Why Is Long-Form Content Vital For Your Marketing Strategy?
Nowadays, people tend to look online for answers to almost every question they have. Some of the questions may be answered with a short paragraph, while others demand a more delicate approach. This opens the opportunity for you to gain their valuable attention to your website and increase your authority over an industry-related subject with long-form content.
Long-form content is the key to unlocking this opportunity. By implementing long-form articles in your marketing strategy, you increase your chances of benefiting in terms of lead generation, SEO, and consequently, revenue. In this article, we discuss further the benefits of long-form content in your overall marketing strategy.
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What Is Long-Form Content?
If you are not familiar with content marketing, then you might be wondering what long-form content means. As a definition, long-form content is a written article of 2000 or more words. The amount of words is debatable but, for the purposes of this article, we will keep this definition.
This type of content can be in several formats. Some of the most common ones are the following:
This is the most commonly found type of content in long-form journalism. It is a written article form that consists of over 2000 words. In general, long articles cover a subject extensively and give value to the readers.
Another type of “long” content is a pillar page. As pillar pages we can define the long articles that cover a subject extensively. However, the difference between a pillar page and an article is the multiple URLs and the clickable table of contents on the side.
A splendid example of a pillar page can take the form of a buyer’s guide. Feel free to take a look at our own onboarding software guide to have a more precise look at pillar pages and their format. Looking for a more fancy example of a pillar page? Then you might like to check out our eBook marketing guide!
We often see eBooks as gated assets. In general, lead generation eBooks offer an excellent key to gathering important information about your potential leads and provide value to your community. Additionally, if they are in an online form that does not require a download, then they can be considered as long-form written content to operate as a keyword bank for your SEO initiatives.
As human beings, we are “designed” to sympathize with something familiar to us. This is what the power of case studies lies upon. Showcasing the struggles and the success of your happy clients can attract new customers to your company. Also, happy clients can share the case study and increase your brand awareness as well!
What Are The Differences Between Long-Form and Short-Form Written Content?
Since we are defining the necessity of long-form content in a marketing strategy, it is wise to refer to short written content as well. There are differences between the two types regarding the format and their use. When it comes to the format differences, we should mention the number of words. In general, a short-form article is an article of fewer than 2000 words. This type of written content gets the attention of the audience but it does not keep it for long. They are useful for providing information fast and describing a subject briefly.
In general, some characteristics of short-form content are the following:
- Under 2000 words
- Provides information to your audience fast
- Offers an overall description of the subject
- Useful to an audience that is looking for a quick answer
On the contrary, long-form writing falls under the umbrella of “the more, the merrier.” It certainly contains more words than the short version but attracts readers for a more extensive time. Furthermore, by increasing the number of keywords, you enhance your ranking opportunities in terms of SEO success. In the meantime, reading such content requires time from the user. Hence, long articles increase the time on site as well.
Overall, long-form articles contain the following :
- Over 2000 words
- Dive deeper into a subject
- Work like a “keyword bank” for your SEO strategy and initiatives
- Useful to audiences that are looking for an in-depth answer
Benefits Of Long-Form Content In Your Marketing Strategy
Since we have already defined long-form content and compared it to its competitor, it is wise to state in this section the benefits for your overall marketing strategy. In general, multiple areas of your marketing plan can benefit from long-form articles. Its format unlocks opportunities in SEO marketing, social media, content marketing, and lead generation. Since these sound like a lot to digest, let’s divide them into categories and move on to a proper presentation.
So, long-form content benefits your marketing strategy in several ways.
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Increasing Your Rankings By Focusing On More Keywords
Even though it sounds self-explanatory, we should state that the more words in your article, the more keywords you will eventually rank for. Of course, in order to rank high on these keywords, you have to make your content SEO-friendly and target the right valuable keywords for your industry.
An ideal situation would be to cover an important debatable topic in your industry. With the use of long-form content, you can cover it extensively and target a large number of industry-related keywords. This also helps search engines to understand that your article is related to the topic you want to cover.
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Improving Your Thought Leadership
There is nothing better than explaining a subject to showcase your expertise. When your potential leads search for an answer online, you want to be in the competition of providing the answer. Moreover, if the topic is considered to be “difficult,” then a short article will not suffice. By implementing long-form articles in your content marketing strategy, you can showcase your knowledge on the subject. This will increase your thought leadership, increase your returning visitors, and eventually, assist your lead generation campaigns.
Picture yourself as an ambitious college student who has an important question. You start asking your professors about it but almost all of them provide a short answer. One of the professors asks you to sit down and offers their valuable time to explain their answer thoroughly to you. After that, you leave their office satisfied and wiser. If a new question comes up, wouldn’t you return to this professor instead of others looking for answers?
This is why long-form content creates a feeling of trust in your community. If your readers find your answer satisfying, they will trust you in the next time of need. Moreover, your potential leads value the time and effort you make to assist them. Consequently, they return this value in the form of leads and conversions.
Another major benefit of long-form content is increased shareability. Several marketing researches have proven that written content of more than 2000 words is more likely to be shared on social media. This derives from the trust you build with your audience by providing them with insightful knowledge. Moreover, there is a connection between social media and SEO. In general, there are multiple ways in which social media improve your SEO rankings.
Therefore, consider implementing long-form content in your brand awareness campaigns as well. Such content can help build engagement in your social media since it often offers “food for thought.”
Yes, we live in a fast-paced world in which knowledge hoarding has to be fast. However, when someone is highly interested in the subject, they are willing to take the necessary time to read about it. That said, long written articles increase the time on-site as well. Additionally, indirectly, an interesting long-form content piece can make the audience read other posts of your blog as well.
Increased time on-site unlocks multiple opportunities for lead generation. Once you grab the attention of your reader, you can implement the right CTAs, pop-up banners, or email subscription options to gather the valuable information they can provide. Consider measuring time on-site by performing an in-depth technical SEO audit.
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Unlocking Link Building Opportunities
So, how can long-form content provide you with backlinks? Well, let’s imagine that your freshly-made article of 2000 words covers a topic extensively. This article opens many spaces for people to have written similar posts on some of the aspects you cover. Therefore, the more aspects of a topic you cover, the more likely it is that you get backlink requests from other websites.
As all SEO specialists know, backlinks are vital for organic traffic. Acquiring quality backlinks from websites with relatively high Domain Rating can provide fruitful benefits to your business. It will increase not only your Domain Rating but also your rankings on keywords, and eventually your organic traffic. Combining long-form content implementation with the right link building service can assist you in multiple aspects of your marketing strategy.
Conclusion
To recap, long-form content is vital for your marketing strategy. Such content can take multiple forms and provide you with different fruitful benefits. To define, it can boost your SEO initiatives by targeting a large number of industry-related keywords and uncover link building opportunities. Moreover, it increases time spent on-site and creates the space for valuable CTAs to support your lead generation initiatives. Lastly, long-form content builds trusting relationships with your potential customers and helps social sharing to support your brand awareness.
Hopefully, we have uncovered more than the “peak of the iceberg” regarding the benefits of long-form content in your marketing strategy. In general, insightful writing creates value for your audience, who return it in multiple ways.
If you are in the eLearning business and you are interested in generating leads with content, feel free to check our own 360 Inbound Marketing Solution. This is our way of helping eLearning businesses to fill up their marketing funnels and generate highly targeted leads.
