Short-Form Content: The Pros & Cons

Short-form content is more widely used in the marketing world than you might have otherwise thought. From micro-copy to e-commerce and everything in between, short-form content can also cover infographics, posters and even short videos. It’s a common content type because it’s cost-effective, less resource-intensive and simple to churn out. 

But is short-form content really all it’s cracked up to be? In this article, we’re going to be explaining what short-form content is, in more detail, what the benefits are and also what the cons would be of using short-form content. Here are the pros and cons of short-form content that you might not have thought about:

What is short-form content?

Short-form content does what it says on the tin. It’s content that is short and snappy. Typically, short-form content can range from just a few words (micro-copy) to 900 words. When it comes to podcasts and videos, this translates to up to three minutes in duration. Short-form content is used because it’s quick to produce and easy to consume. There are many different types of short-form content, such as:

• Advertising landing pages
• Infographics
• Short videos
• Mini-podcasts
• Social media posts
• Slideshows
• One sheets
• Email campaigns
• Short blog posts
• E-commerce copy, i.e. product descriptions 
• Posters
• Leaflets 
• News articles 

What are the benefits of short-form content?

Now that we know what short-form content is, it’s time to determine why people favour short-form content over long-form. There are many advantages to using short-form content throughout your blog or website, but one of the reasons for using short-form content is to grab the reader’s attention with snappy content so that it can be read and consumed quickly. So aside from achieving just that, here are the benefits of using short-form content throughout your website or blog:

It’s easy to read & consume

Throughout the entirety of this blog post, we’ve emphasised the fact that short-form content is created purposefully to be short and direct. It needs to grab the reader’s attention without taking up too much of their time. Short-form content is easy to read and interpret, meaning it’s easily consumed by your website visitors. People look for convenience these days, and that’s exactly what short-form content offers an audience – convenience.

It helps to meet a growing demand

As we’ve already touched upon, audiences these days are looking to consume as much as possible in as little time as possible. Short-form content allows for this level of convenience. As such, this makes short-form content sought-after. Give modern internet readers what they want by producing short-form content, therefore generating a need for value-driven content that people are so often seeking.

It’s made for quicker conversions

Short-form content is designed to be short, snappy, direct and attention-grabbing. This translates into quicker conversions. Readers no longer need to read streams of text to understand what you do or what you’re offering. It also provides content creators with the opportunity to push statements and Calls to Action (CTAs) to get your audience to act. With the ability to grab attention but offer immediate solutions, short-form content is key to quicker conversions. This can also translate to increased leads and sales in the process.

It’s quicker & less resource-intensive to produce

Long-form content can take hours to produce. It takes a lot of research, writing up, proofreading and editing. Long-form content is time-intensive, whereas short-form content is not. Short-form content can be produced without the need for such extensive research or writing time. As such, this makes short-form content much quicker to produce in comparison. With this in mind, it’s no wonder marketers are looking more closely at the power of short-form content. 

Are there any cons to using short-form content?

We’ve just touched on why short-form content is a good content type to count on, from using less time and resources to grabbing the reader’s attention effortlessly. But what if we told you that there are some cons to using short-form content? What you should be doing now is weighing up the pros and cons of short-form content and deciding when short-form content should be used over long-form. However, let’s take a closer look at a couple of drawbacks to using short-form content:

It’s less authoritative 

Long-form content is chosen most often for optimisation reasons. It’s harder to optimise short-form content purely because of its low word count. Keywords can’t be spread out as widely, for example, which would then cause keyword stuffing. Short-form content is not something that is easily marketable. 

Search engines need content that demonstrates experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness, and that’s not something that short-form content can offer. This often means that any results achieved are short-lived, and so more effort will be required more often to get the same results. The same issue doesn’t present itself with long-form content, so take this into account when determining which content type to use.

It’s undifferentiated content

Short-form content can be difficult to make stand out from the crowd, unlike long-form content. This is precisely because you have less of a word count to play with. In addition, short-form content also requires far less research and time to produce, therefore resulting in micro-copy, which is concise, clear and to the point. But that’s exactly something that website visitors will be looking for. However, this makes the competition even tougher. While it might seem easy, it could be more of a challenge to compete with other people who are publishing the same type of content. 

Tips for writing short-form content

Short-form content might sound easy to create, but it can actually be quite the challenge when compared to long-form content, surprisingly. There’s more to it than you might think, and that’s precisely because the content is short in length. The smaller word count means you have to spend more time and effort getting your point across in a quick, concise and clear manner, which can be more of a task than writing continuous prose. So how can you write short-form content effectively? Here are a few of our brief hints and tips:

• Identify your audience
• Develop a solid content strategy
• Don’t just rely on short-form content, use long-form too
• Make sure your short-form content is optimised for SEO
• Focus on quality over quantity

Kumo is a highly experienced digital marketing agency with over two decades of knowledge and expertise to draw upon. We have a team of marketing specialists on hand to deliver sterling SEO, PPC, content writing and website design services, ensuring your business is propelled into the spotlight, setting you apart from your competitors. If you would like further information about how we can help you today, get in touch with a member of our friendly, professional team – we’re always pleased to hear from you.