Hey friends, happy Sunday.
I’m writing this newsletter from the cabin of a Delta flight — no, I won’t make a joke about the Delta variant. You’ll have to follow me on Twitter for that.
Today I’m going to break down my thought process when deciding whether to focus on long-form or short-form content for your business — so you can get the most out of your content strategy.
Let’s get into 3 factors you’ll want to consider.
Preference
This is the most important component of the entire discussion, and often the last considered when thinking through this yourself.
Here’s why — if you don’t enjoy the content that you’re creating, well, you’re f*cked. Consistency will be non-existent. Without consistent output, the odds of success are slim to none.
So, create your content strategy with that in mind.
If you enjoy creating short form content like TikTok’s, Reels, etc… go for it.
If you’d rather spend the extra time developing an in depth YouTube video, podcast episode, or article… go for it.
Without that foundation of enjoyment and the consistency that follows, you’ve lost the war from the start. Simple enough.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s discuss point #2.
Leverage
If you understand this, you’ll unlock significant amounts of growth with a fraction of the time commitment.
By “leverage,” I mean how much return on investment are you getting from the piece of content that you create.
For example, a TikTok video has a shelf life of a few days if you’re lucky. Remember that high school football player, “ #7” from last year? Yeah, neither do I. But, I just watched a YouTube video about how to tie a tie that’s almost a decade old.
Shelf life isn’t the only component of leverage, though. You’ll also want to consider the ability to repurpose content.
With short form, you can repurpose across platforms. The most common example of this is TikTok/Reel/YouTube Shorts repurposing. Another example would be posting a Tweet screenshot to IG, or an IG caption to LinkedIn.
With long form content, especially video, the opportunity for repurposing is even more powerful. In theory, you could:
Post a video to YouTube
Post clips from that video to IG, Twitter, TikTok
Write tweets based on the topic of the video
Strip the audio and upload it as a podcast episode
Transcribe the video and post as a blog or written social post
You get the point. In this context, long form content is the clear winner for most small businesses or creators. It allows you to extract the most amount of value out of your content for the least amount of work.
Don’t confuse this for me saying it’s “easy.” It’s not.
But if you’re gonna put all that effort in — don’t you want to maximize your ROI?
Thought so. Now, let’s move on to an often overlooked factor of this discussion…
Funnel Position
In your marketing, the goal is usually to move new audience members down a “funnel” to eventually become paying customers.
At the “top” of the funnel, people don’t have a close relationship with you or your business. They don’t know who you are, what you do — and sometimes they don’t even know they have a problem to begin with.
So, would they be a likely candidate to sit through an hour-long podcast episode? Likely not.
This is where short form content is a valuable asset. By creating compelling content that’s short and easy to consume (and posting it on the right platforms), you can attract your potential customers into your marketing funnel.
Where a lot of businesses and creators screw up, however, is ending their content creation efforts at the top of the marketing funnel. You might think that having a massive TikTok audience will bring in the big bucks — but in most cases, your best opportunity is to move them off the platform to continue to build that relationship.
This is where long form content shines. Once you have people in your ecosystem thanks to your short form content, longer podcasts/videos/articles help to deepen that relationship. They build the “know, like, and trust factor” that’s so important in consumers’ buying decisions.
They also help your customer understand that you actually know what you’re talking about. It’s a lot harder to “fake it till you make it” on an hour long podcast than it is in a 20-second TikTok video.
This is especially true in service based businesses — how many times have you hired a lawyer only because you saw them on TikTok? That may introduce you to them, but (hopefully) you’d do more research to further vet them.
On top of the skill factor, people tend to buy based on emotion. Given the option to chose between two personal trainers that are equally qualified, which would you choose? Probably the one that you vibe with better.
Now, here’s a few examples of how this looks in application. My “funnel” right now looks like this:
YouTube/Twitter —> Newsletter —> Freelancing (book a call here if you’d like)
When I was running my nutrition coaching business, my funnel looked like:
YouTube/Instagram —> Email —> Sales Call —> Coaching
Now let’s look at another, *slightly* more prominent example — Joe Rogan.
The guy runs a 3+ hour podcast. As a new listener, there’s no way in hell you’re going to sit through that entire podcast.
So, what’d he do? For a while before the Spotify deal, one of the main discovery methods for the show were YouTube clips from longer episodes. This worked because rather than commit to 3hrs, the new viewers needed to commit just 5-10 minutes. A lot more realistic, and a lot less friction. Make it easy for new viewers to become invested in your content.
If you deliver value in that first piece, like Rogan does in his clips, you’ll move people down that funnel to your longer content.
Key takeaway? Short-form gets people in, long-form keeps them around.
(There are some exceptions to this, but it generally holds up)
TL;DR
In summary, both types of content have their place.
Short form is great for getting people into the top of your marketing funnel, and can get you lots of visibility relatively quickly.
Long form content is great for moving prospects down your funnel and building a much more intimate relationship with them.
If you’re starting from scratch, I’d focus on long form content. You can also use clips/excerpts from that to generate short form content with relatively little extra work. When you have the time/resources, expand into dedicated short form content if needed for your specific business.
Small caveat here: Short form content can be a great testing ground for ideas. For example, if a TikTok pops off, you may turn that into a YouTube video. Or if a tweet gains traction, you can expand that discussion into a full article.
In a perfect world, I’d recommend testing new ideas in short form while simultaneously building out your pillar content. Let me know if you want me to break down this full process in a future newsletter!
Resource of the Week
This past week, I’ve been reading through Doing Content Right by Steph Smith. This one isn’t free, but it’s worth it in my opinion. I feel confident in saying it’s probably the most valuable resource on content strategy that I’ve consumed so far.
Again, not sponsored — just thought it would be helpful.
Pull up a seat, stay a while
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Until next Sunday at 9am PST,
Tommy
PS - want to work together to build your brand? Book a call and let's talk.