Content marketing isn't simple! With numerous choices and limited guidance, determining content length is a major dilemma. But don't sweat it! We've outlined the benefits of long and short-form content to simplify your decision-making. Scrolling down is all it takes to make your life easier!
Content marketing is highly effective at attracting and engaging a wide audience.
Instead of pushing sales or promoting products, it pulls the audience closer and cost-effectively provides value.
The practice started fairly simply, but the options for content types, distribution strategies and even content length have become somewhat overwhelming.
media update's Joreke Kleynhans explains the key differences between bite-sized and in-depth content and how to choose between them.
How do you make the choice?
A few factors influence the decision between bite-sized and in-depth content. Here are a few questions a marketer should consider to help them decide:
- What are the goals and objectives of the content marketing campaign?
- How much time does the target audience have to consume content?
- Which platforms are used most by the target audience?
- Is this content trendy or evergreen?
Bite-sized content:
Short-form content is anywhere up to 1200 written words or 90 seconds of video footage. The common denominator is that there isn't much explaining of complicated information and that the message is quick to absorb.
It's mostly used to increase brand awareness and it's easily accessible. It's meant to be shared with a large number of users and performs best on social media, like:
- Instagram
- LinkedIn, and
- TikTok.
This is where trending content gets its time to shine.
In-depth content
Longer content is anything over 1200 written words or 90 seconds of video footage. Regardless of content length, it conveys more complicated information and provides:
- reasoning
- explanations, and / or
- guides.
It mainly serves to improve brand authority and improve SEO.
Sometimes, the content is gated, but it's mostly free to download or watch online.
Common examples are how-to guides on YouTube and free educational e-books. You'll want to spend the effort of creating long-form content on evergreen topics to produce a higher ROI.
Which type of content do you prefer to use in marketing? Let us know in the comments section below.
*Image courtesy of Canva