Google has long recognized the importance of content. Marketers for the most part agree that brands need a content strategy.

Content attracts visitors to your site and builds trust and a relationship with your audience as well as awareness and authority for your brand. It also helps marketers rank on Google and the search engines, and is highly cost-effective.

There’s a reason that content is one of the most important Google search ranking factors. It’s all about making users happy.

Content is how you deliver useful or helpful information to people who need to solve a problem or find an answer to a question.

Google’s search results are the Google experience. The content (the search results) are links to other (usually) relevant content.

By providing high-quality search results to its billions of monthly users, Google attracts paying customers (advertisers) to its biggest revenue driver (Google Ads).

Your job is no different. You must deliver high-quality content in the most effective form possible to attract customers or clients and generate revenue.

According to research from Sprout Social, people want certain things from content discounts or sales, information about new products or services, or to be taught something, entertained, or inspired.

It’s time to give consumers the content they want, but what types of content actually convince and persuade visitors to become paying customers?

Blogging? We’re no longer living in 2008. It’s time to get with the times. Infographics? Sure, you might get some social shares, but will anyone remember that your company designed it? Not likely.

Your content marketing efforts could be much better spent elsewhere. Here are five types of content that will actually attract paying customers.

1. Video

What better way to showcase your new or existing products or services than with a video?

You can also use video to teach people how to use your product. Some people learn much better by seeing something in action for a couple of minutes than reading hundreds or thousands of words about it.

YouTube has more than a billion users — your target audience most likely spends some time there.

Although it has been around for more than a decade, there is still plenty of opportunity to be found via search on YouTube (and Google’s video search results).

A little YouTube SEO will lead prospects further down the path to conversion — and becoming a paying customer.

Important tip: make sure that you make it easy for people who discover you on YouTube by adding links to the most relevant pages on your website.

2. Webinars

Webinars help you build trust and your authority — and you will also get the email addresses of every attendee.

In addition to teaching potential customers something new and of value, you can use webinars as a way to offer some type of discount or promotion for one of your products or services.

Bonus: companies can repurpose webinars into other forms of content that can increase your organic search visibility.

3. Lead Magnet

Giving away premium content for free in exchange for an email is another great way to engage potential customers, demonstrate your authority, and build trust.

What is a lead magnet? It might be an original research report, survey results, an ebook, a white paper or a useful/helpful guide. The key here is giving people something of quality in exchange for their email address. You can now begin the process of email nurturing.

4. Email Newsletters

Speaking of email, newsletters are another great piece of content to convert fans into customers or clients.

These are people who know you and like what you have to offer -– and they want to know all about your latest updates, deals, or products/services.

People who demonstrate loyalty by signing up for your email newsletters are more likely to become paying customers.

5. An Audit

An audit is the ultimate in personalized content.

Although you might not think of an audit as traditional “content” (because it won’t ever be published on the web), this type of content has converted numerous leads into paying customers or clients.

But the return on your investment in time is much higher on an audit than on a blog post that gets little organic traffic and few shares/links.

For example, some SEO or digital marketing agencies offer a free SEO or content audit to reveal any technical issues that may reduce a website’s rankings and overall visibility.

An audit works because it helps demonstrate your expertise and convinces the client that they have some serious issues and need your professional help to fix them.

Some of these may seem obvious. If that’s the case, why are so many businesses and brands wasting time on writing blog posts that get so few views and don’t rank or get shared?

Update your content marketing playbook. Add these five types of content into your strategy to attract more qualified traffic and leads.