Determining Blog and Content Categories

If you are taking time to create blogs, articles, posts, and various website content that will drive traffic to your website, understanding content as it relates to your audience might lead to greater productivity from your efforts. Getting to know where content falls on a customer behavioral scale can change the way you are planning your website, for the greater good.

The Content Matrix

In an “educational” article by Hannah Smith at Distilled.com, 4 Types of Content Every Site Needs, the author places emphasis on four main types of content—content that entertains, educates, persuades, and converts. Here, Smith shares The Content Matrix (original concept by First 10 and Smart Insights), which provides a comprehensive summary of the types of content and where they fall in terms of customer behaviors. When you get to know the types of content possible, decide what your content is intended to do, and align it with your customer’s behaviors, what you write and where to place it begins to make a lot more sense. This brilliant approach to content is a great first step in determining and writing for blog and content categories.

Deciding On Content

You may have a new awareness of content types, your customer-facing intentions, and your audience’ behaviors, but after all of that you still have the same goal as most organizations: to engage readers, gain leads, and create loyal customers. So, whether you are writing blogs, creating a sitemap, or redesigning your website, there should be consistency in the content you craft for your audience. At a minimum, content must consist of:

• Easy, natural user flow
• Explicit headings
• Hierarchical stability
• Informative, engaging messaging
• Keyword rich phrasing
• Metadata accuracy
• Organization
• Relative embedded content / linking
• Refined user interactivity
• Sections / chunking

When you master the meaning behind content categories and types, writing for your audience gets a whole lot easier. Writing organized, structured pieces will resonate with leads, inspire them to share socially (or you may automate this process), and assist you in building your brand presence for long-term, loyal customers.