You’ve probably noticed that we’ve been talking about longform content quite a lot recently. In fact, we’ve been using the medium of longform content to talk about longform content. We’re huge longform enthusiasts as we believe that it’s the sort of writing we need in content marketing now – and will continue to need for a good number of years yet.
Of course, making the switch from shortform to longform isn’t something that’ll just happen, like when the teenage protagonist of the film Big wakes up one morning to find he’s grown to adult size. In all seriousness it’s something which requires a bit of thought and a great deal of effort – your entire content marketing strategy has to be rethought and adjusted. Going from writing a few hundred words (shortform) on any given subject to a couple of thousand (longform) takes some adjusting to from a writer’s perspective, as you can probably imagine, but it’s definitely worth the (initial) struggle.
Good content is absolutely imperative to the success of any website, regardless of its function or purpose. Content is not only heavily responsible for driving new traffic to your website, but it ensures returning traffic in the future as well – if it’s good, that is. So what qualifies as ‘good’ content? Careful spelling? Fluidity? Well, yes, absolutely – but there’s a lot more to it than that – especially with regards to longform. 2000 correctly-spelled words and well-placed commas are definitely very important, but the writing has to be of use to the person who reads it.
Not only does your content have to be well-written from a technical perspective – in that it has impeccable spelling, grammar, punctuation and all the rest of it – but it has to actually say something too. It has to be of particular interest to the people it’s aimed towards – and that’s non-negotiable. Content isn’t clutter – it’s not there to make a website look full.
This of course applies to shortform content as well as longform, but with regards to the latter it means that corner-cutting is not an option. Many decent content writers can ‘blag’ their way through a 400-word piece of writing (what you might call smoke and mirrors), but there’s nowhere to hide with a 2000-word piece.
A piece of longform content requires a great deal more thought and research than a shortform one does, which is why a lot of people (and organisations) are so reluctant to do it – which is absurd, when you think about it [insert overused yet still very relevant expression about ‘anything that’s worth doing’ here].
Some longform sceptics justify their opposition to it by claiming that “people don’t want to read a few thousand words on any topic.” Well, if they’ve actively searched for it on the internet, the chances are that they do, actually. Given its comparative brevity, shortform content can (and does) often fall rather, well, short of the mark. Readers of shortform can find themselves reaching the end of a web page and wondering where the rest is – wondering whether there’s a second page or a ‘read more’ link they can’t see.
The more informative your website is, the better. The idea that there’s a correlation between brevity and slickness is quite ridiculous – more often than not it’s just down to laziness (especially given how the value of longform content is now becoming better recognised by the day). One of the purposes of any website is to provide its visitors with information, not just look attractive and expensive – leave that to the web designer. You can have the slickest website on the internet but if it offers no insight then it’s ultimately useless.
Traffic-driving
The purpose of any piece of content – regardless of its length – should be to drive traffic for the website it’s going on. For this reason, it has to be readable – not only in regards to the standard of English, but the information or the discussion contained within. The more engaging the content you write is, the higher the probability of the reader further exploring the website – and and them coming back at a later date.
A large proportion of websites are selling something – whether that’s a physical product or a service of some sort – and therefore their purpose should be to convert as many prospective customers (i.e. every single visitor) as possible into actual customers. One of the best ways to get across the idea that you’re an authority in your sector is by having a website full of information and discussion about it.
It’s all well and good having a website which has high traffic figures, but actual conversion figures are much more important. By demonstrating not only a superb command over the English language, but a breadth of knowledge as well, a website can do unbelievably well.
There are few things more valuable or powerful – in all walks of life, we might add – than knowledge. If a website (and thereby the company it belongs to) can pass on knowledge to people, it’ll become a popular and well-thought-of one.
Content which can offer a consistent and refreshing insight into a specific field is more than likely to accrue a good following and an accompanying good reputation. Blog posts are a great way to offer a more informal insight into a company or a field – and in this day and age that’s very important. When you write longform blog posts for any website – whether it’s your own content marketing company’s site or one of your clients’ sites – you have a great opportunity to project a little bit of personality into the website.
(Of course, a heightened level of informality will not be suited to or appropriate for every client’s website blog, but in the majority of cases there’ll be instances in which it will be. With many a reader, the more conversational a piece of longform content is – specifically blogs – the higher chance there is of them reading it all.)
Quite a few websites out there are better known for their blog section rather than the rest of the website itself, in that their blog posts are one of the main traffic-driving elements. Red Bull is just such a company – and they are a magnificent example of how you should embrace longform content. Not only do they write in a longform format, but their video content falls under that category as well, as it can often be over ten minutes long. They do produce various examples of shortform content as well, but they have a healthy mix of both types – which means that it reaches more people. There’s a good chance that this approach has led to the sale of a few more energy drinks as well.
Shareability
The more interesting your piece of content is to its targeted readership, the more likely it is to be shared on social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Given that these websites (particularly the first one) now play such pivotal roles in our everyday lives – and act as platforms for us to voice our opinions and discuss our various interests – shareable content is quite frankly invaluable.
Twitter is so important because of how visible a tweet can become within seconds when it receives a number of retweets. People who don’t follow you become aware of what you have to say – people who’ve never seen you before, on the internet or in real life. The power of Twitter as a sharing platform is arguably unrivalled when it comes to social media websites, which is why maximising it is so essential. However, no-one’s going to retweet your link to your article (or your website) if it doesn’t say anything or contain any useful information.
The most shareable content tends to also be the most original. No matter how well-written it is, if it’s just a rehash of a few similar articles that say the same thing, its shareability will always be quite limited. People like to be told things they don’t already know. Think about it – when you tell someone a secret or divulge some little-known information, what’s the first thing a lot of them will do? They’ll go and tell someone else. That’s what the retweet button allows them to do in effect, and it’s definitely one of the main reasons people retweet – they want to be the one who delivers that new information to others.
Though Twitter is particularly great for sharing, the other social networks mentioned also act as good platforms. On Facebook for example, when a friend ‘likes’ a link or article you’ve posted, their friends will be notified of this in the news column on the right hand side of the page.
Due to longform content’s heightened level of detail in comparison to shortform, the likelihood is that it’ll be more insightful as a result. Longform is like an expansive and articulate interviewee, whilst shortform is the abrupt and unconvincing one. By no means should any of the content you write contain ‘waffle’ or needless padding to make up the word count, but it shouldn’t be noticeably brief either – this can quite easily be mistaken for a loss for words and an ultimate lack of knowledge, which won’t represent the website or its company well.
Though sharing something on social media websites takes less than ten seconds, it takes a lot for someone to make the effort. Well-written content which is genuinely and informative can make all the difference, and though it obviously takes more time and effort to write from a content marketer’s perspective, its success can be far higher because of that.
SEO
The idea of content marketing is to convey to website visitors that the one they’re looking at belongs to a company who know what they’re talking about. You have to convince Google of that as well though.
Longform content is proven to rank higher in Google results than shortform – this is now quite well-documented. It doesn’t seem like that’s going to change either. Quite simply, a well-written piece of longform content will contain a lot more keywords and phrases than a well-written piece of shortform content – this makes perfect sense.
A lot of content writers have had to adjust their approach to writing as a result of this – it involves both more writing and more research, but one 2000-word blog a week is better than a 400-word one every day. The job now involves more learning about the subject and less semi-detailed regurgitation of what’s already been said about it. Content writers – successful ones anyway – now really do have to become authorities on the topics and sectors they write about.
It’s definitely true that websites with regularly updated content fare better in regards to SEO, but one which uploads a single 2000-word blog a week will still do better than one which adds a 400-word blog each day. Every time you update your content, Google re-evaluates your cache, and so the more relevant information (and thereby keywords), the more your ranking will improve.
Ending note
If you’re a content marketer who’s trying to convince a reluctant boss to convert to longform content, hopefully this blog post will demonstrate to them the importance of it. Longform is only going to get more popular – it’s not going to go away anytime soon.
If you can’t provide your clients with longform content, your competitors will. The effort involved in transforming your content marketing department into a longform one (or at least a longform-friendly one) is undoubtedly crucial to your success over the next few immediate years – and thereby in the future as well.
Do you agree with the points made in this blog piece or have any additional thoughts on the future of content marketing? We’d be very interested to know what our readers think of longform content itself, so if you’d like to leave a comment in the section below, go right ahead.