The Importance of Long-Form Content
Channel: Public Sector Marketing Show
Date: 11/09/2021

Apart from delivering training to public sector pros, just like you, I often spend my working weeks working on consulting projects with clients. And more often than not, I recommend engaging in long-form content. 
The reason that that is, is that long-form content gets to the heart of the why of your message. And the long-form content is probably going to answer the who, the what, the where, and the when of that topic also. 

So, creating content that emotionally engages with an audience has to go deep into a topic. We know that headlines and that clickbait exists in short social media posts and they're great to get attention but that should only be the beginning of the story. With long-form content, we are going to the heart of an issue. We're also creating an archive for our website but also for the internet. So after you publish and optimise and share on social your long-form content, it then exists right across the social web. And it creates a great history lesson of that topic in that moment. 

So just don't leave those long-form content pieces to journalists or to bloggers or to other subject matter experts outside your organisation. Really insource your story and own it. There are three types of long-form content that we focus on. So it's text, it's audio, and it's video. And these have been around forever, as long as we've had media and communications. But now we have the ability to slice and dice and to reach much more people as we share that long-form content right across the social web. 

It's almost like an omni-channel approach. The other thing that you have to consider is how you present your long-form content. And so what I would do is, the first thing is to undertake keyword research. I want to understand what people are already searching for, what questions they have around your key topics. That will allow me to craft messages and format and package content to bring it closer to that audience. There's also some great tips here. 

Did you know that articles that are over 1,000 words long, it actually get more link clicks and shares than those that are under 1,000 words long? And that's no accident. Google tells us that the modern consumer and citizen is curious, demanding, and impatient. They want to go in for the long read, the long listen or the long watch. So start taking responsibility for the messaging and ask yourself, how are we going to prepare and present content that is going to get the attention and also the understanding of the public?

Subscribe to the Public Sector Marketing Show podcast: https://public-sector-marketing.captivate.fm/listen
Take one of our courses: https://publicsectormarketingpros.com/

#publicsectormarketingshow #publicsectormarketing #digitalmarketingtips

Become a member of the Public Sector Marketing Institute: https://publicsectormarketingpros.com/membership/
Buy my Book: https://publicsectormarketingpros.com/book/  
FREE Mastering Social Media Book https://publicsectormarketingpros.com/mastering-social-media-ebook/
State of Social Media in the Public Sector Report: https://publicsectormarketingpros.com/state-of-social-media-report/ 
Take one of our accredited courses: https://publicsectormarketingpros.com/training-courses/ 
Full website https://publicsectormarketingpros.com