Once upon a time, testing content wasn’t necessary. Even though it was still a big time and money investment, information wasn’t as available as it is today and people bought into the idea much easier. Today you can easily test long form content before making an investment.
However, with all the articles and resources available online, people are often reluctant.
For instance, you have created a comprehensive course on copywriting for Email sales copy. But, no one is buying.
Why?
Because there is an abundance of information on the subject on the web together with a great number of other courses which basically sell the same information.
In the past, your course would have been rare, and you would sell it to many people. However, today you can’t do it.
Now think about it – wouldn’t it have been better if you spent some time testing it before you created it?
It would. Because then you would know approximately how many people are interested in it and you wouldn’t have created it if the interest was low.
Test long form content … why long-form works?
Let’s discuss this for a bit.
Again, at some point in the short history of web content, Short-Form was preferred. Official guidelines were that frequent, SEO short posts of about 350-500 words work the best.
But the Web soon good swamped with poorly written content which offered no value. Keywords were the focus, and those pieces were at the top of search engine results.
Inbound marketing wasn’t a big thing yet either.
But users got annoyed by the lack of actionable information.
So, Google decided to optimize their algorithm to put quality content up front and leave short, keyword-packed pieces in the back.
But there are more reasons why long-form works today.
It gives you authority
It’s good for SEO
It increases your conversion rates
It gets more shares
It’s good for inbound marketing and backlinking
While all of these things are true, quality still trumps quantity any day. There are more things involved than just the number of words.
However, long-form holds a lot of information and gathering that information takes time and money.
This is why testing your idea is necessary if you want to avoid facing loss.
Test long form content … 5 ways to test it
There are generally six-way to test your content although there could be some additional ways if you are creative enough.
Social media polls and surveys come to mind.
Here are the top six ways to test your long-form content before actually taking the time to write it:
Social media posts
Social media is probably where the majority of your audience spends time and engages with others. To test your idea, you could post about it on social media.
You have several ways to post about it.
For one, you could create a status update on Facebook – talk about your idea with your followers, ask whether that would be something they would be interested in.
Next, you could post on Twitter as a snippet of thoughts on the idea you have or a question about it.
You could use Pinterest or LinkedIn to share a full-blown blog post on your idea.
However, what matters more is how people react to it.
In the period after posting, you should make sure to track likes, shares, retweets, read comments or mentions. All of this will tell you if your idea is viable.
“Be aware that consumers prefer content from sites they perceive as an authority so try to position yourself as one before you decide to invest in anything more expensive or time-consuming,” says Eleonore Duncan, a content writer from Write My X and 1 Day 2 Write.
Blog posts
Blog posts are by far a better potential demand indicator than social media, and you can use it in a few ways.
For one, you could create a blog post on a subject similar to that of your long-form content and then track the response in views, comments, other kinds of engagement and so on. This will tell you whether your audience is interested in reading or hearing more about it.
Let’s say that you want to write a book on content marketing for small businesses on a budget. Start by creating a blog post on the subject “How to do content marketing if you own a small business,” for instance. Do people seem interested? Do they engage, like, share? If the answer is yes, then you probably have a winner. However, if all of the metrics and results are medium to low, the book isn’t viable.
You can also use the information you already have to determine what your audience would prefer.
For example, if your audience is mainly made of freelance writers, your book about content marketing for small business owners wouldn’t interest them that much. But if your subject were a guide for freelancers on how to attract quality clients that pay a lot without a website, you would be onto something.
Another thing you could do is check what the topics of your more popular posts are and base your long-form content on that.
Ads
Ads on social media strongly resemble regular posts except they are sponsored. You can use them to A/B test your ideas side by side.
For instance, create a landing page for your course idea and set up an ad on Facebook – if there are no clicks or sign-ups, you will likely have to give up on your idea.
But if there are, you can move on to creating and selling.
Landing pages
Landing pages are a great option as well. You can create a landing page, A/B test it for a bit and then proceed to wait for sign-ups.
Liking or reading a blog post is one thing but signing up for something is a true indicator that people have a real interest in your long-form content.
The more subscribers you get, the better.
However, make sure that you are transparent about your long-form content not being done yet and that the users won’t get it right away.
Lead gathering forms
Lead gathering forms are quite similar to landing pages.
For instance, if you want to create a course, you can set up an exit sign up form and track the data gathered from there.
“For context, compare those results to your regular conversion rates or sign-ups for some other piece of long-form you have. If the conversion rates are lower, it means your piece wouldn’t be that successful,” says Jamie Gordon, a tech writer from Academicbrits.
The testing long form is crucial
Testing your content before you decide to invest time to produce it is a good option for anyone who wants to see their ideas succeed. The testing concept came from MVP which means a minimum viable product – testing a simplistic version of your product before you go all in with a full-blown production.
The same concept works for content – so, in this case, it would be MVC.
Testing MVC is a great way to save yourself some time and money. There are several ways to do it, and you should choose the one that works for you and your audience.
Combine the data you get with the data you already have, and you’ll have the answer to the question of whether you should produce your long-form content or not.
Martha Jameson has been an avid reader her entire life, but she has recently tried to try writing. Before she found her true calling as a writer for OriginWritings, she was a Web designer and manager. She loves sharing her experience and her knowledge as well as motivating people to pursue their dreams.
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Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.