Marketers who blog on a regular basis are 13x more likely to see a positive ROI and receive 67% more leads as a result of their efforts. The fact of the matter is: the more you blog, the more growth and traffic you'll see on your site.
Unfortunately, blog posts can take some time to gain organic traction. If you're not actively promoting your content in the meantime, it can take even longer.
To speed up the organic build-up process, here are ten post formats that you can try out to increase the likelihood of generating serious buzz for your website.
1. Crowdsource the Post
If you have an established audience of regular readers or a strong social following, you can crowdsource blog posts that leverage user-generated content. In this sense, your audience is writing the post for you.
When I've crowdsourced posts in the past, I've presented a question to my followers on social media or through my email subscriber list. If you try out the same tactic, give your followers a little time to think it over, and the answers will soon come rolling in. You can ramp up your responses by letting them know they'll be featured in your next post.
Gather your audience's best answers and put the post together, notifying those contributors once you publish it. They'll be happy to share it with their connections, which will give you a solid bump in social reach.
2. The Roundup
A roundup post is a curated list of the best stuff covering a specific topic. To get the most out of a post like this, try to include a variety of helpful resources that have tons of value - your readers recognize it takes a lot of time to curate quality content, and many of them will appreciate the effort on their behalf.
And when they see the value in what you've assembled, they'll be more likely to share it.
You can streamline curation by using BuzzSumo to find the best, most-shared content on a specific topic related to your business.
3. Industry News
News posts can draw a lot of immediate attention, especially if you're the first to break a story or industry update. The easiest route on this front is to use tools stay on top of industry news and trends, since those topics are likely to capture your audience's attention.
You can also incorporate trends from other industries that are also relevant to your audience.
Is there a politician, brand, or celebrity in the spotlight? Spin current events into posts that will resonate with your audience.
4. The Listicle
The Listicle is a combination of a list and an article - the post you're reading right now is a prime example. Listicles provide tips and information in a list format that's easy to skim through.
With your own listicle, readers will be able to quickly find the most interesting segments relevant to them. Pack a listicle with a lot of informative value, or make it highly entertaining like a Buzzfeed article, and you'll rake in heaps of social shares.
5. The Skyscraper How-To
How-to articles are great sources of social traffic. The problem is, a lot of marketers barely scrape the surface with how-to articles and wind up regurgitating a lot of the same stuff that has been published a thousand times before. Providing high-value, unique content is the key to success with how-to articles.
I aim to produce long form content, and I love the skyscraper approach where you take the best of what's out there and continue stacking onto it. Creating high-value, comprehensive posts that cover every aspect of a topic are guaranteed to wow your audience.
6. The "One Thing" Post
Whether you're talking about new trends and tools or you simply want to dive deeper into the specifics on a topic, this type of post has a strong hook in the headline and sparks the reader's curiosity with the promise of a big reveal within your content.
The One Thing post presents the "what" and serves to answer it with a "why." I used this with one of my recent posts: "Starting from Scratch: What to Do When Your Content Campaign Fails."
7. Pure Entertainment
Almost every business has the capacity to leverage humor when creating content. It may be harder to apply humor in some industries, but the opportunity is still there.
Posts created purely for entertainment and humor have been proven to get more shares than serious content. With all the straightforward, dry topics people encounter day in and day out, a little levity timed just right can spiral into a viral campaign.
8. The Infographic
Infographics consistently perform well due to several elements: data and factoids make them easier to digest, they use more engaging visuals, and they're packed with useful information. That's why infographics generate 3x more engagement than any other type of content.
It takes some legwork to put together a great infographic, but the high volume of shares you'll get in return makes the time investment worth it. Depending on the content of your infographic, you might even see the growth of organic links when other sites use your infographic as a source for citing data.
9. The "Shots Fired" Approach
Controversy can capture your audience's attention, but put in the effort to make it work in your favor - you shouldn't just be controversial for the sake of it.
The best approach is to target a specific topic that has been covered by one or more influencers. Dissect that topic and offer an alternate perspective the contradicts others' opinions.
It's important to do this in a tactful, classy way, don't sling mud or try to start a fight. You should be more interested in starting a rational debate. By challenging the norm and making your followers see things in a new light, you could gain quite a lot of social buzz as people debate the topic around you.
10. The Mention
This type of post follows the influencer marketing route and combines it with other approaches. A great way to make use of this post style is to create skyscraper content - load that high-value post with quotes and citations from influencers. The more you mention, the better, as long as the value is still there.
Publish it, promote it, and be sure to notify those influencers that they're in your post. Some will share it, and their audiences will eagerly run with it.
Image Sources: Crazy Egg, Guest Post, Mark Stein