Creative content is required to attract customers, boost engagement, and generate higher returns. Written content is still relevant in modern marketing and promotion strategies. But it is not the only content type.
With the emergence of the internet and social media, the content has taken many forms. It is necessary to understand these content types and their impact on the audience.
14 Uncommon Digital Content Types Marketers Must Use:
Here are the most successful content types that you must use to market your blog, business, or brand.
Animations:
Animations are becoming popular. You can create actionable images with animation skills.
To create meaningful animation, you need to hire an animator, animation tools, and storytelling.
Storytelling is an excellent way to deliver your message using animations.
Animation is a costly and time-consuming task. It requires professional skills.
You can use animations to create:
- Infographics
- GIFs
- Explainer videos
- Shorts
Gamification:
Use gamification content marketing.
Create games based on your stories or the message you want to deliver. Brands like Fitbit and Duolingo use gamification strategies to market their brands.
Create an app for your brand and let users join the app. Create badges and achievements for completion of each step. It is a way to engage the user with your brand.
Illustrations:
As a blogger or marketer, you may have used tons of images, graphics, and infographics. Images you use come from stock image sites like Shutterstock.
The problem with popular stock images is that they are overused. Every marketer is using the same images and graphics.
It is necessary to be creative with images.
The best way is to create illustrations. You need not be a Photoshop expert to create visually appealing illustrations. You can even create handwritten illustrations.
If you are new to illustrations, then hire an illustrator from the freelancer platform Fiverr. For just $5, you will get better llustration related to your content campaign.
I worked with Venngage for a long time. Venngage reported that visual content marketing performs better than traditional content.
Live Videos:
Live video streaming is popular on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn. It is an excellent way to engage with your audience in real time.
In live video you do not have the option to edit it.
Examples of Live Videos:
- Facebook Live
- YouTube Live
- Instagram Live
- TikTok Live
Live video helps marketers reach the target audience. It is best for interviews, Q/A sessions, news, and updates.
Saturday Night Live is another example of live videos.
Op-Eds:
Op-eds stand for opposite of editorials. It means that everything that is not meant for traditional press or blogs is yet part of the written content.
Most op-eds are opinionated and emotional. You should use it to deliver your message in an emotional way.
How-to guides are the best examples of op-eds.
Short Message Service (SMS):
SMS is one of the oldest digital content types. Even before the internet, it was possible to send and receive messages using SMS services.
SMS works as a direct message in the user’s inbox. It gets attention faster than other content formats.
An average SMS campaign gets 11.19% CTR. The higher CTR makes SMS the best content type to reach the target audience.
For better results, integrate SMS into a professional CRM tool.
Screencasts:
In a talking head video, the creator talks in front of the camera. Podcast videos, interviews, and stand-up videos are examples of talking head videos. In these, viewers will only see the body above chest level. The subject faces the camera and talks directly.
You can use animations, GIFs, smileys, running text, and other types of graphics to make talking head videos engaging.
eCommerce marketers can create talking head videos with a rolling list of products displayed on screen.
Use screencasts to combine video, audio, and music. You can use tools like Canva, Camtasia, Movavi, CapCut, etc.
Slides:
Slides have been popular since the introduction of MS-PowerPoint. Marketers use slides to target multiple benefits.
Platforms like SlideShare let you publish sliders and gain backlinks.
Use images, infographics, illustrations, and GIFs in your slides.
Tell a story in your slides. Make the audience visit your next slides till the end. You can also use slides during interviews, presentations, and webinars.
Templates:
Templates are the pre-made formats that you can make available for your audience to complete some tasks.
For example, share your content calendar with your audience. It will help them to know how to plan the content for the next 30 days.
- Invoice templates are most popular. There are sites that offer pre-built templates.
- Social media design templates are also popular to make content readily available for social networks.
- Resume templates help job seekers to add necessary information to their resumes.
Templates make things easy. It is why users love templates. They save time and are often available free of charge.
Timelines:
Timelines are a great way to show your progress and share it with your audience. It is the best content format for travel blogs.
Create a timeline of events. Mark your travel journey into milestones. And share every update with the date and time.
It is an effective way to boost your travel blog SEO.
Use images, infographics, recorded videos, and stories to make your travel journey appealing for the audience.
User-Generated Content (UGC):
There was a time when user-generated content was considered spam. But Google has changed it when it has made a deal with the biggest UGC platform, Reddit.
The Google-Reddit partnership has made Reddit take a massive leap in search results. At the same time, it has uncovered the fact that user-generated monitored content is the valuable content.
UGC is popular because it is created by users for the users. The most common UGC content types are question answer forums and video-sharing sites.
Popular UGC platforms are:
- TikTok
- YouTube
Popular UGC platforms use hashtag marketing to target audiences. Brands create their own hashtags, including the product-specific or user-specific hashtags.
You should use brand mention tools to track your brand’s position in UGC platforms.
Use UGC platforms to share content, publish news, gain followers, and boost engagement.
Virtual Reality:
Virtual reality and augmented reality are making a big difference. VR devices are gaining popularity. Especially for gaming and travel brands.
It creates an in-person experience. The user gets real-life experience when he wears VR devices.
The VR market is set to reach $18 billion by the end of 2025.
Creating VR and AR environments costs a lot. It also needs research and strategy to make something out of your investment.
Worksheets:
Worksheets are like templates but offer more customization. You can plan business, budget, and goals with worksheets.
Worksheets work as an active learning tool. You can use them to build email lists. A creative worksheet attracts social shares and direct traffic.
Your users love to share helpful worksheets. It is necessary to make the worksheet available in the user’s native language.
Active learning tools like worksheets have 16 times higher returns.
Web Apps:
Web apps help users based on the platform they are visiting. Each platform has a different type of web app. Some web apps let you play games, while others perform tedious calculations for you.
Web apps are an easy way to gain attention, social shares, backlinks, and regular traffic.
Here are the types of web apps that you can create for your business:
- Quiz
- Polls
- Appointment booking
- Budget calculator
- Blogging apps
- Fitness tracker
- Recipe generator
- Virtual experiences
- Event planning apps
- e-learning apps
- Gaming reward apps
- Customer support apps
Conclusion:
Digital content is part of every business and platform. Blogs often rely on written content, images, and infographics. Video-sharing platforms promote videos, animations, and live streaming.
Web apps, VR devices, and augmented reality help marketers to reach the customers. Use these uncommon content types to target audiences on less competitive platforms.
Other helpful resources: