Fan doing the Megan Rapinoe stance from her celebrating her team's first goal during the 2019 Women's World Cup quarter-final match between France and the U.S.
There are so many types of content out there nowadays so, what in the world is topical content? Topical content is relevant to current events or timely topics. Think about things that are currently trending. Writing, vlogging, news stories, videos or even advertisements can be done on trending topics. These would all be considered topical content pieces since they focus on current news/trends. So, let’s talk about some of the advantages and disadvantages of writing topical content.
ADVANTAGES:
1. Authority in your field: by staying current with trends and news in your field you set yourself up as a brand who has authority. It shows your brand researches relevant subjects often. This will help build trust with your B2B and B2C audiences.
2. Requires less work: all it takes is a quick glance at sites and news stories to give you the ideas you need to produce topical content. This can save time and money when creating content. It can also help with creativity when at a loss for fresh ideas.
3. Drives seasonal traffic to multiple channels: this can increase your audience reach because your topical content can gain traction over multiple points: social media, website, emails, etc.
DISADVANTAGES:
1. Others are posting too: your competitors are probably posting on trending topics too, all the while spinning their own take on it. This can make it harder to stand out from the crowd. It can require a lot of time, effort and money to make yourself stand out, so if this is something you can’t commit to, then you may want to shift your strategies.
2. It doesn’t benefit the long run for SEO: it can get you more traffic to your site in the short game but trust is built over time. This is where evergreen content comes into play, which we will talk about in our next blog.
Topical content has its place in the marketing and advertising world. It can provide relevant information on current affairs and can be a way to switch it up from the mundane. Ultimately, your marketing and advertising strategies should be a mix of topical and evergreen content. How much you choose to create topical content will also depend on what your business goals are and the audiences’ you’re trying to attract. Industry standard states that a mix of 1:4 is the general rule of thumb for the topical to evergreen content ratio. The first being topical content to every four evergreen content posts. Topical content definitely has its place but evergreen content is what’s needed to keep your audience behind your brand in the long haul.
