5 Reasons Long Form Content Is Essential for Inbound Marketing

Shakespeare once wrote, “ Brevity is the soul of wit” and while his advice rings true, wit will only get a marketer so far. Long form content is essential for inbound marketing in order to attract the right leads to your business and turn them into customers. Well-researched, relevant premium content is what establishes a brand as a thought leader and credible source of valued information.

According to CopyPress, the average word count of top-ranked searches is 2,416 words. The solution then, would not only be to determine the right medium for the information you’re conveying, but to stop shying away from the long form format when it comes to marketing. Here are five solid reasons why long form content works:

Substance

Long form content gives you a chance to show off technical prowess and offer your leads something substantial to digest. From a performance standpoint, long form content outperforms its shorter counterpart because of the value of what’s being offered. Not only will leads be more apt to submit forms on gated content for substantial information within, they will be more likely to provide additional information beyond the standard contact questions. This then helps you to bolster segmentation and offer more optimized email automation.

Authority

Google continually works to improve the algorithms and ranking signals associated with matching relevant content to user search queries. Generally speaking, keyword-rich long form content makes a site rank higher. Thin copy that is written for quantity and SEO will bring down your search results. Blogs written with 200-300 words begin to breach the area that Google calls “shallow content” or pages with low-quality content.

Nurture

Due to the authority of this in-depth content, long form is known to provide an increase in inbound links, bolstering SEO and solidifying credibility. Writing this type of content helps put a marketer into the shoes of their audience. What would I want to learn here? What problem would I have that this content provides a solution for? What need would I have for this information? Beyond just boosting your rank and traffic, premium content gives you a reason to nurture leads and provide them with more information.  

Impact

The detail attainable in a long form piece is unparalleled. With the proper credibility and skill, your long form writing will be more informative, persuasive and robust than any shorter showpiece content. In providing insight and actionable tips as solutions, you add clarity to the field in which you consider yourself to be an expert. Making content that resonates with your reader will leave them more satisfied with your information, and bring them back for more.

Variety

Long form content allows you to attack big ideas through a number of different mediums. Some popular examples of long form content include: Tip Sheets, Guides, eBooks, Case Studies, Long Form Videos, and Infographics. These are just a few examples of premium content pieces marketers are pushing out on a daily basis, but each represents a unique, creative way to target visitors.

Branding, external link building and quality social engagement complement the inbound marketing that premium content offers; however, there are pitfalls that exist in the long form. In order to successfully circumvent these issues, be careful to:

• Write strong content – without this, your conversions will fail and leads won’t come back for more content. Avoid fluff and don’t ramble.
• Boost awareness of premium content on social media channels
• Nail down your personas before you start writing content. In order for it to be truly targeted content, you must know your audience.
• Make sure that the topic of your piece warrants a long form format. Sometimes a short blog post is better suited to the task.
• Tell a story, and avoid sales-oriented language. Without a narrative, content becomes tedious quickly and a sales approach will have your readers scrambling for the next page.

The time has come for marketers to stop casting surface-level content into the shallow bits of the lake — it’s high-time we attach a sinking lure and cast it out into the deep. Statistics are flowing in with some resounding truth and if you want to catch the big fish when it comes to lead generation, you need to add long form content into your mix.

Pyxl blends premium content creation and custom built lead generation strategy making an amalgam that drives conversions and brings relevant content to a client’s customers. Contact us today, and ask how new content could bring your digital strategy to its highest potential.

Updated: Apr 13, 2022