the web? Do you fall prey to targeted advertising, or do you like to randomly explore the web for content?
This week, nearing our one year anniversary, the team at Brenton Way thought we would put together a list of 15 types of content engagement methods we love and why! We wanted to provide our readers – you guys! -with something fun and engaging to push through winter and get us to spring!
Every writer has to start somewhere, and blogging is our favorite platform to suggest to first-timers. A blog can be customized and tailored to you and a client. It can embody a brand, a lifestyle, an agenda, a philosophy, or simply images. A blog holds the key to your brand guideline and for who you want to be as a writer. But, the best part is that a blog can also change, and you with it. A blog also takes time to create traffic; patience is key!
You want to make sure that when you write a blog, it is SEO friendly. Personal and private blogging aside, A blog can increase awareness for your product by getting you closer to being ranked on google, and gain viewership on multiple platforms through link sharing. You also want to make sure your blog is current with themes and subjects to boost content engagement, or else no one will read it.
When working in such a fast-paced and ever-changing environment such as digital marketing, you have to continually reevaluate yourself and your team. Asking yourself if there’s a negative to things like blogging is essential.
Blogging itself would not have a bad effect on your work, however, a blog could destroy your credibility if done wrong. Any errors in grammar and content will drag your name down, as well as your rankings. A lot of times we come across blogs that haven’t been updated in weeks or months, this is one of the fatal flaws of having such an accessible platform. People might lose interest in their blogs and move onto creating new ones. They fail to realize, blogs are allowed to change!
Short, fun, and thoughtful – a book review can sell and be creative. An older form of content, book reviews have survived the test of time by bringing with them the power that audiences genuinely have. If a book has no reviews, would you read it? Probably not. If a book has a good or bad review, people are going to change their impressions and thoughts before reading it.
Reviews are concise and summarize the material. We work with a lot of clients who are authors, and getting their books reviewed is a great way to create local traffic and buzz. However, a book review is supposed to be critical, you don’t want to write:
I liked the book.
The book was good.
The bok sucked.
Those are reactions, and they don’t increase engagement, they shut it down. You want to expose what makes the work new, exciting, noteworthy, and enjoyable. How does this work expand your knowledge of this subject area and will the audience appreciate it?
We make cases studies every season to reevaluate ourselves and show our clients that we are paying attention. Getting more clients is great, but understanding how you actually helped or failed a client is vital to strive. Content is not always about SEO or selling; you’ll need to do a lot of self-branding in order to create a credible name for your team and your business. A case study represents your work ethic and your client’s impressions of you.
When you begin a case study, you’ll want to write about someone that your “ideal customer” will relate to. We also want to encourage writers to include their journey with each case from beginning to end because leaving out important details will cause readers to question the reliability of the case.
Although a case study is realistic and informative, you should not forget to format it for better readership. You have a chance to expose your greatness, and using a dull format will destroy it. Be sure to also mention the types of strategies and methods your team used in this case to make it about your success, not about the client.
Depending on what platforms and tools you have access to an ebook can be a great decision for your business. We recycle and repurpose all of our content seasonally – turning old stories into relevant ebooks. An ebook can be short or long; it can have visual graphics or be primarily copy, as long as your content is relevant and emphasizes your value proposition, then you are in the clear!
In marketing, you have to always try and find an angle for your work, an ebook is perfect for this. Include a sign-up incentive with your ebook,
You also want to expose your expertise on the subject of your ebook; why waste the opportunity to be a figure of authority in the community?
How to write a how-to; bullets and simplicity is the key! How-tos are a fun way to let your team relax and write content that is based more on instruction rather than entertainment – unless you work at Buzzfeed.
A how-to, like a guide, walks readers through an exercise or practice, but it does so with simple instructions and often uses images as instructions. You can use videos as well – more on that later. How-tos are informal but descriptive. They also need to be specific and written to help someone with no expertise on a subject – keep that in mind when debating on your target audience.
Not to pick favorites, but we love infographics. A fresh, exciting and easy way to get engagement for your clients and readers alike. With all the amazing digital tools and software these days, an infographic can be made simply and with little effort – not to steal jobs from graphic designers, but content collaboration among departments is gaining popularity.
Keep in mind, the perfect infographic takes advantage of visuals and copy; you want to be informative, and entertaining. We also like to promote patterns or a consistent flow in order to have the content smooth organically from beginning to end. The main idea needs to be expressed right off the bat, simply, then you can share examples, and relevant statistics.
The most important thing to remember about infographics is to use power words. You’re going to need the bold font, and words which have deep meaning to stand out among the other infographics.
Our CEO does interviews every season to show that we are current and dedicated to the local community. More than a quora posting, an interview gives listeners or readers insight to the person beyond the curtain.
Interviews are simple: do research, have a clear objective, and always lead to a question that will start a striking conversation. You want the person to be comfortable to open up to you, not feel attacked or on trial. Questions that make a person reflect on their past experiences are perfect, and always take audio or physical notes.
Lists, like this one, serve a strong purpose in giving readers a surface level understanding of a complicated concept. Research is hard enough with all the information floating around the web. It takes time no one has enough of, to discover any real information about things. It can be tedious and hard to sift through real reviews and real case studies to discover the types of software or clients you want – a list can help you with that.
Examples:
Ten Best IT Consulting Firms in Los Angeles
15 Ways to Change Your Lifestyle With SEO Marketing
Longform content is longer content – easy enough to remeber, right?. We consider longform content to exceed 2000 words, regardless of what others out there think. The longer a content piece is, the more SEO rankings you’ll have the opportunity to get. This tactic increases user engagement, internal linking, backlinking, reference opportunities, and room to develop your thoughts and ideas.
In all sense of the matter, longform content is long – it keeps readers on the page for more time. This gives you the best opportunity to generate leads with sign-ups and linking.
Some pointers for writing longform content; make sure you are appealing to more than one target audience to gain access to more sharing communities. You have a lot to say, make sure you build yourself a big enough room to talk about it all; don’t constrict yourself with titles that are close-minded.
A meme has its appropriate spot in the limelight, and it exists in more light-hearted posts. However, the days of censorship and boring marketing tactics are long gone. We encourage connecting with users and target audiences by what they already appreciate. A good meme goes a long way.
So how exactly can you use a meme for marketing? There are a few ways, grabbing attention from readers is probably your biggest goal. A meme is an instant a recognizable tool that can boost engagement. We would suggest taking advantage of memes as a way to generate viral popularity for your brand. But, you can’t force it; if your content writer and graphic designer cannot come up with a natural meme without forcing it or losing originality, then don’t make them. Every brand uses content differently, and memes are high risk.
We’ve done a few podcasts over our first year in business, and each time they got easier and more interesting. Entertainment value aside, products are a great all access method of sharing ideas and content.
Here is a link to one of our first podcasts, a little rough around the edges, but always good fun and material!
We created the process through some simple steps; first, we narrowed down to one topic. Then we made sure to have the right equipment set up. You don’t need to get fancy when making a podcast, but, you’ll need good audio equipment to stand out. Afterwards, edit your work and get it up there! PRomote podcasts everywhere since anyone can have access to them.
A product review can seem simple, but it’s a great way to get involved in the community around your client, product, or brand. Writing a review for someone else will show your willingness to join in on a community instead of being highly competitive. It’s also a great way to get others to promote you for free!
Depending on if you are the product promoter or the product reviewer always make sure you research the product. We’ve all read reviews of a product that was clearly ignorant of the actual details or selling points, and that’s just embarrassing. It seems pretty obvious, but be sure that if you’re reviewing a product, that you’ve actually tried the product. And, in a similar sense, if you’re asking someone to review your product, be sure to send them actual samples.
The all feared research project has haunted most people since childhood. Coming from the foundation of academia, research is well thought out, refined, built with a strong foundation, and can outlast most other content. It takes time, patience, and practice to create and is often hard to promote all its efforts.
A well-researched piece of content should take no less than two weeks, even if you could write all day, you want to be sure your work is well planned out.
Two shorter versions of content are listed below. These are great for those who want to focus on graphics over copy.
When in doubt, make a checklist! They are fun, easy, and engaging! We like to use these pieces of content in between research and skyscrapers to help our audience get comfortable. They are also a great way to give your clients answers fast and reliably. When you build a checklist, you give the reader options, and ask them for feedback naturally, helping to build the content together. It’s also a great way to make a pdf download for anyone looking for templates and checklists in your brand field.
Recently, video content has become a necessity for platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Videos help to increase engagement and allows for viewers to watch multiple clips in short periods of time, without feeling as though they have over-consumed content.
The truth is, all these methods could be used interchangeably because they all have great results. What matters most is consistency, patience, and practice. Don’t stop working on a blog just because your traffic has stayed the same – it takes time!
If content really does scare you, seem daunting, or seems boring, just contact someone who can help. Brenton Way is active on Twitter, Facebook, and out team members are always ready to answer questions on LinkedIn, and Instagram.
