Why You Should Care About Short-Form Content
For the longest time, marketers held firmly onto the belief that long-form content is king. Anything less than 2,000 words are considered null, and if your goal is to rank high on search engines, your content should push well above that figure. Does this mean that short-form content has no place in today’s world?
No. In fact, short-form content is more relevant than ever thanks to the rise of Instagram Reels, TikTok & YouTube Shorts, and other similar content creation tools. As our attention spans continue to decrease, more and more people favor short-form content as their means of consuming information.
If you haven’t used short-form content as part of your content marketing strategy, you’re missing out on some serious brand engagement. This article will discuss why you should care about short-form content and how it can benefit you in more ways than one.
Why do you need to create short-form content?
There are plenty of advantages to creating short-form content that will help elevate your brand’s content marketing strategy. Here are a couple of reasons why short-form content works:
1. Conveys information quickly
We live in an increasingly fast-paced world, and being able to convey information quickly is key to staying at the top of your audience’s minds. Short-form content is easily digestible, and people will find great value in content that skips through all the hoo-ha and gets straight to the point.
Often, users want to seek immediate answers to their problems. Whether it’s figuring out how your product works or learning more about the services you provide, short-form content can help meet your audience’s needs quickly and efficiently.
2. Boost engagement rates
Short-form videos are taking over social media platforms by storm, and the main reason is they provide bite-sized entertainment. Brands love to use TikTok Shorts and Instagram Reels to boost brand awareness and maximize engagement, and the best part is these short clips have the potential to go viral at any time.
By creating short clips that pack tons of information, brands can connect with their audience in a more fun, lighthearted manner. People love to watch videos as they’re more interactive than written content, making it easier to stay on top of the minds of your target audience.
3. Shorter turnaround time
One of the main advantages of short-form content is it’s easier to produce, meaning it’s less resource-demanding compared to long-form blogs, videos, or newsletters. Of course, your focus should be to provide quality short-form content, as outputting poor content regularly can hamper the effectiveness of your content marketing.
4. Great for mobile devices
Roughly 89% of people in the United States use mobile devices to browse the internet in 2023. How does this affect brands when it comes to their content marketing strategy? Well, short-form content is more optimized for mobile devices since there’s less information to convey.
Since most people prefer to digest content using their smartphones, short-form content is great for delivering quick, impactful messages to your target audience.
5. Drives immediate action from users
The beauty of short-form content is that it’s easier for users to take action once they’ve digested the information they need. When you pair short-form content with a strong call-to-action button (CTA), you can quickly encourage users to subscribe to your email list, check out your latest offers, and purchase your products/services.
When should you use short-form content?
When creating a content marketing strategy, you want to find the perfect balance between using long-form and short-form content. In reality, most marketers will use a combination of both to ensure online visibility and drive maximum engagement. If you’re unsure when to incorporate short-form content, consider the following pointers in mind:
1. Define your goals
When creating quality content, the length should correlate with the goals you want to achieve. Long-form content works best if you want to achieve better search engine rankings because they earn more backlinks than short-form content. You can also extend the length of your content if you wish to educate your audience about a specific topic (e.g. blog posts, informative videos, etc.)
Short-form content is perfect if your goal is to engage with your audience. Since it’s easy to digest, you can drive immediate action from users through short, concise pieces. Most brands rely on short-form content to quickly spread brand awareness and communicate with their target audience.
If you want to achieve these goals, then using short-form content will serve you better than long-form content.
2. Evaluate your competition
If you’re unsure when to implement short-form content, just take a look at your competitors and see what they are doing. Are they using Instagram and TikTok Shorts to promote their products? Do they share tons of infographics that provide context to the topic they want to discuss?
By evaluating your competition, you get a good feel for which strategies may work for your brand. Try them out and add your own twist to create fresh, new content for your audience. It may take a bit of trial and error, but once you figure out the right approach to creating short-form content, you’ll be able to run away with it and enjoy immediate results.
3. Consider the needs of your audience
There’s no point in pumping out short-form content if it doesn’t meet the needs/interests of your target audience. Before you create content, you may want to consider asking the question, “What value does my audience get with this piece of content?” Doing so ensures you put out relevant content that your audience will appreciate.
For example, if they want to learn more about the products/services that you offer, you can create a short post that leads them to a lengthy blog post. Or, you can re-engage with them by tapping into your email list and sharing a short infographic to provide relevant information.
As you can see, long-form and short-form content work hand-in-hand to maximize the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy. The trick is knowing when to use them in terms of formatting the length of your posts.
In summary
While the value of long-form content will never go away, there is a time and a place to implement short-form content. In this day and age where users scroll endlessly on social media platforms, making an immediate impact is key to grabbing their attention.
Keep these tips in mind when creating short-form content to elevate your content marketing strategy and deliver value to your target audience.
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