As mentioned earlier, soft articles have no genre restrictions. But in fact, they can be roughly classified during the writing process. According to observations and experience, Bro. Bao divides soft articles into eight categories and thirteen types. The most commonly used are three categories, as follows:
The first category: News communication style soft article. This is a soft article that appears in the form of a news report, directly and positively promoting a brand or product around a certain event. This type of soft article is currently used the most. Its advantages are directness and prominence, but its disadvantage is poor reproducibility. To achieve the best effect, it must be continuously published. Therefore, companies using this type of soft article usually have a certain level of strength. For example, Vipshop publishes every other day, Jiaogu embroidery publishes once a week, and stronger companies have dedicated PR agencies and sufficient budgets, publishing almost daily. To write this type of soft article, one must be proficient in the method of writing news reports. It should read vividly and with depth so as not to bore the reader. "The Gusu Online Mall Launches, Embroidery E-commerce Enters a New Era" belongs to this type.
The second category: Pseudo-scientific popularization soft article. This is a soft article that appears in the form of a science popularization article. In terms of writing, it quotes classics and integrates a large amount of professional knowledge, ultimately highlighting the object to be promoted. Generally, the conclusion is that the technical level of the brand or product being promoted is absolutely the highest and industry-leading. The extreme of this type of soft article is forging authoritative reports. Bro. Bao once helped someone imitate an authoritative medical clinical report, where all kinds of data showed the optimal performance of the promotional object. The report later became widely circulated, but Bro. Bao's guilt increased day by day. So now Bro. Bao rarely takes on medical projects. Writing this type of soft article requires researching a lot of relevant materials about the product. Some writers simply find a science popularization article online, slightly modify it, and then submit it, which is extremely irresponsible. Such soft articles at best are pseudo-originals, and Baidu can identify them. Bro. Bao's "The Craze for Embroidery Endures, Why Does Suzhou Embroidery Dominate?" falls into this category.
The third category: Comment-style soft article. This involves commenting on a brand, product, or events related to the brand or product from a third-party perspective, embedding the promotional purpose within the commentary. To support the commentary points, such articles often need to include evaluations or figures from certain authoritative institutions or experts. Writing this type of soft article requires deeper skills and mastery of a large amount of material, and of course, more technique. For example, when quoting evaluations or figures from institutions or experts, some are 100% true, some are fake but convincing, but others are very forced and clumsy. Therefore, not everyone who knows how to write can write soft articles, nor does higher education guarantee better soft article writing. Knowledge accumulation, breadth of knowledge, experience, thinking, writing foundation, and techniques are all indispensable. "In 2012, Professional 'Groups' Will Gather; Polyfiber Quality Indicates New Trends in Group Buying" is a decent piece among the comment-style soft articles written by Bro. Bao.