6. Tutorials

Usually, you encounter guides presented as longreads, longer and visually richer than typical articles. Users often refer to a good guide frequently, reopening it again and again. And all of this potentially translates to your traffic.

What makes a guide good? It’s a well-structured, up-to-date, and articulately presented knowledge source that comprehensively addresses a specific question, if possible. So that users don’t need to keep googling and searching for additional sources.

Creating a quality guide requires not only a good idea and understanding your audience but also the professional skills of a copywriter and designer. You can publish it in your blog as a longread or package it into a downloadable PDF file to use in email campaigns or as bait for data collection on a landing page.

Here’s a brief list of recommendations on what to focus on when creating guides:

Target Audience (TA): Clearly understand the interests of your target audience. This helps in choosing a relevant and in-demand topic for a useful guide.
Structure: Divide information into sections and chapters. Use headings, subheadings, and bullet points for readability. Ensure the guide has a logical and sequential structure for easy navigation.
Visuals: Incorporate illustrations, graphics, tables, diagrams, and charts to enhance understanding. Visual elements make the guide more comprehensible.
Design: Create an appealing layout using suitable fonts, colors, and a well-thought-out design. Don’t underestimate the Power of Font — it matters!
Language: Write clearly and concisely. Avoid complex terms and technical jargon if your audience is not specialized in the field.
Research: If you have access to data and research, use them to support your statements and recommendations.
Examples: Provide concrete examples and scenarios to demonstrate how to practically apply the information.
Resources: Include links to used resources, additional information, or tools that might be useful for readers.
Updates: Regularly update the guide to maintain relevance and keep it as informative as possible.
SEO: Optimize content for search engines to increase visibility.
Analytics: Use analytical tools to track guide performance and analyze reader engagement.
Feedback: Specify contact details or ways for readers to ask questions or leave comments.

Creating quality guides demands time and effort, but they can be a powerful tool for attracting traffic and establishing authority in your field.

7. E-books

Crafting an impactful e-book involves packing substantial, weighty content, typically formatted as a PDF. E-books are often offered as downloadable products, accessible for free in exchange for joining a mailing list. HTML versions are also possible, allowing the integration of video, audio, and other resources. E-books hold high perceived value; readers are willing to invest more in consuming and applying such content, as well as sharing it.

Creating an e-book helps strengthen your authority in a specific field and can be a powerful method of sharing knowledge. This is especially true if you can involve influential experts in your niche, ready to share their insights and secrets — a challenging but crucial aspect.

Connecting with these experts for collaboration is more challenging than selecting a compelling topic, devising a catchy title, designing the content, and preparing it for publication. Since general recommendations for creating e-books align with those mentioned earlier for guides, let’s focus on how to find and engage the right co-authors.

Search and Select Experts. Identify influential specialists with a substantial following on social media, successful book authors, company founders, department heads, etc.
Establish Initial Contact. Mention chosen experts on your platforms. Engage with them through meaningful comments on social media and blogs. Be patient; building initial contacts may take weeks to months.
Craft a Valuable Proposition. Ensure your offer is appealing to experts. Emphasize the benefits, such as additional visibility, access to your audience, brand promotion, etc.
Personalized Approach. Reach out personally with well-thought-out, personalized messages. Clearly state why you seek their involvement and recommendations. Be honest and transparent about your intentions.
Start Small and Provide Examples. Provide examples of previous work and content to show your professionalism and ability to create quality content. It will be unrealistic to get the cooperation of 20–30 authors at once — concentrate your efforts on 2–3. Later, it will be much easier and faster to get a positive response from influential experts by citing these 2–3 co-authors as an example of successful collaboration.
Define Goals, Roles, and Expectations. Clearly outline the objectives, roles, timelines, and expectations. Ensure all participants understand the purpose of creating the e-book.
Highlight Expert Authority. Include biographies and recommendations of experts in the e-book. Enhance their authority to attract the reader’s attention.
Be Prepared for Rejections. Acknowledge that not all experts may agree to collaborate. Be prepared for refusals and continue searching for those aligned with your goals.
Express Gratitude. After collaborations, express gratitude to the experts. Emphasize the value of their contribution. Aim to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.

This approach transforms e-books into valuable assets, maximizing the return on the time and effort invested. Establishing strong relationships with influential experts can prove even more beneficial for future endeavors.

8. Product Overviews

First and foremost, why do we need reviews, critiques, feedback, tests, unboxings, etc.? Because people trust them: 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

What do we gain from creating reviews:

Traffic. Such content helps generate organic traffic, allowing you to rank your site for strategically chosen keywords.
Authority. You establish authority as a reviewer, and people will trust your opinion if you articulate and justify it correctly.
Income. Reviews of products under affiliate arrangements can serve as an additional source of income.

To ensure your review is compelling, you should gain real hands-on experience with the product or service, have the ability to conduct tests and comparisons with competitors, form a personal and objective opinion about the strengths and weaknesses, and draw clear conclusions. Video reviews tend to garner more views and trust compared to photos and text.

Here are the additional tips for creating compelling reviews to engage more traffic:

Explore the Topic. Understand your target audience and their interests to choose an appropriate angle for your review. Research popular queries and topics in your niche.
Investigate the Product. Do your homework. Specifications, instructions, features, and characteristics of the product will help you identify aspects to highlight in your review. Test the product yourself.
Create a Script. Plan what you will talk about and in what sequence. A typical script should include a brief presentation of the product and the manufacturer, a description of features and characteristics, pros and cons, a comparison with analogs, final ratings, and conclusions.
“Get to the point”! Avoid dry enumeration of characteristics. Turn specifications into use cases and advantages. For example, saying “2.4 GHz processing speed” in a laptop review might not mean much to potential users. But if you say, “2.4 GHz is enough for smooth usage of Photoshop and video editing,” that’s a different conversation.
Be Honest and Objective. Avoid excessive hype. Remember that betraying your audience’s trust can be detrimental. Provide valuable information and share your genuine experiences. Explain how the product has benefited you personally or in your daily life.
Make Comparisons. Whenever possible, compare the product with analogs and competitors in the market, preferably in the same price range.
Evaluate. Develop a scoring system and provide an objective assessment. Even better, use a category system (e.g., price/quality, performance, design) and rate the product in each of these categories.
Engage Your Audience. Encourage interaction. Address your target audience, provoke comments, and ask questions.
Monitor Quality. Pay attention to details. Elements like your intro, branding, clear video, sound, proper lighting and decorations, professional effects, and editing contribute to quality. These investments will pay off.
Use SEO. Craft informative titles and descriptions, use keywords and tags, and optimize metadata for search engines.
Analyze. Utilize feedback and analyze metrics to keep your finger on the pulse and continually improve the quality of your content.

9. Case Study

Case studies always attract the audience’s interest, especially in the business sphere. After all, cases are vivid, concrete, transparent evidence and a guide to success. Cases teach through practical experience and vividly demonstrate how a product or service helped a client solve a problem.

79% of users consider case studies as part of the purchasing process. 52% of B2B buyers consider thematic research an important part of the evaluation process.

Why should we write cases?

Demonstrating expertise. It’s a way to assert yourself as a specialist in the industry, showcase problem-solving skills, and show results.
Social proof. Seeing your clients who have achieved success through collaboration with you, others are more likely to choose you.
Strengthening authority. Cases with a step-by-step presentation of problem-solving, filled with data, enhance the sense of trust and confidence in your abilities.
Explain complex topics. Case studies make it easier and more convincing to explain complex matters to the target audience through storytelling and practical demonstration. And the simpler and clearer, the more potential clients you can attract.

What to keep in mind when creating your Case Study:

Objective. Clearly define the purpose of your case study. What attention do you want to attract, and who will find your case interesting? It could be a challenging problem, a non-standard solution, or simply a successful project.
Subject. It’s great if you have a satisfied client with a widely recognized name. Ensure you have obtained permission for publication, agreed on the format and data you intend to use, exchanged links, etc.
Structure. Your case study should include the goal and topic, client introduction, description of their problems and pain points, the chosen solution and its results, conclusions, and a call to action.
Data. Real numbers, graphs, data, and statistics add weight to your case study, making it more convincing and informative. Interactive elements such as videos, infographics, photo galleries, and links can make your case more attractive and presentable. Client reviews and direct quotes about the project will make it more authoritative.
Storytelling. To prevent your case study from appearing purely like marketing, turn it into an inspiring success story — modest, understandable, and honest. Regardless of the format and distribution channels, the case study should remain informative, interesting to the audience, and easy to understand.
SEO. Don’t forget about informative headlines, meta tags, and keywords. A/B testing is always a good idea to determine the best options.
Feedback. Allow your audience/readers to provide feedback, as well as test and acquire a similar solution for their business.

10. Tool

The last in the order but not in importance among the types of extended content that every business should try at least once (where applicable) is the creation and promotion of its own free online tool.

Certainly, developing something like a free or freemium tool may come with a cost. However, it allows you to gain a substantial return on investment in the form of numerous backlinks, rapid SEO, and social ratings.

It is not necessary to create a complex analytical tool — something simple, but useful and necessary often is enough. What will attract attention and what will be convenient and easy for your audience to use quickly, without unnecessary movements?

The key is to find a worthwhile idea and know your target audience well: what problems do they face and what tasks do they have to solve on a regular basis? Tools exist to solve problems — start by finding them.

Creating a tool will require the assistance of a developer, and the pivotal point here is the cost of their services. Request quotes from candidates, and you’ll understand everything you need to know about the feasibility of such a project for you. Hence, I advise focusing your efforts on finding a problem you can address even with a modest budget.

The good news is that promoting a tool is much simpler than any other type of content. Just provide free access, and everything else will follow naturally. Users appreciate what makes their lives easier, especially when it’s free. Therefore, audiences welcome tools with less cynicism compared to, for example, blog texts. Such a tool is an excellent starting point with the potential to open up many additional opportunities for your business.

To Sum Up

The effectiveness of various types of content as traffic sources may vary depending on your target audience, business model, marketing strategy goals, etc. Research, analysis, and testing are recommended to determine which content types are more suitable for your business and current traffic acquisition tasks.

This is why item #1 in creating any content is to know your target audience! Stay aware of their pains and expectations, and always consider their interests. Remember: you create content for them, not for yourself.

To succeed in content marketing, it is absolutely crucial that your content stands out. In quality! The more types of content you use wisely, the more effective your content promotion efforts become.

Wishing you high conversions and lots of traffic!

Top 10 Content Types to Engage More Traffic [part 2]