Every type of content can be beneficial in some way or another, especially when you consider how different demographics consume it. For example, a short, fun skit on Instagram can appeal to teenagers and young adults, and an online seminar may appeal to people in academia. But what about long-form content?
Long-form content is just as it sounds. It’s long content that takes time and effort to consume but pays off in the end. It refers to in-depth pieces that aim to educate the reader or show a different perspective on a topic. But is long-form content right for your business? What does it take for something to be deemed as “long form”?
We’ll talk about what you need to know about long-form content, from examples to benefits, as well as how BURG+CO.’s content marketing can help you with long-form content creation.
What counts as long-form content?
Long-form content seems like a pretty general term. For instance, children think that any car ride over 15 minutes is long. For people who read thick fantasy books every week, they may deem anything shorter than 450 pages to be a “quick read.” But when it comes to marketing, there are some requirements that deem something as long-form content.
Long-form content can be written, visual or audio. It’s essentially anything that takes the user time to learn intensive detail and insight.
It’s been the industry standard that written content that has 1,000 or more words is long form, though some may say that it leans closer to the 1,500 word count. Common examples of long-form content include:
- Blog posts
- Articles
- E-books
- Guides
Long-form video or audio content tends to be anything that’s longer than 10 minutes, including:
- Lengthy YouTube videos
- Webinars
- Audio podcast
- Video podcasts
Benefits of long-form content
Content plays a pivotal role in your marketing strategy, so it’s important that you’re utilizing the right format. That means understanding when you should create short videos and informational snippets, and when it’s worth putting in the time and effort for long-form content.
An interesting fact is that engaging with long-form content on a consistent basis is known to improve memory retention as well as the cognitive skills of the user. So not only are you helping them by providing insight about a topic that links back to your business, but you’re also boosting their overall skillset. By consistently creating long-form content, you’re helping them beyond their role as your customer.
The goal of any content is to boost engagement, organic traffic and conversion rates to acquire and retain customers. So why is long-form content worth testing out? Here are a few benefits that it can provide:
- Showcasing your expertise to build authority for search engine optimization (SEO)
- Tendency to rank higher than short-form content on search engines
- Greater opportunity for context to show relevancy for keywords
- Allowing you to dive deep into a topic, as broad content isn’t often effective
- Increasing the amount of time spent on site with low bounce rates
- Giving you the room to show personality for deeper engagement and brand awareness
- Increasing likelihood of backlinks, as it generates 77.2% more backlinks than short-form content
- Reformatting options for different distribution channels, such as turning an infographic into a blog post
Long-form content works best for:
- Discussing niche topics
- Interviews with thought leaders in your industry
- Storytelling content
At BURG+CO., our content marketing services embrace every type of content. We’ll collaborate with your team to determine what type of long-form content will work best for your demographic, industry and overall marketing goals. We specialize in long-form blog articles that can also be coupled with other elements, such as videos.
Want to attract new visitors to your website with long-form content? BURG+CO. can help
Increasing traffic to your website plays a role in increasing conversions and leading to new clients. However, it’s difficult to attract visitors to your site when you don’t know what to do. Fortunately, this is what we specialize in at BURG+CO.
Our team has years of experience in helping businesses improve their digital presence to attract new leads and retain existing ones. If you’re looking to perform better in search engine results and attract more visitors to your site, we’re ready to talk to you to see how we can help. Contact our team today for more information about digital marketing or to schedule a complimentary consultation.
