What Kinds of Content Should You Produce?

This might be straightforward for some, but regardless this is a useful overview, no matter your level of experience.

Let’s quickly discuss the types of content that are successful, and that you can leverage for your specific niche and business. 

Educational

Let me start by saying, don’t undervalue your own knowledge (I’m guilty of this myself).

Often what we consider common sense knowledge is useful information for someone else.

Not to go down too much of a philosophical rabbit hole but this stems from being surrounded by like-minded people, which feeds into your cognitive bias. 

As the saying goes, “You’re too far in the forest to see the trees.”

In my experience, this is some of the best-performing content you can produce. People want to learn, especially if it helps them improve in the areas of health, wealth, relationships or well-being. 

In the case of many B2B companies, most of your content will fall under the wealth category as you’re helping people improve at their jobs.

For example, during my time at Kambr, some of our most-read content came from basic terminology from the field of airline revenue management.

I’d suggest there is also a bit of “I don’t know, but I’m too afraid to ask” thinking that is at play that can be leveraged. 

What’s great about this type of content is — apart from maybe needing some occasional updating depending on the medium and topic — it’s evergreen, so its value will compound over time. 

If you’re unfamiliar with the term evergreen, we’ll discuss it in-depth in a later newsletter. For now., it’s important to understand that evergreen content is content without an expiration date (as opposed to a timely news update) — your audience will keep returning to it.

Expert Interviews & Commentary

Beyond straightforward educational content, you must build thought leadership by providing unique and honest perspectives on your industry.

Typically out of fear (not wanting to upset the wrong person/organization), this is where most corporate content falters. These companies straddle the line and produce bland content that doesn’t say anything.

You mustn't be afraid to have an opinion.

Your company exists because there is a problem. Spell out that problem and call out the culprits.

What’s the change that needs to happen? How do you see that change occurring?

Give fresh perspectives, be original and don’t be wishy-washy.

Maybe you and your team are fresh out of content ideas or finding it difficult to consistently find time to produce compelling content.

This is where the value of your network comes into play because content doesn’t need to always come from someone from your team.

It will lend your media platform more credibility and expand your reach if you have other industry professionals featured in your content.

Most people are excited to have a platform to share their opinions and have their voices heard, and not only provide you content but also share it within their network.

This can be achieved with a variety of formats including written, audio and video interviews/panel discussions, guest posts, quotes within a larger piece of content and syndications.

In the case of syndications, a good tactic is sharing articles on a partner company’s blog/media platform. You post their content and they post yours.

Studies & Data Analysis

Nothing gets the attention of journalists, prospects or industry pundits like numbers and statistics.

Most businesses are sitting on a treasure trove of first-party data that never gets leveraged outside of QBRs (quarterly business reviews) and internal reporting.

Anonymize that data to build compelling reports that will provide unique industry insights.

Maybe you even have seasonal or recurring data sets, which will allow you to publish reports on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis.

The best part about this is once you’ve done the initial legwork on the first report you can keep following the same template to efficiently publish future iterations. 

For example, maybe you are an HR SaaS and from your platform’s data, you can derive quarterly employment trends broken down into specific job categories.

You can create a free offer to download your report in exchange for contact details (such as name, email, company and job title).

As I alluded to at the top, this type of content opens up earned media opportunities (this means getting your company featured on someone else’s website, typically news publications).

Journalists love first-party data which can make for tantalizing headlines or drive home analysis of larger topics and trends.

While the strategy that’s outlined on Niche Media focuses on owned media (building your own platform), one of the benefits of doing so is it attracts outside opportunities such as earned media.

“Behind the Scenes” Content

There is a huge opportunity with this content because B2B companies underutilize it.

The idea here is to show your audience what it’s like to work at your company and document the process of how you’re building your business.

Some examples of execution are:

• Day in the Life videos, articles or social posts

• Employee spotlights, featuring someone from your organization (that goes beyond generic demographic and job description information).

• Videos and images of your team at industry events, team-building events or business trips.

• First-person perspective content on building your business, overcoming obstacles or capturing successes (think Medium articles or LinkedIn posts, but not the cringy kind).

• Life beyond just your business: you and your colleagues aren’t robots, you’re human beings so display yourselves as such.

Outside of building your core business, this type of content is extremely useful in building your employer brand and making your business a sought-after destination for talent.

Pulling back the curtains and showing prospective employees what it’s like to work for your organization and giving them a real taste of your culture (not just a finely tuned careers page with staged photos).

While there are countless types of content to dive into and tactical approaches to cover (which I will in the future), focusing on these four core areas will pay dividends to your content strategy.