Content writing seems pretty self-explanatory. However, in the context of online or content marketing, content writing is a whole category unto itself. There are different and numerous types of content that you can develop for your business. Understanding how each one is different from the next can help you craft material that’s best suited for your industry or brand.

Here are 6 off the top of my head:

1. SEO

To be clear, your content should never be written solely for search engine optimization. Your content should be informative and relevant. It should then be search engine optimized. Doing it the other way around usually leads to badly written posts.

That said, there is a way to ensure that you use relevant keywords while maintaining the level of quality that audiences expect. It’s actually a very specific skill set. If you want to boost your organic traffic, looking for someone with a clear understanding of SEO is your best bet to achieve your goals.

2. Technical Writing

Technical writing pertains to niche industries, usually in the field of computer hardware and software, consumer electronics, biotechnology, engineering, aeronautics, or other similar fields. The content is usually developed for user manuals, instructional material, and other technical literature and reports.

Technical writing requires writers to have a very specific background and understanding of these technologies. The tone is also very different from traditional blog writing. The most effective ones are able to create content that is informative and easy to understand, despite the jargon.

3. Communication and Marketing

This covers a very wide range of content types. From press releases to blogs, to social media posts to ebooks, whitepapers to ad copy, email content to video scripts, just to name a few. Whatever form it takes, communication and marketing content is aimed for one purpose, to convince readers to take positive action on whatever it is you’re pitching.

Therefore, marketing materials are very descriptive in nature. It has to strike a balance between selling and informing. You’re essentially convincing people to believe in your product or service, not forcing them to take your word at face value.

4. Editorial Writing

This is one of the more familiar and common forms of content because this is a writing style that is frequently found in magazines and newspapers. In a lot of cases, content takes feature form and writers have more room to lend their own voice and flair into their writing.

5.  Report Writing

Report writing is more in-depth and heavily researched content. It tends to be long and the content requires exceptional accuracy and quality. It comes close to technical writing in terms of skill and understanding of the subject matter required. However, its main purpose is to inform and update readers.

6. Business Writing

Business writing has a lot of similarities with marketing and communications writing. It involves a lot of memos, official emails, manual writing, concept papers, summaries, and similar content. The biggest writing is perhaps defined by the difference in objectives. Whereas marketing content is meant to convince and convert potential customers, business writing does so to a very specific audience—usually to another business entity or supplier.

Feel free to add more by leaving a comment below. If you’d like to find out what these different kinds of content can do to boost your business, reach out to us. I’d love to talk to you about what we can do to help.