3 Types of Content you Need to be Creating

Every piece of content you create needs a clear purpose and place within your marketing strategy.

You’re not simply filling up a quota of blogs or making a pretty Instagram feed (although that does have its benefits!). Content is a powerful marketing tool and your time is precious - it’s vital that you get the most from it.

What Makes Content Powerful?

Content is powerful for businesses because it allows you to connect with and appeal to your ideal clients. It gives you a platform on which to showcase why potential clients should pick you over competitors. At Rising Ranks, we’re all about pushing value over sales, and how this will benefit your business in the long run.

We’ve defined the three different types of content that every business needs, or it may be easier to think of it as three different purposes that your content should fall into.

These three purposes will hold you accountable and ensure that your content will get you closer to your business goals.

Let’s get started.

Content That Drives Awareness

The first type of content you need to be creating is findable content.

Its purpose is to get you found by a cold audience - before people start to check out your brand and what you stand for, they need to find you! Content that drives awareness should be a non-negotiable priority for any business.

A great place to start is by focusing on the pain points of your target audience. What are they struggling with? What questions do they have? What is their search intent? There’s zero point in creating content that nobody is searching for.

You may also find it helpful to create client personas. Getting detailed on who your target audience is, their wants, needs, likes, and dislikes, can help you to empathize with them. Empathy is incredibly important for being able to successfully address genuine pain points. It’s all about remembering that you are writing for real people with real problems.

Findable content will take the form of SEO optimized blog posts and leadership articles for publications such as Medium, Business.com, and Forbes. (It could also look like detailed answers on Q&A site Quora.)

Use online tools such as Answer the Public to see what people are asking online, and do research on sites such as Ubersuggest to see what keywords to aim for.

Short-form findable content includes of-the-moment social media content such as Reels. Keep up to date with what social media platforms are pushing in their algorithms, and have a go yourself.

Now that your ideal clients have found it, it’s time to connect with them.

Content That Drives Connection

This is content that relies on value. Once people are in your world and on your radar, how do you show up and serve them? How are you covering those all-important like, know, and trust factors?

Driving connection goes hand in hand with building your brand authority. Yes, becoming a thought leader involves sharing expert insights, but you can’t become a leader if people don’t trust you.

Authority builds when you share your unique point of view, your personal brand story, and your methodology. How can your ideal clients get to really like, know and trust you without knowing your backstory and where your passion originates?

Types of blog posts to write include your individual opinions on topics within your industry, blogs on your brand story and ethos, and your unique ways of working. You can repurpose these as valuable social media posts and emails, too.

Your aim is to create real and enduring connections. Along with sharing your story, you can ask your audience questions on social media and answer them with your business blogs, email campaigns, and social media content.

Live video is an effective way to do this too - people love to see the person behind the business, and viewers are able to ask questions in real-time.

Reassure your ideal clients that they can indeed like, know, and trust you with this content. Make a connection that they will only want to build upon.

Content That Sells

This leads us to the final type of content every business needs. Content that sells. The purpose of this content couldn’t be more clear - to make you money!

Your aim is to motivate your audience to get a big slice of what you have to offer by demonstrating how you can make an impact.

Examples of blog posts to write are case studies on how you’ve transformed existing clients’ lives with your services. Social post examples include testimonials and behind the scenes of real projects.

This type of content also includes landing pages with clear offerings and calls to action. Make it known that you genuinely want to work with your audience, and always keep in mind that you’re communicating with real individuals. Don’t leave it up to them with vague language such as “let us know if you have any questions”. Instead, replace that with “We’d love to work with you and transform how you approach your health and fitness journey. Let’s book a call.”

Your content is your sales funnel

Think of your content as mirroring a sales funnel. Content that drives awareness is top of the funnel lead generation, content that drives connection is middle of the funnel, like know and trust content, and the bottom of the funnel is content that sells - where your audience takes action.

Ensure you have a strategic mix of these three types, as each truly is content that every business needs. Plus, you will serve all your potential clients at all stages of the journey if you cover these three categories and it has the added benefit of keeping your social media feeds and website fresh, too.

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