I hate marketing epitaphs with a passion. Do you?
“SEO is dead. Facebook is for your grandma. No one watches ads anymore. TV advertising is irrelevant”.
No, Chad, none of these are dead. It’s just that you don’t know how to use them right or they don’t make sense for your industry.
Heck, there are still people who successfully market on MySpace!
Today, we’re covering my biggest pet peeve: “no one reads long-form content anymore so keep it as short as possible”.
Nope, not true.
I’ll tell you why — with data (!) and a case study of my client’s new homepage: a huge wall of text with no video, not catchy transitions, nada.
Where did the “long-form is dead” myth originate?
Short attention spans. Informational assaults. More tech to help us but also less time for…anything.
Take your pick — all of these can be blamed for marketers prematurely killing long-form content. Worse yet, most of them are half-true (at best) and in a correlation, not causation relationship with the decline of long-form content.
I’d argue that this demise is a self-fulfilling profecy and nothing more. One gooroo said it, 10 others acted as their voice amplifier and, voila, it’s the most trite advice everywhere.
No, people don’t have shorter attention spans! They read Tolkien and binge-watch an entire season of their favorite TV show in one sitting.
It’s just that not everyone is Tolkien or a good enough movie director to get people hooked.
People don’t skim as a modus operandi either
I’ve seen this way too often:
Write short sentences and even shorter paragraphs (yes, paragraphs can now be shorter than sentences) because people don’t read, they skim.
This is
How we ended up
Writing like this
Especially
On social media
This is…
Broetry
(that was painful to write!)
Skimming is not the new reading. People only skim to find out what’s worth reading and what’s not. So yeah, format your content properly (subheadings, bullet points, paragraphs, the occasional bold fonts to signal this is important). But broetry is unnecessary and harder to read than regular paragraphs.
Why you need long-form content
Short-form content, the kind you consume on social media, is designed to attract attention. A catchy turn of phrase, a good hook, even the occasional selfie will stop the scroll.
They will get people to pay attention to you — briefly.
However, that’s not the final goal. The final goal is to retain attention, not just to catch it.
If you can get your audience from reading a 100-word social media post to consuming your long-form emails, blog posts, or videos, you’re in the home run.
Because people who pay attention to your long-form content are more likely to convert into buyers.
If they trust you enough to give you their time, they are very likely to trust you enough with their money.
Data against gooroos: why long-form content works best across platforms
The recent Google algorithm leak revealed something that SEO experts have been suspecting for a long time: dwell time (aka how long users spend on a page) is a ranking factor.
Even if the session ends with a bounce (the user doesn’t visit another page), the Google algorithm sees that it’s useful because people spend time reading it. The more, the better.
In SEO, long-form content always ranks better (all other factors being the same).
Countless studies are pointing to the same thing: the more you write, the more relevant keywords you can add, so the better you’ll rank.
This is why I’m very happy with my average dwell time. Some pages clock in at 4+ minutes but 1+ minutes for the entire website, including short pages, like the newsletter subscription one, is excellent.
As a rule of thumb, you want 30+ seconds for your entire website and 2+ minutes for your key pages.
The same goes for YouTube videos — the longer you can retain the users’ attention, the better your video will rank.
Now let me show you my proudest moment of the year thus far:
The weirdest homepage you’ve ever seen: an 1800-word wall of text
I wrote this page for an agency client of mine. It doesn’t look like any other homepage out there.
Most homepages as ADHD triggers, with tons of shiny buttons, videos, photos, colors, and more.
This one is read it or leave it.
Do they read it?
Yes, they do. My client’s conversion rate increased by a two-digit number since we published it. In XaaS, this is huge.
The page is relatively new, so it’s not indexed yet. Still, it sparked interest and tangible results:
- Dozens of emails from LinkedIn contacts
- Investor interest (!)
- Social media conversations galore.
And it’s not even a month old.
Why it works
First and foremost, because it’s different. Since it’s not the usual drivel you see on homepages, people are curious. The word “sucks” at the very beginning helps, too.
So they keep reading.
Also, it’s very honest and transparent. Zero claims of being the best, just an honest account of a 15-year journey in the industry.
You don’t need a clickbait-y hook and short-form broerty to stop the scroll and increase dwell time. You need good, transparent content, irrespective of length.
Anything else is a hack. And hacks never work in the long run.
Should you change your homepage to a huge wall of text?
I admit I’ve been tempted. My client wanted this format because they knew that their story + my edgy storytelling chops = an excellent match for a manifesto.
Of course, I thought I could replicate this for myself. I still might, the jury is not out yet.
It doesn’t mean that it works for everyone though.
See, my client is an industry leader, an iPaaS veteran who actually shaped this industry. They can afford to be edgy, use “sucks” in the page title, and say “screw best practices, we’ll write our own rules. We’ve done it before.”
Side note: the Cazoomi team is also very, very bold. There’s nothing I’ve suggested that they were unwilling to try out — and we’ve been working together for 7 years. You need a sizeable set of cohones to even consider experiments like this.
The truth is not every homepage needs to be disruptive or long-form. If you’re relatively new in your industry, you’re better off with a regular homepage that acts as an intro for your brand.
If your business relies on visuals more than information, you’re better off with a regular homepage too.
Whatever you sell, though, you need long-form content somewhere.
Whether it’s your homepage, your blog, your YouTube channel, or your emails — you need a way to retain the attention you captured. You need to give people a chance to get to know you, your philosophy, your values.
Oftentimes, it’s not the outcome that gets people to buy or to choose one service provider instead of another — especially in consulting. It’s reputation and how well your values align with theirs.
Do you sound like someone I’d enjoy having a glass of wine with? If so, I’ll be more inclined to buy from you than from someone with a completely different set of values.
Please don’t listen to the gooroos. Long-form works and it always will!
It’s been a while since I had this much fun on a podcast. I recently recorded this gem with Toni Tanner Scott. We talked about creators vs business owners, how long success takes, and…how weird and cutthroat this industry is.
That’s it from me today!
See you next week in your inbox.
Here to make you think,
Adriana
Need me in your corner? There are three ways I can help you:
- Boost your chances of success by 400%: document your strategy with The Guided Strategy Template.
- Get my product launch email templates that sell: 5+1 emails you can send to your list in 45 seconds.
- Book a 1:1 strategy session with me. Let’s unlock your growth in 60 mins!
