Whether you're a fan of this (I admit, risqué) story or not, you have to admit it does have some amazing content marketing power.
Taking some inspiration from the famous book title that has now premiered in worldwide theaters, I'm taking an original, descriptive look at 50 Shades of Content. Do you actually know just how many shades content has? From bold to macabre to natural, there are so many shades out there among the millions of web pages that exist.
Use these content shades to help you identify and create awesome blogs, product descriptions, and more.
A Descriptive List: 50 Shades of Content
- Authentic content. When writing content, you always want to make sure it is authentic. This will help make your content powerful, and help engage your reader base. Just write from your heart and what you know, and you will be creating excellent, authentic content. All your content should have a shade of authenticity. Exceptions could be sales targeted/landing pages, where you are trying to sell rather than simply offer authentic advice or wording.
- Bold content. Bold content is a great way to catch people's attention. You can be bold by writing opinion pieces on things within your industry or the latest trends. This is a good content type for emails, home pages, and other busy, targeted areas of text.
- Creative content. When you write your content, you need to make sure you are being creative. A great way to gain creative inspiration is to write on the latest trends. For example, I took the opportunity to use 50 Shades of Grey as inspiration for a post that helps you learn about the different aspects of content. Use whatever you want and you can have some incredible, creative content. Blogs are a great outlet for content creativity.
- Direct content. If you are telling your readers something important, you always need to make sure you are being as direct as possible. This will help show people that confident, know what you're talking about, and also help convert them from simple readers to clients. Email content is one of the best "direct" content shade examples.
- Engaging content. Engaging content is something that everyone needs. It helps to get your readers and clients involved, which really helps your business be successful. All your content should have a shade of engaging.
- Fun content. You want to provide your readers with something of value, but you don't always have to be super professional. When you write your content, you should always make sure you include something fun to add more life to your blogs. This could be something trendy, like how many businesses brought up "The Dress" on their social media sites. Social media should always have a shade of fun to avoid being boring.
- Good content. This is a given when it comes to content - it always needs to be good, or what we refer to as high-quality. Focus on crafting great content pieces all the time. It might seem like it takes too much time to focus on good content, but when you do, you get some great results. Let's be honest: all your content should be this shade.
- Horrible content. Now, this is a shade you absolutely want to avoid. Horrible content is a surefire way to make sure your content fails, losing you many clients and revenue. You need to stay away from horrible content at whatever cost. You don't want to face the terrible consequences of it. Unfortunately, a lot of it exists on the web. NO content of yours should be this shade.
- Inquiring content. This is great when it comes to creating engaging content, especially for social media. Ask your clients and readers questions, and have them provide their answers. You can give silly polls or ask serious questions that can help you tweak your content to be more powerful for your readers. Emails and blogs are good outlets for this content shade.
- Joyful content. When you write your content, you should always make sure you have a happy tone to it. It doesn't always have to be puppy and rainbows, but make things more upbeat for your readers. We get enough negativity with the latest news reports, so give your readers some great, positive content. It can be pretty powerful being one of the bright spots on the Internet. Seasonal blogs and emails are a good way to present this shade.
- Knowledgeable Content. You can write content on almost anything, especially with the Internet at your fingertips. However, this can sometimes lead to you writing content that isn't very knowledgeable. When you write your content, make sure it is on a topic you know or one that you have done a lot of research on.
- Lackluster Content. This is yet another form of content you want to avoid. Lackluster content is boring, and many times, unreadable. Make sure you craft fun, engaging content all the time to get the best results from it.
- Macabre Content. Now, this could be good or bad, depending on your macabre sense of humor, and your industry. You can write macabre content, just always make sure to stay tasteful, and keep it on the lighter end of macabre humor (Tim Burton is a good example).
- Natural Content. Natural content is a great way to rank on the SERP and also helps keep people on your site, reading. You can write natural content by not focusing on keywords and writing about something you have a passion for.
- Original Content. Your content not only needs to be knowledgeable, natural, and good, it also needs to be original. Write your own content, on your own ideas and you will easily have great, original content. Of course, you can always gain inspiration from others, just always make sure that when you write it, it is original - completely your own.
- Passionate Content. Passionate content is great because it can help you improve your content marketing skills and get your content out to a wider audience. When you write passionately about your industry, you set yourself apart from your competitors and you become a knowledgeable source in your industry.
- Quirky Content. This is great for when your industry is one that is incredibly niche, and you have a very specific audience. This form of content could be industry related jokes, or anything that is unique to your industry. Quirky can be great for many businesses, no matter how professional you are.
- Risqué Content. Now, this isn't content that Express Writers writes for clients. However, if you are in a risqué industry, risqué content could be great for you. When you write it, always make sure you comply with Internet rules on any and all warnings you need to give people before they access your site.
- Smart Content. Smart content is the best way to ensure you have great, high-quality content for your readers. You should always make sure it is readable, but smart content can help set you up as an industry leader.
- Thrilling Content. Thrilling content can be a variety of different types depending on your industry. You can write on things from horror stories to anything else that would be considered thrilling.
- Understandable Content. You always need to make sure that when you write content it is easy to understand. Remember that the average reading level in the USA is 7th grade, and many of your readers aren't going to understand a lot of industry jargon unless you are specifically writing for those in your industry.
- Veracious Content. Veracious means speaking or showing the truth so when it comes to content, this means that you need to have truthful content. Always make sure you back up your claims (like I did in point 21) and that you're representing your company well. If you don't, you will be found out, and you'll lose your client base pretty quickly.
- Witty Content. This is a great way to create fun content for your clients. You can use humor and be clever with various things, creating something your clients will enjoy. When writing witty content, always make sure you use discretion; you don't want to offend people with your humor.
- Xerotic Content. This isn't a common word to use, but I wanted to find an "x" word! Xerotic refers to something dry and let me tell you, that isn't the type of content you want. By following several of the tips I've already laid out, you will be able to avoid dry content easily.
- Yappy Content. We all know those yappy people who never seem to stop talking; it can get annoying, can't it? Because of this, you need to make sure that you avoid writing content that doesn't continually ramble on. Avoid this shade at all costs.
- Zesty Content. Zest is great when it comes to food, and it is also great when it comes to content. Add various things to make your content zesty to help yourself standout from others.
- Appropriate Content. You might be writing some great content, but you need to make sure that it is not only good, but also appropriate. It needs to fit your industry and business. If it doesn't, it won't come across as sincere.
- Bookish Content. A great way to get awesome content is to gain inspiration from books. This can be from fantasy, sci-fi, or non-fiction; whichever books you use, you will be able to get some great inspiration, and be relevant all at the same time. This is one of my favorite content shades, since I am a little addicted to reading awesome books.
- Captivating Content. Content needs to have a captivating element to it in order to get and keep readers on your site. You can do this by writing news content, telling a story, or just doing something different than you usually do. Captivating content will make sure you are able to retain your readers and turn them into great customers!
- Decisive Content. This type of content is great when you want to show that your products or services can get the job done. You can tell people why you stand out from your competitors and why you're the best choice.
- Evergreen Content. You always want content that is trendy and relevant, but you also need to make sure you are producing evergreen content. This will help you continue to get views and clicks on your blogs, even years in the future.
- Fishy Content. Again, this is another content shade you want to stay away from. When I refer to "fishy content" I am talking about content that uses keywords to get the SERP bots on the page, or any other black hat SEO tactics that could be detrimental to your site.
- Generic Content. When you're creating content, you need to make sure you stay away from content that is too generic. You always need to add something new to different topics, and make them your own. This makes for original content, that is still useful to people.
- Helpful Content. A great way to create amazing content is to use this particular shade of content. People love finding blogs that help them with problems, and by answering their questions, you are showing that you are a source to be trusted and used.
- Interesting Content. No matter what your topic is, you need to make sure you write interesting content constantly. It is possible, and you'll find that interesting content is more likely to be shared and engaged with.
- Jolly Content. What do I mean by jolly content? Well, holiday content, of course! When it comes time to do holiday marketing, you should always make sure you have holiday content at the ready. This can be for any holiday, too, not just Christmas.
- Kind Content. When you write any content, but especially content on touchy subjects, you should always make sure your content is kind. You don't have to agree with someone or something, but write about whatever or whoever it is in a kind fashion.
38. Lifestyle Content. This is a great idea for many niche companies. Sometimes, it can be hard to come up with topics for your industry, but a great idea is to feature lifestyle content that features industry related things. Are you a photographer? Write about lifestyle photography.
- Mainstream Content. Each industry, no matter how niche, can always write on something that is mainstream. There will be something that happens that everyone knows about (such as "The Dress," which I mentioned earlier) that can easily be implemented into a blog post for your client base.
- Newsy Content. Writing news content is a great way to come up with great topics, writing on relevant items, and engaging your reader base. Consider writing on news within your industry or how world news relates - this will be a great addition to any blogging campaign.
- Observant Content. Another great way to make sure that you create great content is to make sure it is observant. You can do this by answering questions, or making connections between news and your products.
- Photograph Content. Content doesn't just have to be written, you can also create awesome content from different formats, including photos. This could be memes, stock photos, business photos, or infographics.
- Repurposed Content. Did you know you can repurpose your content and get more out of it? This is a great way to get more views on great articles, as well as helping you create multiple content formats from one piece of content.
- Strong Content. Your content should always be strong. If you follow the various content types I've already highlighted, you'll be well on your way to creating some pretty strong content.
- Trendy Content. Evergreen content is vital, but you do need to make sure you write on a few trends. Trendy content can bring in more views, get more social shares, and help convert customers.
- Useful Content. Your content always needs to be useful. It can be made useful not only for your clients, but useful content can become a great help to those within your industry. In fact, useful content might be used as a resource by industry leaders, which will really help your business.
- Video Content. When you create content, make sure you aren't just doing written content. Create some great video content to share with your audience. Sharing content on different platforms is a great idea.
- Accessible Content. No matter what type of content you are making, make sure it is accessible to your audience. This means that you will share it on social channels, email, and other marketing platforms, as well as writing it to where your audience can easily understand it.
- Respectful Content. Whether you are writing serious or humorous content, you need to make sure that you are always writing respectful content. If you aren't being respectful, this will hurt your reputation significantly. Just like I mentioned, be kind and make sure you are respectful.
- Story Content. I briefly mentioned telling stories as a great way to write captivating content, but story content is really something you should consider doing. This will engage your audience and help bring more viewers in and keep them. Tell a story of your business, an event you went to, or anything else you'd like.
50 Shades of Content Creation: Be Inspired, Go Create Your Shade
These are all great content ideas to use, and, of course, there are some that you would like to stay away from. While following these might not make you as successful as the 50 Shades of Grey film, they sure will help you see the success your business deserves and needs! Which of these are you planning on using when you create your content?
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