Whether you operate as an eCommerce platform, a SAAS company or a news aggregate website, building and maintaining brand loyalty is a challenge in itself. With so many competing brands on the market, it only takes a glance for a lead to consider switching over to a fresh new platform.
However, producing valuable, long-form content via your website’s blog section can mitigate those fears substantially. According to HubSpot, 86% of companies use blog content compared to other marketing channels. Additionally, content in the 3,000-word range achieves 3x more traffic, 4x more shares and 3.5x more backlinks than shorter articles.
In the age of short attention spans and social media, there is a clear want and need for in-depth content that explores trending topics. But how can your company benefit from brand loyalty as a whole, and what is the role of long-form content in that aspect? Likewise, how can you structure your content production so that it allows for standardized, professional and SEO-beneficial long-form blog posts?
Below, we’ll explore the many benefits of long-form content and how businesses in all industries can use them to build deeper relationships with prospective customers.
Why Brand Loyalty Matters
Let’s start small and work our way up to long-form content writing by discussing the topic of brand loyalty. What is brand loyalty? Brand loyalty represents how devoted your customers are to your brand and how likely they are to purchase more goods or advocate for them.
According to Small Biz Genius, 56% of customers stay loyal to brands which “get them”, while 65% of a company’s business comes from existing customers. It is an extremely worthwhile marketing goal to achieve, especially in tandem with a customer loyalty program that would reward retention with points, freebies, discounts, etc.
Mark Randal, Content Writer and Editor at Supreme Dissertations spoke on the matter recently.
“Brand loyalty gives you the much-needed benefit of the doubt with customers,” Randal said. “You can experiment with new products, ask for testimonials or simply boost sales via referral links. Brand loyalty can also cushion the fall in case of trouble or poor reviews since you have a stable follower base vouching for your credibility.”
In practical terms, brand loyalty can provide your company with a plethora of advantages on the market, including:
- Competitive industry positioning and brand reputation
- Smooth product lineup updates and revisions
- Viral reach due to mentions and shares
- Shared values between your brand and customer base
- Higher ROI due to an established customer base
...All things small businesses and large businesses alike can benefit from.
How Can Long-Form Content Help Your Brand?
Now that we have a clearer idea of how brand loyalty can help your company, how does long-form content factor into it? I mentioned before that customers love brands that provide them with additional value beyond base products/services they pay for. Long-form content in the form (pun not intended) of case studies, list or statistics-based articles and white papers, can indeed boost your brand’s appeal.
This content takes longer to write and requires a more methodic approach to writing (as we will soon see), but its value cannot be overstated. Writing tools such as Evernote, Trust My Paper and Readable can help you successfully produce long-form content. Doing so will bring additional value to your brand beyond the aforementioned customer loyalty of converted leads, by:
- Improving website authority and SEO ranking within the industry
- Providing a platform to discuss, explore and research brand-related topics
- Allowing you to write how-to guides and content based on your products
- Including better internal link building opportunities
Writing Tips for Long-Form Content Marketing
While the usefulness of long-form content marketing is simple enough, actually writing it is a different story. Writing content of any type can be overwhelming. Long-form content is even more daunting. So how can you create clear, concise content if you aren’t used to writing case studies or white papers? Follow these practical tips.
1. Structure Your Content
As I mentioned previously, long-form content typically hovers around the 2,000-3,000 word count, depending on how much the writer had to go off. This makes it extremely important for content creators to structure each long-form content piece before entering full production.
Heading, subheadings, statistical data, as well as sources that will be used in the content’s creation should all be assembled in pre-production. This will ensure a more cohesive reading experience for customers and facilitate their brand loyalty more effectively as a result.
2. Cluster Your Topics
Given the longer-than-standard nature of long-form content, writing content like ebooks will allow you to go in-depth with any topic you choose to tackle. As such, topic clusters can be formed to better structure your blog’s content and improve the SEO ranking of your links going forward.
Topic clusters revolve around a pillar or a very complex long-form content piece with numerous different ideas worth exploring further. Publishing such an article on your company’s blog will entice existing customers and cold leads to tune in for more content down the road. Long-form content related to your pillar content can then be interlinked and offer seamless reading experiences, showcasing your company’s professionalism and improving its brand loyalty.
3. Intertwine Writing with Multimedia
You don’t want to burn your reader out on the long-form article before they reach its conclusion. You can implement different formatting techniques via tools such as Hemingway Editor or add visuals to your content through platforms such as Canva.
Go the extra mile and add original photos, infographic images, as well as other forms of demonstrative multimedia to enrich your long-form content. This will not only make the reading experience more pleasant but also improve your brand’s SEO ranking and overall engagement. Likewise, such a pro-consumer move will add to your company’s brand loyalty appeal – get creative and mix up your content types.
Another simple way to incorporate multimedia content into your long-form content is video. When content is displayed in a video format, viewers retain 95% of the message. Compare that to the 10% retained through reading, and it’s clear why video is one of the quickest growing marketing strategies. You can use tools like Vidyard and Soapbox to film, edit, and embed videos for content.
4. Facilitate Content Skimming
While it may seem counterintuitive to allow readers to skip through long-form content, simple tools like bullet points, bolding, and italicizing add a layer of value to your writing. Content skimming can also be facilitated by outlining the entire structure of your article right after its headline, thus announcing what the following paragraphs may contain.
Customers who are unlikely to ever read through entire long-form articles will have an incentive to skim through the pieces and look for interesting tidbits. On the other hand, customers who are already loyal to your brand will go through long-form content regardless and skim during additional visits. Well-structured long-form content will also provide you with an extra layer of SEO, boosting lead generation, conversion rates and facilitate brand loyalty.
5. Smart Audience Engagement
Lastly, customers want their voices to matter. They want to know that the brands they follow care about what they have to say. Long-form content can easily be used to engage your customer base on multiple fronts. Taking such an initiative will dramatically improve the likelihood of brand loyalty, advocacy and word of mouth among satisfied customers.
Calls to action can serve to encourage readers to share their thoughts in the comments section or to purchase content-related goods on your storefront. Surveys can be integrated into long-form pieces to gather objective data from likeminded individuals interested in exploring the same topics as your brand does. You can also integrate user-generated content, testimonials, reviews and quotes from satisfied customers, further elevating brand loyalty and advocacy toward your company.
Take the Next Step
When all is said and done, you should start exploring the potential for long-form content writing on your own website. Brand loyalty is a desperately sought-after element in any company with plans for organic growth and business model expansion.
While content is a major aspect of brand loyalty, it’s only one piece of the Business GrowthStack. To ensure a seamless, positive user experience from start to finish, you need to merge content with marketing and sales automation.
How? To start, download the ROI QuickStart Plan for an outline of all the pieces you need for a well-oiled business machine. Among other things, it will allow you to create a structured content production framework with sales and lead generation at its core. It’s not a matter of “if” long-form content can help your company, but “how.” Brainstorm topics and start writing today to reap the benefits tomorrow.
Bridgette Hernandez is a professional writer, marketing specialist and editor at Best Essays Education and Classy Essay writing services. Her work is centered on content research and production on a variety of topics such as marketing, digital technologies and online sales. Bridgette also contributes to Grab My Essay where she aims to build a portfolio based on writing of case studies, blog content and white papers. She adopts a practical and accessible approach to content production, allowing professionals and laypeople alike to enjoy her writing.
