Defining the Three Types of Marketing Content

In content marketing there is an established practice of putting types of content into sections or categories that are also referred to as “silos.”

Just as Kanban exists as a way to help developers and digital marketing project managers better manage and organize the tasks required to develop a digital marketing project, so silos exist in content marketing to help digital marketers better organize content (blog posts, white papers, podcasts, special reports, interviews, infographic images, and so forth) into appropriate categories and sub-categories.

Now we as digital marketers can help business owners create and maintain content silos not only to organize content into categories and sub-categories but to also aid in the creation of strategies. For example in the execution of an SEO plan (within the company website) we can use a silo structure to plan blog post categories and sub-categories, and even for link creation to evergreen content (which is a blog post that is a “best of” type of material you know you’re likely to want to refer others to repeatedly over time).

Another way to use the silo categorization concept in digital marketing is to use the silos as a basic concept for defining what types of broad content business owners (and their staff) should write about in their company blog post page.

So let’s dig a little deeper into what three primary silo types could and should be when deciding what we should be writing about.

My Three Marketing Content Silos

There are three primary silos that marketing content should be written about and put into for the sake of simplifying and defining what new business owners (or even established business owners for that matter) should be writing about. Since the goal of writing content for a business-focused company website is to help potential customers see the value in the services or products you provide, it’s vital to bear in mind that they won’t know what you do or how you differentiate yourself from larger, more profitable competitors if you don’t tell them.

Furthermore, siloed (is that a new word I just invented?) can be referred to repeatedly as we stated before and then circulated in social media responses to questions, as advertising collateral, or even repackaged or repurposed as podcasts, instruction videos, advertisements in which you’d link to the informational blog post, and even submitted to other sites for reference or the “jumping off” topic for other related posts or podcast interviews or for presentations. So the content crated for a business blog should bear in mind these facts.

The Three “C” Types of Content and Audiences Who Read That Content

Those purposes are to address the needs and pain points of:

Casual.

Readers who are casual, meaning typically passive website “browsers” (not as in Internet Explorer or Firefox browsers but as in people just glancing through or scanning a website out of curiosity or impulse). These are likely to be readers who saw a post on social media, perhaps met you at a speaking or online event, heard you on a podcast interview, heard your own podcast, watched one of your videos, read one of your answers to a question online, or something like that. They found out about you somehow so thought they’d check out your website. The likelihood of them becoming engaged consumers statistically is unlikely but it’s of course always possible. How possible is it they’ll buy from you? Much of that depends on your ideal consumer base (who you’re trying to serve), your SEO, your content, and how said content is being put to use.

Concerned.

These are website visitors who, like before, found you somehow online or to take it a step further here, may have found your site as a result of specific searches in Google, Yahoo, or Bing (SEO in action). They’re more likely to have broad questions (like the age old “how much?” question, how to try to do everything themselves for free, or some other type of related question in which interest is negligible but still present). Their interest level is “warmer.”

They may or may not perceive a problem, may or may not see a need to resolve the problem, may or may not be able to do something constructive about this desire. Any budgets toward achieving stated desired goals may be very low, goals may be vaguely defined or impractical (“I want to make a million dollars within 90 days with my great new idea!!”), or they may have an idea for a business or a hobby they’d like to see as a viable, profitable business one day. Again, these types of readers may develop into potential customers one day.

Committed.

These types of readers are engaged, active participants in their own businesses and lives, want specific outcomes, can easily discuss needs and pain points, articulate short-term and long-term goals, and want results. Their budgets can range from possibly lower than industry norms (price-shopping) to realistic, and they may be familiar with using S.M.A.R.T. goals to accomplish more in less time.

What the Three C Readers Want

Now that we know who most common readers to a business website will be and the silos we can categorize those types of readers into for improved workflow and content creation, let’s examine what exactly we should be writing about (ideally) and why.

This of course doesn’t mean we can’t write about other related topics or even other topics outside of these silos, only that the primary bulk of content and certainly content referred to more often should serve the needs of the Casual, Concerned, or Committed readers.

Casual

For Casual readers who’re visiting your company website as a result of perhaps hearing you on a podcast interview, watching one of your engaging videos, or some other source it’s preferable to have content written that speaks to where they are emotionally. Since these readers are more likely to have still-as-of-yet undefined objectives and not really sure what they’re trying to do or what they’re looking for, content for them should be broad, written in easy-to-read shorter increments or “bite-sized chunks” addressing simple questions or basic issues.

Examples of this could be a legal website writing about how to respond after a traffic ticket, car accident, what to do if you are asked to serve jury duty but don’t want to do it or can’t, and so forth.

For a bakery, it could be blog posts about proper ingredients to use in baking, their dedication to their staff’s training and cleanliness, kitchen conditions, hiring practices, history, staff, location, custom offerings, questions about locations or hours, how they’re handling (or not handling) COVID-19 safety protocols, or even the different types of baked goods they sell, baking classes, links to baking videos, and the like.

For a construction firm, it could be blog posts about the firm’s history, staff, types of work done, case studies, corporate sponsorships or partnerships, an image gallery with links to blog posts describing each project in detail and what went into each build, local history, partnering businesses such as interior design firms, and more.

Concerned

For Concerned readers who are visiting the company website because they are looking for solutions to potential (or real) problems yet may be noncommittal in building solutions to solve those problems, you’d want to present content that is more specific in address business needs and pains that your business type addresses and fulfills.

Examples of this could be a law firm or lawyer writing content about how to budget for successful legal representation, how to prepare paperwork for a specific type of proceeding, common problems associated with divorce or child custody matters, how to investigate liens, and the like.

For the bakery, it could be blog posts that act as recipes, blog posts that discuss how pricing is determined for custom cakes, why certain ingredients are favored over cheaper alternatives in baking, introducing pricing packages, how ordering a custom cake is done or how they arrived at their process, how deadlines are met, why some batters taste different from others, why some frostings taste like specific fruits versus those that simply taste like sugar, directions, local history, and so on.

Committed

For Committed readers to your blog post, you would want content speaking to the needs of the reader who is definitely more focused in realizing specific thought-out objectives. Such content would be case studies, client interviews, client reviews, how your company helps your ideal customer or client achieve improved sales or can consolidate overhead through the use of your goods or services, how you’ve solved large-scale problems for clients on multiple level (with each different level being a new blog post), how to budget in order to achieve specific project-based goals, and in general more specific and more detailed solution-based articles with more sources and references toward specific issues your ideal consumer faces on a daily basis.

Examples could be who your preferred and ideal consumer is, how your company works, company mission, company charities and how they were selected, your company local affiliations, interviews with local partner vendors, local clients you’ve worked with, special offers, and more of that type of content. In this silo you could also offer special limited time deals, white paper reports, ebooks readers can download in exchange for subscribing to your newsletter, checklists both free and for subscribing, event notices, free online lectures and live events (such as Facebook live presentations), infographic images built around information blog posts, and content that speaks to more specific, defined and deliberate process-gap problems your type of preferred customer is likely to face before you would step in to solve that perceived high-value problem.

In Closing

When deciding what to write about and to “scope out” ideas for silo content, one practice that’s very commonly-embraced is to make a list of both local and national competitors, look at what they’re writing about, study their voice (style of writing and tone and vocabulary), and keep an active list of potential topics to write about as far out in time as possible and find a regular blogging schedule (also called an Editorial Calendar) that’s right for you and then go about producing the best branded and in-character content you possibly can.

For some smaller business owners blogging daily in unrealistic, weekly may be as well, so quarterly may work best for them.

Others can write monthly or even weekly, but very few can (or even should) blog daily unless time is sufficient and they have an extensive back-log of content topics and are factoring in content repurposing plans along the journey.