According to William Shakespeare, “brevity is the soul of wit.” However, you may want to look in the opposite direction when it comes to content marketing.
While the cyber realm is full of brief and over-the-surface content, long-form content can help you cater to the appetites of those who are looking for genuine value. Also, an in-depth and comprehensive piece is an effective way to engage your target audience for longer and build a loyal following.
In this guide, you will learn why you should rely on long-form content. Furthermore, we will shed light on some tricks and tips to help you upscale your long-form content to maximize its benefits.
What Is Long-Form Content?
There are a lot of differences regarding the word count of the content for it to qualify as long-form. While some regard a post with more than 4,000 words as long-form, others have set the benchmark at around 2000 words.
To remove this confusion, let’s shift the focus from the word limit to the availability of in-depth and quality information to the readers.
For a post to be credited as long-form, we can define it as content that is well-rounded and thorough. It should also explore the topic from all possible angles and offer valuable knowledge to the audience.
Why Should You Rely on Long Form Content?
Many industries rely on long-form content to improve their SEO rankings and optimize lead generation. At the same time, businesses leverage the power of extra words to showcase their expertise in particular niches.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. There is more to long-form content and its benefits. As promised earlier, I will discuss these benefits, demonstrating why you should focus your strategies on long-form content.
- Long-Form Content Enhances Your SEO Ranking
We all agree that Search Engine Optimization is helpful for online brand marketing. Securing a top SEO ranking is essential if you want to promote your brand on the web and increase its online visibility.
Using long-form content, you can plan a strategy that includes a range of SEO-friendly tactics. For example, you can accommodate your target keywords as much as you want in a long how-to guide or a whitepaper without risking keyword stuffing.
A long-form article like an ebook or case study also offers more space to incorporate visual elements, which helps improve the readability of the content. Not only that, but you can also reinforce your SEO strategy by coupling it with a great image optimization plan.
- It Offers More Value to Readers
Another positive aspect of long-form content is that it rewards readers with more than they expect. Sometimes, there are sides to a problem that cannot be “explained” in a limited number of words. Comprehensive and insightful articles can cover these details beyond the scope of short-form content.
This depth and detail help generate more value and ensure a better readership. Furthermore, long-form content also encourages more and longer engagement on your platform.
- Long-Form Content Boosts Social Media Sharing And Backlinks
Inbound links are a beneficial way to increase your content’s visibility on the internet. These links can be better accommodated in a longer article and bring in more traffic to your platform. Ultimately, it will increase the chances of conversions.
Regarding social media shares, an analysis of the top 10% of most shared articles revealed that comprehensive articles get shared more on social media than their counterparts. Also, because an in-depth article contains more knowledge and information, the likelihood of it being shared by people on social media subsequently increases.
- Long-Form Content Helps Showcase Your Expertise
By sharing your knowledge and ideas through long-form content, you can surely create the impression of an expert in your niche. This can definitely not be done through a short document or a brief social post.
For example, if you sell your marketing services, you can start a blog about the industry and offer your expertise through long-form articles. The thoughtful information you provide your readers will make them hold your opinion in high regard. This will help improve your trustworthiness and reputation as an authority in the marketing niche.
Consequently, after reading about your prowess in the field, people will support your business and even recommend it in their social circle.
- It Plumps Up Your Conversion Rates
When it comes to online branding, it all comes down to whether a strategy can increase your conversion rates or not.
Well, long-form content can surely do that in several ways. For example, a prominent call-to-action (CTA) is a great way to engage readers and boost your conversions. With the larger expanse that comes with long-form content, you can strategically put your CTAs at multiple places to take your readers directly toward the desired action.
This increases the number of leads, and consequently, the chance of their conversions is also multiplied.
How to Create Winning Long-Form Content?
While creating long-form content is not rocket science, it sure does require some effort. You can keep the following guidelines in mind while producing long-form content for your business:
1. Specify Your Goals
Your goals will ultimately decide how you should plan your long-form content. If you are looking to bolster your social media presence, you can work on creating infographics or writing informative blogs. If it is a lead generation that you want to attain through long-form content, whitepapers or ebooks are a sure way to do that.
These goals will not only decide what format you should take to achieve them, but they will also give you a scale to measure the success of your plan.
2. Define A Topic
A careful analysis of what your competitors are doing and what your customers are looking for will help you decide on a topic that you can work on. Your topic will then help you determine your target keywords – one of the essential ingredients of successful long-form content.
You can look for the most searched queries and keywords using tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs to finalize a topic that will be worth reading. You can also analyze your existing content and see which topics worked best for you before.
3. Consider Appearance And Design
A critical part of long-form content that is often ignored is its appearance. The design is just as important as the content, if not more. And by design, I don’t mean pretty details and color combinations.
Your long-form content should be designed to increase engagement and onsite activity. More backlinks, CTAs, sign-up forms, and social media share buttons are some of the critical features of long-form content that need to be placed strategically throughout the page.
When you talk about appearance and design, images cannot be taken lightly. They break down huge blocks of text, offer more meaning, and add aesthetic value to your content.
There are plenty of options available for adding visuals. You can use original images taken specifically for your project. But if that is not something within your capability, you can always head to a legit stock image website and buy visual assets to include in your long-form content.
5. Don’t Forget Promotion
You don’t think that merely publishing your content online will magically make it go viral, do you? If long-form content is something you’re planning to do more often, you must have a carefully planned promotion strategy.
There are several ways you can promote your long-form content. You could start by making some paid ads or launching a smart email campaign. Another way to attract viewers would be by offering giveaways or freebies.
The impact of influencers is also something that you can leverage to promote your content. Whatever you choose depends on your budget and the nature of your business.
Conclusion
Getting the desired results from your long-form content is not an overnight endeavor. It takes a lot of time and experimenting with different strategies to actually see the effects that you want. So give long-form articles a try and enjoy the results. You will not be disappointed. Good luck!