30+ High Performing Content Marketing Ideas [Updated]

No doubt, content marketing has evolved into one of the most powerful digital marketing strategies over the years.

✅ “93% of the B2B businesses are into content marketing, but, only 5% feel that their efforts are very effective”, writes Hubspot.

Where did the rest of the businesses go wrong then?

But, that doesn’t work now.

Of course.

Sometimes, it becomes really difficult to decide which types of content marketing you should go with – Simple Blog Posts, eBooks or Webinars?

Well, in this blog post, I will discuss the 30+ types of content marketing that you can create to collect maximum leads and boost sales.

30+ Types of Content Marketing to Boost Your Traffic and Engagement

Here are the types of content marketing that you must try if you are seeking to increase the traffic and engagement of your website.

[List here is not in any specific order.]

1. eBooks

You can create simple yet informational eBooks (PDFs) and provide them to your visitors in exchange for their emails.

eBooks are, basically, well-designed and shortened version of a book which can be used to educate or to explain something to the readers.

You can hire any professional to get your eBook designed or you can use MS Word or simply use the Google Slides to create an awesome looking eBook.

Below, I have attached a video that will explain to you the basics of creating an eBook using Google Slides.

2. Courses

Online digital courses are revolutionizing formal education in a great way. Creating and selling online courses on various topics you know can be very profitable.

✅ “In 2015, the net worth of the eLearning market was $165 Billion which is expected to exceed $240 Billion by 2023″, reports Global Market Insights.

Deepak from digitaldeepak.com created a great online course on blogging named “100-day Blogging Course” and made tons of money. He, now, is considered among the top digital marketers of India.

Wondering how to sell & host these online courses?

Well, to sell and host your online courses, you can use platforms like Udemy and Teachable. On these platforms, you will need to upload the complete video tutorials (on the topic that you’re planning to create the course on) which explains everything in detail, sit back and watch your computer sh*tting $$$.

Udemy to Sell Your Courses
Udemy
Teachable to Sell Your Courses
Teachable

If you are just getting started with selling courses online then Udemy is highly recommended because it also has a marketplace that will reduce efforts in marketing your courses.

Otherwise, you can go with Teachable like options to create self-hosted courses on your website itself.

3. Infographics

Infographics are basically a visual representation of information and data. By using infographics, you can express complex information to the readers in an easy and enhanced way.

✅ According to a report, “51% of B2B marketers prefer creating infographics (visual assets) as part of their content marketing”.

You can use various online free tools like Canva and Figma to create some visually appealing and eye-catching infographics for your blogs/websites.

For example, the infographics “The Shrinking Dollar” by Wholesale Gold Group was able to generate hundreds of thousands of backlinks just in a few days of launch.

Infographic - The Shrinking Dollar
Image Courtesy: Pinterest

You can follow this guide by Brian Dean on “How to Get Backlinks With Guestographics” to create an awesome looking and high performing infographic.

4. Podcasts

In simple words, Podcast is nothing but an on-demand radio talk.

✅ According to a survey by Nielsen, 17% (48 million) of the US population listen to podcasts weekly which is expected to grow considerably in the coming years.

Podcasts are basically a series of pre-recorded audio files on various topics which users can subscribe to download and listen to. Any individual can create and publish podcasts on any of the known topics.

You can even turn your blog posts into podcasts by narrating and recording them in your voice or getting them recorded by someone else.

PodcastingInsights embeds an audio version of all the articles in the respective blog posts themselves; you can take a look at below:

Host Podcasts on Your Site

However currently, in countries like India, there are very few % of people who listen to podcasts but the number will skyrocket for sure in the coming years.

Podcasts are being considered as the future, because in today’s too-busy day-to-day life, unlike reading traditional blog posts, one can listen to podcasts while travelling, driving, and even gardening.

5. Webinars

In simple words, a webinar is an online meeting.

✅ “Over 60% of B2B marketers are using webinars as part of their content marketing programs.”, writes Joe Pulizzi of ContentMarketingInstitute in an article.

Neil Patel was able to generate 16,394 unique and high-quality leads by hosting a pre-recorded webinar 77 times.

Neil Patel - Hosting a Webinar

So, a webinar is, basically, a web-based live video conferencing where you (the webinar host) can professionally share your knowledge with an individual or a group of individuals.

You too can show your face speaking on a topic and excellently interact with your viewers. If you haven’t hosted any webinar before, but looking forward to hosting one then this article might help.

6. Reviews

In a survey, when various bloggers and digital marketers were asked what is the most difficult part of digital marketing?, and, most of them answered Content Creation.

Indeed.

Creating Content is the most difficult part of the digital marketing journey. But, writing a product-focused article/content is comparatively easier.

Product Reviews

Remember, everyone loves a personal opinion about a product before buying it. You can write reviews of various products from the eCommerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart.

You won’t have to think too much about your next blog topic as there are hundreds of products about which you can write a review.

7. Videos

✅ “86% of viewers say they regularly turn to YouTube to learn something new.”, says Google.

✅ Cisco has predicted that there will be more than 82% of all internet traffic will be going to video content in 2021.

What do you say then?

Videos are dynamic and engaging; more users prefer watching videos to reading texts. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth a million words.

Creating a video on any topic is much easier than writing a full blog post on that topic because explaining things becomes easier when visuals are added to it.

If you do not want to show yourself in the video then you can simply record your computer screen while explaining the video and upload it on various platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. to get tons of engagement.

8. List Posts

Lots of information can be written in the shortest amount of time by publishing the numbered list types of blog posts.

However, some people consider list posts as a fixture of content marketing but, this isn’t entirely true.

Below is a stat from Hubspot to amaze you out:

List posts have comparatively

  • More clickthroughs
  • More engagement
  • More social sharing
  • More dwell time
  • More organic traffic
  • More conversions
  • More comments
  • Less bounce rate

BuzzFeed has taken the list posts to the next level by creating blog posts like the below snapshot:

Example of List Posts from BuzzFeed

Even the blog post you are currently reading is nothing but a kind of list post. However, this is a really long list that took me a few days to complete but, one can go with 5 or 10 items in the list as per convenience.

9. Memes

Memes are everywhere.

And, you must have come across some of such memes.

LyfeMarketing.com defines memes as “feature images that have gone viral online or screenshots from films, along with a caption that says something entertaining, insightful, or relatable”.

And, below is an example of an SEO meme. =D

SEO Memes - Example

Nowadays, memes have become so popular that someone will be sharing memes anywhere you turn. Out of all the types of content that are mentioned here, memes are one of the most sharable types of content.

The best part about creating these meme contents is that these do not even require any kind of graphic design skills and are very very easy to create. Various online tools are using which you can create some really good memes.

Memes can be adapted in any niche and believe me, audiences love memes.

10. Quiz

Quizzes are often a series of fun and light-hearted questions which visitors love to respond to. Still, using quizzes as one of the marketing strategies is quite underrated.

And, when talking about quizzes, you can’t just ignore BuzzFeed… you just can’t.

BuzzFeed Quizzes Example

By using these quizzes, BuzzFeed was able to generate a huge, huge amount of traffic within a few days of launching its quiz section.

Because the quizzes seek attention and force a reader to be engaged actively with the quiz questions in front of them.

11. Case Studies

A case study refers to a collection of in-depth detailed information on a particular topic. It includes all the activities, events, challenges or problems which someone faced while completing that task/goal.

✅ Neil Patel writes in a post, “Case studies are a great way to tell the world how valuable a product or service is”.

So, basically, case studies are a really long and in-depth collection of experiences while doing work or completing a task.

Case Study Example - Facebook

Above is an example of a Case Study where Facebook has published an article explaining how one of Facebook’s clients Axis Bank was able to increase its reach through Facebook ads. You can take a look at the case study here.

12. How to

These how-to types of content are very high in value because these help people learn something new. Basically, how-to contents apply to almost all industries.

How-to content can be produced in the form of a blog post, eBook, video, podcast, etc. However, these contents are not so easy to create but can generate a lot of leads.

Below is an example of a how-to blog post that I’ve written to explain “How to Store CF7 Data to Google Sheets“.

Store CF7 Data to Google Sheets

When you solve an individual’s problem through your how-to blog post, they start believing in you and become a loyal user of your site.

How-to articles can be answers and solutions to the everyday problems that your customers (or users) face; and for your information, an ideal how-to article consists of approximately 1600 words, according to buffer.com.

13. Audiobooks

Generally, audiobooks are for those people who spend more time driving or travelling and don’t get time to read books. This means, if one can’t read, he/she can listen to that stuff.

Similar to a podcast, the audiobook is the voice recording of the pieces of content or an article or a book that one can listen to while driving, travelling, walking, cooking or even gardening without having to read the texts.

Audiobooks Example

One can listen to the audiobooks by using a device like a laptop, desktop, tablet, smartphone or any other multimedia player.

However, mainly, audiobooks are for those who have already published or planning to publish a paperback or a Kindle book. They can also launch the audio version of their books for better engagements.

14. Quotes

Who isn’t familiar with these!

Basically, quotes are inspiring, motivational or helpful words spoken by any famous person which is used to motivate others.

Websites like BrainyQuote generates tonnes lot of traffic by only sharing famous quotes by really famous people. And, according to the stats, people do search for such quotes a lot.

Either you can create your own quotes as content or, you can use quotes by various famous thinkers, marketers, businessmen, etc.

Never Give Up - Quote

And, people love and look for these types (above image) of quote-on-image format a lot.

15. Live Video

As you would talk to someone face-to-face, live videos are almost a similar kind of thing. The only difference is that it is done online by using various platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Skype, etc.

Live video is basically streaming of the live feed of videos of you talking and answering the viewers’ questions. And, the best thing is that your visitors will be able to watch you answering their questions.

Facebook Live Example
Source: Facebook

You can even host a live interview of someone while taking questions directly from your viewers/visitors or, you can even live-stream your gameplay on various game streaming sites like Twitch.

PracticalEcommerce.com has got a really great list of various online live streaming apps and tools which you can check out here.

16. Guest Posts

As the name suggests, literally, guest post means publishing articles or blog posts, by your name as the author, on someone else’s blog or website.

What are the benefits?

Well, guest posts or guest blogging helps you to build relationships, exposures, backlinks, authority and also helps you to spread your name out there with the community.

Guest blogging type of collaborations also helps both (host and the guest) in increasing their number of audiences by gaining each other’s visitors or users.

What are Guest Posts - Example

✅ SocialMarketingWriting.com organized an online survey and got the result, “62.96% people think that a blog with multiple authors has more credibility than with a single author”.

Just write an awesome article and send an email to the bloggers in your niche asking for a guest post, no doubt some will deny it but, some will definitely agree to allow you for a guest post in exchange for a backlink from your site.

If you are deciding to get into guest blogging then you should follow this Definitive Guide to Guest Blogging by Brian Dean.

17. Roundups

Roundups or roundup posts may seem too mainstream but, these types of posts, if written properly, can get you a lot… a lot of traffic.

So, what are the roundup posts?

Roundup posts are a collection, or better to say an aggregation of opinions, tools, strategies, statistics, or some other related items.

You can take a look at this roundup post by Matt Diggity from DiggityMarketing to get an idea.

Matt Diggity SEO Roundup - Example

Expert roundups are considered as one of the best types of roundups because in this type experts are asked directly to share their opinions on the selected topic.

Yes, just prepare a well-researched topic, contact experts in your niche to share their views on the topic and then just publish it on your blog.

“If everything is done well, expert roundups can attract tons of traffic, boost your authority and help in building relationships with the influencers”, writes SmartBlogger.com in a post.

18. Guides

Guides are nothing but a kind of how-to post but a more definitive and detailed one. Guides can be a really long and descriptive piece of information on any topic which can range from 3000 words to 15000 words or even more.

The main difference between how-to posts and guides is that the how-to posts cover small topics and are comparatively shorter in length than that of the guides.

Brian Dean Guide on Link Building

Brian Dean, the founder of Backlinko.com, published a really descriptive and definitive guide on link building, which is of more than 4500 words, has been shared more than 10,000 times. And, it has generated hundreds of high-quality backlinks too.

Note that publishing longer articles can boost your SEO scores and rankings in search engines.

19. Checklists

While doing any work which includes a lot of processes, checklists may come in handy. Basically, checklists are a type of worksheet which provides an ordered list of things to do while doing any multi-process work to achieve the desired results.

Like list posts (discussed previously), checklists are also comparatively easier to create yet provide a significantly high value to the target audience.

To give you an idea, here is an example of the checklists:

Example of Checklists by Moz
Source: Moz.com

Once you create a checklist, you can share it on social media, embed it inside your blog posts, or even provide it to your visitors in exchange for an email.

20. Q&A

Q&A (Questions and Answers) are not really a type of content because these can be included in any other type of content. You can even do a live Q’n’A session on YouTube or Facebook like platforms by taking questions directly from your viewers and answering them and these are very popular nowadays.

Speaking of the Q&A Articles – these kinds of articles are structured in the form of an interview where there is a question and then there is the answer right below it.

QnA Example - Huffpost
Source: HuffPost

The above image shows an article by HuffPost which is a great example of the Q&A types of content.

21. FAQs

FAQs stand for Frequently Asked Questions.

And, remember,

If you provide answers to people’s burning questions, you will get noticed.

So, finding the real questions on a topic that your visitors search for and providing detailed, descriptive, and informative answers can help you gain peoples’ attention and you will really get noticed.

I, too, have published such a post, titled “WordPress FAQs: Most Frequently Asked WordPress Questions” which got some really decent amount of traffic.

WordPress FAQs - Frequently Asked WordPress Questions

You can take the help of some free keyword research tools to know what do people search for in the category that you want to create the FAQ types of content in. These contents can be in the format of blog posts, eBooks or even videos; it’s all up to you and the preferences of your audiences.

22. Newsletters

Generally, newsletters are small pieces of information sent via emails and often contain news and updates related to the relevant industry.

Maximum of the blogs out there offer some kind of newsletter subscription via email service where they send news and updates about their products, industry and many other valuable pieces of information.

And, you can even sell or promote products by sending email newsletters to your subscribers.

SEO NewsLetter by TLDR - Example

Above is an example of a beautiful newsletter subscription set up by tldrmarketing.com.

23. Referrals

Referrals are like word-of-mouth where your best customers bring more customers by just referring your products or services to their family and friends. It’s like creating advocates for your business.

✅ “Referrals are the primary factor behind 20-50% of all the purchasing decisions”, writes McKinsey.

Dropbox’s “Invite Your Friends” is one of the best examples of referrals where you get 500 MB of extra cloud space when you invite a friend of yours to use Dropbox. Here’s a screenshot of the program,

Dropbox Invite a Friend Referral Program

Creating these types of referral programs reduces efforts on the marketing and I call this — word-of-mouth marketing.

24. Forums

Forum or Internet Forum is one of the best ways to learn more about your customers who have already bought your products/services.

✅ According to research by DuctTapeMarketing, “20 % of the Americans use any kind of internet forums to recommend or discuss the products”.

Internet forums where your customers hang out get you various information about the product or services in demand, competitive offerings, and weaknesses in your competitor’s offerings.

And, by using this information you can create a winning product.

SEO Forum by Moz - Example

Moz community is a great example of a forum.

25. Comparisons

Comparisons are basically an in-depth analysis or a review of two or more products in every aspect like How the one is better than the other.

By implementing this strategy, you can compare any two affiliate products and, believe me, it works like a charm. You get paid if people buy even any one of the products that you compared.

Comparisons - Hubspot vs MailChimp

Writing comparisons is comparatively easier if it’s a digital product but in the case of physical products you need to buy and use for weeks and then only you can write an in-depth opinion about it.

The comparison posts should simply point out the differences between the products and let the readers decide which one is best for their needs.

26. Templates

Templates are considered as one of the best lead magnets which is really actionable and there is a great chance that the user will use them repeatedly. And, above all, they don’t take much time, money or resources to create.

These templates can be offered to your visitors in exchange for an email.

Hubspot really stands out when it comes to creating various kinds of templates and providing them to visitors in exchange for an email.

Here’s an example where Hubspot offers Business Graphics Design Templates.

Hubspot - Business Graphics Design Templates

You can even create templates for Emails, PPTs, CVs, Blog Posts, eBook Covers, Documents, etc.

27. Collaborations

Collaboration with another individual/organization in your niche is the best thing to gain new readers for your blog. This is the best way to reach a wider range of audiences and increase the trust in your brand.

Collaborating with the top ones in your industry might be a little difficult initially, but try to climb the ladders from the start. Try contacting the individuals for collaboration who are of your level, build some trust and then put the next step forward.

Here’s a quick guide by create.net on How to Collaborate with Bloggers which might help you understand the complete process of collaborations.

28. Opinions

Opinion, as the name suggests, is the type of content that is nothing but the writer’s individual thoughts on the topic.

To write an opinion post, you will just have to state your mind on the topic — just write your thoughts, pick a side and then explain, why?

You can get people commenting and engaging with your posts if they agree or disagree with your opinion by publishing this type of content.

Opinion Types of Blog Posts
Image Credits: LifeSiteNews.com

Above is a type of opinion post, which got a bulk of comments and engagement from the people. People who agreed on the writer’s thought or disagreed, both shared their thoughts.

29. Republishing

Updating your old but relevant blog posts with the latest data and re-posting them with a new date without changing the permalink does help in getting more engagement.

When you republish a post, it becomes almost a new post on your blog and appears in the feeds, blog page, etc. again.

Republishing Blog Posts in the WordPress

And, if you are a WordPress user, just editing the blog post and clicking on the Update button won’t republish your posts.

To republish it, click on the Edit button (as shown above) and change the date to the current date and then click Update.

30. Meetups

Creating a helpful community around your business is always a great option. Meetups are nothing but a kind of offline meeting with your readers or with the people who are from the same background you are.

Organizing a meetup kind of event can help you build a recognizable brand that people can trust on as Deepak from DigitalDeepak.com did.

DigitalDeepak Offline Meetups
Source: “Learn Digital Marketing” FB Group

Deepak has successfully managed to build his brand around the digital marketing community in India. He, often, organizes various offline meetings (meetups) in various Indian cities.

31. Interviews

Interviews are another kinds of collaborative content that can help you gain more visitors, increase your blog’s authority and diversify your content.

People love to read interviews with some personal and professional types of questions.

Either you can publish a full interview of an expert in your industry or combine multiple quotes from multiple experts in your post.

Interviewing a famous person in your industry does not only help you to build a professional relationship but also provides an opportunity to expand your network or reach.

Matt Diggity Interviews - Example

Above is an example, how Matt Diggity is generating a high amount of traffic to his blog by publishing this type of expert’s interview from the SEO industry.

32. Contests

Like referrals, people go crazy to win something just by participating in a simple contest. There are many available formats of contests that you can organize like FB contests, YouTube Giveaways, etc.

Either it is traditional offline marketing or an Instagram photo contest, contest marketing is used by all kinds of small and large businesses.

The main concept of contests is that you provide free stuffs to the participants in the exchange of a like, share or email which helps you to widen your audience quickly.

Social Media Contests
Image: Source

You can organize a website based contest where you can ask questions related to your industry on your website. Or, a social-media-based contest where you can ask visitors a question or ask them to like and share to participate in it.

Let’s Hear from You Now

Now, it has come to the end.

And, I hope you enjoyed reading the article and got tons of value from 30+ Types of High Performing Content Marketing.

I, personally, like writing list posts and how-to guides.

But, now, I’d love to hear from you.

Which one do you like to create case studies, webinars or any other?

Or, have I left anything to mention?

Let me know by dropping a quick comment right now.

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12 Comments

    1. Glad that you liked it.

  1. Kenneth Gaytan says:

    Thank you for this wonderful post, It would help me in my marketing campaigns.

  2. thanks buddy for such high performance digital content.

  3. Hey, Well Information about high performing contents and your article was very well written. Thank you.

  4. Thanks Bro for this information about digital marketing .

  5. CODERVITA says:

    content writing is the foremost practice for every business to perform in marketing. i loved this content because it helped me a lot to generate creative content.

    1. DeepakNess says:

      Glad you liked, means a lot.

  6. Joe Denial says:

    Well Information about high performing contents and your article was very well written. Thank you.

  7. thanks for posting such amazing content.