One of the main questions riddling B2B marketers is: how long should an article or blog be? Being a marketer, it’s critical to know what works and what doesn’t, and that changes from case to case. The goal is to capture and keep their interest, with the goal of leaving them wanting to know more about a topic – as that creates the lure for personal engagement. If you can get your message across in fewer words, then it’s obvious you go with short-form. If your reader needs in-depth explanation, you have to use long-form.
But what is the difference between short and long form content? A good rule of thumb is word count, and 1000 words is the tipping point. The average long-form article would be 1000–1500 words long-form content, whereas anything between 600 and 1000 would be a decent short-form piece. Usually, pieces shorter than 600 words are not so popular, unless that text is supplementing a video or infographic content items.
Advantages
Short-form
In discussing the success of successful social media engagement, Social media marketing expert Mark Schaefer says, ‘There’s a definite trend towards small. If we can’t get big chunks of contents through a limited “pipeline” of brain cells, maybe we can get grains of sand through.’
Short attention spans: The first and obvious reason for using short-form is to cater to the relatively short attention span of readers nowadays. Ever noticed that you are limited to a fixed number of characters on social media websites like Twitter and Instagram? These sites have billions of readers and the same number of people trying to say something. You’re more likely to get someone’s attention, with engaging and action-oriented content.. The short-form items can and must inspire them to take action – to explore your long-form items.
Quick turnaround: Applying the same logic to the creator of the piece, short-form takes up less time to produce. That doesn’t mean they don’t require research; just that you’re writing down fewer words – and paying for fewer words if you’re outsourcing.
Fast-tracked results: Short-form helps you make an instant connection with your potential customer. Consider it your first impression. As Jakob Nielsen, computer expert and co-founder of Nielsen Norman Group, astutely points out, ‘How do users read on the web? They don’t. … they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences.’ So the choice of topics, phrases, and tone must all grab your intended audience’s attention immediately!
Consistency and frequency: You can actively engage with your audience on a regular basis. Since it is less time-consuming to create, you can publish more frequently that show you are constantly sharing unique perspectives on current topics. This engagement helps you remain relevant in the reader’s mind so that they don’t forget you. And the anticipation for your next article ensures a steady readership.
Device friendly: Due to its short length, short-form pieces are easy to read on mobiles and tablets. Mobile phones basically run people’s lives now, so meeting them on this tool is critical!
Easier to share and engage: Short pieces take less time to read, so a person can read and share, let’s say, two or three short-form pieces in the time they’d take to read one long-form piece. Their to-the-point nature is easier to relate to when you’re on the go.
Long form
‘Longer posts usually perform better on every level.’
– Neil Patel, co-founder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar and KISSmetrics, whose clients include Amazon, NBC, GM, HP and Viacom.
Rank higher in search engines: We all know how there’s a saturation in content marketing these days with tons of competition for eyeballs. While creating subpar content filled with key words can get more hits, is it driving business to your site? Google’s RankBrain is fixing that by focusing on quality over quantity. While length is one of Google’s many considerations to rank your article for quality, keywords are also critical.
In the words of web marketing guru Marcus Sheridan, ‘If Google has a choice to show two articles for the same keyword, which one are they going to choose: the one where readers average 45 seconds on the page or the one where readers average 4.5 minutes on the page?’
More Backlinks: If your content is well-researched and contains useful data, statistics, or infographics, it will get backlinks from other websites that strengthen your inbound link profile to make you prominent in your industry.
Increases attention span: If you’ve managed to produce good quality content and built a network interlinking with other websites, your audience will spend more time on your page and even come back for more, driving a steady customer base.
More credibility and authority: Well-written long-form content reflects more thought and critical analysis, resulting in automatically gaining credibility. The purpose of the long form is to educate the reader and if they leave having learned, they will start trusting you. They will also appreciate your effort and that boosts your reputation.
Less competition: For the same reason as above, everyone won’t just jump into creating a long-form piece. Factoring in time, effort and even money, it’s a bigger investment. If you’ve nailed this down, you can use this to your advantage because many marketers would at first shy away from getting into long-form.
Hit on social: A collaborative study by BuzzSumo revealed that long-form gets shared more than short-form.
Articles that were 3,000-10,000 words long get the most average shares (8,859), even though there are 16 times more short form content available (less than 1000) words.
Disadvantages
Short form
No depth: Understandably, short-form content does not offer much detail or insight. That’s why they could be perceived as superficial or shallow. That’s why you have to know at what stage to use this. If you’re trying to hook a customer, this works. At a later stage when they need more information, short-form won’t cut it. It is also not your go-to option for topics that have statistics and graphs because those need a lot of explaining around them.
Low website performance: When readers don’t get meaningful information from your website, they are less likely to spend time on it, leading to poor bounce rates.
Poor search-engine visibility: Short-form content suffers when it comes to search engine ranking because it doesn’t establish you as an authority in your industry. Your limited word count also hinders your content from being keyword rich unless you stuff it with key words and entirely lose out what ties them together. Plus it’s harder to form links with other channels.
Long form
Time-consuming and expensive: Long-form pieces take time and preparation to create well, which means they also cost more. If you’re doing it yourself you need to have time and thorough knowledge of the subject to create a good piece. And if you’re outsourcing, you better have the resources to afford it!
Audience attention span: It’s no secret that people have many options and little patience now. Most like to skim through things and not stay on one article for too long, unless something grabs their attention. These trends and traits are always working against your long-form piece.
Memorability: The time to produce long form assets means your publication frequency will be lower than with short-form pieces. So it’s important to have a well-planned strategy so that you do not disappear for a long time after each post. And few people would like to read 2000 words on their mobiles, which, unfortunately is where most reading is being done. So you’re likely to get bookmarked and forgotten.
The Six Questions That Help You Pick the Format
Now that you have a decent idea of what long-form and short-form means and the pros and cons of both, here’s how you can decide which one suits your purpose best. Ask yourself these six questions and you will have your answer:
- Which stage is your business or product at?
Your goal right now is to gain traction as fast as possible, and shorter stories typically work better.
Use long-form content when you’re talking about a later stage in the marketing cycle, like when you need to convince your potential buyer (after having gained their attention.) Once you are an industry heavyweight, your audience knows you, and you have the expertise and the resources to offer good quality long-form content.
- Who are you?
Find the communication approach that suits your business’s tone. It may just not be YOUR voice. Akimbo founder Seth Godin found that short blog posts work for him. That does not mean you do the same. Use the style that matches your personality, and your readers will find you authentic.
- What’s your goal?
These determine whether you need long or short form. Is your purpose engagement, discussion, industry status, shareability, traffic, search rankings? Knowing the pros and cons of both, you can decide which form to use. And you can always use both to attain goals change along the way.
- What’s your target platform?
You already know that short-form works better for mobile phone readers, while laptops, desktops and tablets are better for long-form.
- Who’s your audience?
Is it millennials trying to entertain themselves on the internet, or industry professionals seeking specific solutions? The customer’s requirement would determine the length of content they’re looking for.
- What’s your topic?
For example, if you’re writing a tell-all guide, or explaining a complex study with loads of statistical data, you need long-form. If it’s just an intro to a concept or product, a short-form that points to a long form can work better.
All in all, you end up using a combination of both as a B2B marketer. The ability to know what to use when is your secret sauce!
