Here’s a recent (great) question from a member of my Facebook group, along with my answer:
“In this day and age where attention spans are so short, have you tested the 1,000 word post vs. a 400-500 word post?”
(note: “the 1,000 word post” refers to posts in my style – also known as Strong Methodâ„¢ style – which do tend to be 1,000 words or more)
My answer:
Yes – I’ve tried shorter posts.
In fact, for the first 5 years or so of my business, 400-500 word posts were pretty much all I wrote.
And what do you think was the result of writing all those?
The result was that I got very few clients and made $5k-$30k/year, and even those few sales were difficult to make (with tons of objections to overcome) – and my audience grew at a snail’s pace, with very little response to my content.
When I introduced the meatier posts of 1,000 words or more, that was when my business and following absolutely blew up (multiple-six-figure years, with the average being $300K/year, practically zero sales objections or even questions, and deluges of comments about how much the posts were helping people and how much they’d learned from them).
Now, of course most people who write 1,000+ word posts don’t follow the Strong Methodâ„¢ framework – and I’m quite sure that those posts lose a lot of people’s attention.
They lose my attention, too!
It’s always difficult to follow something that’s rambly and/or unfocused.
In my mind, that’s the real issue – not the absolute word count. Heck, something that’s only 200 words long can feel hard to pay attention to if it’s not worded clearly or is all over the place with the ideas it’s sharing.
So, obviously, not just any 1,000+ word post will work. Far from it. It’s got to be written in a very particular way.
I think the issue with 400-500 word posts is that they simply don’t give enough information or detail for the prospective high-ticket client to really feel like they learned something new, or to realize that the writer is an expert who really knows the ins and outs of their subject matter (and by that I mean, they know the material well enough to be able to apply it in a wide variety of situations).
And the 400-500 word posts definitely don’t give enough information for the prospect to make a decision that this person is the one they want to invest thousands or tens of thousands of dollars with, to help them solve a problem.
For example – here is a link to one of my most popular posts. It clocks in at approximately 1,400 words.
If I had to trim that post down to 400-500 words, probably the only thing I could do would be to cut out all the illustrative examples and just leave the main points.
But that would mean that I’d be removing the most interesting and clarifying parts of the post – the parts that really help the ideas to “land” for people, and that show that I actually know what I’m talking about and can help high-ticket clients to actually apply these ideas to their businesses.
Just for fun, I did that “cutting-down” exercise for that post right now and created a 510-word version.
So now, if you’re interested in a little “case study” of the point I’m making here, you’ll have something to compare the 1,400-word one to.
I’m curious to know what you think. Is the shorter version as interesting, compelling, or educational as the longer one?
Is it as apparent that I have the expertise to help someone?
Is it as clear what my method is?
And, did the longer one lose your attention or did the examples and details actually make it really rich and interesting?
(Feel free to answer these questions in the comments of this post if you want to start a dialogue here. I also ask that you let me know whether or not that post’s topic is one you’re extremely interested in. I won’t be offended if it isn’t – but I do want that data to control for the possibility that if it lost your attention, it was because you simply weren’t personally interested in the topic, or your interest level was moderate to low.)
I repeatedly get feedback from my readers (and my clients get it from their readers also) that these longer posts not only keep their attention, but that they’re some of the most interesting content they’ve ever read.
And a super common piece of feedback we get is something along the lines of, “Wow, I normally don’t read longer posts, but for some reason I love reading yours!”
(of course, the reason is because our way of writing is extremely well-organized, engaging, and easy to follow đŸ˜‰ )
But I’d like to know your thoughts – because I enjoy testing the things that I think I know to be true. Sometimes I discover interesting ways that I need to revise my thinking.
Feel free to comment at the link above.
And, as a P.S., I have plenty of examples of these 1,000-word posts that actually follow the Strong Methodâ„¢ – from other writers besides me!
You can check them out if you’re interested in testing some of your assumptions about “long” posts.
These are posts that have been vetted as following the framework, whereas other “long” posts you might see out there don’t necessarily follow the framework – so it’s tough to know whether it’s the length or the way they’re written that has you spacing out when trying to read them.
The examples I’m talking about are all in my free FB group and you can find them by clicking this link (assuming you’re a member of the group).