For new website owners or bloggers, it’s important to understand the various types of digital content and how to use them effectively.
If you don’t use the preferred content types for your target audience you won’t be able to successfully engage all of your audience resulting in lost sales or reduced traffic.
To captivate and engage your target audience experiment with different types of digital content creation to see what works best.
I’ve broken down the types of digital content into 5 major categories. By exploring each type, you’ll gain a clearer understanding of when and how to use them effectively for your website or blog.
Table of Contents
Text Content
Text based digital content are the most familiar and common type. Here are some examples:
- blog articles
- case studies
- ebooks
- newsletters
- guides and tutorials
- product descriptions
When to use text content
Text-based digital content is suitable for most websites and blogs. It’s great for explaining topics and subjects in depth and can easily incorporate other formats such as images and video.
Text content can include internal and external links which are useful for citing sources or providing additional information to readers.
Google primarily indexes text based content so if organic search traffic is important for your business or blog it’s recommended to produce blog and text-based articles.
Tips for creating engaging and informative written content
I’ve written about ways to optimize your content for SEO before.
I recommend producing both short and long form content. Both have advantages and disadvantages so produce a mix of shorter articles (1000-1500 words) with long more in-depth articles (2000+ words).
It’s a good idea to include plenty of internal links to other content on your website. This makes it easier for readers to read more in-depth on a subject or related topic.
External links should also be included to cite sources or provide more information from external sites.
Visual Content
Visual content enhances the appeal of your blog articles or website pages, making them more engaging and captivating. Read more about the benefits of adding images to your content.
It is highly recommended to include images throughout your articles
For better readability, I recommend not using long paragraphs or large blocks of text. Instead, break them up by incorporating well-placed images and other visual elements. This enhances the visual appeal and engages your readers.
Best practices for using visual content effectively
Although visual content can be highly engaging it has a drawback. Images are much larger than text so slow down your website.
The solution lies in optimizing images to ensure they load as quickly as possible. Here are some methods you can use to achieve this:
- Use the correct image format (WEBP, JPG, PNG, GIF)
- Crop the image (that is resize images so they don’t exceed a certain width or height)
- Compress images to reduce their file size
- Use lazy loading (only load the image when it scrolls into view)
- Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) so images load from a server close to the visitor’s location
This can be a complicated topic. For WordPress users I recommend using an image compression service to shrink file sizes before adding them to your website. Read this article for more details: Is Imagify the best compressor plugin for websites?
Choose a good hosting provider that supports using a CDN. Read more here: Secrets for using SiteGround as your global hosting provider
SiteGround is a highly recommended hosting provider, especially for WordPress websites:
Tools and resources for creating visual content
There are many tools and websites that will help you create and modify images. Some of the well known websites are:
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Canva | A versatile graphic design tool with a wide range of templates and customization options. |
| Adobe Creative Cloud | A comprehensive suite of professional design software, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. |
| Piktochart | An easy-to-use infographic maker that allows you to create visually appealing and informative infographics. |
| Visme | A visual content creation platform that offers templates for presentations, infographics, and more. |
| Unsplash | A popular source for high-quality royalty-free images that can be used to enhance your visual content. |
| Pixlr (save 38%) | A free online photo editor with powerful editing tools and various filters and effects. |
| Animoto | Create stunning videos with ease using this video creation platform that offers templates and customization options. |
| Stencil | A simple and user-friendly graphic design tool that enables you to create social media graphics and other visuals. |
| Infogram | Design and share interactive charts, maps, and infographics to visually present data and information. |
| Adobe Spark | Create visually appealing graphics, web pages, and videos with this all-in-one content creation tool. |
Audio Content
Certain members of your target audience may prefer audio content. Audio books, in particular, have gained significant popularity. They offer the convenience of being accessible while engaged in other activities such as driving, doing household chores, or taking a stroll with their furry friends.
27%
Year on year sales of headphones in the US (2018)
Audio is a huge market that many bloggers or website owners neglect. If you like talking you may want to consider using audio on your website.
Podcasting
Podcasting is a great way to reach new audiences and connect with your existing audience. Here are some benefits you gain by podcasting:
- Connect more deeply with your audience: Podcasting allows you to connect with your audience on a more personal level, as they can hear your voice and get to know you better. This helps build trust and loyalty with your audience.
- Repurpose high-performing content: You can repurpose your existing content, such as blog posts, into podcast episodes.
- Reach a whole new audience: Podcasting allows you to reach a new audience that may not have found your website or blog otherwise.
- Boost website traffic: By promoting your podcast on your website, you can get more engagement and traffic. Consider putting transcripts or summaries of your podcasts on your website.
To attract new listeners consider creating a trailer for your podcast and promoting it on social media
Platforms and tools for hosting and promoting audio content
It’s important to choose the right podcast hosting platform. Here is a list of podcasting websites that will help you create, upload and host your podcasts:
| Platform | Description |
|---|---|
| Spotify for Podcasters | Spotify for Podcasters is a user-friendly platform that provides all-in-one solutions for creating, distributing, and monetizing podcasts. |
| Libsyn | Libsyn is a reliable and feature-rich podcast hosting platform, offering advanced analytics, distribution to directories, and more. |
| Buzzsprout | Buzzsprout is known for its simplicity and ease of use, making it a popular choice for beginners looking to start their podcasting journey. |
| Podbean | Podbean offers unlimited hosting, comprehensive analytics, and built-in monetization options, catering to both new and experienced podcasters. |
| Transistor | Transistor is a professional podcast hosting platform with reliable hosting, advanced features, and integration options for podcasters. |
Each platform has different features so you will need to visit them to find out what works best for you.
Interactive Content
Interactive content, such as quizzes, surveys, and polls, are a valuable tool you can use to engage with your audience and improve your website’s performance.
Here are some advantages of creating interactive content:
- Higher engagement: Interactive content encourages users to spend more time on your website and engage with your business, leading to more clicks, traffic, leads, sales, and customer data to inform your operations.
- Data collection: Collect valuable data about your audience, such as their preferences, interests, hobbies and opinions. Use this data to inform your content and marketing strategy.
- Lead generation: Generate leads by encouraging users to provide their contact information in exchange for access to your content. This helps build your email list and nurture leads into customers.
- Education: Use interactive content for educational purposes, such as teaching and training exercises. It can help users learn and retain information more effectively by engaging them in the learning process.
Well designed interactive content can drive more engagement, generate leads, and build a loyal audience.
Examples of interactive content
Here are some examples of interactive content you can create for your website or blog:
- quizzes
- surveys
- polls
- calculator and tools
- interactive maps
- virtual tours (360 degree images or video)
- gamified content (challenges, achievements or rewards)
Some of this content will require specialised tools and some skill is needed. It can be worth it as you will separate yourself from your competitors by producing interactive content.
How to create interactive content that engages the audience
Ensure that your interactive content is relevant to both your business and your target audience.
For example, if you’re in the real estate industry, including 360 virtual tours of apartments would be highly relevant. This approach can provide a competitive advantage since potential tenants can conveniently view an apartment simply by exploring the virtual tour.
If you’re unsure about the specific type of content your audience is interested in, consider creating a survey to gather their input and preferences.
Use an online survey tool like Survey Monkey. You can create an online survey, quiz or questionnaire in minutes.
Integration of interactive content into websites and blogs
If you’re working with WordPress websites, a popular forms plugin to consider is WPForms. The great thing is that the plugin is free to use, offering basic functionality. However, if you want to unlock additional features like polls and surveys, you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro version of the plugin.
Create your own quizzes, polls and surveys using this tool and easily add them to your blog articles.
For other software check they support embedding of content into your blog or website.
Social Media Content
Social media sites are popular and users can spend a large amount of time on these platforms. While it may not be possible to bring your entire target audience to your website, a viable alternative is to meet them where they already are and actively engage with them on social media.
drive traffic to your website by posting website links from your social media posts.
Let’s list some advantages of using social media posts in addition to your website content:
Digital Content types
Advantages of Social Media
drive traffic to your website
Since many internet users frequently visit social media sites, posting your content on these platforms will increase its visibility and reach a larger audience.
build trust and loyalty
Interacting with your audience fosters loyalty and trust, strengthening your connection with them.
engage with your audience
Have conversions and discussions with your audience on social media.
get interactive
You can use social media to create polls or quizzes.
repurpose your content
Repurpose your existing content. Not all of your target audience are going to visit your website, that’s okay, repurpose your website content for social media and post the content there.
MAKE MONEY
You can make money from your audience on social media as an alternative channel to your website. This makes you less reliant on Google for generating revenue.
Ensure your social media profile is optimized for your niche. Use a clear value proposition so social media users can see what you stand for and what type of content they will receive by following you.
Share your blog articles on social media. After publishing content on your website promote it on your social media accounts.
Use Calls to Action (CTAs) to ask your readers to share or comment on your content.
Final Thoughts
I hope you find this article useful. Here is quick recap of the five main categories of content:
- Text
- Visual (images, infographics, video)
- Audio (podcasts)
- Interactive (polls, quizzes and surveys)
- Social Media
Use a mix of content types so you can more widely cover your target audience.
Experiment with different content types to find the right balance for your website and your audience.
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