What Type of Content Will Crush It For Your Business?

Have you ever wondered how some of the companies are cashing in a tremendous amount of money online? How have they become so popular that everyone is talking about them? How have they attracted huge audiences to their websites?

Do you want to get the same publicity? Are you experiencing issues while publicizing your business?

You’ve likely heard about and used content marketing for a long time. However, do you know which types of content can work great for your business? If no, don’t worry because I’ll answer that question today.

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach used to develop resourceful, relevant, and consistent website content. It’s essential for acquiring a particular audience and ultimately driving higher returns. Content marketing may not seem magical, but trust me that it can do wonders for a business.

The most significant benefit of content marketing is the extra attention you get from online viewers, which can help you convert them into potential customers.

In reality, every online business faces problems while promoting themselves online. With so many search engine updates and fiercely high competition, content marketing is the ultimate weapon to fight for traffic via referrals, organic and social. Since content marketing involves cost, not all companies can afford thousands of dollars every month.

It’s important that you maximize your ROI by picking the right types of content because not all types will work for every business. Now the most important task here is to explore which types of content will lead to successful marketing for your business and how.

Before we proceed, let’s first review what the different types of content are. Although there’s an enormous list of possible content types, we’ll focus on discussing a few of the most popular.

Content Type #1: Infographic

Infographics are visual representations of complex data, information, and knowledge. They present information in a fun, engaging, and easy-to-understand format.

If you have compelling data or some interesting statistics, infographics can be an ideal choice to share such types of content. That’s because people are more attracted to visual content than text.

In fact, our brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text, and 40% of people respond better to visual information.

Infographics are one of the most effective types of content that can help you:

• Increase brand awareness
• Drive more traffic to your website
• Attract and engage more people
• Improve SEO
• Increase your ROI

You should make sure that the infographics you create are eye-catching, colorful, easy-to-understand, and fun to share.

While infographics are quite popular today, brands often find it difficult to determine the right types of content to create one. As a brand, you can create an infographic to:

• Roll out a new product or service
• Present data collected from a survey
• Showcase your product line
• Show your company’s growth over time (important milestones)
• Make comparisons between two of your service plans

One of the most successful brands in the world, Coca-Cola, created the following infographic about the development of their product and logo.

Content Type #2: Video

There is no doubt that videos are one of the most engaging types of content. An average person spends over an hour and a half of their day watching videos online.

That’s why 81% of businesses use video as an effective marketing tool, and 99% of them will continue to use them.

As the human brain processes visual content better than text, people are likely to remember a message they see through videos. You can create videos that are emotional, informative, or inspirational. They are the best medium for storytelling too, and people love stories.

Another great thing about videos is that they can include all of the other types of content such as text, images, music, sounds, and even links. This makes them the king of all types of content.

The rising popularity of Instagram Stories and IGTV videos along with the evergreen YouTube videos also add to the credibility of videos.

However, there are thousands of videos that people don’t even look at since there’s a long list of videos available online. So make sure that your videos are appealing enough to capture the attention of viewers.

Content Type #3: Listicle

People often tend to read articles that come with a numbered list, such as “10 Easy Steps to Create Android App.”

Let me be very honest that even I’m more likely to start reading an article if its title hints at a list being involved. It’s easy to read XX titles and understand the basics of the article within a few seconds. Listicles are, therefore, one of the most popular types of content that brands use.

Physiologists shed some light on how our affection for numbered lists might bias the way we observe certain items on these lists.

Content Type #4: What Post

“What” post is an article that asks “what” in their titles. For example, “What are the different ways to earn money online?” or “What titles make readers curious about reading the article.” Posing questions typically will pique the interest of viewers and make them want to find the answer.

Content Type #5: How-To Article

How-to articles directly suggest the procedure of doing a certain task. People are often interested in understanding how they can successfully complete something. You’ve likely found these types of content perform better online. How-to articles can cover anything from making money online to jumpstarting a car or applying makeup.

Content Type #6: Why Post

As the title itself suggests, why posts are articles that involve reasons. Why posts generally provide readers with facts and details that support a certain focused conclusion. For instance, the post could be “10 Reasons Why We Love Marketing.” These types of content help get you extra attention from the readers.

After looking at all of the major types of content, let’s now figure out which content type works best for different businesses.

I’ve used BuzzSumo to gather data for each business type. The website has analyzed over 14K articles of various types of content and found which suits each industry.

1. Business

Analyzing more than 14K articles in the Business category, it was found that Why, What, and Infographic posts work great. These types of content gain more social media shares over the List, How-to, and Video types.

For infographics, Pinterest is the better medium over LinkedIn and Google.

Takeaway: For the Business category, content asking “What” or “Why” and infographics works the best, so take the benefit to gain more social traction.

2. Lifestyle

Using over 14, 292 articles, we determined that people prefer What posts followed by Videos and Why posts when it comes to Lifestyle. Approximately 5K shares is the average number for What posts if well-written and promoted.

The most amazing fact highlighted in this study was that people like and share What posts over Facebook more often than Twitter.

Takeaway: For the Lifestyle category, What posts are the winning content type over other types of content. Facebook will give you more traction than other social media sites.

3. Finance

Finance is one of the most important and big market segments. Studies reveal that Video and How-To types of content work better. Taking a narrow lead, Video ranks top dog but is closely followed by How-To, Why posts, and Lists. These are being shared the most through Facebook, whereas all of the other networking sites lag visibly.

Takeaway: For Finance, don’t miss the power of videos and How-To articles, especially when sharing on Facebook.

4. Marketing

Marketing is widely known as a channel of communication which helps in inducing your customer’s behavior. An efficient and effective marketing technique is one which leaves a positive impact on users. Therefore, it’s evident that videos top the charts in this section.

Videos give a sense of personalization to the viewers and create more impact than any other types of content. Videos are widely shared and liked on Facebook. Other content types like How-To, What posts, and Infographics are highly competitive in marketing.

Takeaway: For the Marketing category, take advantage of the Video content type to tell stories with some emotional touches to trigger action.

5. Parenting

Parenting is perhaps the most sensitive segment of the market. Today’s parents have become far more aware than the parents of the last decade. In fact, the search for information starts in the pre-parenting phase when soon-to-be fathers and mothers starting browsing the Internet to learn what to expect.

Most of the parenting articles which are shared are What posts. If I back this analysis with numbers, then it may cross 12K shares. The next most popular types of content in this category include Why posts.

Moreover, Facebook is the one networking site that’s dominating again. The most astonishing fact discovered was that Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and other sites don’t work well for this category.

Takeaway: If you have a parenting business online, make note that What posts work the best and are shared most on Facebook.

6. SEO

It’s tough to reach a point of conclusion for the SEO category. As you can see in the above graph, all types of content have a competitive edge over the other in this segment. Although the difference is much less here, Why and What posts get a little more social shares. They’re closely followed by Video and How-To articles.

Twitter has proved to be the best over all the other networking sites for SEO. However, if you compare it to the previous data, SEO content is least shared among all.

Takeaway: If you work in SEO or related digital marketing, then Twitter is the best social network to promote on and Why posts will help make things easy.

7. Technology

Technology has taken over the importance of physical presence around us. It has made communication so easy that distances no longer matter these days.

With increasing popularity, business owners tend to look forward to working on this top-performing content type. Why posts and Videos tend to suit the Technology category the most. Our statistics showed that people prefer to view these more on Facebook as well as Twitter and Pinterest.

Takeaway: For Technology, a combination of Why posts and Videos promoted on Facebook will return noticeable results.

8. Entertainment

Facebook again seems to hold dominance in the Entertainment area. Content is viewed and shared well through Facebook and Twitter, but there’s almost no sign of presence on any other social media networks. The best content type is List posts, which show very high shares close to 50K.

Takeaway: Facebook is the top-performing channel to promote content in the Entertainment category and List posts give you more exposure.

9. Fashion

Fashion is one of the most significant subjects at this point, especially amongst the youth. Infographics are the most liked content type. They’re being viewed and shared widely through Pinterest. All the other categories of contents lag far behind infographics in this zone.

Takeaway: Fashion eCommerce should take its best benefit on social media by sharing infographics on Pinterest.

10. Health

The Health category is a very significant online community. It was analyzed that there’s a close fight between two types of content — Infographics and How-To articles, to become #1. Infographics are widely shared by Pinterest and Facebook, whereas How-To articles are shared mostly by Facebook. Yet, Twitter seems to be a part of this show too.

Takeaway: How-To and Infographics perform great on Facebook and Pinterest in the Health category.

11. Sports

After analyzing data in the Sports category, we could make out that content which includes Lists is being preferred more by the readers. Furthermore, the maximum number of views and shares are through the most common site, Facebook. All of the other types of content hold a competitive position in the Sports market. Participation on other networking sites, such as Google +, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, is negligible.

Takeaway: Facebook is the most popular for the Sports domain and List posts work great for inviting the social media traction you seek.

Conclusion

We’ve analyzed various types of content covering all the major business categories. So, now we can comfortably conclude that Facebook has taken over all the other networking sites. Twitter and Pinterest seem to be a little popular within a few categories, but only after Facebook. LinkedIn and Google+ have almost lost it.

Which types of content get lots of social shares?

People prefer to read content that includes a set of questions for which they seek step-by-step answers or responses. Readers like content that comes as a handy list, which is easy to read and saves precious time. People look for convenience and interest everywhere, and the same holds true in content marketing.

I suggest you pick a content type that provides valuable, relevant, and interesting information in a manner that’s simple for viewers to digest.

Originally published at Shanebarker.com.

About The Author

Shane Barker is the Founder and CEO of Content Solutions and Gifographics. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.