Hands down, blogging is one of the best content marketing strategies. Blogging is attributed to 55% more visitors to a company’s website, and blogs are 63% more likely to influence a consumer’s purchasing decision. Additionally, blogging helps your personal branding efforts by showcasing your knowledge to a wide audience.
However, blogging is not the only type of content marketing you can create to show your expertise. If you want to create different types of written content, here are seven content marketing ideas you may want to consider:
#1: Glossary of industry jargon
Most industries have identifiable jargon that people need help deciphering. Creating a glossary on your blog or website, or as a downloadable ebook, shows your industry expertise and helps you gain trust from readers who are new to the topic. For example, if you’re an Internet marketing expert, you could create a glossary defining terms such as PPC (pay per click), SEO (search engine optimization) and Page Views. Make your glossary as comprehensive as possible, and review it every few months for updates.
#2: Book review
Do you read books that are relevant to your industry? If yes, why not write a book review? Writing a book review is not as hard as it may seem. You can structure a book review in this order: (1) Book summary; (2) Book critique (what you liked and didn’t like); and (3) Book recommendations (who should read the book). You can post your book review on sites such as Goodreads, LibraryThing and Amazon, as well as post to your blog.
#3: Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
What types of questions do you often answer about your industry? Compile these questions and your responses in a comprehensive FAQ page on your website (or as a downloadable PDF). Research common questions by looking through Quora and Yahoo Answers, and scope out the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. You can also look through Facebook Groups, Google Plus Communities and LinkedIn Groups to see what questions are posted there. Be sure to review your FAQs periodically to make updates and revisions.
#4: Checklists
Creating checklists are a great way to share your knowledge while lending a helping hand to your audience. People who are new to your industry – and even more experienced ones – can benefit from a checklist. For example, if you’re an expert in WordPress, create a checklist on how to optimize a WordPress site for search engines. Make sure to convert your checklist into a PDF and post on Slideshare for maximum exposure.
#5: Manifestos
Manifestos are personal declarations of intent or views of the author. Some of the most famous manifestos include The Declaration of Independence or The Communist Manifesto.
Don’t be fooled, though. Your manifesto does not have to be political in nature to be effective. Consider writing a manifesto that takes a commonly held idea and promotes a new idea around it. Check out these 10 inspirational manifestos if you need some ideas.
#6: Workbooks
Workbooks are great content marketing tools, and you can create workbooks around teachable topics in your industry. Workbooks can be any length – from two pages to 200 – and can be available as a downloadable PDF on your website or Slideshare. The important part of a workbook is the “work” part; make sure you have assignments in your workbook for your reader to complete. If you need a great example, check out Kim McDonald’s Storytelling 4 Entrepreneurs Workbook.
#7: PowerPoint presentations
That’s right – the standby corporate PowerPoint presentation is a powerful content marketing tool too. Instead of writing a blog post or ebook about a subject, consider creating a slide deck to share with your audience. The plus side of PowerPoint is you can flex your creative muscles by designing a presentation with text, graphics, tables, charts and more. All PowerPoint presentations can be uploaded to Slideshare and shared with your social media networks.
These seven types of written content are just a few you can implement in your content marketing strategy. By including different types of written content in your strategy, you are diversifying your reach. People absorb content in different ways, and delivering your high-quality information in several formats will help get your message out to more people. Additionally, writing different types of content helps prevent “blogger burnout,” keeping content marketing interesting and fresh so you are motivated to create on a consistent basis.
What are your favorite types of non-blog content to create? I would love to hear your ideas in the comments below.
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