Shorter content is not always the right answer 

If you believe people don’t read anymore, you’re either not talking to the right people or saying the wrong things.

Minimalist and digestible content is a near universal direction from clients today. There’s a pervasive concern that people don’t want to invest time in content and generally have shorter attention spans. We think this has led to an overcorrection by a lot of companies and an underestimation of their readers. 

People routinely listen to four-hour podcasts and binge multiple seasons of our favourite shows in a day. Elden Ring, a popular video game, has sold over 12 million copies with players spending an average of 46 hours playing it. It’s not that people won’t engage with content, it’s that they engage deeply with the subjects they love and avoid those they don’t. 

There’s a time and place for Tweets and TikToks to be sure. But, if there are people who love your brand, product, or industry, there’s also a time and place to go deeply into what you have to say about it. Fans want to spend time focused on the things they’re passionate about. When thinking about personal favourite brands, most of us would go out of our way to read a 1250-word blog post or watch a three-hour interview with a founder.

By focusing solely on short content, companies miss an opportunity to build stronger relationships with their most enthusiastic supporters — which often make up the roughly 20% of customers responsible for 80% of the company’s revenue. Worse yet, it leaves the door open for competitors to provide the in-depth content your key customers are looking for and win them over in the long run. 

The takeaway is not that people are willing to consume long-form content, it’s that they actually want to. If you’re ready to give your customers something they can sink their teeth into, reach out and see how we can help.