Imagine yourself in the shoes of an entrepreneur who is clueless about the future. You have started a venture, but saving for the mortgages keeps you awake at night. The fear of not being able to meet the ends is quite valid.
Suddenly, a friend shares an article listing all the solutions you could opt for. It sheds light on every little detail, urging you to take the proper steps. By the time you are done reading, you can’t help but trust the authors who wrote the guide.
This is exactly why we want you to explore the potential of long-form content.
Long-form content gets you online visibility, proves your authority, and endorses your industry expertise. It is one of the fundamental requirements if your business is going through a digital transformation phase.
However, it makes sense why many marketers rule against long-form content. They believe it wastes their resources as only a minimal percentage of the audience is interested in scanning lengthy posts.
In recent years, data has shown its efficiency. Crafting long content, such as ebooks, blogs, and white papers, can consume more time and effort than the small content chunks.
Yes, they require greater creativity and depth, but the results are mind-blowing!
5 Benefits of Long-Form Content
According to HubSpot, articles with a word count between 2250 and 2500 earn the most organic traffic. It also discovered that the articles beyond 2500 word count get shared most on social media. This happens because the content packs enormous value in one piece.
A few other perks tagging along with long-form content are:
1. Boosts Brand Visibility
When you publish detailed content on your website, it helps take your SEO to a whole new level.
Naturally, it will take visitors to spend long time-consuming details as they cover all the nooks and crannies of the subject. The more they dwell on your pages, the more SEO boxes your site checks. Consequently, Google sends more traffic your way because your content looks engaging and entertaining.
2. Generates Authority for the Brand
Pouring your resources into research and creation of long-form content establishes your authority. It enables you to share your insights and knowledge with the audience looking for value.
Then comes the point when people start looking up to you for solutions. When they have a question on any subject, they will knock at your door. And this is a giant leap toward an increased conversion rate
3. Create a Market for Your Product
Being subtle is the secret ingredient of a successful marketing strategy. If your content is constantly talking about the advantages of your product/service, it could be a major turn-off for the visitors.
Fortunately, long-form content allows you to create valuable posts that align with users’ intent. Alongside, you can squeeze in some space to grab users’ attention to the benefits your product offers.
The trick ensures that your pitch doesn’t look stuffed in and appears a logical continuation of the topic. It provides relevant information yet manages to market the product/service without being too “pushy.”
4. Increase in Social Media Shares
Long-form content is the gold mine for social media. The longer the content, the more opportunities you get for serving your audience and meeting their needs. As per OkDork, long-form content gets shared more than short-form content.
It gives you the chance to create ample amounts of short, snappy, and intriguing posts. All you need is to learn the art of breaking in-depth content into attention-grabbing, digestible chunks that perform well on social media.
5. More Time Spent on Website
If the content is genuinely helpful and engaging, you will notice a spike in time spent by the site visitors. Plus, having more content pages means that page views will also increase. And prospects are less likely to bounce.
Over time, you will be creating a community of like-minded people who want to talk about the same topics. Your website will become a source of quality information where people would love to spend their time.
How to Create Long-Form Content?
After reading about the potential of long-form content, we are positive that you are all set to jump into the game. Check out the following strategies you must implement in your content plan:
1. Pick the Right Topic
One of the best ways to achieve results is to create optimized content for the target audience. For starters, you should:
- Check metrics to see which posts have performed well in the past
- Talk to experts on your team who know your customers and their pain points
- Use Google Trends for further brainstorming sessions
The next step is to evaluate your website and find the content gaps you can fill. Also, conduct thorough keyword research to understand what people are looking for. The best part about detailed content is its allowance for long-tail keywords. You can naturally place these descriptive phrases in the content to catch more prospects. Discover all the relevant keywords to curate a list of topics.
2. Don’t Suppress the Details
Information is an element that brings life to content. When crafting detailed content, you should leave no stones unturned to enrich the posts with helpful information.
This will require you to conduct in-depth research. Further, don’t hesitate to go out there and ask your prospects about their perceptions. Note that the quality long form content combines the information collected through primary and secondary sources. This combo will broaden your horizon and provide you with the direction you should take.
Also remember that detailed, helpful, and enriched posts will generate organic traffic without excessive marketing expenditure
3. Create Engaging Posts
As you are trying to make your content valuable, don’t forget to do everything in your power to enhance the engagement factors. This will require you to:
- Be attentive to your writing style. Ensure its readability, clarity, and delivery.
- Use results from online behavior analysis to understand how visitors interact with the content. Generally, bullet points and short paragraphs allow for a delightful reading experience because they break text to avoid monotony.
- Add original photos or purchase images online to make aesthetically-pleasing posts.
- Place Calls-to-Action (CTA) buttons strategically. Make sure that they stand out in terms of placement and design. This CTA should be relevant to the topic and powerful enough to pull visitors into the buyers’ funnel.
The longer a visitor stays on a page, the more likely they will look at the CTA and click on it. Ensure that all factors are covered when you create content, and it is enriched with visuals to keep the readers hooked.
4. Try Various Content Formats
As you are trying to figure out ways to create a winning content strategy, you shouldn’t forget different formats. Broaden your scope with several content modes to keep the audience interested and compel them to return.
A couple of alternatives to standard blog posts are:
Step-by-step guides
Write a how-to guide supplemented with multimedia to resolve issues.
Case studies
People tend to trust case studies. You can utilize them for presenting new information to your audience.
Images are also one of the best ways to get more organic traffic and leads. Ensure all the images have Titles and ALT tags including keywords, giving an alternative description for an existing graphic. Google has separate tabs for discovering only images for unique queries.
Well optimised images open the door for them to appear in the top ranking on your targeted keywords and increase your website’s chances of getting more visits.
Final Words
We cannot overlook the versatile benefits of long-form content. The key is to ensure it makes sense, delivers value, and compels the readers to visit again.
Keep in mind – filling it with fluff won’t help!
Pick a topic that allows you to dive into extensive details, craft a plan for delivering this information, and understand how the subject can serve your business. Once you strike the right cords, your website will move up the ranks like a champ!
