Content: how much is in this word

Content plays a key role in the field of Internet marketing today. It is with its help that a business manages to attract the attention of the target audience and retain it for as long as possible, providing the business with regular customers. The consumer market uses content to obtain the necessary information to learn more about a product or service. Search bots also pay close attention to content. They analyze it, check its usefulness, uniqueness, and then, based on this information, promote resources to the top of the search results, recommendations on social networks and other platforms.

But in order for the content to work and generate profit, it is important not only to make it high-quality. The correct choice of a suitable format for the upcoming work also plays a very important role in all this. And the variety here is very, very wide. Therefore, in the process of preparing the material, many aspects are taken into account, starting from the platform for placement and up to what impact you want to have on the target audience with its help. This is the only way to get the maximum effect from the publication in practice.

As part of today's review, we will dwell in more detail on what content is, what formats and types it can be. Let's highlight the key features of materials intended for publication in such social networks as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. We will tell you what content should be for an electronic newsletter. The information provided will allow you to understand this issue in detail and get practical recommendations that will allow you to complete the upcoming work as correctly and quickly as possible.

What is content, as such

Content is the main content of a website, social media account, blog, electronic newsletter. With its help, interaction with the user is ensured, he is provided with information about goods, services, accompanying materials that will help him make a choice. But this also includes comments, answers to questions, useful tips and much more.

Yes, most of the content is text, but this is not the only possible option. This category of materials also includes graphics, video content, all kinds of creatives and much more. But, regardless of the format, type, any content must necessarily be of high quality: be unique, have a consistent presentation, and be competently presented. It is also important that when preparing it, a uniform style is observed, there is a clear adherence to the topic, and consistency of presentation. In any case, it should also be useful for the audience.

Content also has a significant impact on the SEO indicators of the site, contributes to its high-quality ranking in search engines and promotion to the top of search results. It is the content that plays a significant role in attracting targeted organic traffic to the site. Consumers are guided by it to assess your responsibility, competence, reliability — those parameters that play a key role in making a decision to make a purchase. That is, the content of your site or any other platform is what will help create a comprehensive image of your business, confirm its expertise, authority, and solidity.

In order to ultimately implement all ideas correctly, to get the maximum return, it is important to have a good understanding of the types and features of content. Therefore, we study the material further.

Main content formats

We will begin our acquaintance with the types of content directly from the possible formats of such materials. In particular, the following varieties are actively used in practice today:

1. Video content.
2. Articles.
3. Blogs.
4. Cases.
5. Infographics.
6. Presentations.

Let's take a closer look at each category.

Features of video content

Video content is one of the extremely popular and widespread types of materials presented today in the online space. It combines high dynamism, originality of presentation, and interesting form. According to the latest research, today this content format accounts for more than 70% of all Internet traffic. Here we can highlight the following types of materials:

• Advertising videos. They are versions of a selling video that reveals the specifics of a particular product or service, emphasizes its main advantages, and indicates the benefits of purchasing. Most of them have an attractive, bright format and contain more of a commercial than an informational note.
• Educational videos. They contain quite complex skills and concepts. In this case, information can be provided in the form of webinars, training videos, and sequential video lessons.
• Interviews. These can be conversations with experts in a particular niche, employees, clients who can share useful information. Reviews of a product or service are often provided in this format.
• Behind the scenes videos. This is what reveals the processes taking place inside a business, production, or the life of a blogger. Such videos are designed to create a sense of your openness, transparency, accessibility, and brand closeness in the target audience. And this is what will help increase loyalty and recognition in the market.

In order for your video content to be as useful as possible, it is important to think through its strategy down to the last detail. In particular, you should provide truly useful and clear information without unnecessary fluff. Here, it is advisable not just to sell the product, but to present it as a story. This way, you can captivate the audience and avoid dry advertising presentation, to which modern consumers react extremely negatively. Do not create videos that are too long, as you risk losing the audience's attention. It may turn out that you simply lose the essence behind empty words, and people simply will not be able to grasp it.

For video content to work, think about where you plan to place it. Here it is advisable to choose those platforms that are of increased interest and demand among the consumer market. Alternatively, one of the best solutions here would be YouTube video hosting. This is what guarantees maximum coverage of the target market. Also, do not forget to add a CTA at the end of the video, thereby stimulating your audience to perform the target action.

Articles as the main content format

Despite the fact that video content today accounts for the majority of user traffic, articles will still be one of the most important types of material. They are voluminous informational text materials that reveal the topic, presenting the most detailed information about goods and services. Such material can be presented in different styles, adapting to the specifics of the site where it will be published, the characteristics of the target audience. Several types of articles can be distinguished:

• News. This includes information about what is happening in the world, coverage of various events, announcements, etc.
• Reviews. This format provides an analysis of services, products, events. This is what allows the audience to understand the specifics of the product, evaluate its benefits for themselves and, as a result, make an informed decision about the advisability of the purchase.
• Interviews. Conversations with famous people, opinion leaders can be presented not only in the format of a video review, but also as a classic printed interview. This is convenient when the information contains really high value, usefulness. Many people prefer not to watch such materials, but to read them, delving as deeply as possible into the essence of what is stated.

To get the most out of articles in practice, they must be made of the highest quality. For this purpose, it is recommended to use only confirmed and reliable sources when preparing the material. It is also very important to work out in detail the structure of the article, the sequence of presentation of the material, divide it into thematic blocks, and provide a separate subheading for each. This is what will facilitate the perception of the text, improve its visual perception. Alternatively, you can use quotes, examples, and statistical data here. Before posting an article, you should read it more carefully and make sure that it fully meets the main user requests.

Blogs as a type of content

Blogs are one of the key content options in Internet marketing. They play an important role in SEO optimization, helping the main site of the company to move to the top of search results in response to certain user queries. Such content can be presented in different formats:

• Publications. They can contain various information both about the company itself and about the goods and services that it provides to the market.
• Press releases. They are official announcements from the company dedicated to a particular event or activity. Also, a press release is a format that will help convey information about business innovations.
• E-mail newsletter. Such content is used mainly to inform clients about promotions and company news. Often used to send congratulatory materials.
• Case studies. In this case, the blog post is a large-scale analysis of a certain topic, problem, search for ways to solve it.

To increase the effectiveness of text content, it is necessary to fill it with key queries. It is also important to refer to authoritative sources in order to confirm the information. Even expert material should be presented in the most simple and understandable language. So that a person who is just beginning to get acquainted with the topic can understand everything without outside expert help. It is also worth considering a breakdown into thematic blocks, working on technical nuances, adding HTML tags, metadata.

Cases as one of the content formats

Cases are a kind of case studies that clearly show examples of the use of a service or product in practice. This is what allows people to see the real results of a business, understand which solutions have helped other clients achieve their goals, and decide whether cooperation is advisable. Cases can be presented in different forms:

• Success. Shows that the business's clients have achieved their goals as a result of using a certain product or service.
• Problems and solutions. Here, an example shows what problem exists and the ways to solve it that a business can offer with the help of its products or services.

In order to get the most out of this content in practice, it is important to use only verified and real data when preparing statistics. In this case, you need to really reveal the features of the work that you have already done, where you already have some developments. Show what problems of clients you have managed to solve and in what way. It is optimal if such material also contains interviews or real customer reviews, which will allow you to verify the correctness and truthfulness of the case. You can also use diagrams, tables, graphs and other solutions that enhance the visual component of the material. Do not forget that there should also be a clear structure: the main problem, ways to solve it and the result.

Features of infographics

Infographics are one of the most visual content formats. They are used when it is necessary to make complex concepts simpler and easier to understand. They involve a combination of text, graphic material and numbers. They are distinguished by increased clarity, have a clearly defined structure and an attractive appearance. Infographics can be presented in the following forms:

• Statistical. Here the basis will be numbers, data. They are often presented in the form of graphs, diagrams.
• Comparative. It is clear from the name that here it is supposed to compare several objects, technologies, processes, phenomena.
• Process. It involves a visual display of each technological stage, shows the sequence of processes.

To get the most out of infographics, you need to think through the fonts and colors used down to the last detail. In the end, you need to get a version that will be highly visual and easy to perceive. You should not use complex styles, graphic elements, as this will complicate the perception of information. Also, do not forget about the accuracy of numbers and data in general. If you use graphs, then you should add short explanations to them, which will make it easy to interpret the information. To ensure maximum coverage, infographics can be launched through blogs, social networks.

Content in the form of a presentation

This format of content delivery, such as a presentation, is used when it is necessary to provide material in the most visual and easily perceived form. Mostly includes slides, where along with text, graphic material will also be presented. Here it is very important to correctly develop the structure and make sure that each slide touches on one of the key blocks of the material presentation. Presentations can be presented in different formats:

• For business. Such materials are prepared during internal or external events in order to convey information about strategies, business plans, inform about the results of events, launched campaigns, work for the reporting period, etc.
• Marketing. Such presentations are aimed at advertising certain goods, services. They reveal the essence of the product, its advantages, emphasize the benefits for the consumer.
• Educational. Contain material that is communicated in the most concise and structured form. They are used to introduce the features of the courses, allowing consumers to evaluate their usefulness for themselves.

To increase the effectiveness of the presentation, it is important to think through each slide down to the smallest detail, make sure that each of them contains important information, and their sequence is logical. To improve perception, add visual elements. You should not place long text blogs in the presentation - information should be presented in the form of theses and conclusions. To improve interaction with the audience, you can add Q&A sessions to it.

Main types of content

Dividing content into formats - this is only one of the components. When choosing a suitable option for presenting the material, you also need to understand who you are writing it for, what goal you are pursuing. It is one thing if it is a classic article and quite another if it is a post. The difference will also be in whether you are preparing material to introduce the audience to your business or want to talk about a specific product, present a new product or a launched promotion. Depending on this, there are 5 main groups of content types:

1. Informational.
2. Engaging.
3. Entertaining.
4. Selling.
5. Viral.

Now let's get to know each of them in detail.

What is informational content

Every business representative knows that it is very difficult to get a stable income, relying exclusively on sales of goods and services. The fact is that it is important to first gain the trust and loyalty of the target audience, prove your authority, high quality of products, and their competitive advantages. Informational content is used to implement such an idea. It is about providing users with information that will be useful to them. In it, you can reveal the specifics of your products, show expertise in this matter. If such publications are regular, this will allow you to form a reliable image of your brand, and then the name will work for business.

According to the unspoken rule, information content should occupy on average about half of all your publications on the Internet. This area can include different types of materials:

• News. This information will come from industry experts, including trends and forecasts, current ratings, various techniques and methods that should be used in practice. For maximum clarity, it is recommended to use infographics here.
• Reputational. Such content involves conveying information about the successes of your brand, its achievements. Here you can show certificates, diplomas, diplomas. The main emphasis in this group of materials can be made on cases.
• Reviews. Most of these are articles or blog posts that will talk about the features of a particular product or service. Based on them, consumers will be able to understand what kind of product is in front of them and determine for themselves the advisability of purchasing it.
• Details. They involve comparing several products, tariffs, and services. This can be launched in relation to your own products or comparing the positions of your catalog and competitors, emphasizing the advantages of the former.
• Characteristics. Such informational content is designed to acquaint the target consumer in as much detail as possible with the features of a particular product model. This also includes answers to the most common questions, a description of the advantages and disadvantages, myths and reality.
• Company information. Such content often describes the history of the brand, provides information about the director, founder, employees. It can be presented in the form of reports, interviews, announcements, reports on events held.
• Showing the internal processes of your business for general review. This can be either the development of a product concept or its production. You can describe how a typical day of a business manager or an individual employee goes, etc. Here we are talking about opening up the backstage of your company and generating interest in the audience, winning them over.

In your daily work, you can use different options of information content, combine different solutions. This way, your publications will look as different and interesting as possible, and will help maintain stable interest.

Features of Engaging Content

The very name suggests that the purpose of such material will be to stimulate the consumer market to communicate with the brand. This can be manifested in leaving comments, reviews, reposts, publishing photos. In practice, engaging content has found its greatest application in social networks, since here you can organize a simpler and more convenient process of interaction with the user audience. Thanks to the feedback, your business page will look more lively and interesting. In this case, you can use different types of material:

• a block with questions and answers;
• articles on the most relevant topics;
• publications containing expert opinions, advisory nature;
• informing consumers about current promotions and special offers, events;
• various interactive activities, including surveys, tests, quizzes, animated infographics, online calculators, etc.

The main task at this stage is to interest the audience and involve it in subsequent communication with the business.

What should be entertaining content

Entertaining content is needed so that your visitors do not get too bored. It is very good when you fill your resources with educational and expert material. But still, from time to time it is necessary to show yourself from a different side, to demonstrate your creativity, to show that there are real people with personal interests and preferences behind the goods or services. Moreover, practice shows that entertaining content engages even passive readers in communication, thereby increasing loyalty. But the main thing here is not to overdo it: in the total mass of published materials, it should account for no more than 20%.

Here you can also use different formats:

• Polls. It is important to show that people's opinions are important to you. If you launch a poll for the sake of the poll itself, then users will no longer fall for such tricks. Here it is important to show that you have heard the opinion of the audience and, moreover, have adopted it. That is, you need to show confirmation of the use of the survey results.
• Provocations. This is what will contribute to active feedback. Some people will agree with your opinion, while others will refute it, give your own arguments. As a result, very active communication is launched, involving more and more new people, thereby contributing to the expansion of your target audience.
• Competitions and sweepstakes. This is the content format that always appeals to the audience, since there are always a lot of people who want to receive gifts. But here it is important to avoid complex tasks that require a lot of time and effort from the audience. It should be something simple, understandable, something that could be implemented literally with a few clicks. But think about the prizes: the more expensive they are, the more interest they will generate. It is imperative that after the end of the draw, it is important to summarize the overall results and show the winner, thereby emphasizing that everything is honest and open with you.
• Marathons. These are challenges of sorts, where different people will do the same thing. The winner is the one who completes all the tasks first and correctly. There are many options here, and first of all, you should proceed from the specifics of the business itself. That is, launch marathons that will immediately evoke associations with your business and its products and services.
• Quests. This is a rather labor-intensive content format to implement, but its results in Internet marketing will still be quite good. This is what will allow you to raise the perception of your business and its recognition in the market to a new level.
• Stimulating posts. From time to time, you can publish original jokes on a particular topic, current trends, memes, quotes on social networks that stimulate certain actions. This is all that will allow you to create a certain mood in the audience, make people take a break from their worries for a second and smile, believe in themselves, their strength.

Don't forget to combine different types of entertainment content with each other to hold the audience's attention, but at the same time not to push them away with monotony and crowdedness.

Selling content: what you need to know about it

Selling content is a format of publications that are launched after you have presented your company to the market, introduced them to your products and services. This is the material that will bring customers to the company's website and be directly responsible for sales. Such content on your resource should be about 30% of the total mass. As an option, you can use here:

• Anything that will describe the product, demonstrate it, disclose its technical characteristics, main advantages, features of use. If we are talking about services, then such content option as “before and after” works well here.
• Special offer, promotions, exclusive discounts. It can also be a sale limited in quantity or time of action.
• Social confirmation. This category of content includes everything that will indicate the demand for your product on the market. These can be reviews, real purchase stories, posts on social networks or comments under your publications.

Here you can also choose one option or use a combination. The main thing is to focus on the needs and interests of your target audience. But here it is important to think through everything to the smallest detail, since a good publication will always increase the likelihood of a purchase, while a bad one can alienate even regular and loyal customers.

Features of viral content

Viral content is material that literally immediately after its publication becomes very popular. It is read en masse, reposted, commented on, and has its own opinion. That is, it is important to create material that everyone would like to read and talk about. Something that will not leave anyone indifferent. And it is not even necessary to make it positive: negative content in its majority attracts more discussions. This is the principle on which viral content is based. But here you need to be extremely careful, since with a high degree of probability all the negativity that will be directed at your material will immediately spread to the business itself. That is, no one will remain indifferent here, but it will not bring you any benefit. The following can be used as viral material:

• unique original texts that have no analogues;
• funny memes, pictures;
• articles or blog posts that include a selection of useful content: films, books, games, statistics;
• video materials.

You need to develop your own viral content strategy in advance, write it all down in a plan and then systematically publish materials, making adjustments to them depending on market trends.

What should be the content for social networks

Today, social networks have become one of the key elements in the development of almost any business. Here you can easily find your own target audience, establish communication with them. This way, people are more loyal to advertising materials, and are easy to contact. By and large, here you should adhere to the same recommendations that we gave above. That is, divide your posts into categories, and then alternate them so that your feed looks diverse, so that the audience's attention is retained longer. And there is also plenty to choose from here:

1. Entertaining. Most people go to social networks to read something interesting, take a break from work, chat with like-minded people. And here you clearly should not offer subscribers technical characteristics of goods, implemented cases. But here there is a provocative post, the latest news, there will be someone to discuss it. Think about what interesting and unusual you could offer your audience.
2. Short-lived material. This primarily includes stories. That is, this is the content that will be in the account for a short period of time, collecting a maximum of views and likes during this period. Such publications are characterized by a more concise presentation, as well as more frequent posting - at least every day.
3. Engaging. Social media algorithms work in such a way that the first positions in the user feed will be displayed by those posts that receive the most likes, comments, reposts. And this means that you should prepare engaging content. It is characterized by emotionality, an emphasis on current trends, market pain points. Anything that provokes a discussion and destroys established opinions works well here.
4. Catchy. Today, a huge number of posts are published on social networks every day. And here it is important to make sure that your material catches the eye of the target audience, makes them stop and study the offers in more detail. Here, the main emphasis is placed not only on the picture, but also on the text accompaniment. One look at such a post should be enough to understand what exactly you are offering to the market and why it is beneficial for a particular person. Often, catchy content is used as advertising material and leads to website articles, a business blog.
5. Hype. This is what will attract the attention of readers, correspond to current modern trends, contain news items that are directly related to the company's activities.

Mostly, entertainment content is published on social networks, while selling content takes up no more than 20-30%. In the latter case, the emphasis is more on informing about launched promotions and sales. But here it is very important to understand which platforms you plan to work with. Each of them has its own headings that attract the most attention from the target audience.

So, if we talk about Instagram, then both individual products and entire categories, brand history, instructions for use, a calendar of news items and holidays can be published here, and comparisons can be made. Here you can also create selections on a specific topic and life hacks, how to launch a "question-answer" section, interviews with experts. You can publish reposts of subscribers, your own achievements and awards, interesting facts, recommendations. A significant role here is given to the visual, but still a short text accompaniment will never be superfluous. The main thing is to maintain a balance of different publications. If you launch a very large number of headings, the audience may get confused in them, that is, you will not be able to generate increased interest.

Facebook is a platform that is aimed at people with good incomes, those who understand what they are looking for and what products and services they are interested in. Educational content is most popular here. This could be a brand guide with tips, recommendations, company news, including information about opening new representative offices, receiving some awards, events where the company will participate, current vacancies. You can experiment with social initiatives, post video reviews of products, promotional posts, selections of useful recommendations. We would like to draw attention to the fact that you can publish posts with 3D photos on Facebook. This format is very positively assessed by the audience.

TikTok will be a striking opposite of Facebook. This is a platform that mostly publishes creative, unusual, funny content. Product reviews, especially in the beauty industry, fashion and beauty, videos with promotions and new products, recipes, educational videos, life hacks, video reviews will go well here. Here you can safely launch challenges, record different unboxings. Again, it is necessary to develop a strategy that involves a combination of different formats, which will help to hold the audience's attention.

What is the content for an email newsletter

Email is another channel through which a business interacts with its audience. The following types of content can be used here:

1. Sales newsletter. It can contain information about promotional offers, discount coupons, cross-sales, products of the week or month.
2. Information newsletter, which is now also called content. Here, information about the materials released in the same blog or on the website, upcoming events and any other digests with announcements are provided.
3. Interactive mailings. This is everything that is designed to engage the audience in interaction with the brand. Riddles, quests, and puzzles can be used here.
4. Trigger mailings. This is everything that will be published for a given event. As an option, this could be a subscription to a mailing list, birthday greetings or other important events, including the provision of a gift or bonus. This type of mailing can also be used in relation to people who added a product to the cart, but never placed an order. They will also stimulate inactive subscribers to interact with the company, trying to find out the reason for the lost interest.
5. Reactivation mailing. This is content that will be aimed at users who have not responded to emails for a fairly long period of time. That is, they are designed to generate interest in the brand and set up for subsequent interaction.

Here you can segment the audience by different criteria, be it age, interests, gender, and then adjust your content to each of them, personalize offers.

Let's summarize

As you can see, content is a fairly powerful tool in the work of any marketer. This is what will allow you to convey the necessary information directly to each representative of the target audience, taking into account their interests and wishes. There are many, many variations in content and here it is important to correctly navigate all this and choose the most suitable solutions for the implementation of the idea each time. In one case, subscribers can be entertained, in another - provide them with useful information, in a third - stimulate sales, etc. In practice, most of the content options are combined, which allows you to constantly publish something new, interesting, something that will hold the audience's attention.

When searching for interesting creatives, getting to know current global trends in your niche, as well as the actions of competitors, multi-threaded work in social networks, mobile proxies from the MobileProxy.Space service will become an indispensable assistant. Here you can study information about the features of this product, its functional purpose, available geolocations and tariffs. There is also the opportunity to take advantage of a free two-hour test to make sure that you have made the right and informed choice.

If you have any additional questions, check out the FAQ section or contact our technical support specialists, who work around the clock.

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