Creative content writing today is both a science and an art form: It’s powerful, measurable and, most importantly, successful in aiding companies in their quest to achieve marketing goals. From crafting compelling content that resonates with your audience to decoding the complexities of SEO writing, the scope of content creation is vast and varied.
The key to generating ROI from each line of copy is to match every word to the reader’s objective, product by product, letter by letter. In this article, we walk through the many types of written content you need to execute and how to do them well, including the nuances of technical writing and the creativity required for engaging content.
Table of Contents
SEO Content Writing
1. Blogs
The cornerstone of an SEO content marketing strategy, blogs are top-of-funnel assets that drive traffic and feed search engines with relevant keywords. A skilled SEO writer knows that blog content must not only be informative but also optimized for search engines to improve visibility.
They are not lead-generation tools or sales collateral. Though blog writing can assist in the sales-enablement process, its core value is answering the questions of searchers and doing so in a way that funnels users toward a specific next step.
Blog ideas should come from your search engine optimization (SEO) analytics data, brainstorming sessions with other departments, and the expertise of your staff, ensuring every blog writer contributes to your strategy.
Goals: Organic keyword rankings, search presence, awareness and traffic.
Fact: 80% of bloggers say that blogging drives positive content marketing results.
Helpful tools: Answer the Public, CoSchedule Headline Analyzer and MarketMuse.
Best practice: Dedicate different blog posts to a specific target audience, not a “general” reader.
2. Website Content
Landing pages and metadata are critical components of a healthy, search-friendly site. Because you’re constrained by character limits when producing title tags, page headers, and meta descriptions, your perspective needs to be different.
Optimized site copy is a must, and solving searcher intent is especially important when dealing with specific ranking signals. It’s less art and more science. Website copywriting involves crafting web content that not only appeals to readers but also ranks well on search engines.
Aim for brevity and accuracy. For landing pages specifically, write with authority and topical relevancy in mind.
Goals: Conversions.
Fact: Like blogs, even landing pages require keyword research.
Helpful tools: Moz On-Page Grader.
Best practice: Write for the intent of the target keyword coupled with friendly UX.
3. Frequently Asked Questions Pages (FAQ)
FAQs are great because they answer the most common questions that people have about a brand, product, or service. They’re direct and a great way to quell customer concerns before they resort to opening a support ticket. Plus, they can be great for SEO, too.
Better yet, they’re versatile. You can append a FAQ section to the bottom of a blog and make it highly specific to that topic, or include one on a landing page.
What’s important here is that answers are honest and relatively short + sweet. This content type is essential for distilling complex information into digestible bits that easily answer consumer inquiries.
Goal: To proactively answer customer questions and increase interest in your brand.
Fact: FAQs are a great way to capture leads and lead them down the road to conversion on their journey to find an answer.
Helpful tools: Your industry expertise.
Best practice: If you want to be proactive about answering questions (and you should be), just think about what questions you might have if you were a customer and develop a FAQ section based on that.
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4. Content Re-Optimization
You don’t have to start each piece of quality content from scratch. More marketers are investing in reoptimizing and repurposing older collateral rather than producing new content. And to do so, you need to leverage existing site visitor data, competitive analysis metrics, on-page optimization scores, and other web analytics that your site and tools collect.
It’s less about ideation or reinventing the wheel and more so about adding a polishing touch to an otherwise solid blog post, enough to propel your organic ranking from Page 5 to Page 1.
What search engines want to see are clearly defined topics, thorough analysis of every subtopic, and content relevance that matches user intent. Engaging in content re-optimization allows you to refresh your blog content, ensuring it remains relevant and continues to attract traffic.
So, it’s practically the research and comprehensiveness of a white paper combined with search-friendly keyword optimization.
Goals: Keyword ranking and search presence.
Fact: 85.37% of the articles got more total clicks in the period after they were re-optimized.
Helpful tools: MarketMuse, Google Search Console, and Google Analytics.
Best practice: Compile competitive research and organic analyses into a brief, then optimize section by section based on recommendations.
Short-form Content
5. Customer Success Stories (Case Studies)
Writing about your success or a customer’s success requires a change in tone of voice, and that’s due to a change in audience.
Readers of case studies are likely further down the funnel and may be comparing your products/services with those of your competitors. That means you’ll need lots of data, visuals, and promotional language.
This content may be shared with prospects’ stakeholders, so a more formal, business-minded tone is necessary to reach a director/executive audience.
Goals: Lead generation and sales enablement.
Fact: Customer success stories help build trust and drive conversions — especially for those in the SaaS space.
Helpful tools: Google Analytics (conversion tracking) and sales team feedback.
Best practice: Use a narrative format and plenty of quotes for a sense of storytelling.
6. Social Media Copy
Social media platforms are a primary publishing and distribution channel for marketing and advertising. But you can’t simply upload content and hit publish. Each post needs to be unique and add value beyond what’s actually inside the article, video, or graphic.
There are many components that go into effective social copy, including:
- Headlines: These can be made unique to entice more clicks.
- Teaser: This is the excerpt or description that goes with the post.
- Image text: The static social image that accompanies your post is the first visual impression users will see while skimming social media. Include a dynamic image with a short text overlay to drive home the point.
Based on the platform on which you’re posting, adjust your tone accordingly, with LinkedIn being a formal, business outlet, versus Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram representing a more casual, lively channel to really push your brand personality.
If you’re going to cross-post, ensure each post is positioned uniquely for each platform and audience. Some content is best featured on LinkedIn while others are meant to solicit tons of shares through Instagram. Carpet-bombing all channels may dilute your message. Although, a great topic should be spread on all relevant channels.
Goals: Shareability and engagement.
Fact: There are around 4.8 billion social media users worldwide. Hone your social media content skills and it can prove to be extremely beneficial.
Helpful tools: BuzzSumo
Best practice: Ask followers to comment on your posts and engage with them when they do.
7. CTA Copy
Calls to action are for one purpose only: steering visitors toward a specific action. And the art of persuasive writing and concision is front and center when creating copy for clickable CTAs and the pages, emails, or assets they live on.
Don’t settle for the generic “click here” that’s been around for decades. Employ your brand’s tone of voice and personality, and use some creative brainpower to produce copy that has direction.
Examples we use are:
- “Get analytical”
- “Let’s get to work”
- “Let’s create”
These are all clear, intentional, and purpose-driven.
Goals: Driving visitors down the funnel and conversions.
Fact: CTA’s can (and should) be personalized. When they are, they perform 202% better than generic options.
Helpful tools: Optimizely, Feng-gui and 5 Second Test.
Best practice: Test, test and test some more. Constantly evaluate the performance of your CTAs against alternate versions.
8. Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaigns and Ad Copy
PPC campaigns, and paid search in general, is a great methodology to pair with organic marketing efforts. And the copy that promotes paid ads featured at the top of SERPs is just as important as conventional CTA copy utilized in the organic sphere.
What matters most, text-wise, is that the ad is concise, relevant, and branded with the appropriate keywords. To ensure your AdWords Quality Score is optimized to position you at the top of the ad auction process, you also need quality, relevant landing pages the ad directs to.
Factors that need to be top of mind for ad copy are:
- Placement of the CTA on the LP.
- The verbiage on the CTA itself and the content on the LP.
- Color, typography, and text combination.
Ad copy should be hyper-targeted, keyword-driven, and click-through-optimized.
Goals: Conversions.
Fact: Any positive ROI is good ROI, but with PPC, aim for a 2:1 ratio. For every $1 spent, you should make back $2.
Helpful tools: Google Ads and Optimizely.
Best practice: Use PPC ad copy to prequalify searchers. That means being direct and informative about your brand, products, and services.
9. Email Copy
Email marketing is foundational to content marketing. It’s your opportunity to distribute to thousands of subscribers your brand magazine, your proprietary data, and your custom newsletters.
Other than the actual body copy itself, the content that really drives email open rates, generates forwards, and produces responses includes:
- Subject lines: Use questions, stats, and trending news. Urgent language can also enhance open rates.
- Intros: Cut to the chase, use first names if possible, and state upfront what your intention is.
- CTAs: Have one, only one CTA in your email. Readers need clear direction on how to follow up with you, so multiple buttons, banners, or directives in a single email leads to confusion.
Goals: Share of mind, prospect nurture, lead gen.
Fact: 56% of marketers plan to increase their email marketing budgets.
Helpful tools: CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
Best practice: Including “[Video]” in subject lines can increase open rates.
10. Press Releases
While you may not immediately think of or consider a press release as written content, it is! Beyond simply being something that is written (duh), effective press releases should follow an industry-standard outline.
Once it’s written, you can ship it out to media outlets to garner some attention. These assets are particularly relevant and important for “special occasion” type moments, such as a new product release, an event you may be hosting, a charity fundraiser, or something similar.
Goals: To gain media attention and inform a target audience about something exciting your brand is doing.
Fact: The middle of the week is generally considered the best time to send a press release. That’s Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Helpful tools: This amazing blog about how to craft a compelling press release headline. Also, press release templates.
Best practice: Short and sweet is the name of the game here. Aim for 300 to 400 words total for a press release — and follow a template!
Long-form Content
11. Long-form Guides
Blogs and long-form guides share similarities. However, long-form content in particular should serve a higher purpose than just top-of-funnel awareness and traffic generation.
In-depth how-tos, explainers, and ungated proprietary information are extremely valuable to readers. Search engines prioritize relevant and comprehensive content. Through these assets, you’re more likely to rank on Page 1 of Google and win Featured Snippets.
To accomplish such, you’ll need lots of research, several forms of embedded media, concise language, expanded arguments, and detailed descriptions of what you’re explaining. Leave no stone unturned here, and ensure your long-form content is packed with compelling content that educates and engages.
Goals: Generate sustained organic traffic and win high-value keywords.
Fact: The more detail you can provide and the more you can establish yourself as an authority in your industry, the better.
Helpful tools: MarketMuse for content direction, and Moz Keyword Explorer for keyword research.
Best practice: Though text-heavy, still break up copy into short chunks for maximum scannability.
12. White Papers
These deep dives into one specific topic enable you to explain a lot of detail and present research. Creating white papers often requires rigorous legwork beforehand, compiling data, gathering quotes, and crafting subsections.
Your white papers are going to be read by those seeking insights they likely can’t get anywhere else, and they’re willing to hand over their personal information (or payment) to receive it. Downloaders of these assets want facts and quality data.
Design features are less prominent, so a white paper’s primary function is communicating findings via text, meaning you have room to expand upon arguments. This content type is ideal for conveying complex information in a digestible format for a business audience.
Goals: Micro conversions, adding prospects to email campaigns.
Fact: White papers (and eBooks) are 4th in the top 5 marketing assets that produce the best results.
Helpful tools: Google Docs and Adobe Illustrator.
Best practice: The tone for white papers should be a little more formal and geared toward a business audience.
Video Content
13. Video/Animation Scripts
When working on multimedia assets, the end result should largely be conceptualized within the writer’s mind, meaning you’re writing toward a defined, visual goal.
Also, videos are resource-intensive products, so overly verbose writing directly leads to cost overruns. In general, a 30-second animation script should contain no more than 72 words. Longer, 2-minute scripts can run up to 290 words.
Today, there are so many types of videos and most of them rely on some sort of narrative arc. So, there should be intros, developments, and conclusions, all of which entail a different type of idea-building than a traditional written piece of content. Examples of popular videos today include:
- Product reviews.
- Whiteboard animations.
- Tutorials.
Goals: Product demos, brand awareness, and sales enablement
Fact: 91% of people would like to see more video content from brands.
Helpful tools: Adobe Creative Suite.
Best practice: Don’t over-explain via text – visuals and on-screen movement can get the point across.
14. Webinars
Creating webinars adds another multimedia dimension to your marketing. Not only can they be used in formal presentations, on sales calls, for internal training, or for promoting company research, but they can also be embedded directly on web pages and shared through email.
These assets are akin to eBooks in that they should have defined word count limits per page/slide and, if synced with a verbal presentation, should pace with the cadence of the speaker.
Use bullets, data points, clear headers and subheadings, charts, graphs, and tables as much as possible. The information portrayed shouldn’t rely on chunks of text; and, in some cases, you may not even need to use complete sentences.
Be direct and professional in tone.
Goals: Thought leadership, brand awareness, attendance, lead generation.
Fact: The ideal length of a webinar is 60 to 90 minutes.
Visual Content
15. eBooks
Refrain from overloading eBooks with too much text. They are designed (literally) to be visual assets with copy playing a more complementary role.
As a writer, knowing that eBooks will likely be gated means you’re writing with the intent of converting users and gathering leads through a form fill. Be concise, practical, and format-friendly. Eschew blocks of text and use stats and bullet points, if possible.
Additionally, eBooks can cover several facets of a topic whereas white papers should home in on a single viewpoint of a topic.
Goals: Micro conversions, adding prospects to email campaigns.
Fact: Gated eBooks help capture leads.
Helpful tools: Canva, Google Docs, and Adobe Illustrator.
Best practice: Writers should aim for about 125 words per page or less to allow space for design elements.
16. Infographics
Graphical assets are meant for the visual retention part of the brain, so copy for an infographic should be written with design in mind. Essentially, you need to be part writer/part designer insofar as each line of copy has the potential to be broken out into a custom illustration.
With this in mind, it helps to use language that is active and that even has bravado – metaphors and similes help here.
- Instead of: The supply chain moved large amounts of goods during Cyber Monday.
- Try: The supply chain moved a mountain of goods during Cyber Monday.
- One change in a descriptive word or verb makes all the difference because now the designer has a visual cue to work off of.
Infographics are top-of-funnel assets, so be fun, creative, and brand-specific.
Goals: Generating inbound links, social shares, and explaining complex topics.
Fact: Infographics are highly shareable, and a great asset to garner backlinks.
Helpful tools: Canva.
Best practice: Use short lines of copy and let illustrations do most of the talking.
17. Branding/Company Culture Promotion
Not every piece of content needs to be an industry masterpiece.
If someone were to ask who your company’s employees are, what working for your boss is like, or what your business’ standpoint on a social issue is, what would you say?
When creating content to answer these questions, consider:
What is your brand identity? Why is your brand better than others? Why are your co-workers the best? What do you value in a client relationship?
Your brand is more than just a business; it’s also the sum of everyone who works there.
Write employee spotlights, create sharable, interactive company quizzes, and develop a personable rapport with the world at large. Be fun, be lighthearted, and be proud of your company culture through the content you publish.
Goals: Brand awareness, corporate recruiting, industry recognition.
Fact: 34% of people said they’ve left a job within 90 days because the culture was not what they expected. Creating culture content that is honest can help increase employee engagement (and retention)!
Helpful tools: Your staff members! Alongside SlideShare, Google Sheets, and Pattern Library.
Best practice(s): Focus on messaging and awareness – no need to be stuffy or corporate. Additionally, sync releases of webinars/slideshows with accompanying posts for greater search presence and site visibility.
18. User-Generated Content (UGC)
One of the most cost-effective ways to produce content is actually to curate it. That’s because you allow your customers, followers, subscribers, and reviewers to create it for you. By leveraging the creativity and engagement of your audience, you can produce compelling content that resonates deeply with your target demographic.
Encourage online users to review your services, leave comments on social posts, respond to Twitter polls, and engage with your company in any way possible; doing so allows you to curate valuable content directly from your community. Then, compile the information you receive and release it to the public.
For instance, a Twitter poll revealing 60% of your followers want a faster checkout process can be turned into a blog post the very next day, showcasing the power of SEO writing by incorporating relevant keywords to boost its visibility on search engines.
It’s essential to continue these conversations. With every piece of content you curate from users, solicit additional comments and maintain a dynamic exchange.
Use your writing skills to compel commentary on social, respond to all online reviews, and establish a continuous dialogue with your followers. This approach not only enriches your blog content but also enhances your social media writing, making every post a potential source of valuable user insights.
Engaging with your audience is crucial, whether it’s through blog posts, social media content, or any other types of written content. This commitment to interaction not only builds a loyal following but also enriches your content writing service, making it more responsive and attuned to the needs of your audience.
Goals: Audience-building, content simplification, and shareability.
Fact: Curated UGC is a remarkably cost-effective content type, ensuring your content stream remains vibrant even when budgets are tight.
Helpful tools: Social media platforms and your Google Business Profile.
Best practice: Never allow feedback to go unanswered.
The Fundamentals of Content Writing
The essence of this blog is the art and science of writing, a skill that transcends the various forms of content creation, from SEO content writing to technical writing and beyond. While each content type—be it blog posts, white papers, or social media content—may require a unique approach, certain fundamentals of content writing remain universally applicable:
- Do your research: Essential for all types of written content, thorough research ensures your content is not only relevant but also enriched with the keywords that matter most to your audience and to search engines.
- Outline your content: A crucial step for everything from blog writing to business writing, outlining helps organize your thoughts and structure your content, making it more accessible and engaging for your readers.
- Find your niche and write for it: Whether you’re a freelance content writer or a technical writer, identifying and understanding your audience is key to creating content that resonates and achieves its objectives.
- Edit and proofread more than once: The importance of this step cannot be overstated, regardless of the content type. From email writing to academic writing, a polished, error-free presentation is essential for conveying professionalism and expertise.
Content is King
Expanding your digital presence through a strategic mix of SEO content, video content, and other engaging content types is essential for capturing the attention of both your audience and search engines. Written content, with its capacity to convey complex information in an accessible and engaging manner, remains a fundamental aspect of content creation—a challenge that many companies continue to navigate.
With this guide, you can attack the future with confidence in your content and a stronger understanding of how to position the creative copy you’ve so carefully crafted. ⇐ Hey, that’s alliteration!
Editor’s Note: Updated September 2024.
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