Short-Form Content Vs. Long-Form Content: Which is Better For Your Business?

The Importance of Short-Form and Long-Form Content in Small Business

Content marketing has risen to the forefront of all marketing strategies. In 2016, content marketing was rated as the most effective technique by 79 percent of all B2B marketers. Many small business owners believe getting an idea across quickly may be the best way to approach digital marketing.

Is one form of content sustainable over another for specific business models to grow effectively and communicate their message to their target audience?  

Here’s what small business owners need to know about short-form and long-form content and how Vervology Content Services can assist them in developing and implementing a revenue-generating content marketing strategy.

What Is Short-Form Content?

Any content that can be used as a standalone piece, contains less than 1,000 words, and is distributed through any channel, not only through the business website or app, is considered short-form content. 

Short-form content includes video, infographics, emails, news articles, quote cards, social media posts, among other resources.  Small business owners use short-form content when it benefits the function well of their business model or current objective; or with a small inventory, where businesses sell directly to customers and can use social media to engage with potential buyers.

Short-form content is simple to produce and brings value to viewers in a short span of time, making it one of the many marketing tools available to small businesses. They offer consumers a simple method to identify with the business.

Short-form content often functions as a mesmerizing welcome to a wider range of customers who would be discouraged by nonsensical lingo and jargon, instead of a straightforward sales pitch.

In the current digital economy, search engines and social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook generate a mass amount of traffic, which makes short-form content easy to digest and consume without many overhead costs in marketing production.

What Is Long-Form Content?

Long-form content is defined as anything that is over 1,000 words long and requires time to read and digest, such as an eBook, white papers, multiple articles in specific industries, or even a video series that follows a step-by-step instruction or procedure.

In contrast to short-form content, which is purely promotional, long-form content provides a comprehensive value to small businesses. If a firm wants to build customer loyalty, short-form content can be off-putting.

Long-form content can show consumer focus for potential leads by providing them with all of the information they need to make an informed decision. Long-form content is intended to provide the impression that the small business or brand prioritized customer satisfaction over traditional marketing tactics.

Intriguing titles for long-form content capture people’s attention while also allowing the small business to convert the opportunity of those reading into potential leads. Those leads may eventually grow into customers; and, then over time, a loyal customer base is established.

Should You Use Short-Form or Long-Form Content for Your Small Business?

To maximize business goals and drive results for the brand, the business must identify what kind of content will help achieve these goals. With effective planning, small businesses can create visual assets that indicate which kind of content will accomplish business goals without losing sight of engaging users as well as potential users.  

To do this, the small business must analyze and understand its target audience.  As the small business grows, experimenting with new types of content may help—but they must not forget to measure analytics and test what resonates most with their audience.

For example, short-form content is best for a small eCommerce business with little inventory that could use short-form content on social media to boost sales for a new product line.  Consumers who purchase merchandise or services online typically do not place much thought into the value of what they purchase; they only see what they want at the time, which is perfect to capitalize on using short-form content to enhance their desire.

Long-term content is ideal for considerably larger expenditure and overall average quantities of product, a B2B development platform can likely grow using a more extensive conversion process where a market must be reviewed and analyzed regularly through instructive and relevant data that indicates which content is best for larger-scaled businesses.

Both short-form and long-form content may need to be incorporated in conjunction as part of a larger content marketing strategy to promote brand awareness, appeal marketing techniques to the ideal potential customers, and generate greater sales by establishing a loyal base of customers.

How Vervology Content Services Can Help Your Small Business

Vervology Content Services collaborates with small businesses to implement strategic and sustainable solutions using ideal content creation through creative copywriting, unique short-form and long-form content design, and SEO techniques that leverage a company’s existing online footprint to propel businesses forward. 

Vervology Content Services establishes connections with partners, small businesses, and individuals to assists in the development process of a customized content marketing strategy for increasing their content visibility before launching a full-scale content marketing campaign.  

Vervology assists in the production of everything from social media posts to visual assets such as graphics and other multimedia in attempts to provide small businesses with instructions on how to capitalize on online trends that will help them create engaging content that is relevant to their target audience.

Schedule a free consultation with one of our experts today to see how Vervology can transform your small business.