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Blog posts are one of the most effective tools for content marketing. That being said, there are many different types of blog posts that are not guaranteed to make the reader a customer. Here at DigitalMarketer, we spent a lot of time refining our list of the most successful types of blog posts, and we thought we'd share them with you in … you guessed it … a blog post (and a video ) share.

In our YouTube series Marketing championship with DigitalMarketerI'm talking about the 5 most effective types of blog posts.

Watch the video and keep scrolling if you want to read more!

Number 1: Original research contributions

I asked one of my favorite content marketers (or really a marketer in general) Andy Cretodina of Orbit Media if he had to start over what he would do. His answer to me was: Original Research.

People go NUTS for original research. You read it, share it, interact with it – it's the CONTENT HOLY GRAIL.

However, it is undoubtedly the most difficult and time consuming to produce. You need to collect research questions (avoid as much bias as possible), collect a large enough sample, analyze the data, visualize the data, and then interpret it in a way that is useful to your audience.

It's a hell of a job, but one of the most fruitful content you can produce today. Not only will you arouse the anticipation of those who participated in the research, but your contributions will also be cited, get tons of backlinks, and will likely appear in presentations (even if it is out of date) years after the original research was published. .

Number 2: checklist contributions

At DigitalMarketer, we firmly believe that everything and EVERYTHING should be broken down into simple step-by-step checklists. In fact, we created our premium paid content with this philosophy.

Even pilots follow a standardized checklist before starting.

Simply put, we think checklists are great.

I mean, who doesn't want to go through content that tells them exactly what to do, and if they follow it, they'll have a result.

This makes your content immediately realizable for your audience. Once they have taken one action and overcome any doubts about your brand or self-doubt, they will take another action.

Posts such as "5 copywriting elements you should test", "10-point blog post audit", "15-point landing page checklist" etc. are checklist-style posts that ultimately generate a result.

Number 3: pillar post

This is the big dog post. Part of the column content is your thesis – that's why you exist; it separates you from everyone else out there.

When everyone focused on customer acquisition, we wrote about optimizing customer value. This contribution was our line in the sand and changed the way startups and founders approach corporate growth.

Then we realized that CVO was just one (small) step in the entire ecosystem, namely the Customer Value Journey. That is why we have written a NEW column content that covered the journey and its application in your company.

Pillar content is your evergreen content that becomes your backlink magnet and is an amazing way to create derivative works for future posts.

These posts are usually HUGE and should be accompanied by a PDF download so people can read them later.

If you don't have a company that has this level of content that draws a line in the sand, the other type of column content creates some kind of ultimate guide.

This won't differentiate you, but if you create the final guide and put it in the leaderboard, you become an authority and get all the other benefits of the pillar content.

Number 4: Crowdsourced Posts

These are a little out of style, but I think they're effective if you get the right people to talk about a topic that hasn't been covered a million times.

Nobody wants from 25 EXPERTS further "Best Practices for Content Marketing, Growth Marketing and Email Marketing".

Here you have the opportunity to create some really interesting content from people with unique perspectives and authorities.

A big advantage is that this type of content doesn't take much time to create, is stackable, and people like to share things by name in it. They receive more social support, borrow authority and offer different perspectives.

One of the best types of crowdsourcing posts I've seen include an overarching narrative that uses expert quotes and answers to other points. This variant of the crowdsourcing post takes more time, but is incredibly effective.

Number 5: Content Aggregator Posts

We really should rename this post "Swipe File". Seth Godin said: "All marketers are liars" … well, they're thieves too.

Who doesn't have a folder full of email, ads, social and landing page swipe files? If you are not … well, you are the strange one, not me.

The fact is, we tend to emulate (even if we shouldn't). Why? Well, that's a question for another time, but my simple belief is this:

It is much more difficult to start with a blank page / canvas / or whatever.

Swipe files that show examples of great Instagram video ads with comments are a great way to inspire your audience and get the creative juices flowing.

Even better is that this type of content can be shared very well and benefits from backlinks and social traffic.

To sum it up again: If you want better and shared blog posts, you should try the following:

1. Research contributions
2. Checklist contributions
3. Pillar post
4. Crowdsourced post
5. Content aggregator post

If you never want to run out of ideas for blog posts, you can get a list of WAY ​​other post types and examples when you become a DigitalMarketer Insider. If you are interested, click HERE.

You can find more tips on the marketing championship on our YouTube channel.