How long should a blog be? A marketing video? A podcast? As platforms rise and fall, they bring with them paradigm shifts in content length – just look at the universal scramble to emulate, copy or battle TikTok’s short videos. So, in 2022, how long should a piece of content be? The Drum Network asks nine experts including Wonder's Strategy Director, Jonathan Izzard.
The Drum: Marketing experts on the content length battle
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Jonathan Izzard, Strategy Director, Wonder
How to be concise without being reductive? How to focus on facts without losing colour?
B2B content has reduced in length and density over the past few years, reflecting our use of technology and the broader cultural context. While few critical business comms are delivered through TikTok, the platform’s very existence as a short-form medium has shifted expectations for content delivery, even among less-connected audience groups.
It’s less about the optimal and more about the options; providing different content approaches considerate of relative audience need states. Need an event attendee to absorb a pre-read on the go? Endlessly scrolling on a smartphone or pinch-zooming on a static PDF just won’t pass muster.
By contrast, a longer-form LinkedIn post from a respected source, alive with comments, plays to a totally different mindset.
Tapered content and messaging, spanning increments from ‘TLDR’ (too long; didn’t read) to ‘elevator pitch’ to ‘deep dive’, integrating visual economy best practices and interactive elements, provides more accommodating and effective communications based on how people really work, live, think and behave.