Scroll-worthy, brief content material codecs like TikTok movies, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts have captivated audiences a lot, that you just’d be forgiven for considering long-form content material is changing into out of date. Nevertheless, this couldn’t be farther from the reality—particularly for SaaS manufacturers.
With longer lead occasions, complex sales cycles, and way more stakeholders to persuade, SaaS manufacturers have a a lot more durable job conveying the worth of their merchandise than, say, a journey operator or a shoe model. They should transcend surface-level, fluffy content material to ship ongoing worth that gives the correct data at precisely the correct time.
On this information, we’ll cowl what long-form content material is, why it’s so essential for SaaS manufacturers, plus examples of long-form content material within the wild.
Final up to date in August 2024
What’s Lengthy Type Content material?
Lengthy-form content material is usually outlined as any written or video content material that exceeds a sure size. There aren’t any clear-cut guidelines round how lengthy this kind of content material ought to be. Some entrepreneurs say 1,200+ phrases, whereas others cite 2,000+ phrases. As a common rule, when my purchasers ask for “long-form content material”, they often imply content material that’s over 1,500 phrases.
However the phrase depend isn’t the one consideration. Lengthy-form content material is designed to supply complete and in-depth data on a particular subject. You’ll be able to simply write 1,500 phrases of utter fluff. And, whereas this can be thought-about “long-form”, it doesn’t get to the core of what this kind of content material is de facto about: diving deep and offering distinctive worth.
Why is Lengthy Type Content material Essential for SaaS Manufacturers?
Most of my SaaS purchasers come to me for items which can be 2,000+ phrases. They perceive they should go deeper than present content material to rank properly and show their experience. However why is long-form content material significantly essential for SaaS manufacturers?
For starters, there’s usually an extended gross sales cycle. Persons are much less more likely to impulsively purchase month-to-month entry to an internet instrument than they’re a pair of footwear, and there are usually extra individuals concerned within the shopping for course of. For instance, you may need a junior function researching instruments who then take their findings to their supervisor, who then takes that data to the top of selling or the CEO.
In consequence, you find yourself with a fairly convoluted gross sales cycle with a number of touchpoints and a number of individuals with various priorities and curiosity ranges.
Secondly, SaaS manufacturers usually clear up an issue individuals don’t realise they’ve (but). Take Dropbox, for instance. Now a prolific cloud storage resolution, it initially took a variety of convincing for individuals to understand that an internet instrument was higher than saving information to a tough drive. Individuals like familiarity and SaaS manufacturers recurrently must pitch a product that goes towards that familiarity.
SaaS merchandise usually have a number of use instances and complicated characteristic units. They aren’t like a pair of footwear that you just placed on and put on. As an alternative, one single instrument would possibly assist mission managers map out deadlines, assign assets, and pay their contractors. It’s a variety of data to get throughout—-something that may be tough to do with shorter content material codecs.
Why long-form Content material is a Should-Have in Your website positioning Technique
Lengthy-form content material helps you rank for a number of key phrases. Research by Semrush discovered content material over 1,000 phrases is extra more likely to rank for a number of key phrases as a result of you’ve got loads of area to speak about related matters. Moreover, Google usually deems longer content material higher high quality as a result of it conveys experience and is extra in-depth.
Sidenote: longer content material isn’t higher than short-form content material, it simply covers a particular subject extra totally, which tends to match search intent.
Lastly, incorporating long-form content material into your inbound SEO strategy helps you get extra backlinks (which in the end improves your search rating). In keeping with research by Ahrefs, longer content material tends to draw extra backlinks.
When do you have to create long-form content material vs brief type?
Lengthy-form content material isn’t essentially higher than short-form content material, however it’s extra helpful in sure conditions. For instance, if in case you have a posh subject to interrupt down otherwise you’re sharing a step-by-step information or tutorial, creating an extended piece can maximise the worth of the content material and can help you go into extra element.
There’s no laborious and quick rule about when it’s best to create long-form content material over short-form, however listed below are some issues to contemplate.
- Take into consideration the way it matches into your general content material technique. What’s your final intention with content material and what sort of content material might help you get there? For instance, should you intention to go viral amongst a Gen Z viewers, short-form is perhaps higher. However if you wish to develop into an business professional famend for sharing pithy concepts, long-form is the way in which to go.
- Use key phrase analysis to establish items with a number of subsections. If a key phrase has a number of secondary key phrases, it’s a very good indication that there’s lots to cowl and long-form content material is perhaps a greater match.
- Have a look at search intent to uncover what readers want. Take a look at what posts are rating in your chosen key phrases—do they supply fast solutions or longer, extra detailed accounts? Normally, if the vast majority of content material rating for a key phrase is long-form, it’s best to do the identical.
- Contemplate the consumer expertise. Lengthy-form content material is sometimes called “pillar content material”. These are prolonged items that get away into shorter items. When you discover a subject fully overwhelming, strive turning it right into a sequence of shorter posts that dive into extra element for a greater studying expertise.
Tip: For greatest website positioning outcomes, content material ought to reply the search question as wanted (whether or not that’s a sentence or a couple of thousand phrases). Longer content material isn’t at all times greatest, particularly should you’re simply including fluff to get it over an arbitrary phrase depend.
5 Examples of Actually Good Lengthy-Type Content material
Let’s check out some long-form SaaS items within the wild.
1) The final word information to SaaS pricing fashions, methods, and psychological hacks by Cobloom
Cobloom content material is usually long-form. This particular piece is 6,500 phrases lengthy—it’s a corker—however we’ve made it simple to scan by including a desk of contents and different structural touchpoints, like bullet factors, visuals, and call-outs.
As you’ll be able to see, the piece covers each angle of the subject and will depart readers with a full understanding of pricing fashions.
2) Find out how to mix website positioning and content material advertising by Ahrefs
This piece by Ahrefs is significantly shorter than our instance above, however it nonetheless is available in at over 1,500 phrases. It features a desk of contents so readers can leap to probably the most related part, and it’s damaged up with useful visuals and graphs.
Not solely does this piece cowl a subject intimately, however it leans closely into the model’s private perspective which fosters belief and credibility. The step-by-step information encourages readers to place what they’ve discovered into motion, and there are hyperlinks to associated content material for individuals who need to dig deeper into particular areas.
3) The state of AI at work by Asana
Asana’s report in regards to the state of AI at work is a gated piece of content material that relays major analysis the model carried out itself. This provides worth with first-hand stats and it’s damaged up properly with visuals and graphics.
4) How your CX group will evolve with AI by Gorgias
This piece by Gorgias runs at simply over 1,800 phrases. It’s structured properly with pull quotes and visuals and a helpful desk of contents for straightforward scanning. You’ll additionally discover it contains quotes from material specialists to supply first-hand views and it builds in real-world examples and case research for further credibility.
5) Social media promoting in 2024 by Buffer
This piece by Buffer is nearly 3,500 phrases lengthy. It contains embedded social content material, visuals, and movies to interrupt up the textual content, in addition to real-world examples as an instance key factors. It turns idea into motion by incorporating a step-by-step information and useful ideas in lightboxes. Just like the Ahrefs piece, it additionally directs customers to additional studying on every subject.
Find out how to Create Lengthy-Type website positioning Content material That Individuals Truly Need to Learn
Able to take inspiration from the above examples and create your individual long-form website positioning content material? Right here’s learn how to get began.
Construction is all the pieces
Make your content material skimmable. Not everybody will learn each single phrase, so make it simple for individuals to search out probably the most helpful data for them. Embrace a desk of contents and hyperlink out to different related items of content material for individuals who need to learn extra.
Make it multimedia
Break up lengthy reams of textual content with movies, graphics, GIFs, and different visible parts. This will even be a lightbox or a pull quote—simply ensure your items are a mixture of textual content and different media.
Embrace a key phrase construction
Analysis your major key phrase and secondary key phrases to be sure to contact on advisable subtopics. It will make it easier to rank since you’ll (hopefully) be together with all the data individuals need and wish. Semrush’s keyword research tool might help you do that by spotlighting probably the most searched key phrases in your business and grouping them collectively primarily based on context.
Add your individual experience and expertise
Google’s new EEAT method prioritises content material that showcases the writer’s experience and expertise. Embrace anecdotes, private experiences, and your individual ideas and opinions to distinguish your content material from others. You may as well embody real-world examples to indicate ideas in motion.
Embrace completely different views
Nice long-form content material usually contains quotes from material specialists. This gives an unbiased view and first-hand data from people who find themselves well-versed on the subject. Determine prime contributors in your business and attain out to them for a quote or an interview.
Use storytelling methods
Holding a reader engaged for 1,000+ phrases is not any simple feat. Make use of conventional storytelling methods to maintain them hooked. This would possibly embody constructing suspense, including a private narrative, incorporating battle of some sort, including a shock, or protecting the reader on the centre of the motion.
Find out how to Make The Most of Your Lengthy-Type Content material Publish-Publication
Creating high-quality long-form content material is time-consuming. The very last thing you need is to let it collect mud when you’ve hit that all-important publish button. Listed here are some methods you’ll be able to profit from it post-publication:
- Repurpose old content to draw new leads. Flip long-form items into an e book, pull sections and switch them into social media posts, share sections in an electronic mail advertising marketing campaign or sequence, or create a video.
- Use it all through the gross sales cycle. Incorporate your long-form content material all through the gross sales cycle—flip it into gated content material for lead gen, ship it in onboarding sequences, add it to your assist centre, and ensure buyer assist is conscious of it to allow them to ship it to clients who would possibly discover it helpful.
- Put it on the market by way of paid promoting. Hold your long-form content material related by pushing individuals to it from advertisements. You’ll be able to goal related key phrases in paid search to attract more traffic.
The Challenges of Lengthy-Type Content material in SaaS website positioning
We’ve lined the significance of long-form content material for SaaS manufacturers, however what in regards to the challenges? It’s not simple creating content material that’s 1000’s of phrases lengthy—there’s undoubtedly an artwork to getting it proper.
Listed here are some key challenges you would possibly end up up towards:
- Lengthy-form content material is… lengthy. Consideration spans are brief. There’s a mismatch right here, which implies it’s completely essential to make content material participating.
- It’s tough so as to add one thing completely different. There’s a lot of present content material already on the market, so it may be laborious to make yours stand out. Take into consideration what makes your items completely different from different articles on the identical subject—possibly you add private anecdotes, perform major analysis, or add multimedia parts.
- Maintaining a daily publishing cadence is hard. Clearly, long-form content material takes longer to jot down than short-form content material. You want extra assets and time to publish usually and persistently, however it’s value determining a schedule that works for you. Don’t neglect to dam time for outlining, researching, and modifying, in addition to writing.
Why Lengthy-Type Content material is Wanted for SaaS Manufacturers Surrounded by Brief Content material
We is perhaps within the period of brief, scroll-worthy content material, however long-form content material stays an extremely helpful instrument for SaaS manufacturers as a result of it gives the depth and element crucial for longer sales cycles.
Sometimes spanning 1,500+ phrases, long-form content material dives deep into particular matters, ensuring no stone is left unturned. As such, it performs a essential function in SaaS website positioning methods by serving to manufacturers rank for a number of key phrases, meet search intent, and appeal to backlinks. Whereas it’s not inherently higher than short-form content material, it’s significantly efficient for masking complicated matters, step-by-step guides, and thought management content material.
Creating participating long-form content material could be a wrestle. It requires considerate construction, multimedia parts, a stable key phrase technique, and a hearty sprinkling of private anecdotes. Don’t neglect to maximise its success post-publication too. Reuse it in different campaigns and proceed to share it all through the gross sales cycle.
Able to create long-form content material worthy of higher backlinks and rankings? Use Semrush to construct out a search-focused key phrase technique.
