Appetizer versus Entree: Don’t Overstuff Your Content

“While I have your attention, let me tell you about…” This attitude is the bane of content marketing strategies. Too often, marketing managers want to cram 10 pounds of brand messages into a 5 pound bag. The truth is if you bury your audience in content, chances are they won’t pay attention to any of it, and they won’t come back.

Effective content marketing is focused, giving the audience enough information to satisfy them based on whatever forum you are using. Social media, for example, thrives on sound bites. You use images, short messages, and content that can be taken in at a glance to drive awareness. You can use social media as an appetizer to drive traffic to the main course, such as a case study, white paper, or webinar, but you should always be aware of how much information you audience will be willing to absorb.

Infographics provide an interesting example of how to overstuff your content. You have undoubtedly seen infographics posted on Facebook, blogs, company web sites, and elsewhere. The problem with many Infographics is they suffer from infographic overload; they try to tell the entire history of mankind in a single graphic. The more information you stuff into an infographic, the harder it is to digest. You should reserve infographics for specific campaigns and content programs. As Leslie Bradshaw, co-founder of JESS3 and one of Fast Company’s Most Influential Women in Tech, told CCO Magazine:

Infographics are a high-level tactic that are good for educated audiences; they are not actually good for consumer audiences. Consumer audiences are much more likely to share something on Facebook that’s really ‘snackable.’ Think about Pinterest. Those are the pieces of content we call snackable content—short, bold statements. If we produce content that has just one or two data points, we call it a data graphic.

For JESS3, a data graphic is Infographic lite; a short graphic that offers one or two data points to tell a story. This kind of graphic is idea for Facebook of other social media outlets, and you can link it back to something meatier, such an infographic or white paper.

If you feed your audience bite-sized bullets, the trail of breadcrumbs will eventually lead to the heartier content where you can tell an in-depth story where you can build a case for your product or services with examples, ROI statistics, and more.

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