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NEWSLETTERS | OCTOBER, 2010 Choosing the Right Types of Content for Your Content StrategyFrom Content 101 by Christopher Butler 6 Types of Content in Under a MinuteBelow is a list of six of the most common forms of web content, ordered from easiest to most difficult to implement. For each type, I've tried to concisely summarize each one so that you can get the most essential information you need to get started in under a minute. (Emphasis on concise—this is by no means exhaustive! For more information on some of the topics, I've included links to additional articles.)
BlogsYou may have heard that blogging is dead. Don't believe it. Blogging is alive and well, and likely one of your best bets for a lasting and consistently effective content strategy. A couple of years ago, I wrote all kinds of provisos for why not to start a blog in order to affirm some of the non-negotiables of blogging, and they're all still true today. First and foremost, make sure your expectations are in order. Blogging is a long-term strategy, and takes a cumulative approach to tell an ongoing story with many short posts. That means you want to consistently publish original 500-800 word posts on your website, ideally several on a weekly basis. If you started a blog two years ago and your "Hello World" post is still on the first page, please take down your blog until you're certain you can commit to it. It's going to take a lot of time and perseverance to gain traction; don't expect instant engagement. Oh, and it's not a blog if it doesn't have commenting and an RSS feed. Further reading on blogging:
NewslettersLike blogs, newsletters are a great format for your written content strategy. Unlike blogs, newsletters are long-format content—1000-2000 words is ideal—that develop a single idea in a more in-depth manner contained in one article. That doesn't mean they take any less work to do well. What your newsletters may lack in terms of brevity and frequency, they certainly make up in the research required and the slightly higher level of formality expected. Because you're publishing less frequently (we recommend monthly at most, quarterly at least), you want to think of your newsletters as "going on the record" on behalf of your firm. So make sure the ideas they contain are as tested as possible—at the rate of 12 per year, it will take far longer to bury an ill-conceived idea in this format than in your blog. Further reading on newsletters:
WhitepapersThese are much the same as newsletters, but the issues of formality and conceptual indispensability are even more relevant. Whitepapers are more along the line of position-papers representing how your firm thinks about or does things. While that isn't a major distinction from how you might consider your newsletter, it will have some particular effects upon how you go about creating and delivering whitepapers. Whitepaper content is likely to have much deeper and more direct ties to your positioning, so it's not likely to change that frequently—meaning you may write a handful of these a year at most. And because of the value of some whitepapers, particularly those with proprietary information in them, often the delivery of this material comes at a price—either actual dollars or information. So before you adopt this format, be sure there's a market for it.
WebinarsWebinars are informational sessions that you conduct using software (we recommend GoToWebinar) that enables an audience to register in advance for attendance, see your screen and hear your voice as you present, and engage with you either audibly or via instant messaging during a Q&A period. Conceptually, they are kind of like live versions of newsletters, in that they ideally exist in a place somewhere between casual and formal. Because webinars are done live, think of them as somewhere in between a public speaking engagement and a conversation with a prospect. The sweet spot in the midst is actually more akin to a classroom experience. You are the teacher, your attendees your students. As far as the presentation of your webinars is concerned, some basic teaching principles actually apply quite well. First, structure and review are essential. Clearly lay out your objectives and stop often to recap on what you've covered. Then review again. Also, all students have lower threshholds than most new teachers anticipate. Keep your presentation to 30-45 minutes and leave about 15 minutes for questions. This kind of content takes a lot of work and energy to sustain, so don't be too ambitious with the schedule. Quarterly is plenty.
AudiocastsThe production value of some of the better audiocasts out there sets a very high bar. If you can't come close to the craft of existing programs dealing with similar content to what you'd create, think twice about starting your own. I can't count how many audiocasts I've subscribed to and then immediately unsubscribed from after hearing just a portion of one episode. If it doesn't sound good, listeners won't stick around. The level of quality should also have direct correspondence to the length of the program. The shorter your audiocast, the more leeway you might have with not-so-professional quality. The longer it is, the more professional it will need to be. Also consider your ability to maintain production. A successful audiocast is one that sticks to a regular schedule and persists. Having three mp3's available on iTunes doesn't exactly count as a regular schedule. By the way, audiocasts are ideally subscribable using an audio-file-friendly RSS feed and listed in the iTunes directory.
VideocastsThe quality considerations I mentioned about audiocasts are just as relevant, if not more, to video. However, there is probably much more room for quickly produced video pieces than audio, because users actually get to see something in addition to hearing it. This is why quick webcam-recorded videos uploaded to tools like YouTube, Vimeo or Viddler and embedded on your page could be just fine. If you're hoping to create videos with higher production quality, perhaps even scripted, you're going to need to do a lot of planning and allocate a real budget. But keep in mind that the higher the quality, the more difficult the production of your videos will be to sustain (unless you're already equipped and do regular video production) One final consideration: Embeddable Flash-based video players are great for offloading bandwidth and other technical considerations and simplifying the process for you. But, they will not be visible on your page for Mac-based mobile device users, the only exception being YouTube—in that case, Apple's YouTube application will play the video. Further reading on video:
Additional Content Strategy ResourcesDeveloping an Effective Content Strategy  
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This is the best written and most informative article I have read on the subject. Thank you!
Hear, hear! Blogging is not dead! Great post.
Keep it coming man, you continuously produce great content yourself.
Very nice summary, Chris. I like the 1minute reads. One of the biggest challenge about content is that now there is SO MUCH CONTENT OUT THERE. I find myself almost overwhelmed by keeping up with it. So a clear message, great graphics, and nice oganization are a huge help. Thanks for setting the standard!
Marilyn: Thanks for the compliment! As far as "most informative" is concerned, my goal was to make this a survey of content (hence the title), knowing that there are many, many details that I'm not covering but that are covered in articles of their own in our archives. I'm confident that in our entire corpus of material—blog posts, articles, and webinars—is a university course on digital marketing.
Jacob: Blogging is here to stay. Thanks for reading!
Jami: Thanks! I'm glad this stuff is helpful to you.
Dan: The volume of content is the biggest barrier to getting at the most relevant and meaningful material. I have a system I use to do this, but it is beginning to sprawl as other channels (like Twitter, for instance) are becoming more active sources of important material. Thanks for being a loyal reader!
Really helpful stuff. About blogging, though, it's not a blog without comments or an rss feed? It seems like alot of blogs don't have comments anymore since people are doing alot of that on twitter and facebook now. Also, most people don't use rss because social networks bring them the info they want. Just seems like what's essential about blogging could be there without those?
Alex: I was kind of hoping my blogging qualifications would raise some disagreement... First, the RSS feed: You're right that many people don't use RSS. In fact, it really never took off in the way that it could have. The step of grabbing the feed URL, which has that look of "this isn't for you, it's technical back here" and then managing it with a reader (like Google Reader) was (and is) just too much for most people to be bothered with.
That said, I feel strongly that RSS is a great delivery technology and I will continue to use it until it is replaced by something better. Here's the thing: a blog carries with it the expectation of continual delivery, or in other words, the assumption that the author will produce content ongoing. So readership involves a committment, one that is made much easier if the blog is able to say, "don't worry about checking in, I'll let you know when there's new stuff to read." In that sense RSS is a courtesy. Today, one could conceivably replace that method of extending the courtesy with using another technology—say Twitter, for example—but RSS makes it just as easy for the author as it does for the reader. As far as I'm concerned, nothing has replaced it. Therefore, I'm going to be a stickler and keep it as a qualifier for what a blog must have in order to be, well, a blog.
About the comments: I suppose these aren't absolutely required. I read many blogs that I never comment on, which means I couldn't tell you whether or not they even would let me if I wanted to. In that sense, I suppose commenting doesn't matter. But, I do think there is something about the openness of commenting that is essentially "bloggy." One interesting thing is that Tumblr, a platform I use to "blog" (see I'm using it as a verb there) allows people to comment on my posts—which they call "replies"—but I can't reply to their replies. Strange, but would I call Tumblr pages blogs? Probably. So there's obviously some leeway here. Also note that an older post I wrote on allowing comments is one of the most commented-upon among our entire blog!
Thanks for the question, Alex! What do other people think?