As mentioned earlier, soft articles have no genre restrictions, but in practice, they can be roughly classified during the writing process. Based on observation and experience, Brother Bao categorizes soft articles into eight categories with thirteen types, with three categories being the most commonly used. They are as follows:
The first category: News-style soft articles. These appear in the form of news reports, directly promoting a brand or product around a certain event. This type of soft article is currently the most widely used. Its advantages are directness and prominence, while its disadvantage is poor retransmission. To achieve the best effect, continuous posting is necessary. Therefore, companies with a certain level of strength usually adopt this method. For example, Vipshop publishes every other day, Jiaogu Su Embroidery publishes weekly, and companies with even greater capabilities have dedicated PR agencies and ample budgets, publishing daily. The prerequisite for writing this type of soft article is to master the methods of news writing, making it lively and deep enough to avoid putting readers to sleep. "The Launch of the Gusu Online Mall Marks a New Era for Su Embroidery E-commerce" falls under this category.
The second category: Pseudo-scientific soft articles. These appear in the form of scientific popularization articles, citing classics and incorporating extensive professional knowledge, ultimately highlighting the object to be promoted. In general, the conclusion is that the brand or product being promoted has the absolute highest technical level and leads the industry. The extreme form of this type of soft article is forging authoritative reports. Brother Bao once helped write a fake authoritative medical clinical report, where all data showed that the promoted object had optimal performance. The report later became widely circulated, but Brother Bao's sense of guilt grew increasingly over time. Therefore, he rarely takes medical-related orders now. Writing this type of soft article requires extensive research on relevant materials surrounding the product. Some writers simply modify a random online science article and submit it, which is highly irresponsible. Such soft articles at best are pseudo-originals that Baidu can identify. Brother Bao's "Why Has the Craze for Embroidery Endured? Why Does Su Embroidery Stand Out?" falls under this category.
The third category: Review-style soft articles. These take the perspective of a third party, reviewing brands, products, or events related to them, embedding the promotional purpose within the review. To support the review opinions, such articles often require the inclusion of commentary or statistics from authoritative institutions or experts. Writing this type of soft article requires a solid foundation and a large amount of material, as well as skill. For example, when citing comments or statistics from institutions or experts, some are 100% real, some are convincingly fake, but others are weak and clumsy. Therefore, not everyone who knows how to write can write soft articles, nor does higher education necessarily mean better soft article writing. Knowledge accumulation, breadth of knowledge, experience, thinking, writing skills, and techniques are all indispensable. "Professional 'Groups' Will Dominate in 2012; Polyfiber Products Indicate New Trends in Group Buying" is one of Brother Bao's relatively decent review-style soft articles, concerning GPS navigation devices.