After clients asked about tangible results from short-form content marketing, Julia McCoy set out on a year-long study, only to discover the ironic truth of the short-format and long-format content debate. Her goal: to find the most effective and sustainable way to authentically automate her marketing. She’s sharing the results with a year of data to back them up.
You will learn whether shorter or longer content is better for your business’s success. We’ll also cover:
- Is short-form content shorting your business results?
- What is the difference between short-form and long-form content?
- How can we test different kinds of marketing to determine what works best for our business?
Listen to this episode on:
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Highlights in this episode:
[00:00:59] What to do when marketing tactics don’t feel good.
[00:02:14] Julia McCoy is the founder of Content Hacker.
[00:03:13] Talking about Julia’s study
[00:06:20] Short-form content did very little besides views
[00:13:03] Sustainability through long-form content
[00:14:50] How many clients Julia gained through short-form content
[00:19:42] Is short-form content able to build trust?
[00:22:27] Feedback Julia’s received on the study
What are the Key Differences Between Short and Long Format Content? Here’s How to Find Out!
Julia McCoy is a content marketer with a seven-figure writing agency and over 40,000 content projects and a leading strategist for creating exceptional content and building a brand presence that lasts. . She used a year-long study to measure the effectiveness of short-format content compared to long-format content in her business by studying her own content and that of other businesses, and after the year-long study, she’s here to discuss the critical differences between short and long-form content.
“There’s a misnomer out there. A misrepresentation created by a lot of the influencers where it looks so easy. It looks so easy to get viral, to get views, to get likes, to get followers. But what does that really get you as a business owner that’s the missing message.”
Julia found that although short-form content got lots of views, it rarely led to increased sales or revenue. On the other hand, long-form content generated over 60 ideal customers and over $200,000 in sales. Read on to learn Julia’s tips and insights on how to create content that will help your business grow–and how to conduct your own test to determine your content strategy. I’ll also outline Julia’s methods in detail so you can start applying them to your high-performing founder business.
Why is it important to understand the key differences between short-format and long-format content for multi-six-figure course creators?
For course creators, understanding the key differences between short-form and long-form content is essential for creating successful learning, engaging, and nurturing experiences. Note: it isn’t just word count! It’s a bit of a sound-bite world we live in right now, so it’s easy to see the allure of short-form content. But without knowing how to use your content to prime your audience, you’ll never shift into the course community most students desire from transformative courses.
Which content format is best for your goal?
Short-format content is typically used to deliver quick bursts of information that can be easily consumed and fulfill the short attention of many on social media platforms. This type of content is best suited for topics that don’t require a deep dive or can be broken down into smaller chunks without losing the nuance of long-form pieces. On the other hand, long-format content is used to deliver more complex topics that require a longer period of time to process. It can be used to cover more involved topics, such as how to solve a complex problem or how to use a particular software. Long-form content isn’t typically for social media posts.
What is the goal of your content? Is it to gain attention? Build your email list? Convert casual followers into loyal fans?
You have to answer that question before deciding with format of content you’ll use to produce content.
Your best client may prefer one content format over another
Established course creators must also consider the target audience when choosing between short-format and long-format content. Short-format content is best suited for those who are already familiar with the concepts and just need a quick refresher that reminds them you can be part of the solution to their problem, while long-format content is more suitable for complete beginners to see if you’re a good fit–and more suitable for savvy buyers to ensure you align with them and can truly help with their unique problem.
What makes content short-form or long-form?
While short-form or long-form content can both be video, longer content is generally a blog article, podcast episode, or video longer than five minutes. Short content includes tweets, Instagram Reels, TikToks, and YouTube Shorts. Facebook and LinkedIn feed posts can be either, depending on how you use them, but Instagram feed posts are typically considered short-form. Some types of content can bridge, like threads on Twitter. The length of the content does matter, but it’s more about the intent of the content that ultimately determines which category it falls into.
If your best client isn’t problem-aware, short-format content can help bring their eyes to you and make them realize they have a problem to solve. Longer content will help them see if your values are aligned and also give them the opportunity to take a step on the customer journey, whereas shorter content is unlikely to keep their attention long enough for them to start seeing you as a solution to their problem. Use long-form content to walk them through their first win toward that solution, and you cement yourself as an authority in their world.
Long-form or short-form content can easily convey your voice–personality shows well on both.
By understanding the key differences between short-format and long-format content, course creators can ensure that their potential students are presented with the most effective experience–that will, in turn, lead them to become part of your community.
Ready to conduct your own short-form vs long-form content test? Here are the steps you need to follow:
- Modeling after those who do it best – looking at those who do sound bite marketing successfully and using them as an example.
- Testing different approaches – trying out different tools to create short-form content with hired producers and DIY apps.
- Studying the results – looking at the views, likes, and sales generated from short and long-form content.
1. Modeling Short-Format Content After Those Who Do Sound Bite Marketing Well
If you want to include more short-format content in your business, it’s best to look at those doing it well. Modeling after those who do sound bite marketing effectively means knowing who’s successful first!
One example is Alex Hormozi, known for capturing people’s attention with sound bites and then pulling them into their ecosphere. Analyzing their strategies, such as the types of sound bites they use, the style of their videos, and the attention-grabbing techniques they employ, is a great way to get an idea of what works. He’s known for bold captions with jarring colors, animated text for emphasis, and batching his short-form content like Reels and TikToks. Apps like CapCut or PremierePro will be a must.
Additionally, look at the reactions their sound bites receive, including the comments and likes. This can give you an indication of how effective their sound bites are, and what kind of content resonates with their target audience.
- If their audiences post comments like “Right on, man!” it may indicate it’s generating vanity metric comments rather than truly engaged, action-taking fans.
- Look at the buyer cycle to see if community members engage at a wallet level with the content creator.
This was Julia’s approach–look at the influencers like Hormozi most aligned with her business model and audience, model after them, and then begin tweaking based on the results she saw.
Once you understand what successful sound bite marketing looks like, you can start to develop your own strategies and create content that resonates with your audience.
A few notes on short-form content creation
It’s important to remember that sound bites don’t have to be overly complex or elaborate in order to be effective. In fact, the more simple and more straightforward your sound bites are, the more likely they are to stick in the minds of your audience. Content length often dictates how much “reading between the lines” a viewer can do, so simple is better than clever here.
Use short-form content to convey punchy quotes.
Additionally, sound bites should be tailored to the best client you’re trying to reach. This means researching the types of content they’re interested in, their language, and their interests to create sound bites specifically tailored to them.
2. Test Different Approaches and Try Different Tools to Create Content
Testing different approaches to creating short-form content can involve hiring producers or using DIY apps.
To start, it is important to look at what successful brands are doing in the short-form content space and ask around your network what apps or service providers are working well. This may include looking at the way they use sound bites or hooks to grab the viewer’s attention and pull them into their ecosystem.
When creating short-form content, it is important to consider the type of content that is being created. It is also important to consider the platform for which the content is being created and ensure it aligns with the platform–some tactics work well on TikTok, but will not translate well to YouTube Shorts. Additionally, trending sounds usually start on TikTok and may take longer to trend on Instagram Reels, so that could affect your visibility.
Next, it is important to consider the tools and methods used to create the content. This may include hiring producers or using DIY apps to create the content. It is important to research and find out which apps are the most cost-effective and user-friendly. Splice and CapCut are popular smartphone apps to edit video and have a much smaller learning curve than PremierePro.
Should you use DIY apps or hire a video producer?
Consider how much time and money is needed to create high-quality content and how efficiently you create it. Hiring a producer may seem expensive initially, but if you’re time-poor you’ll need to make the investment. It’s the same for any form of valuable, relevant content: you’re going to pay in time or money (and probably both).
Julia tested both methods, hiring a video content production team in-house and creating spliced soundbites from her long-format video content already in production as part of her business.
Once the different approaches have been tested, reviewing the data and deciding which approach is most effective will be important. This may involve looking at the cost of production, the engagement of each piece of content, and the sales and conversions that it generates.
Finally, staying up to date with the latest trends and technologies in the short-form content space is important. This may include keeping up with the latest apps and tools available to create content quickly and efficiently (lean on your network for this!).
Focusing on staying up-to-date on the latest trends can allow companies to develop their material so that it will be valuable to their best client and continue to resonate with them.
3. Study Your Results – looking at the views, hearts, likes, and sales generated from both short and long-form content.
I cannot stress the importance of reviewing the audience demographic and the feedback received on each piece of content, both long and short. This data can inform future content creation and ensure that the content resonates with the intended audience, yes, but it also tells you where your sales are actually coming from.
Step 3 is studying the results of the content created and looking at the views, hearts, comments, and sales generated from both long and short-form content. One of the benefits of long-form content is that it’s easier to track as it’s often on a platform you own (your website) rather than a platform you rent (a social media site), but you need to track both to understand what results in your business goals.
To do this, one must look at the data and analyze it. If you don’t have the time or know this isn’t your skillset, hire it out!
It is also essential to look at the quality of the engagement, such as the types of people engaging with the content, and how likely they are to become a customer. For example, if the short-form content generates many views, but not many viewers are looking for your service, it may indicate an audience mismatch.
This is something that both Julia and I have found while studying the viewership of our short-form content. We’re both targeting business owners rather than consumers, and we’ve seen the views and comments stacking up from social media users that don’t seem to own businesses. Going viral sounds good, in theory, but it only works if the viral viewers take action on the content.
An important part of studying the results of short and long-form content is tracking the progress of the content over time. This will help identify which pieces of content are performing the best and which ones need to be adjusted or replaced in your evergreen content calendar.
Finally, comparing the performance of short and long-form content is essential to see which type is more effective for your bottom line.
Julia found that over the course of the year, short-form content only resulted in one client–who she later had to refund. On the other hand, her long-form content resulted in over 200K in sales. In terms of time investment and ROI, long-format content is her business’s clear winner.
What Does This Study Mean To The Average Business Owner?
As entrepreneurs, we’re used to not wanting to fit into a one-size-fits-all box, yet when it comes to marketing strategies it’s often the desire. No one marketing strategy will work for all businesses.
As Julia says,
“The study isn’t to say don’t do any short-format content. The study is to say, you better look at your objectives and see if they’re aligning with the actual results that you’re seeing.”
Julia McCoy, Content Hacker
Long-form content vs. short-form content for you
If your goal is to build authority in your space, short-form pieces might not be the best tactic for your business. Likewise, if the offer you sell requires nuanced thinking, complex problems, and solutions, or deeper introspection, the use of short-form content doesn’t give you the space to explore with your community. Long-form content is better for SEO, but that same space allows the viewer to decide if you’ll each benefit from that further relationship.
There is a time and place for short-form content. Smaller purchases, retail companies, and cause-related donations all do well with short-form.
With the right strategies, multi-six-figure course creators can achieve the same results as Julia McCoy, who generated over 60 ideal customers and over $200,000 in sales.
What You Should Do Now
If you’re serious about growing your content strategy to attract perfect-match buyers for your course, you should download Content RX, the free guide the three types of content you want to focus on.
I’d love to hear how you apply The Short Form Content Study to get increased sales/revenue. Leave us a review on how it went for you or drop any questions you want me to answer!
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Britney Gardner
This is a show about content marketing for established course creators. Unlike other shows about marketing, we focus on sustainable, measurable content creation. How to authentically automate your marketing, to build up your know, like and trust factor with a nurtured, engaged audience and get back to actually living your life instead of working to live.
Hey. Hey friends. I am so excited about today's episode. It's been a while since I had a guest on the Lake and Trust show and the reason for that is good. It's great actually. I've been redefining and reformulating some of my own business messaging and it was time for me to show a little bit of that to all of you, my friends and people who are interested in doing content for good, who sell from a place of service, who are in this business for the long haul, right? And that kind of leads us right into our next topic. And before I introduce our guest, Julia McCoy, I want to tell you about something that just happened this morning.
Now I normally record intros and outros to guest shows like this the same day that I record the interview because I want to be fresh, I want to make sure I give you guys my insights, everything that's going on that's super relevant to that particular interview. But I forgot this time and that is a good thing because I was on a group call with a program that I am in right now this morning and one of the other attendees basically said, I know I should be doing reels but I hate them. I just hate them. I mean, you know, if someone had seen me doing one of these two years ago, they would have laughed at me in my face and I can create content for all the other people, but I hate this. And if you are feeling very seen from that particular statement, don't worry, you're a good company. I know a lot of people feel that way. And this is the deal, right? Any kind of marketing, any kind of content creation, they're all just one tactic to accomplish hopefully the same goal. And if you don't like one tactic, there are other tactics that you can use and we'll be covering a lot of those on the show. We've already covered quite a few and we have you covered there.
So with all of that said, I want to introduce Julia McCoy. She's going to be talking about how short form content is shorting your business. Julia is the founder of Content Hacker. She's a seven times author and she's a leading strategist around creating exceptional content and brand presence that lasts online. At 19 years old, she used her last $75 to build a seven figure writing agency which she sold ten years later. So with that said, Julia just finished a year long study and when I saw the results, I asked her to come onto the show. I reached out because this is information. This is actual data regarding different kinds of content that you can produce and how it worked out for her business. Does that mean it's exactly how it's going to work out for every business? Of course not, but that is the whole point. We are all unique individuals. We don't fit in the same box as everyone else. So let's dive in and listen to what Julia has to say about short form versus long form content. All right, Julia, I'm so excited for this conversation.
Julia McCoy 00:03:17
I'm so excited to chat with you, Britney.
Britney Gardner 00:03:19
This is going to be super fun. And the reason I asked you to come onto the show specifically is I've had a lot of thoughts roaming around in my head, and you actually took some of those thoughts and created a year long study out of it. So I am being incredibly selfish here because I did not take the time to do a year long study on some of my ideas, and you basically did it. So I'm inviting you here so that we can talk a little bit about your study on short format content versus long format content and what's actually worked and not worked over the course of the last year.
Julia McCoy 00:03:51
Love it. Yes. Well, content hacker and what I do there, we study things all the time, so it's very natural to do a study, and I love how much it's helped back up people like you that have already been saying these things. Kudos to you for helping guide your clients in the right direction. So any light I can share is very exciting to me.
Britney Gardner 00:04:10
I think we probably come at this from a very similar approach, if I'm reading between lines correctly, because I genuinely like to kind of test things out. I like playing with things. I like puzzles. Just last night, I was talking with my sister, and my mom gave all of us girls, like, a cash Christmas gift this year, but my sister, who actually lives nearby her, received it in, like, a wood and plexiglass puzzle box, and they had to work for it. And my sister was telling me about this, and I was super jealous because that would have been so fun. So when I say I like testing and puzzles, I really do, it's a fun thing for me, I think for you, it's the same way. If you're going to talk about something, you want to be able to know the ins and outs of it before you start talking about it.
Julia McCoy 00:04:54
Yes, absolutely. And I write books. I'm on my 7th book now. So early in the beginning, I was writing books on okay, how do you write how do you write content in a way that grows the business? There wasn't a lot of practical training, so it was natural for me. We did over 40,000 content projects in my writing agency, so we had material to write and speak from. So when I got clients asking, how do you know how to do this? It was natural for me to just almost create an arm of my company where we study, we research, we put together content, we help train other people on this because it's such a big topic. How do I create content and how does that content profitably grow my business? Absolutely.
Britney Gardner 00:05:37
I know that from the study that you published, you tested out quite a few different ways for creating short format content. So will you start just there and tell us a little bit about your approach to including short format content into your plan?
Julia McCoy 00:05:51
Yes. So the study came from a place of I was just being asked so often by the people that I mentor and teach at the Content Hacker, well, what do you think? Short form content. Julia De Reals merc, dude, just to talk to that grow my business. And some of these people had already been doing it and really weren't seeing a lot of results, or they were seeing some, but it wasn't carrying them as far as where they wanted. So naturally, being asked that, I was like, okay, well, let me really put short form to the test. And I've been on Instagram for years, but had I done reels every day week? No, I hadn't. So I was like, let's really do this. So whenever you start creating something, you always want to model after who's doing it the best. At least that's how I like to think because I want to be the best at what I do. So I went and studied, and people like Alex Hormosi came to mind. People are doing short form content that's that sound bite material that's very effective and capturing you almost like a hook, and then they pull you into their ecosphere. So we tested that. We hired two different producers to create. They put little gifts on the short form video along with the text. They colored the text in different ways to do that. Same, like, attention grabbing, hook style. And then we also did the DIY, where we went to the App Store and found some apps that allow you to create subtitles for your own videos. And there was a few really good apps that were like $30 for a year that I found that were amazing. Gave those apps some shout outs. And you can actually create short form content and not pay a lot of money, which is, I think, attractive to a lot of startups, a lot of people that don't have the funds or don't think they do. Sometimes you got to put in the investment to get the ROI, so it's easy to go that route whenever it feels like the tool is really cheap. But it was interesting what we saw with short form content in the end. And we published a study, the one you've been referencing, which you can see at consummhacker. Comlinks, and that will redirect you to the study. But what we found is, in short, all of that short form content did very little besides views. So we had over a quarter of a million views from 300 videos inside of a year. We never went viral, necessarily. We had one video hit like 10,000 plus, but those views never converted to anything more than just viral measures. And the hearts and what I call like the dopamine hit that you get whenever you're seeing reactions. You don't get that with long form. You don't get the hearts and the views and the likes. So we stayed very consistent at publishing our long form content. And it was interesting because what we saw there, we did less than half the amount of content. So we did 316 short form videos, and on the long form side, we did 48 blogs, 50 emails, and then only twelve YouTube videos for that whole year. But from that side, we had over 60 ideal customers and over 200,000 in sales. And then when I look at the actual sales that came from the short form videos, we had one customer at $2,500 who wanted a refund, this person 75% of their money because they didn't have the right expectations. And when somebody is like that and they're just fighting you tooth and out, it's easier to give their money back, which is not like it's a kind thing to do, I think, because there's contracts in place. But anyway, we did that and then we had a prospect who's like, still out there considering. So the results just speak for themselves. When we look at the actual sales generated from those two types of content, it's unreal.
Britney Gardner 00:09:34
Yeah, unreal is definitely a good Monica there. When I first saw this and shout out to my friend Chris Reese, who shared it on Facebook, and that's why I saw it. But when I first saw it, it was like, that 100% lines up with the anecdotal things I've heard. It also lines up with the few data points I actually have from my own business and from a few of my clients businesses as well. And I actually did have a short format video on instagram Real Go semiviral. It hit over 25,000 views. And I was really curious. That one I particularly approached from a place of curiosity. And I was like, okay. It was a video that was actually message driven. It wasn't just like, something funny I did that happened to take off. It was actually a key part of the messaging I put out there. So I was happy about it. Right? I was like, oh, the right one actually went viral.
Julia McCoy 00:10:27
Right?
Britney Gardner 00:10:28
But I looked at people who were liking it, and they were largely made up sounding names. I'm not saying they were made up people. I'm not saying it was all bots. That's not what I'm saying. But it was like Instagram accounts that had, like, you know, Lee 7894 as like, the username. And I'm like that's that's not a business owner trying to use Instagram to further their business. It got put in front of them. They liked it. I mean, thanks, I guess, but they're not actually my target audience. They're not my target clients. And then I spent probably far too long, like, hours looking at all the different people who engaged with it. And I couldn't find a single ideal client in the mix other than people who already followed me, who happened to see it. And because it did go viral, it got put in front of those people a little more often.
Julia McCoy 00:11:14
Right?
Britney Gardner 00:11:15
And I was just looking at that, and I was like, this was the right video to take off. This was the one that actually does further the message that I want out there, that you have to make, measure, and multiply your content to really be able to lean on it effectively. And it still didn't do anything for my business. So when I saw your study, which was maybe a month and a half after this happened to me, I was like, okay, it's not just me. It's not that I'm doing something wrong. It's setting up. That dopamine is setting people up to just keep scrolling.
Julia McCoy 00:11:45
Yes. Well, even now there's a new feature on the Reels. You've probably seen it. Where the real next to yours, the one you're watching, is like, bouncing up right below it.
Britney Gardner 00:11:55
Yeah, right at the end there.
Julia McCoy 00:11:57
Let's keep swiping. Like, what next? Is it just going to swipe for you? There's no way to land on that person's business anymore. It's not being facilitated on any of these short form platforms. TikTok, Instagram, Reels, you name it, it's the same scenario. It's just are you encouraged to go visit their business? No, you're not. Why? It's not that business owners platform. It's Instagram.
Britney Gardner 00:12:20
Exactly. When they had stories as, like, the new hot thing, and when stories were really doing well on Instagram, it's really easy to just go click on that person's profile up in the upper corner. They don't do that as easily with Reels and TikTok, I find, is I'm not as familiar with TikTok personally, but I find it even more difficult to navigate their profile to actually, like, get to see what the other person has been producing regularly.
Julia McCoy 00:12:46
Yes, yes. And the audience like what you just shared when you saw your Instagram rail go viral and you studied the audience, which is so smart. We have to look at, okay, 25,000 is great, but let's look at these people. More people need to do that. Shout out to you. But whenever I got on TikTok and started sharing some of my short form there, the message that I share is sustainability through long form, content through content, strategy and marketing. And whenever I was sharing that message there, I just got questions from people that might have been in the target audience. They looked pretty legit and I think TikTok can kind of reach people. Like, the reach is pretty good, but the questions were just I could tell they weren't ever going to take the next step to learn about me because it was just like, well, why are you questioning short form on a platform where we're all doing short form?
Britney Gardner 00:13:36
Well, yeah, I don't want to call it hypocritical because I know how you started this whole process, but it probably feels a little bit like that to people.
Julia McCoy 00:13:45
Yes. And I'm like, well, I'm trying to share that there's a better way, and yes, I'm using these platforms to do so.
Britney Gardner 00:13:54
Yeah, maybe there's a little bit of, like, high school history teacher vibes going on there. Don't make these mistakes. But I like that you did it anyway. And I do have a question for you. I know that you gave the stats on how many long format things you did. I think 48 blogs, 50 emails, and a few, like, once a month YouTube. Is that what you said?
Julia McCoy 00:14:18
Yeah. Right.
Britney Gardner 00:14:19
From those once a month or so, like YouTube videos, were you pulling clips from those, doing it in that highly produced way? I know you mentioned Alex RamosI. Or were most of your short format videos different content than what you were actually producing for your long form?
Julia McCoy 00:14:37
Yeah, that's a great question. We did a 50 50. So 50% was repurposed straight from my YouTube videos because that's also the model. If you look at a lot of craters that are at the top, they're repurposing. So it's a great model to use for your short form. So we did that and then we did some original, like, just 62nd thoughts in a nutshell. And it was interesting because the original thoughts that we nutshelled and it was just me sharing a thought. 60 seconds and it starts and it finishes. So it was very clearly generated just for that video. So those did better than the ones that were repurposed from our long form pieces. But still, after a year, 300 of these look at the clients. We only had one and they wanted a refund.
Britney Gardner 00:15:21
Yeah.
Julia McCoy 00:15:22
I can't say it was billed and official, even though it had the results in that dopamine hit of likes and comments. But did they go any further? No, it didn't.
Britney Gardner 00:15:33
It's interesting, like I said, I had that one that went pretty, pretty good viral and then I had, you know, some I've had other ones that get good numbers, you know, more than the, you know, 250 views.
Julia McCoy 00:15:43
Right.
Britney Gardner 00:15:44
But it's so funny because I know what I teach, which is there are vanity metrics and then there are lead generating metrics and I'm very clear on this and I still felt myself getting sucked into the look how many lakes this got. Yeah, I know better. And I was still filling that. So it's interesting. I know you were mentioning near the dopamine hit that people got and all of that, but one customer who you mostly refunded for all of that work, that's got to sting just a little bit.
Julia McCoy 00:16:17
Yes. Oh, yeah. Well, it was a coaching program that had been mostly built out, so thankfully it wasn't us doing a service for her. Otherwise I think I would have fought a little harder because that's just but she was in it and it was interesting because this coaching program teaches you how to create sustainable wealth through a business that you own and grow yourself. So in the first month, the things she was sharing on our live calls and no shame to her, like, no hate to her, but in the call itself, she was sharing, oh, I will be able to generate some money pretty quickly using this method. Right. And there was a little bit dead silence. That's not what anyone else was there for. So it was just really interesting that the person that came from that short form video was not at all aligned with the leads we get from relationship building long form content. It's just a much better mindset that they come in with like, oh, I have to put in the work, I have to put in the time to see success. And it was like that person from short form video was like, well, I don't have to put in the time, I can just quickly make this method work and make some money. Right. And we're all here to get rich. Right.
Britney Gardner 00:17:27
She wanted short time results too.
Julia McCoy 00:17:28
Yeah, exactly. That's well said from short form content, short time results.
Britney Gardner 00:17:34
There's something to be said for that and I think you kind of briefly mentioned it. You were talking about how when you decided to start making videos just for short form content, you used a few apps. I mean, I know, I've heard of a few as well. I think they're low entry fee, low price point, makes it really easy for people to grab them. But it also kind of feeds into that whole short time, short form thing. Right. So they're producing short form content. It's easier than producing a well researched, well thought out opinionated blog post or video or podcast episode.
Julia McCoy 00:18:09
Right?
Britney Gardner 00:18:10
Because it's easier. People do more of it. Because people do more of it, it's getting more views. Because it's getting more views, they have the feeling that it's working well. And because it's working well, they're going to go ahead and put more time into it and so on and so forth. And it's almost a self perpetuating cycle, a feedback loop that feels good the whole time until you actually start looking at the numbers.
Julia McCoy 00:18:33
Yes. I couldn't say that any better. That's exactly what's happening. And it's crazy because I can coach some of these people that have told me, oh, my coach before you that I hired a year ago told me to do Instagram for a year and commit to only that. And then they come to me after a year of that and they're like, it didn't give me anywhere near what I was hoping. It did not get me anywhere close to my objective. So if your goal is to build industry authority, to really get known for what it is you want to do, if that's your goal, like, short form is not going to get you there because it's just not a vehicle for building trust. It's a 62nd clip. And people like, I get these all the time online. People really question and they doubt and they're like, well, because you're left with more questions after 60 seconds of opinion, like, there's no way all your questions are answered. Whereas in a long blog post, like if you're doing 2000, 3000 words, you can cover and answer so many questions that they would have and then by the time they get to the end of it, they're much more likely to be a really well qualified lead. So that 62nd vehicle is just even if you stacked a lot of them, you really have to ask yourself, what's the purpose? Am I just after the virality? Am I just after that? And am I just doing this as a hobby? If so, that's great. But if you're doing it to grow a business, there's definitely a trap there. You have to be super careful.
Britney Gardner 00:19:59
There's something you said in there that I latched on to and then last a little bit, but what you ended up with that you have to be careful. And I think that's the lesson I took from your study the most, which is, hey, let's test this out. Let's measure, see what's actually going on. See if this is something that we do need to start including more.
Julia McCoy 00:20:18
Right.
Britney Gardner 00:20:19
But even as you were doing it, and you did mention this earlier in our interview, which I thank you for, you kept doing your long form content while you were testing this new thing. And that person that came to you who said, my previous coach who I hired a year ago said, just commit to just Instagram for a year. And I probably visibly cringed when you said that because I very much don't like the all your eggs in one basket situation. And even when I am testing something new, for example, instagram has been less of a good platform for me over this last year. And since I've been carefully watching numbers, I've said, maybe I need to move my bulk over to LinkedIn. But I didn't leave Instagram when I did that. And I think that's where a lot of people, they kind of missed the point of the study. The study isn't to say don't do any short format content. The study is to say, you better look at your objectives and see if they're aligning with the actual results that you're seeing.
Julia McCoy 00:21:22
Yes, so true. It's really easy to get stuck in that trap you just identified as, Well, I'm getting results, but the results are hard. Likes, comments, views. Is that really the result that you're wanting in your business? Usually it's income, not the likes on Instagram. So you have to really align that with your objectives.
Britney Gardner 00:21:43
Well, I have one last question for you. Have you gotten any bad feedback from the study? Any flak that's kind of arisen?
Julia McCoy 00:21:50
Yes. Well, I have been surprised because we shared it far and wide. I'm in a group, one group alone that I teach in has over 800 members. So it went in there, went to our email list of around 6000, and then it's going out, just getting shared around the Internet and haven't had anything negative. I'm really surprised. I thought we'd at least have one person who has their stake on short form. Really not liking this. But it's not happened. It's not happened at all. If anything, we've heard the opposite. People like you that are like, thank you for finally giving me some proof that I can go and share and share with my clients or my list. And it's been a tool that content marketers and business owners and marketers in general can use to share and help educate and inform their clients. Up until that study, we even had some prospects that my team was having trouble educating. These prospects were so starstruck by Instagram Reels. They were like, Well, I don't think I need Julia's program, I think I just need to get on the reels. And my team was like, no, if you bank everything on Instagram Reels, and this guy had a goal of building industry authority, so that was his goal. We were like, definitely not only do that, so it was a solution even for my team because they needed something to share with prospects that were starstruck by the idea of short form content. Because there's definitely, I think, a misnomer out there. A misrepresentation created by a lot of the influencers where it looks so easy. It looks so easy to get viral, to get views, to get likes, to get followers. But what does that really get you as a business owner and that's the missing message. So I'm really glad we added that message into the mix. And so far, knock on wood. Nothing negative. I've been surprised. That's impressive.
Britney Gardner 00:23:42
I figured you were going to have a bit of a horror story there.
Julia McCoy 00:23:46
I know it's been nothing but like, thank you from people.
Britney Gardner 00:23:51
That's awesome. I love that humanity is shining in a nicer way there.
Julia McCoy 00:23:56
Exactly. It hasn't hit the trolls yet, so I'll talk to you when they do find it.
Britney Gardner 00:24:01
Okay. Well, Julia, I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for sharing with us. And again, thank you for taking the time to actually put this together. I know that you put a lot of work into not just the content that you produced over the last year, because of course we all understand that's work, but actually tabulating everything and publishing it in a really easy digestible way.
Julia McCoy 00:24:23
Oh, great. Well, thank you, Britney. I really enjoy being on your podcast and shout out to you and all the people that listen to you, they should keep listening. You share some good stuff.
Britney Gardner 00:24:33
If people are interested in content hacker, what's the easiest way for them to get in touch with you?
Julia McCoy 00:24:37
Contenthacker.com is like my long form hub, the place where I share my podcast, my blog, everything that will help you. Just take that next step into that world of creating content to grow your business. And you can follow me on Instagram. Julia McCoy McCoy. Twitter as well. Same name. And YouTube. Julia McCoy. McCoy. Well, thank you. Yes, thank you for having me, Britney. This is fun.
Britney Gardner 00:25:03
All right, so if you were one of those people at the beginning of the episode that felt very seen by the observation I made from another person in a group call this morning, you now have some sort of justification to try different kinds of marketing. What that will look like for you, I don't know exactly. Maybe it means you're doing long form video lives. Maybe you're only going to be doing blogging and then using portions of that blog to redistribute. There's a ton of options. If you need help with some of those options, hop on over to the show up system on my website, Britneygardner.com. It will help you determine exactly which template flow works for your particular content system. If you need actual strategizing help, I'm always here for that as well. Same thing. Britneygardner.com. Let's set up a time to call, chat and go over what's going to work best for you until next week, friends. Alright, friends, you know the drill. If you found value from this episode, there are two things you can do to thank me. The first is share it with a friend. If you enjoyed this episode, you learned something from it. Odds are you know somebody who needs to hear this message. I do truly believe that a rising tide lifts all boats. And if you help that friend with. Something that they need to do. We're going to have less crappy marketers out there, which means less scams and we get to help more people in those ways that we uniquely are meant to help them. The second thing you can do is leave a rating on whichever podcast app you are listening to the show on right now. Doing that helps me reach more people, getting again this same great information out there and we all make a better, happier, effective and effective physical world as a result. Thanks so much. See you next week.
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Music by Michael De La Torre. Thanks, Mikey!