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You’ve got something worth saying. A topic, an idea, a lesson from a client call that you know would land with your audience. You really want to make it into a piece of content.
But do you write it up as a blog post, film it, turn it into an email, or make a carousel? There are so many options to choose from. So how do you decide?
Every piece of content is really two things: what you’re saying and how you’re saying it. The what is your topic. The how is the format, the shape it takes. You’ve done the hard part, the what. This post is about the how, and choosing it doesn’t have to be a guess. Two things clear the ground before you start, then two questions do the actual deciding.
The formats that actually work for you
You’re not choosing from every format that exists. You’re choosing from a much shorter menu, and that menu is set by two things that don’t change from one topic to the next.
The first is your channels. If you’re on YouTube, you’ve got long landscape video and short portrait video. If you’re on Instagram, you’ve got portrait video, a single photo, and a carousel. You’re not picking from a blank list of thirty content forms, you’re picking from what your channels can actually show. That’s why the channels come first, and if you’re not sure yours are the right ones, that’s a separate decision worth making properly before this one. Read How to Know Which Marketing Channel Is Best for Your Business to learn more about this.
The second is you. You’re the one who has to make this, week after week, usually when you’re already busy. So the format has to suit you as the person making it, or it never gets made. Do you think best in writing or out loud? Do you come alive on camera or quietly dread it? What could you keep producing even at times when everything is on fire? Your honest answers narrow the menu again.
There’s a real difference between those two though, and it’s worth holding onto. Your channels are a hard limit. Instagram will not show a twenty-minute landscape video in the feed, and no amount of wanting it to will change that. You are a softer limit. You could go on camera, you might just rather not. That matters because “I’m not a video person” can slowly become a wall you never test. Every so often it’s worth stretching past it. But most weeks, your real menu is simple: the formats your channels allow, narrowed to the ones you’ll actually keep making.
So that gives you a short list. But then you need to decide what to make right now.
One topic is never just one format
One side note, by the way, before we talk about deciding, because it changes what deciding even means. The mistake most people make isn’t picking the wrong format. It’s assuming they have to pick just one.
One topic can become a long podcast, a carousel, and a newsletter. Same idea, three shapes. It reaches the people who’d rather listen, the ones who’d rather read, and the ones who only catch it because it turned up in their inbox. You made the thinking once and you get to use it three times, which is also how posting regularly stops feeling relentless. You can repurpose content to keep using it in different ways.
So the real question was never “which single format is this topic?” It’s “which of my formats does this topic deserve, and which one leads?” That’s what the next two questions are for.
What kind of topic is it?
What is this topic, really? Not the subject of it, but the kind of content it is. Every topic has a type, and the type is your biggest clue to its shape. So before anything else, work out what kind of content you’re actually holding.
I split content into six types: informative, inspiring, engaging, behind the scenes, about you, and sales. I’ve written all about it in How 6 Content Types Simplify Your Content Strategy. The type tells you a surprising amount, because the substance of a topic points to the shape that suits it. An informative how-to, something with real steps to teach, wants room to lay those steps out, so it leans towards a blog post or a proper tutorial video. An “about you” story or an inspiring piece runs on connection more than instruction, so it usually lives better in a talking-head video, where your voice carries it, or an email, where that same voice comes through on the page.
Another part of the topic is its size. A how-to with eight genuine visual steps is big and won’t fit a short TikTok video. It would need a series of videos (and that is totally an option) or one longer video. A quick mindset shift might be one honest paragraph in an email or a caption on a post.
However, please be aware that length on its own can fool you. A topic can be long and still not blog-shaped. “Knowing just enough tech to be dangerous” is something I could talk about for an hour, but it’s a mindset piece, not a teachable how-to. So despite the length, it’s an email or a video where I’m actually talking to you, not a blog post trying to be a guide it was never going to be.
Does it need to last?
The second question is quieter, but it changes where a topic wants to live: does this need to keep working, or is it ‘for the moment’?
Some content is built to last. A how-to that answers something people will still be typing into Google next year deserves a home where it can be found later, which usually means a blog post or a YouTube video, the two places content keeps getting discovered long after you publish. You create it once and it carries on.
Other content is alive right now and then it’s done, and that’s completely fine. A reaction to something that’s just changed in your world, a personal update, a moment you want to share while it’s warm, all of that belongs in an email or a social post. A timely thought doesn’t need to last, it needs to land. A blog is slow to get found, so by the time it finally does, the moment has passed.
This is why two topics of the same size can want completely different homes. It isn’t only what the topic is, it’s whether it needs to still be there when someone comes looking.
Still feeling a little lost? We’ve all been there.
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Putting it to work
Let’s run a real topic through it. Say it’s “how to plan a month of content in an afternoon.”
Start with your format options. You write more easily than you talk. And you’ve got a blog, a newsletter, and you’re on Instagram. That means you can create posts, write emails, write blogs and theoretically you could post reels, but going on camera still makes you wince, so let’s not.
The post is of the informative type, a real how-to with steps. That means it will need a bit of a longer format. Which means it could be a blog, a newsletter series or a carousel maybe.
And does it need to last? Very much so, people will be searching “how to plan content” long after you write it, so it wants a findable home.
That points to a blog post as the lead, so it’s the one you make first. From there you repurpose: the key steps become an Instagram carousel, and you can create a summary in your newsletter.
Now change the topic to “the client project that nearly broke me.” Same you, same channels. But this is an “about you” story, it runs on connection rather than instruction. And it doesn’t really need to last. So a newsletter is the right way to talk about it, make your audience realise something, think about something. If you’d find the courage it would be great in a short video too.
Same person, same channels, but a completely different shape, because the topic asked for something different.
The whole thing hinges on reading the type accurately, and that’s a skill you can build rather than a knack you either have or don’t. It’s the heart of my Content Success course, where I teach the six content types properly, along with the Content Tree system for spinning one topic into a month of ideas across different formats. If “what kind of topic is this” turns out to be where you keep getting stuck, that’s exactly the part it’s built to fix.
The how is the easy part
None of this needs to be perfect. You’re not hunting for the one correct format, because there usually isn’t one. You’re looking for a sensible starting shape, and a way to stop staring at a good idea wondering where on earth to begin.
So next time you’ve got something worth saying, don’t freeze. Look at what your channels and your energy actually allow. Remember you can make it more than once. Then ask what kind of topic it is, and whether it needs to last. The answers are usually already sitting there, waiting for you to notice them.
