5 Content Creation Formats to Drive Traffic to Your Website
Introduction
Content creation has always been a key aspect of successful marketing campaigns. It’s no wonder most businesses look for creative ways to create content.
Nevertheless, you must conduct adequate research to understand what type of content interests your target audience. There are millions of content competing daily for users’ attention. As a result, your content must stand out in a unique way that drives traffic to your website.
Since your goal is to drive traffic that would generate more leads and provide more sales conversion, you need to think like search engines to create content that is valuable, informative, and SEO-friendly to meet these objectives.
Search engines look to provide accurate and valuable information to their users. After typing your search query on Search engines, you can be sure to get a wide range of practical, user-friendly, original, and diverse content.
These are key points to keep in mind when creating content using the content creation types, we would address as we go further into the article.
What is content creation all about?
Content creation is a strategic approach in digital marketing that involves researching and crafting ideas to produce valuable pieces of information and promoting these pieces to attract and engage a targeted audience, leading them to take a desired action. These ideas can be represented in written or visual formats.
Creating content requires a consistent and customer-centric approach if you are looking to drive traffic to your website. You need to know what your target audience wants to see on your website and what keeps them engaged. The quality of your content matters in content creation. Users would only engage with a piece of content that provides value.
Your content needs to address your target audience’s pain points and provide solutions to their problems. Set up a content marketing strategy that aligns with your business to promote the content you have created. A good content marketing strategy would boost your website discovery and ensure your content reaches your target audience while delivering value.
Why is content creation important?
Content creation is often adopted as a creative method to connect your target audience to your business. High-quality content can help your website have visibility and promote your products and services. It contributes to organic website traffic.
Content creation can help you position your business as a reliable resource. Also, keep potential customers glued to your website as you promote your product and services. Engagement with high-quality content on your website can help individuals who visit your website turn into leads and eventually get them to make a purchase.
What is high-quality content?
High-quality content is a form of content that is original, well crafted, plagiarism-free, SEO friendly, diverse, and full of value. It is a series of content crafted with search engines and a target audience in mind.
It is important to note that your website content needs to check the boxes of high-quality content. This is to ensure you get the desired result from your content creation strategy. Remember to take into consideration the various preferences of your target audience.
Now, let’s examine some 5 content creation formats that can help you drive the right traffic. Also, keep your target audience engaged.
The list format
A list is a good format to represent your content. It simplifies the navigation and understanding of your content. Your target audience would be inclined to engage with an article in this format. It helps to grab attention and ease the process of having to read through a long article.
For example, you are more likely to engage with an article whose headline reads, “10 places you can visit this summer”. It is specific and straight to the heart. Compared to “Summer vacation destinations”. It sounds exhausting to read through as you are not sure of how long the article can be.
However, when you know what number of destinations to expect, you would likely engage with the article since you can spare time to go through the list.
How to use this format
Choose a topic of interest. Then figure out how many points you want to compress it into.
Once you’ve decided on that, create a great introduction.Deliver your points in a list. Afterwards, you can conclude the article.
Furthermore, besure to add brief descriptions and keywords. You can create visual content with this list to drive traffic from social media to your website.
Video content format
Video content has become a popular type of content. It is an effective way to grab your prospect’s attention. Many users love to watch videos that are concise and relatable. This type of content, if done right, aids customers’ retention and makes your brand memorable.
By that token, you can explore different forms of video content. From short funny clips to how-tos to reviews and blogs. All these can help you drive traffic to your website and engage your target audience.
How to use this format:
- Create a script around an idea or product
- Make short and long videos depending on your intent.
- Upload your videos on YouTube, Tiktok, or any video promotion platform.
- Deliver value and attach your website link as a resource.
- Attach videos on your website articles as an additional resource.
Infographics
If you are looking for a way to deliver statistics and data in a simpler and less boring form, then you should use this type of content format. Infographics are a content format that simplifies data and information. It uses simple images and graphics to convey its message.
This type of content format is common among content creators in Finance, Education, and Health niches. With great storytelling, your content can potentially attract a flood of interested folks.
How to use this format:
- Research your topic of interest.
- Gather as much data and facts as possible. Make sure they are relevant.
- Simplify the data collected.
- Use tools like Canva to create your infographics or outsource to a graphic designer if it’s within your budget.
- Post your infographics on social media and add CTA to drive users to visit your website to learn more.
- If others post your infographics, reach out to them to use your website link as a reference. You can find out by using Google image search.
It is noteworthy to mention that your infographics can also come in the form of animations. This makes it more appealing and fun to viewers or prospective customers. However, in trying to make it look fun and appealing, be sure to not lose the essence of the message.
How-to guides
A ‘how-to’ guide is a detailed tutorial or step-by-step article, usually giving expert opinions on a specific industry-related problem. It contains in-depth and accurate solutions to your target audience’s query. This type of content format is quite popular in blog articles.
It helps you position your business as a knowledgeable authority in your industry. This type of content format can drive organic website traffic. It can also help your website rank high on search engine result pages, and SERPs.
How to use this:
- Use search engines to find problem statements from users in your industry.
- Conduct your research to collect facts and solutions to this problem or ask an expert in the field for input.
- Write each step of the answer in detail.
- Be sure to make it as concise as possible.
- Include other types of content in the guide to ensure your target audience is engaged.
- Make short fun posts of this guide and upload them on social media to drive traffic.
- Reference links in panel discussions and forums as a resource.
Some examples of how-to guides include: ‘How to make Italian pasta’, ‘How to start investing as a beginner’ etc
Podcasts
A podcast is another type of content format that is good for generating traffic to your website. Think of podcasts as audio articles. Podcasts are audio files that your target audience can download or listen to via streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, or Google podcasts.
You can easily convert your blog posts or video posts to podcast content that can be listened to on the go. It is great for content repurposing. This type of content format is beneficial to your visually impaired target audience who want to engage with your website. The good news is podcasts are easy to make. You just need a good microphone and your phone or laptop.
How to use this:
- Find a topic of interest or blog post you want to repurpose.
- Get a microphone and your smartphone
- Sign up on audio recording platforms like Anchor by Spotify or Audacity.
- Record your content
- Make a short trailer of your content and post it on social media, forums, or panel discussions.
- Attach the podcast audio to your blog post or place it on your website.
- Make image content for your podcast topic and share it on social media, inviting users to visit your website.
Be sure your podcast content is very clear and concise. Try not to beat around the bush.
Conclusion
Content creation can be used to grab your audience’s attention. With good high-value content offers like educational blog posts, or lead magnets, your audience can learn, share, and even turn into buying customers.
This helps you achieve the goal of bringing more awareness that helps your business thrive in a competitive market. Be sure to use the different types of content formats. A powerful content marketing strategy ensures your content appeals to every individual in your target audience and delivers the desired results from your efforts.
Additionally, ensure you publish your content on time and do your research to ensure you deliver value. Now that you have learned about the different types of content, be sure to make use of them.
