16 Types of Content Writing to Consider for Your Business

Whether you’re a marketer or business owner looking for new ideas for your content calendar, or you’re a freelance writer looking for new services to offer, the following types of content writing can help you achieve your goals.

What is content writing?

Closely connected with the area of digital marketing called content marketing, content writing is the process of writing content for digital channels. The purpose of content is to attract, inform, engage, and/or convert readers.

16 different types of content writing

Blog posts

Once associated with online journals or personal diaries, blog posts are used today by most businesses and publishers as versatile content marketing tools. They can be used across multiple stages of the marketing funnel or buyer journey: awareness, consideration, and decision.

In addition, blog posts are critical pieces of a business’ SEO and social media marketing strategy. They can target four types of SEO keywords: informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional.

Therefore, blog content writers must be knowledgeable about SEO content writing concepts and techniques like keyword research, searcher intent, on-page optimization, and the benefits of link building.

Some examples of common blog post formats are:

• How-to or tutorial
• Ultimate guide
• Listicle
• Product review or comparison
• Best of (e.g., “8 Best AI Tools for Affiliate Marketing“)
• Expert roundup
• Sponsored post
• Q&A or interview
• Statistics
• Checklist
• Sponsored posts

In recent years, there has been widespread adoption of long-form and evergreen blog posts (1500 words-2000+ words), as some studies have shown they perform better in search.

For some companies, short, newsworthy blog posts (300-500 words) are still useful tools for publishing company updates and distributing them to an audience via email.

Freelance writers usually charge a per-word fee or a flat rate per post for blog writing. Rates range widely according to experience, typically from $0.05-$1 per word.

Social media content

The most common types of content you’ll find on social media are posts, descriptions (such as YouTube video descriptions and Pinterest board and pin descriptions), and hashtags.

Social media feeds refresh infinitely, and people’s attention spans are short. When they’re on social media, they’re usually looking to be entertained. Social media algorithms use engagement metrics to determine which content you should get the most exposure. So, when writing for social media, aim for likes, comments, shares, and clicks.

You can boost engagement by capitalizing on current trends or collecting data on your top-performing content (and competitors’ top-performing content) and using it to inform your social media marketing strategy.

Evergreen and trending topics are both appropriate for social media, so include a mix of the two types of content in your social media marketing strategy. Aim to create fresh posts as well as recycle your top-performing content. You can save time creating social media posts by using an AI-powered social media content generator.

Video scripts

The popularity of video is exploding, thanks to YouTube, TikTok and other video hosting services and private streaming platforms. Videos can be published on a company’s website or social media channels, or even hosted privately, behind a paywall or registration form.

Some common types of video content that may require a written script are:

• Whiteboard or animated explainers
• Product demos
• Video sales letters (VSLs)
• Corporate training and employee onboarding videos
• E-learning, educational, and microlearning videos
• Tutorials
• Product reviews
• Listicle videos

As AI technology advances, many companies are cutting costs at all levels of video production using AI video editing tools and even AI-powered video generators, which makes video creation easy even for novices. Video content writers may consider adapting these tools into their services as a value add.

E-books

Businesses and bloggers create e-books as free lead magnets to entice website visitors to opt in to their email list. (Yes, this still works!)

To create a successful e-book, quality content is just one part of the equation. To attract as many subscribers as possible, you’ll also need to choose a highly relevant topic, write an intriguing title, and design an attention-grabbing cover or banner graphic for your e-book.

The length of the e-book doesn’t matter as long as you deliver the information that was promised. Otherwise, your readers might get annoyed and unsubscribe.

You can further maximize signups by creating different e-books for different pages on your website and using an exit-intent popup to capture subscribers as they’re leaving your site.

You may also wish to split test different topics, titles, and covers over time to find out what resonates best with your audience.

White papers

White papers often look similar to e-books at first glance. However, they’re written for business professionals and, as such, tend to be more factual and statistic heavy in nature.

Organizations and corporations use white papers as tools for informing leads and customers about products and services. They can be offered as a lead magnet, uploaded to the company website as a resource, or distributed to a business’ target audience via email or other channels.

Like e-books, white papers can include design elements such as covers, images, charts, graphs, and tables. They are typically 6-10 pages in length (2500+ words).

For freelance writers, white paper writing can be a lucrative niche.

Infographics

An infographic is a visual tool that highlights facts, statistics, tips, or other data using images, tables, charts, and graphs. Infographics contain only a small amount of text.

Infographics are especially popular with tech companies and marketing agencies as a tool for generating backlinks from other websites to improve their own site’s search engine rankings. They’re often published in an SEO-optimized blog post. They can also be shared on social media.

It’s acceptable to create infographics using information from other sources as long as you write them in your own words and cite your sources. Usually, citations are included in small print in a section at the bottom of the infographic.

In addition to clear, concise writing, an attractive visual presentation is a crucial part of a successful infographic. You can cut costs on graphic design by using a tool like Canva to produce your infographics.

Website content

Every website, no matter its purpose, needs content. At their most basic level, most websites follow a standard content structure or hierarchy. At minimum, a website should have the following core pages, which are typically linked to from the site’s primary navigation menu:

• Home
• About
• Contact
• Privacy Policy

Other commonly used pages are Our Team, Careers, Pricing, Resources (or Blog), FAQ (or Help Center), and Terms of Service.

In addition, businesses also need webpages for their products and services – sometimes called “landing pages.” A small business website may only need a few such pages, while a large e-commerce business may eventually need hundreds or thousands of these product pages.

Depending on its size and budget, a business may either hire a content writer or a professional copywriter to create their website’s main pages.

Small businesses on a tight budget can usually get by with a content writer – that is, a writer skilled in writing SEO-optimized content.

Larger organizations and tech startups will usually need to hire a professional copywriter or so-called “conversion copywriter” with a track record of generating signups and conversions. Conversion copywriters may offer additional consulting services, such as building and testing sales funnels for SaaS companies.

Freelance writers take note: Conversion copywriting is one of the highest-paid types of writing.

Email content

Business use email for a huge variety of purposes. Some typical applications include:

• B2B email outreach
• Marketing messages sent to an email list
• Sales transactions
• Customer support
• Internal communications

An email copywriter is a writer who specializes in creating email marketing content, such as drip and nurture campaigns, subject lines, email newsletters, promo emails, and surveys. They may offer additional consulting services, such as designing email sequences, setting up lead generation forms, creating automations, and executing entire campaigns using email marketing software.

Marketing and sales copy

Marketing and sales copy has one primary purpose: to persuade customers to make a purchase – or, in other words, to “convert” them. Unlike business writers, who typically persuade using logic, copywriters appeal to a prospective customers’ emotions.

Traditional forms of marketing and sales copywriting include:

• Direct mail
• Print advertisements
• Marketing collateral such as brochures, flyers, catalogs, and case studies
• Commercials for TV and radio
• White papers

The Internet has created tremendous demand for many additional types of copywriting, including:

• Sales pages
• Landing pages
• Email marketing campaigns
• Sales funnels
• Video sales letters (VSLs)
• Advertorials
• Digital ads, such as Google and Facebook ads

Copywriting is the highest paid type of freelance writing. As a freelance copywriter, you can niche down even further – for instance, into sales funnel or direct response copywriting – and get paid even more.

Digital advertising copy

Digital ad copy falls under the umbrella of marketing and sales copy – but, because of its vast importance to doing business today, it gets its own section here.

The two major players in PPC and digital advertising, particularly for small businesses, are Facebook Ads and Google Ads.

However, many other social media websites and search engines – such as Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Bing, and even Reddit – have introduced their own digital ad platforms.

To write effective digital ad copy, it’s important to be familiar with the differences of each platform and their respective audiences. For instance, Google Ads are a type of “pull” marketing – that is, the searcher initiates the discovery of your ad by typing in a search for something.

Conversely, Facebook Ads are a type of “push” marketing, because Facebook users are scrolling through a feed looking to be entertained rather than actively looking for a product. In other words, the two platforms target users at different stages of the buyer journey.

There are additional differences between ad platforms to be aware of, such as ad length and format, user demographics, and campaign objective. Facebook, for example, offers ad campaign types for 11 different marketing objectives.

Digital ad copywriters can earn higher rates by managing clients’ ad campaigns from start to finish, including ad creation, audience targeting, bidding strategy, testing, and optimization.

Press releases

Organizations use press releases to inform media and the public about new and noteworthy happenings in their business, such as a company merger, the appointment of a new executive, or the release of a new product.

Press releases may be published on the company’s press page or distributed to a media list or press release submission site like Presswire or PR Newswire.

Press releases follow a standard template and usually run 300-400 words in length.

Some writers specialize in writing and distributing press releases. According to one edition of Writer’s Market, press releases can cost between $125 and $1500, depending on a writer’s experience. A rate of $1 per word is typical.

Thought leadership content

Organizations, company executives, and content marketers use thought leadership content to position themselves as industry experts. A type of digital PR, thought leadership can strengthen a company’s brand, attract engagement and backlinks, and drive traffic to a company’s website.

Thought leadership isn’t an appropriate content marketing strategy for every company. It’s most effective when used by established companies or business professionals with demonstrated expertise in their fields.

Some common approaches to thought leadership pieces include:

• Opinion pieces, provocative or not
• Predictions or commentary about upcoming industry trends
• Original research
• Advice and insights based on personal experience
• Brand journalism

Thought leadership content may be published on a company’s own website or contributed to business and industry publications. For example, you can find plenty of thought leadership pieces on sites like Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, and Business Insider. LinkedIn is another popular platform for thought leadership pieces.

It may surprise you to learn that a good deal of thought leadership content is written by skilled ghostwriters, as busy executives and consultants often don’t have the time to write their own articles. Instead, they hire someone else to write the article, review it to ensure it aligns with their perspectives, and sign off on the finished piece.

Writers can charge higher rates for thought leadership content, as it’s a form of ghostwriting (i.e., their byline will not be published alongside the article). It’s not uncommon for ghostwriters to charge $1 per word or more to write thought leadership pieces.

PR and journalistic writing

Traditional PR and journalistic writing includes material written for traditional media sources, including print media (e.g., newspapers, newsletters, magazines, trade journals), TV, and radio.

Online PR writing includes content written for digital news media such as online magazines and news sites, podcasts, company news feeds, and online video platforms. Examples of this type of content are:

• Press releases
• Features
• Editorials
• Interviews
• News articles

For businesses, the primary purpose of PR writing is to build brand awareness and promote a positive image with the public, ultimately leading to increased sales.

So-called “digital PR” is a modern form of PR that overlaps with content marketing and SEO. It has all the benefits of traditional PR, plus the added advantage of link building, which can increase a company’s search engines rankings and website traffic.

Many businesses do their own digital PR using DIY SEO tools. Others hire a professional PR writer or consultant.

Technical content

Writing technical content requires the skill of breaking down complex terms and concepts and making them simple to the average person. Some examples of content, both print and digital, that fall under the category of technical writing include:

• How-to guides
• Instructions
• Product manuals
• FAQs and online knowledge bases
• Educational and e-learning materials, such as corporate training and employee onboarding videos

UX writing is an increasingly in-demand form of online technical writing. UX is short for “user experience.” UX writers work with developers and UX designers to create content for digital products like websites, software, apps, and chatbots. The goal of UX writing is to help users navigate digital applications with ease.

E-commerce content

E-commerce businesses generate huge amounts of content, including product category pages, product descriptions, product guides, transactional messaging, blog posts, social media content, policy and FAQ pages, product demos and reviews, sponsored posts, and marketing emails.

One challenge that larger e-commerce companies face is optimizing their product catalogs for search engines. Because search engines don’t like duplicate or thin content, companies are faced with the monumental (and expensive!) task of writing original product description and category pages for hundreds or thousands of products.

E-commerce writers must understand how to optimize product descriptions for search by using keywords strategically throughout the header tags, title tags, image alt tags, and body copy.

They should also be able to write enticing meta descriptions that generate clicks on search engines results pages. Therefore, product description writing is like a hybrid of SEO content writing and copywriting.

Business writing

Business writing includes any kind of written material that is used in a professional setting, whether for internal purposes or for communicating with suppliers, partners, lenders, investors, and customers. Examples include:

• Business plans
• Policies and procedures
• Memos
• Reports
• Proposals
• RFPs (Request for Proposals)
• Grant proposals
• Emails
• Letters
• Meeting minutes
• Presentations
• Speeches

Business writing is often classified into four types: instructional, informational, persuasive, and transactional.

Many types of business writing follow a standard format – for example, a formal report will often include components such as a cover page, table of contents, abstract or executive summary, footnotes, appendix, and index.

In addition, business documents may contain visual components such as tables, charts, graphs, flowcharts, and diagrams.

As a freelance writer specializing in business content, you must be able to write with clarity and conciseness.

Content writing: FAQ

How many types of content writing are there?

There are too many different content writing types and styles to put an exact number on it, and the task is further complicated by the fact that many types of content marketing overlap. Instead, it’s often more useful to classify content based on what part of the buyer journey it targets – awareness, consideration, or decision.

Blog posts, for example, can target all three stages of the buyer journey (awareness, consideration, decision), whereas a sales page primarily targets one (decision).

What is SEO content writing?

SEO content writing combines the skill of writing with a knowledge of the fundamentals of on-page SEO, including:

• Keyword research
• Article structure
• On-page optimization (e.g., target keyword in headers, title tag, and image alt tags)
• Internal linking

Examples of content writing that are typically optimized for SEO include webpages, blog posts, e-commerce product descriptions, and even videos. Freelance content writers typically work from a content brief provided by a company or its client.

Types of content writing services

Freelance writers can charge higher rates by specializing in a specific niche or type of writing. The main categories of content writing services include:

• SEO content writing
• Copywriting
• PR or journalistic writing
• Technical writing

Each of these types of writing has a different purpose and, as such, requires a different set of skills.

Additionally, each of the above content writing services or jobs can be niched down even further. For example, a writer might specialize in writing Facebook ads and even offering ad campaign creation and consulting services.

Final thoughts: Remember Pareto’s principle

The types of content writing that work best for someone else’s business won’t necessarily work best for yours. Test a few different strategies to see what resonates best with your audience, eliminate the 80% that isn’t working, and focus on the 20% that brings you the best results.